Golf

Sarah's gone to Cali livin' it up. That means one thing for Caden and I.........MORE GOLF!!!!!!!!!!! So that's what we did tonight. We went to the old Newton public golf course just off the interstate and played nine holes. We went with his PaPa, Uncle Tim and cuz Tegan. He practiced hitting his ball off the tee box at every hole with the club papa bought for him this summer. He's getting pretty good for only being 3. Which is exactly how I normally play....like I am 3. I am not a good golfer. On nine holes I normally score between 48-52 but not tonight.
I played the best golf ever, at least for me. I ended up at 39. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway Tim and I are playing again tomorrow and I am sure I'll make up for it by scoring about 60. I'll let you know.

Coming Up

Tomorrow afternoon I (Sarah) leave for Tahoe City, CA for Adaptive Schools training. I will be traveling with 12 other people from the school district. I'm not looking forward to being away from my family that long, but hope the weather there and the atmosphere of the place we're staying will help. We're staying at the Granlibakken Lodge on Lake Tahoe. Check out the website if you want to see some photos of where I'll be sleeping for 6 nights. http://www.granlibakken.com/ It looks beautiful! I'm hoping to get lots of good outdoor photos while I'm there. I will be trying to keep up with blogging a little while I'm away and I've told Doug he has to post some too about what's happening with him and Caden at home.

closet cleaning, clothes, and jewelry

Yesterday, Doug helped me clean out my closet and get rid of all the clothes with stains and/or holes and clothes that were so old I wouldn't wear them anymore. I had many articles of clothing I hadn't worn in years. I have a small closet and still managed to fill 3 large trash bags of old clothing. That didn't leave me much, so Doug and I headed to Wichita in the afternoon to buy some new clothes. We hit Kohl's and Target and found some good deals, which is really great for me since I'm the resident tight wad. Then last night I went to a Premier jewelry party and bought a new necklace and 3 stack ring. I LOVE rings!

zoo and pool

What a great kid's day! My friends, Christie and Melissa, and I took our kids (4 in all) to the FREE Hutchinson Zoo yesterday morning. It'a small, very nice zoo, and for the price, you can't be it. They have mostly animals native to Kansas, but others as well. We saw a brahman, bobcat, barn owl, raccon, otters, bald eagle, turkey vulture, porcupine, possum, geese, tamarins, snakes and spiders. It was very hot and I felt sorry for the poor gentleman running the little zoo train. He was already dripping with sweat and we were on only the 2nd ride of the day. As we were leaving we drove by the Salt City Splash Aquatic Center which is a huge water park to check times and prices and made plans to bring our kids back once I'm back from Tahoe. Here are some pictures of the zoo trip.

Here's are crew from youngest to oldest (l to r).
Caden (3), Maggie (young 4), Brock (old 4), Jeb (6)

otters wrestling; very cute; definitely my favorites

possum; definitely the uggliest animal

Our fun kid's day ended with a trip to the Newton pool for Family Swim with Daddy and the 3/4 of Carlson clan: Melissa, Jeb, and Maggie. All in all a pretty good day, especially when you throw in Chili's for lunch with our friends and a 3 hour nap between the zoo and the pool!

dull to most . . .big to us

I know most of you reading this have successfully potty trained your children, so bear with me as I proudly update the world on Caden's progress. ZERO accidents today! That's right zip, zero, nada, zilch! He even told us he had to go several times! He's made huge progress from our "Come to Jesus" meeeting with him 1 week ago. Caden, I think I can honestly say, I've never been more proud or thrilled to see you accomlishing something!

reader

My husband teases me a great deal because I like to read A LOT!! Today I read an entire book. Now for my fellow avid readers, this is nothing special, but to by husband it's practically a miracle. I'm not always as voracious as I was today, but the book today was special. I read Rescue by Nicholas Sparks. So good! I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed it. My friend Amy surprised me with her copy a few days ago at VBS. I owe her the return favor of dropping off a good read at her door. I'm also secretly hoping (and since she reads our blog also coyly asking if) I can borrow another Nicholas Sparks book to devour on the airplane to Tahoe later this week.

Now I'm off to bed so I can rise and shine early in the morning to take Caden to the Hutchinson zoo.