Buzz

I made the appointment to have Buzz put to sleep. I cried uncontrollably after telling Nathan and Zach. Eric came running down the stairs to comfort me. Buzz is going deaf, blind, having trouble with controlling his bowels, and sometimes falls when doing stairs or walking on tile. We love Buzz and it breaks our heart to put him down but it's only fair to him. So I'll take him in Friday morning while Mario is out camping with the twins.

We are trying to make his last few days as great as we can with lots of walks and lots of treats. The twins are hoping dogs go to heaven but then they jokingly told me that he hasn't been sealed to our family or baptized. So they weren't convinced when I told them that I thought Buzz would go to heaven. He will be missed.

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Mount Rushmore

 Nathan did an extra credit report on Mount Rushmore while he was in first grade.  If I knew how to put links on my blog, I would so you could see his really cute report again.  Anyway, ever since his report, we have been planning a family vacation to see it.  We live about 550 miles from there, so not too bad.  We shipped Eric off to EFY in Utah and we packed our bags for the long weekend.  I had no idea what to do besides Mount Rushmore but fortunately others were able to give me some ideas.  I was good and packed my camera and video camera.  But I forgot their chargers and both of them were dead within 5 minutes of using them.  So I'm stuck with iphone pictures from our trip.

Mario did most of the driving for the trip as usual.  I hate to drive and now I have even less desire to drive.  I had just started my shift which was only an hour or two away from our destination.  Within a few minutes, I was pulled over for speeding by a state trooper.  I was in the middle of nowhere going 80 in a 65 zone.  I knew I was in trouble as soon as the trooper drove past me.  Mario begged for mercy since he is military.  The officer said he didn't know because I was going pretty fast. He took my license back to his car and we both thought for sure I would get a ticket.  But he came back with just a warning.  We thanked him and then I gave the wheel back to Mario.

We started with the Wind Cave which is a national park within an hour's drive of Mount Rushmore.  It was a cool cave and the kids enjoyed it.  The tour lasted an hour and a half so I felt bad for Mario.  It was a long time to duck.  I guess there are some advantages to being short.

After the cave, we checked out Crazy Horse just because it was free for military.  It was pretty amazing but not finished yet.  So we didn't stay long. Then we checked into the KOA camp and Erin immediately went horseback riding while the rest of us unpacked and checked out the "fun zone."  We enjoyed some pizza for dinner and then headed out to see Mount Rushmore all lit up at night.  It was amazing and Mario and I could have stared at the mountain for hours.  The kids on the other hand took one look at it and would have been fine leaving.  But we made them stay for the evening program which included all the veterans in the audience going up on stage and introducing themselves.

The next day was Sunday so that was a challenge to not buy anything while on vacation.  We started our morning at church (funny story about using a plastic garbage bag for a slip since I have a horrible time remembering to pack slips for vacations, while in Saipan I used a pajama top around my waist) and then went back to camp and grilled some hotdogs.  We did let the boys play in the fun zone but I drew the line at swimming.  We then went back to Mount Rushmore to view it one more time.  Didn't cost us a cent since our parking pass was still good.  Then we went back to camp and grilled burgers for dinner.  After dinner, we decided to go on a hike that was between our camp and Mount Rushmore.  The hike was beautiful and even Erin, who really didn't want to go on our roadtrip, seemed to enjoy it.

Mario discovered that he really does like s'mores.
If you run out of chocolate,  you can use peanut butter and it tastes just like
a nutter butter.  Yum!

Thief Lake Hike

The smaller scale models

The next morning we woke up early and ate pancakes for breakfast and then checked out of camp.  Friends recommended an attraction called Cosmos Mystery Area.  Fortunately the twins were free because it was a tourist spot that only lasted 20 minutes.  It had a cabin built on a slant and it created lots of optical illusions.  Our friends loved and still talk about it years later. My kids thought it was ok but I doubt they will talk much about it in the future.

                                      

To break up the LONG drive home, we stopped in Sioux Falls to visit their Falls Park.  There were so many people there, we barely got a parking spot.  The waterfalls were beautiful (except for the muddy water.)  It reminded me of Hawaii.  Oh how I miss the beauty of Hawaii (and the beaches).

It was a great weekend and Mario didn't even have to take any leave.  It was nice to only divide my attention between 3 kids.  But I missed Eric terribly.  It makes me so sad to think he will be leaving home in 2 short years.

Poetry by the twins

Last Day of School

I officially have two high schoolers now.  Oh how sad that makes me when I think about my little girl being a freshman.  The big kids got straight A's on their report cards.  Wish I knew what the twins got, but because of No Child Left Behind (AKA No Child Get Ahead), their school doesn't use letter grades. So I guess I'll wait until they are in middle school to know how they are really doing.

Eric just finished up finals.  Finals only count for 15% of his grade so he didn't have to do well on any of them to maintain his A's.  But his history teacher "egged" him on by saying that he had a student take the whole exam in 20 minutes and still manage to get a 90%.  I guess Eric took that as a challenge and finished the whole exam in 12 minutes and got a 97%.  When we were discussing this last night, Eric was very happy with his grade.  Erin (in typical Erin fashion) asked why he didn't take the whole two hours so he could get a 100%.  We laughed.  Two kids, two totally different approaches to life.

Eric told his history teacher that he might get Erin next year in class.  The teacher asked about Erin.  Eric answered, "She's just like me, but with no ego."  So the teacher took that as Erin was even better than Eric.  Any teacher would be lucky to have Erin in his/her class.  She is such a sweetheart and hard worker.

Oh, I almost forgot, Eric's teacher never did answer his email plea for mercy.  But no matter, someone else must have turned it in for him because Eric saw it graded on the teacher's desk yesterday.  What a relief.  I can't get too mad at the teacher for not responding.  His wife passed away recently from cancer.  So I guess he has a lot on his mind, understandably.

Eric leaves for EFY early tomorrow morning and we leave for Mount Rushmore this evening.  We are sad to be separated from Eric but we are sure that he'd much rather go to EFY than hang with the family at a National Park.

Math Competition

The whole third grade was given a math test.  The top 5 students were chosen to represent the school in a district wide math competition.  I was thrilled when the boys came home and told me they both were selected to compete.  So they spent the entire day doing math individually and as a team.  Their team came in third place out of 14 schools.  I was very proud of them.  That gives me extra incentive to make  let them practice math skills all summer long.  I told them that Erin did that one summer and she jumped two grade levels in math in middle school.  They weren't impressed.

Eric's Plea

A short note written to Eric's biology teacher...

Mr. J,

It turns out, in a series of unfortunate events that involved a ripped folder and a overly ambitious locker partner cleaning, I managed to lose the book we made to do all the dissections and animal kingdom work in. Now, seeing as this booklet had a large amount of work in it, I am assuming it carries quite a few points in the grade book. Being a concerned student with a grade at stake, I was wondering what would be the best course of action at this point in regards to damage control. 

Thank you,

Eric Perez 

Mother's Day from Zach

These are from Zach for Mother's Day.  One he did in school and one in church.  I obviously upset him pretty badly after he did the first one and before he did the second one.