Brewer's Character Sticker

Brewer came home from school on Thursday, January 29th with a Character Sticker!

 While Brewer was outside at recess, a girl from another class fell down on the blacktop.  Brewer helped the girl get up.  The recess teacher, who happened to be his Kindergarten teacher, saw him helping the girl, and gave Brewer a Character Sticker for Citizenship for helping his friend out!

Good Job Brewer!

Belt Testing

Brewer and Cooper did their belt testing on Saturday, January 17th.  Brewer tested for his green belt and Cooper tested for his high green.  On Wednesday, January 28th, we were invited to attended the Belt Promotion Ceremony

 Brewer removed his High Yellow Belt

 Mr. Sherrick tied on his new Green Belt 

 Brewer with his Green Belt

Cooper holding his Green Belt while Mr. Sherrick is tying on his new High Green Belt. 

 Cooper showing off his new High Green Belt

Good Job Cooper!

 This is all of the students of S&S that received a belt promotion.

At the end of the promotion, all of the students were invited to throw their old belts up in the air!

Congratulations to all!

Wilderness

For Christmas this year, Grandma and Grandpa Beck gave the grandkids (and parents too) a weekend in the Dells.  Reservations were made for the Wilderness Waterpark with a condo at the Glacier Canyon Lodge.  

The big surprise to everyone was a surprise visit from Andrea.  Randy and I were the only two who knew that she was coming.  The boys enjoyed the short stop at the airport to watch the jets arrive and take off while we waited for Auntie Andrea to make her way to the van.  When we arrived at the resort, Andrea hid in the hallways until we got into the room and then she came in for the surprise.  

We bunked in the room with the bunk bed over a queen size bed.  Both of the boys shared the bunk up top....Cooper on one side...

 Brewer on the other side!

After dinner of Papa Murphy's Pizza and Salad, we went on an adventure of the Wilderness to see what it all had in store for us.  We found three indoor waterparks, three arcades, and a frozen yogurt shop and stores full of treats.  On the webpage, it is advertised to be America's Largest Waterpark Resort.  This is no understatement!  It was HUGE!  

While out on our adventure, we stumbled upon an indoor Go Kart Track! We decided to give it a try and while we were waiting, Randy dubbed the phrase "It's only a suggestion" while the attendants announced the rules and guidelines of driving the go karts!

Auntie Kris and Sophie

Uncle Tom and Gabby

Brewer and Daddy

Cooper and I...we won the race as you can see.  I did the steering and Cooper was in charge of pressing the boost button!

After the Go Kart's we checked out the arcade.  We found this really cool Pac-Man Air Hockey game!

On Saturday after breakfast, we went do to scope out the first waterpark.  Cooper was content hanging out on the one-man slides and lazy river.

 

 Brewer was the thrill seeker and wanted to ride the double tube rides that required the climb to the top of the stairs.

 After dinner on Saturday night, Brewer, Daddy, Auntie Andrea and I went back to the waterpark.  We had to have climbed to the top 20+ times to go down the double tube slides with Brewer.  We would get to the bottom and he would be half way up before we even thought of starting the climb.  Before we left we went and sat in the outdoor hot tub!

When we got back to the condo, Randy took Cooper and Gabby to the arcade to give Brewer some down time.  He was out before his head hit the pillow!  Cooper got enough tickets to get a Wisconsin Badger's Basketball!

On Sunday morning after we packed up the cars with our stuff, we went back to one of the parks to take on some rides before going home.  Sophie enjoyed some time with Grandpa while Brewer and Daddy hung out at the hot tub, and Uncle Tom, Auntie Kris, and I went down the Hurricane only to be flipped off on the way out. 

 Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for an AWESOME weekend!

Christmas at Dad and Marilyn's

On January 17th, we went over to Dad and Marilyn's for Christmas with Brian, Jessica, Aiden, and Zachary.  We dined on a Southern BBQ theme- Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Coleslaw, and Sweet Corn Cake.  Before dinner we even sampled oven fried dill pickles...an interesting flavor, but all was good!
Nana did an amazing job on the boys sweaters once again...Brewer is wearing Spider Man, Cooper is sporting Green Bay, Aiden is sporting the Minnesota Twins, and Zachary is wearing Batman.

