End of School Year

As you'll be able to tell from the following pictures, we've had a
very busy Spring/end of the school year! The end of April, Cade's
6th grade class took a 3 day field trip to Omaha/Lincoln. I was a
sponsor so was able to go with him, as I did with Garrett and Tyler.
Our first stop was in Aurora for a picnic at a park.


Next was the Plainsman Museum. There was a lot of pioneer
history and neat things to look at.


Cade liked the old equipment.

We then went to the Explorit Center which is a

hands on science exhibit.

There were lots of fun things to do here!

Then it was back on the bus to Omaha! We arrived at the Zoo

where we went on a night hike(after it was closed so we had the

whole zoo to ourselves), ate pizza and slept in the shark tunnel!

Super cool!!

The next morning we went on another hike

around the zoo to see more of the animals.

The sharks were so neat to watch swim above us as we slept

in the tunnel in our sleeping bags!

Go Tigers!! ha ha

Cade and I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the Zoo!

We also got to enjoy a 3-D movie at the Imax!

The rainforest was not good on my hair! ugh!

From the Zoo we headed to the SAC Museum. There were lots of

neat planes and war aviation to see but Cade was looking forward

to the flight simulators the most!

This simulator spun around really fast!

Cade loved it!

Our last stop for the 2nd day was Mahoney State park where

we stayed in cabins. We went on a 2 mile hike and climbed 120

stairs to the top of an observation tower to overlook the river!

UGH is all I can say!!

The 3rd day we headed to Lincoln and went

to Memorial Stadium. This was Cade's favorite

part! We got to go into the Heisman room, tour

the weight facility and walk the 'tunnel'.

And Cade got to touch the 'horseshoe'

on his way out the tunnel!

And run around on the football field!!
Go Huskers!!

Afterwards, we briefly toured Morrill Hall, ate

lunch at Chucky Cheese then toured the State

Capital. It was a very full 3 days but was lots of

fun and we got to see so many things!

Paxton held it's graduation on May 14th.

Garrett was voted by the Senior class to be

one of the ushers for the graduates. He looked

very handsome in his suit. Hard to believe he

will be graduating next year!! sniff, sniff!

Senior escorts ~ Garrett and his classmate Carli

A little preview of next year.....

On May 13th Cade has his very last elementary

track and field day. And the athletic talent gene

got Cade too! He did awesome! He got first place

in the shot put!

First place in the long jump!

First place in the high jump!

First place in the hurdles!

First place in the 400 m run and finally a 3rd place in the

400 m relay ( due to some slow girls on his team!)!

Look at all of those blue ribbons!! Way to go

Cade! Needless to say the junior high coaches

are looking forward to having Cade in jr. high

next year! :)

Some of my pics didn't download but we had

a very busy track season! At the Best of the Midwest

meet Garrett earned a 2nd place medal in the 200m.

Bernie was able to make all of the boys' track meets this year!

It was so nice to not have to go them alone. They can be for

some long days but they are always exciting to watch and cheering

for the boys' is fun!

Both the boys' earned a medal in the 4x4 relay!

It's been fun watching them be on the same team!

This particular track meet is a big deal as you have

to qualify just to participate in it. You have to have

the top 1-8 times in the whole midwest area of the

state of Nebraska so the boys' were competing against

other kids from Class A, B and C schools. The boys' relay

team also broke the Paxton school record at this meet!!

It was very exciting!!

The boys' got to change the names and time on the boards

at school, very exciting!!! They think it's pretty cool to have

their names up. Hopefully their record will hold for awhile!

Ta-Dah!! Pretty cool huh!

On May 19th, Cade had a 6th grade 'graduation'

party/potluck.

Cade and his classmates.

Cade's teacher, Mrs. Mullen, presents Cade with his certificate.

Right after, we headed out as far as Kearney on our way to

State Track in Omaha! No rest for the weary!

The next morning, we are headed out! State Track here we

come! It pretty much rained on us the whole way. Once we

hit Omaha we went right to Burke Stadium for the first days

events. It rained on us most of the time there too and we had

to use our 'plastic' rain covers! A funny site for sure! Garrett

qualified in the 200m and the 400m. He didn't run them until

5:45pm and 8:10pm so it was a long, wet afternoon/evening.

Competition at State is unreal and despite Garrett's efforts

he did not qualify for finals in either event. He was pretty

disappointed with himself but he's had an amazing season and

accomplished so much and qualifying for 3 events is quite an

accomplishment in itself! We are very proud of him!

That night we were able to stay with Bernie's cousin Fred and

his wife Denise. They live just a short distance from the Stadium

so it worked out well for us and we appreciated their hospitality!

Here we are looking refreshed and the sun is shining! On to Day 2!

We arrived at the field early morning so we could

get a seat. The amount of people who attend is in the

thousands! It's crazy!! Even being early, it was already

packed and seats were hard to find and it was HOT!!

The boys' relay team didn't run until 4pm! By noon, we

gave up our seats and rode the free shuttle bus to the

nearby mall for lunch and to cool off. It was a much needed

reprieve! A couple hours later we made our way back and

managed to find some seats by the starting line. Tyler was

nervous! He runs first.

He did a great job and had a good hand off.

Garrett is the last runner and kicked it in gear to pass up

3 other kids to earn the Tigers a 5th place finish! He did a

great job!

Boys Class D 5th place medal winners!

Zach, Tyler, Garrett and Tristan! Great job boys'!

The boys' were disappointed with their efforts at State but we

couldn't be more proud of them! What a neat experience for them

to be on the same relay team all season, to break their school record

and to qualify for State and earn a medal! Someday they will appreciate

that they got to experience it together.

We are so proud!! It was a fun 2 days! Afterwards we hit

the Mall for some shopping, ate supper out with Fred and Denise

at a really good mexican food restaurant then crashed at their

house again. The next morning we did more shopping (had to take

advantage of the shopping places we don't have out west!) then

headed for home.

As you can see, it's been a whirlwind for us with lots going on.

School is out now and we are all looking forward to enjoying

Summer vacation! Iam so glad to have a break from work

and have a long 'to do' list I hope to accomplish over the Summer.

The boys' are all working and Garrett and Tyler have a football camp

in June at Chadron and Garrett has a football camp at UNL, also in June,

that he was invited to by UNL to be looked at. So, things are at a some

what slower pace but still busy.

It's taken me 2 hrs to put this post on and I had some trouble loading

pics but enjoy the pics I was able to get on. It catches you all up for

awhile. :) Everyone enjoy your Summer!!