General News – Page 7 – Dotzour Family.com

July 5, 2011June 30, 2011

Swimming lessons

We’ve been doing swimming lessons at the Monona pool since the first day of summer vacation. Hours spend pool-side are some of my favorite of the year!

Here’s a little show of Andrew jumping off the diving board. So amazing!

Sylvia’s in the big pool now – Squirts A! Last year she was too young for swimming lessons, and this year she’s delighted with her swimming lessons status.

Here’s a couple adorable pics that Jessica took post-lessons one day…

A good friend is such a treasure in life!

Here’s CC and Sylvie in the little pool as Paddling Penguins.

Check out Celia putting her head under water!

Heading out in a noodle train.

Here’s another series of Andrew jumping…

We’re doing swimming lessons through this week, and then we are doing a session in August. I’m already looking forward to it!

July 4, 2011June 30, 2011

I really love to photograph people. I enjoy capturing photograph evidence of the connections between families. But on a nice June afternoon at Peck’s Market in Lone Rock, I had fun photographing silly goats too!

Bryan was in Vancouver, BC for the weekend, so the kids and I headed out to Tom’s house on the Wisconsin River in Lone Rock to play. On Sunday afternoon, we visited Peck’s Farm Market and spent a few hours playing in the sand, on the equipment, and petting the goats, sheep, horses, and lamas.

Sylvia loves animals.

This trio of floppy eared goats just stole my heart!

How cute is this!?

The shiny eyes, the soft nose, the sleek hair…beautiful!

Uh oh, another cutie. This time it’s a sheep.

Here’s a pretty peacock. When he raised his tail, Sylvia ran toward me pell-mell, yelling, “MOM! Come quick! There’s something magical!!”

This mama goat has two adorable baby kids in her pen. So sweet!

The kids played with these sand toys for hours.

Roar!!

Here’s Sylv overcoming her fear of heights again…

And a new favorite image of my boy. What a handsome man! To get that smile, I asked him a multiplication questions. Love that sparkle, Andrew!

June 29, 2011June 29, 2011

Andrew’s Kindergarten graduation

On a nice evening in early June, Andrew graduated from Kindergarten.

I’ve got to say that at first blush, I wasn’t a big fan of the idea of Kindergarten graduation. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate, I thought, to have an ice cream party and say “Yay! You’ve made it through your first year!” But a full-out graduation ceremony?? Even middle school graduation strikes me as a little silly. I love to celebrate milestones, but doesn’t it somehow make other graduations (like college or graduate school) kinda blase. These kids are expected and required to pass from KG to first grade. So we can celebrate that they’ve met their requirements? I sort of shrugged and smiled and went along.

The morning of the graduaiton, Andrew was really excited, and I thought that was sweet.

Then as we sat in our metal folding chairs in the gym, Andrew’s class started to file in…

…and my heart melted.

Look at how excited they all are!

Oh, did you ever see such a sweet and earnest guy?

Look at me! I’m now a fan of Kindergarten graduations! My heart has been won over by the adorable nature of the students. I look at them all up there on stage, and I imagine the years going by like the scenery flashing past the windows on a train. If we stay at this school, Andrew could know many of these kids for the next 12 years. As I watched them smile and wave to parents and goof off together, I could still see them all for the little people they still are. They’re just past being preschoolers! But I can also see shadows of the teens that they will grow to become. Oh, the emotion! I shake my head at the wonder of it all.

Bryan, Sylvia, and Tom joined us for the afternoon ceremony.

As the principal called each child’s name, they came up, shook Maestra Laura’s hand,

walked across the stage (some kids nearly leaped across the stage, so great was their excitement!),

and shook hands with the acting principal.

Then each student received his or her certificate of graduation,

and held it up for a quick photo moment.

Andrew held his up for an extra moment just to make sure I captured it. I do so love that little guy!

Nuestro Mundo Community School has three Kindergarten classes, and after they’d all received their certificates and sang their songs, we adjourned to eat cookies and drink juice. A potent sugar combination at 2:30pm.

Here’s Andrew and Sylvia with Maestra Laura. Boy did we get lucky this year to have such a great teacher for our guy.

Party, party, party!

Sylvia (a.k.a. Angelina Ballerina) is pointing out an “s”. That’s “s” for Sylvia. The wonderful thing? She finds them everywhere!

So there you have our Kindergarten graduation experience. My little guy is now on his way to being a first grader. There’s no stopping him now. Reminds me of a post I wrote on July 8, 2005:

“Bryan and I have been having a wonderful time getting to know our precious little baby. A couple days ago, we took him for his first visit to Olbrich Botanical Gardens (see photos in the gallery). I think he liked hearing the birds and feeling the sunshine. His umbilical cord fell off too, so he’s pretty much an old man now.”