Snow Day!

Today was our first Snow Day of the school year.  The temperatures this morning were a chilly -25!
Too cold to go and play, the boys played and I took down Christmas!

Brewer's Story

I stopped off at Gg and Papa's to look for something for Steven.  While I was downstairs, the boys headed outside to play in the snow, and put salt down on the ramp and sidewalk.
Within minutes, I hear Brewer come in and mumble, "Mom, where are you?"  I told him I was downstairs.  On the way down, he repeated "my tongue is bleeding".  Upon inspecting the injury, I'm trying to figure out what happened.  Brewer kept on saying "nothing, it just started bleeding."
I asked him if he stuck his tongue to something outside.  At first he said no, but then said YES!  All I have in my mind now is the kid on "Christmas Story" with his tongue stuck on the flag pole!

Upon inspection of the gate, sure enough there are remnants of his tongue on the gate.  Poor kid was and still is embarrassed on this incident.  He didn't want his dad to know, but then laughed that we both have experienced a similar incident.  Someday, he will laugh at this!

Badger Hockey

Cooper and Brewer were given an "experience" for Christmas from Grandma Maria and Mr. Jerry.

Saturday, January 3rd was the date of the Badger Hockey Game in Madison, Wisconsin.  

The plan for them was to go for dinner at Red Robin, and then arrive at the Kohl Center in time for them to greet the players in the tunnel before the game and then after the game go the men's locker room to meet and greet the players!

 Here they are all settled in their seats after seeing the players and giving them high fives on the way onto the ice.

 The game was slow moving in the first half, but then moved along during the second half.

The Badgers won 2-0 against Michigan Tech!

After the game was over, they were able to slide around on the ice rink.  They also walked around to see where all the Badgers are now before heading down to the locker room.  Once they were inside, the boys said it STUNK, but they were able to get an autograph from one of the players.
Thank you Grandma Maria and Mr. Jerry for that memory!

Last of the Christmas Lights

The boys and I headed up to Beaver Dam early Friday afternoon, and Randy went ice fishing with the guys.  After we were done with dinner, we headed up to Fond Du Lac to see their light display.  The automation of the light show was amazing and well worth the drive.

2015 - Happy New Year

2014 was a good year to us all...

Brewer celebrated his golden birthday this year on October 6th.  He graduated from PreK from Extended Love and started Kindergarten in Ms. Morin's classroom at Pleasant Prairie Elementary.  He continues to enjoy his classes at S&S Martial Arts where he is a high yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do, and white belt in Jujitsu. 

Cooper turned 9 this past summer and found out that he loves his hair long!  He started fourth grade in Mrs. Hauke's classroom at Pleasant Prairie Elementary.  This year he started to play the violin, and has been doing very well with it.  He also continues to enjoy his class at S&S Martial Arts where he is a green belt in Tae Kwon Do, and white belt in Jujitsu. 

Christina started a new adventure with KUSD in teaching 4K.  Although it is part time, she is loving the fact that she is able to spend more time with the boys in the afternoon after school.

Randy has taken up the sport of Jujitsu and has found an addiction for it. He enjoys the challenges it brings on the mat, but also the physical benefits.  This past November, he placed third in first competition and is looking forward to participating more of them this year.

As a family, we enjoyed many weekends Up North at the cabin and brought a 4 wheeler into our cabin adventures.  We took a family backpack-camping trip up in Door County for a weekend in August, and the boys enjoyed an overnight out at Bong.  We were able to meet our niece/cousin Sydney for the first time in May.  We celebrated new beginnings with the weddings of Kaitlin and Josh, and Caitlyn and Tom, and sadly the end of an amazing life with Grandma Beck. We found a new church home at Journey Church, a place where all four us look forward to going to Sunday mornings.

As we look forward to the new year and all that it has in store for us.  We will hope for some change - not sure exactly what that all entails, but change is sometimes a good thing.  We will hope for growth in who we are as a family and with those who are around us.  We will hope for some travel - with family living all over the United States, we hope to explore some of those areas.  We are excited to see what our story will be.