Bandits Football Year-End Slide Show

Jaydon's 1st Day of Kindergarten

Jaydon has been excited about kindergarten for months.  He even had a little count down which started before preschool ended.  He is going to Witt Elementary (even though the big boys go to Lukas) for free, all-day kindergarten.  Witt received a grant allowing all kids in the home area to attend all-day for free, that's a $315/month savings for us.  The school times for each school are at little different (Lukas 7:45-2:30 and Witt 8:50-3:35) which makes a little more running around for me, but I get an extra hour alone with Jaydon in the morning and an hour with the big boys after they get out of school.  So it's kind-of nice to have them staggered for this year.  I'm sure by next year, I'll be ready for them to all be on the same schedule.

Jaydon snapped a few pictures of the things he saw on the way to school.  He loves the school bus and begged to be able to ride it.  The bus stop is really not very close to our house and you have to pay for your kids to ride the bus this year.  The economy is forcing the school districts to cut costs.

 He really didn't want his picture taken.  He wanted Corey and I to drop him at the curb and leave, but we walked him in anyway.

All of the kids enter through the gym and then head to class.  He stopped at the doorway and said, "I know where to go from here, you don't need to come with me."  But we did anyway...

Then he hung his pack and said, "OK, you can go now."  But we didn't...

Instead we followed him into the classroom and watched him for a few minutes.  He immediately found his friend, Logan, from preschool and they quickly got reacquainted.  After talking for a few minutes, he looked up and saw us still standing there and said, "Leave...go home!"  So my independent little boy didn't want his mom and dad to make a big deal of their last baby going to kindergarten.  So were there tears involved?  Definitely not from Jaydon, and we were glad to see he was so comfortable at school.  However, the next day, when he wanted me to swing into the "hug-n-go" zone and just drop him off at the sidewalk from the car, I did tear up when I watched him jog away from me with his backpack bouncing on his back. 

1st day of school for Josh and Jared

Talk about a couple of goofballs.  They were both excited for school to start this year.  Every year the kids line up on the blacktop next to the school and find their teachers.  We all say the "Pledge of Allegiance" together and moms and dads give last hugs and kisses, snap a few pictures, and wave goodbye to the kiddos for a few hours. 

Josh is in 5th grade...oh, my!  I can't believe I'm the mom of a 5th grader.  He was happy with the teacher he got for homeroom this year, Mrs. Sutter.  He will start rotating to other classrooms for different subjects this year, a precursor to middle school I guess.  As the smell of Axe body spray rolls out of his room, I realize he is starting to take hygiene a little more serious this year.  I just wish someone would invent "stinkless" socks and shoes.  He could use 1/2 can of body spray, but I can still smell those feet!

Jared is super excited for this year.  He is with Mr. Knight, who Josh had last year.  What a great teacher!  You can just tell how much he loves his job and treats each child with respect.  I'm looking forward to spending some of my free time in the classrooms helping out. 

McConaughy Group

I guess my camera was on a slant.  So tilt your head a little to the left and it will look straight!  These are the 5 families that met at Big Mac this year, Boeselagers, Coles, Leepers, Staabs, and Tiensvolds.

And these are all the crazy kids!

Steve, Jera, Kenli, and Trinity Boeselager

Kami, Cade, and Cassie Coles

Corby, Nikki, Sami, and Bryant Leeper

US!

Bob, Lisa, Logan, Luke and Lanie Tiensvold

And these 2 little boys, Jaydon and Bryant, were best buds!  This is the first time they've gotten to hang out together and they are 2 peas in a pod!!!

McConaughy - Part 5

Our campsite at Lone Eagle campground was 41 this year.  We've done this long enough to know what sites are the best for shade and still get full hook-up.

This was my view from the door of my camper.

Aren't they cute?  Bob and Lisa are good friends of ours from Chadron.

McConaughy - Part 4

With more people, comes more stuff!!

All of the kids enjoyed the water.  This is Kenli Boeselager from Chadron.

Lanie was completely buried and Trinity was dumping water on her.

Luke and Jared...2 of a kind.

McConaughy - Part 3

Friends of ours from CO met us at the lake on Tuesday.  Joe, on the left, plays football with Josh.  He and his brother, Landon, went tubing and skied for the 1st time!

Cade and Cassie came on Wednesday with Grandma Sandy and Kam met us there later that afternoon.

So the beach site we reserved with our tent became quite busy as more of our friends showed up!

Bandit wasn't a huge fan of the water, but did like the shade and cool sand after he dug a hole.

McConaughy - Part 2

The boys always complain of the water spraying them in the eyes, so they decided to wear their goggles tubing!

Josh had become a good little skier.  He even made it out of the wake!

McConaughy - Part 1

McConaughy was 90+% full this year, which is great, but more water means less beach.  So our first day their was spent looking for beach.  Once we found something, we staked our claim with our tent and grabbed 2 picnic tables.  The boys immediately got in the water and relaxed.

4th of July

Crawford Parade

Papa Roger got Jaydon some sparklers and they were both happy!

Yodel-ay-he-hoo!!

As usual, Jaydon has his ears covered for the fireworks.  He thinks they are "too loud"!!  He found refuge on grandma Doris's lap.

A nice rainstorm went through just before we lit fireworks and left us with an awesome rainbow!

Then we all went inside to enjoy some guitar picking and yodeling.  Jerry Bomar, from Idaho, was visiting grandma and showed the boys a few songs he knew.

Fireworks

I stopped in Wyoming on the way back and picked up fireworks for the boys.  They shot screaming bottle rockets out of a pipe.  They were pretty cool.

The boys were all very excited about fireworks.  We don't normally buy them any, mainly for safety reasons, but they lit most of them and were pretty careful. 

The Pond

The fishing pond.  I think this just might be Jared's favorite place in the world. 

Jaydon has been obsessed with this clip-on mosquito repellent.

Even Corey caught a fish out of the pond.  The bass are all pretty nice and fun to catch.  But the northern are BIG, and the big ones always get away.  They bite through the line just about the time you can get a good look at them and see just how big they are.  Jared had one all the way to the shore and Ricky (dad's hired man) even had his hand on the monster, but it busted loose and swam away.  Jared was heart-broken.