Go get ’em, Andrew!

June 28, 2011June 20, 2011

Memorial Day weekend at Tom’s

Tom’s new home in Lone Rock on the Wisconsin River is going to be a great spot for our family. Since it’s only an hour away, we can make a quick trip. There’s a huge sand pile that the kids are having fun playing in (dressed or no). The river is right there for paddling or floating adventures, there’s new outdoor parks to explore. It’s fun.

Then of course, we can just hang out indoors, which is great because since it’s not home, it’s just a nice change of pace.

Here, on Memorial Day weekend, Tom is reviewing Andrew’s first writing of one googol (that’s 10^100; 1 followed by 100 zeros). 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

I closed Sylvia’s fingers in the door. They were a little bloody and bruised, but OK. It was sad, but a good opportunity to remind both kids what a terrible idea it is to place your hand on a door frame. Sweet girl. Here, she’s chilling with some ice and poodle and paci.

We visited Tower Hill State Park. The weather was on the sweltering side (in the 90s), but the kids did well.

Andrew has magical powers to help bring Sylvie out of her downer-moods. Here he’s cajoling and sweet-talking.

She doesn’t seem to be responding…

Ahh, but there she is! The door opens, and she leaves the gloomy humdrums behind. Thanks, Andrew!

What is this in this cave? Why, it can’t be..

YES! It is two ferocious BEARS! Just look at their claws!

Up at the top of the hill, looking out over the Wisconsin River valley, with Spring green to the left.

Andrew was a little tired and got a lift down the hill from Tom. Lucky lad:)

June 27, 2011June 20, 2011

Bryan kayaking on the Wisconsin River

Bryan’s been having fun getting out on the water in his new fabulous kayak. On Memorial Day weekend, he brought his boat up to Tom’s place and spent a couple hours paddling down the Wisconsin from Spring Green to Lone Rock.

Here’s my kayaking guy pre-trip.

The kayak traveled on top of the car. Bryan took all the straps off.

Then he flipped it off the “J” rack

and carried it down to the water.

Easy as pie, right, hon? Do you like it when I stand here photographing you incessantly? Huh, huh, huh?

Such a beautiful day for a paddle.

He sets the kayak down on the beach,

gets his PFD and paddle,

Settling in…

And he’s off!

Toodles, Babe:)

He met us back at Tom’s really quickly. Love that paddling man:)

June 26, 2011June 20, 2011

Sweet Sylvia

On a balmy evening in late May, I captured some pictures of my beautiful girl as she ran and rolled and frolicked in a grassy field.

I think this is my favorite picture of Sylv. I love the level look she’s giving me!

Look at all that life and energy just oozing out of her:) It seems to shine from the tips of her hair.

Thinking…

And then running. Again and again…

Oh Sylv, I’m so glad to be your mama. You do drive me to the brink of insanity from time to time, but it’s all in good fun, right?

You’re a little like this oak leaf…just unfolding, still soft and tender and green. You’ve got a lot of growing to do, my girl. But there isn’t much sweeter than a young life, alive with promise and brimming with vigor. I can’t wait to watch you grow and to experiences so much more of life together.

June 25, 2011June 20, 2011

Soccer!

Andrew and Sylvia are two years apart in age between February and June. And it just so happened, that Monona had a soccer skills class for 3-5 year olds this spring. Then it shockingly aligned so that both kids wanted to participate. Crazy.

Eli and Celia joined us, and we enjoyed five nice evenings (Thursdays in May and early June) watching the kiddos play about.

Eli’s sixth birthday was on a soccer day. Here’s his newly-hatched Sixness:

And there’s CC. Water breaks were a major component of the soccer skills class.

Hi me:)

Soccer buddies

Here are the kids running around on another evening…

It’s chaos out there! Then, I caught Andrew on camera doing cartwheels:)

There aren’t any soccer classes that work with our schedule this summer, and the kids aren’t interested in tennis or t-ball etc. Andrew said he might be interested in karate, so perhaps we’ll add that in at some point. In the meantime, this was a great, low-key initiation to the world of kids sports:)

June 24, 2011June 20, 2011

May trip to Wichita – Part IV: Visiting with Julie, Jerry & crew

On Saturday evening of our visit in Wichita, we visited with our good friends, Julie and Jerry Anderson. Julie and Bryan were good friends and neighbors as kids. Her husband Jerry is a great guy, and they have two little ones – Grayson (6) and Carter (2). On this visit, Julie’s parents, Janie and Van Buchanan, joined us too. It was a lot of fun to see friends!

