Sunday, July 10, 2011

Biking and camping


The last 3 weeks have been a lot of fun for Team Oppenheimer.

It all started with a nice visit from Marisa's parents. The clear highlight of their trip was the purchase of Henry's Birthday present, his 1st bicycle, complete with training wheels and a red "Cars" helmet. We have now been around the block many many times, and have met some more of our neighbors as a result.


Gemma has Henry's old tricycle and has her own helmet too, so she is not left out.
.
They make an adorable pair when they are both riding around in our driveway.

The following weekend was the 4th of July holiday.

This was a beautiful weekend. We ate 7 meals outdoors over 3 days, going to people's houses for grill out parties a couple of times and having people over ourselves a few times. Of course Henry and Gemma loved the 2 most important things about independence day.... Fireworks and the Nathans Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest (a competitive eating hosted in Coney Island, NY once a year). The Hot Dog contest was won by Joey Chestnut, Henry's new idol. We have watched the video of it about 10 times since the 4th of July.






This weekend, we spent a night camping at a cabin on Lake Vermillion (about 40 minutes from Sioux Falls).


For $25 a night, you can rent a small 1 room cabin. All the cabin has in it is 2 beds, a table and an air conditioner. It has a deck, and is located on the river. There is also a camp fire area for each cabin. The kids loved grilling hot dogs, playing in the lake, and spending some time outdoors. The only real problem we had was that they were all awake at 5.50am. Nobody slept very well.




This week is going to be action packed for us. I am doing my first bit of professional coaching, training 2 teams to play in a tournament in Brookings next weekend.

Henry also has his final summer course this week, at St. Mary's, where he will be attending pre-school in August. This week's course is called, "Playful Pirates" and should be fun for him.

Have a great week everyone!