The Amazing Maize Maze

For Declan's actual birthday, he chose to go to The Amazing Maize Maze....7 acres of trying to find your way out!  Again my pictures are backwards....somebody help me!  

 Here they are doing The Amazing Maize birthday candles.  They have everyone in the maze raise their flags (candles) and then Declan blew them out (everyone dropped their flag).  It was pretty cool to see and he was thrilled.

 Victory Bridge

 This year's theme was fitness.  In the maze there was the shape of a runner, swimmer and biker.  Here is Declan at the Golden Shoe near the exit.  

 There were all kinds of fitness tidbits to learn along the way.  We weren't too interested in getting all the crossword puzzle words from the clues.  We were more into getting all 12 puzzle pieces to the maze.  As you get each piece, it helps you find your way, sort of.  The piece you find is where you are but you still have to find all the pieces of the map you can't see.

 Finding a map piece was a celebration each time.  We are proud to say we found each one.  We will quietly say that we collaborated with a couple towards the end.  They had one more to find and so did we.  We met, exchanged a few directions (they didn't tell us exactly but gave us some good hints as we did for them) and we found our last piece.  

 These tractors are just like the one Rich has or rather his parents have from his childhood.

It was a beautiful day, quite a challenge and a lot of fun.  We ended the night at the Ethiopian restaurant, Declan's choosing.  He wanted a plate of lamb tibs all to himself...he happily sat and ate up!

Happy Birthday Declan!

I always have my pictures loading backwards so...in the wrong order!

Instead of presents, Declan asked his friends to donate money to Compassion International's Water for Life program so that he could buy water filters for families.  We researched different programs and this is the one he chose.  He loved the idea that a $55 water filter could supply clean drinking water for a family for life.  I am proud to say that he raised (with the help of generous friends, family and grandparents and a little money from Declan's give jar) enough money to buy 5 water filters.  It totally surprised him and us that he could raise money for 5 when his goal was one!  A gift from a friend summed it up best (see above picture), "Happy Birthday Declan.  I like how you are making the world a better place."

 The kids participated in astronaut training at the party.

 Antigravity balance training.

 Yummy Miss Jess cupcakes, they are out of this world!

 Rocket fluid dynamics

 Shuttle repair...practicing putting screws and bolts together underwater with space gloves on just like the astronauts do!

 Eating space ice cream sandwiches!

 Official NASA photos

 Shuttle orientation

Somehow no pictures of rocket launches but we had fun.  Stomp rockets are always fun!

Happy 7th birthday Declan!

Warm feet

My kids are lucky enough to be recipients of super warm socks from Mrs. Henn (Rich's friend Dave's mom).  They love how warm and toasty their toes are!

School programs

Declan and Terefech both studies fairy tales at school which culminated in a play of fairy tales.  Declan's class performed Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk.  Declan, below, was the father of Rapunzel.  He is of course in costume which he came up with himself.  Terefech's class performed The Three Little Pigs and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  She is dressed as the middle billy goat below.  They were awesome, said their lines loudly and proudly and showed us all of their wonderful art work after!

Army 10 miler

We spent Sunday at the Army 10 miler running in honor of our friend, David Taylor, who was killed in Iraq in 2006.  Here we are with many of the people who came out to support the Taylor family (we were very excited when this picture made it to the online Army Times!).  The banner behind us is one of David's favorite sayings, "Don't quit on the uphill."  It was an incredible event to culminate our weekend reminding us of the great sacrifices many people make for our country.  We were proud to be able to be there.

 Neither Rich (broken foot) nor I (unhappy body) ran this year but the kids participated in the kids's run.  It was a little crazy and chaotic to say the least but they were so proud of their medals!  And 2 of the kids that Terefech was with in Ethiopia ran as well.  

 Seeing friends from high school...

 Mike Zimmerman

 Tres, Kris, Shannon

'Til next year...

Reunion

Here we are reunited with some of the kids from our group in Ethiopia.  It is an amazing and wonderful treat to get to see them every year.  We marvel at how they have grown, how they have stayed the same, and watch as they look at each other with suspicion.  They tell you in a workshop before you travel that these are people you will know for life, so embrace it.  They are the only people who did this at the same time you did, were there for the tears and smiles at the beginning, and, in our case, helped us through an incredibly scary and stressful time.  I feel privileged to call them all friends and know that we will call them that for the rest of our lives.  

I had to put in all the pictures because it was just a funny succession of pictures, trying to get them to look at us!

We don't know how much the kids actually remember of each other but they had a great time playing together.  Soccer was the name of the game for much of the afternoon.  

Always good to see old friends...

Washington D.C.

At the beginning of October, we made our annual trip to Washington D.C.  Each year we (usually Rich these days) go to run the Army 10 miler in honor of our friend, Major David G. Taylor, who was killed in Iraq in 2006.  This year was the 5th anniversary of his death and so there was a big get together with friends of his from all parts of his life.  While in D.C., we try to partake in all things D.C.  

 The kids had a fun time trying all out of the equipment at the Army 10 miler expo.

 Terefech was unusually good at flying a Blackhawk in a simulator.  She did manage to run over a few soldiers while driving in a Humvee simulator.  

 We also headed over to the Natural History Museum. 

 We went into the butterfly house while there and saw some amazing butterflies.  This one though Dave's butt was a great landing place.  He stayed there most of our time in the house and had to be brushed off before Dave left much to the chagrin of the woman working there!

 All kinds of cool dinosaurs...