Here’s the whole gang with a little balance-the-camera-on-the-truck trick.

When we visited last year (see post here), Julie and Jerry were just about to put their house up for sale. So it was great to see their new beautiful home!

Before supper, the boys all hung out in the living room.

The boys getting ice cream. Grayson’s a big Jay Hawk fan. Takes after his parents, uncles, and grandparents I think.

This little Carter dude was so adorable. I couldn’t stop taking pictures!

After dinner, we headed out to the driveway where the kids all played with bikes and balls and chalk and the hours sped by.

Love this new picture of Sylvia skipping along in the sunshine.

One kid pushing, one kid riding.

Wait, what?! Two kids riding.

Grayson’s quite a biking force. This kid’s got good physical acumen.

There’s Carter with his Grandma. So nice that they get to spend so much time together:)

Andrew and Carter played some t-ball. I think we can consider the evening a rousing success since neither of them walloped the other in the head with a ball or bat. There were a few close-calls!

Sir Carter-of-the-adorable-eyes.

The boys played with the soccer ball for a while. Grayson’s a skilled boy, and he shows a lot of focus and drive to play.

Another one of Janie and Carter. Too cute!

There’s Julie with Carter and Jerry in the background.

Look at that beautiful boy:)

After dinner, Sylvia made a bee-line for the costumes <aside: warning – if we come to your home, Sylvie will find your costumes. even if you thought they were just your clothes.>

Sylv and Grayson took a break from coloring for a sweet pic.

Noting that the four kids were in the same location for the first (and only) time during the evening, I ran over to get an Anderson/Dotzour kids photo.

So glad that it worked that we were able to all be together. Whenever Bryan and I get to spend time with Julie and Jerry, we always find ourselves wishing we had more opportunities to play and hang out together. Oh well, we’ll take what we can get! Thanks again, guys:)

June 23, 2011July 1, 2011

May trip to Wichita – Part III: Visiting Grandpa Harvey

Grandpa Harvey has had a really rough year. Perhaps one of the saving graces is that it doesn’t seem like he remembers much of it. Lola Mae passed away in May of 2010, and since then, Grandpa has been living in an assisted living community. The day we arrived in Wichita for our visit, he took a turn for the worse, and spent a few days at the hospital. He’s now living in a higher-assistance memory care facility.

During our visit, Grandpa’s presence faded in and out. I’m sure we were a really overwhelming crew, but he seemed happy to see us.

Here he’s saying hi to Sylvie. She had her little bunny give him kisses, which they both enjoyed.

There’s Bryan greeting his granddaddy. Grandpa Harvey really is one of he nicest, kindest-hearted people I’ve ever met.

The kids discovered a bowling set in the corner of the room, so they enjoyed a rousing game of bowling-at-the-hospital.

Checking out a mysterious red button on a teddy bear.

Andrew and Sylv check out Grandpa and the bear.

Grandpa recognized Melanie, so that’s nice to know that they connected.

At one point, Grandpa got the bowling ball and threw a couple frames.

Sylvie and Grandpa play with a teddy bear.

There’s our dear Grandpa. Love him so much… Leaving him there alone at the hospital was gut-wrenching. Grandpa’s had a life-well-lived. I hope these upcoming months are peaceful and content, in whatever times or places him mind might take him. Love you, Grandpa!

June 22, 2011July 1, 2011

May trip to Wichita – Part II: Visiting Grandma Jo

When we were visiting Grandma Jo at the hospital, we took over the waiting room for our time together. The kids, sensing the opportunity to perform for a rapt audience, took full advantage of the attention:)

Grandma had her hair colored specially for our visit. The hue? A sunny marigold:)

There’s always a lot of laughing when Grandma Jo’s around.

These two monkeys, too, caused quite a bit of silliness…

I thought this was so cute. Grandma Jo was smelling Sylvie’s feet to see how they smelled.

One of my favorite images from the trip…

We came back for a visit the next day and settled in to the now-familiar waiting room.

Andrew loves the game Blink, and here he and Grandad duke it out.

Andrew and Grandma Jo play some sort of arm-raising game. Perhaps they are practicing their semaphore.

So there’s our pictoral review of our visit. Grandma Jo ended our visits with an elbow bump rather than her traditional leg kick. We’ll see if it sticks:)

It was sad not to be seeing Grandma Jo either in her home or in her new apartment, but we certainly did have a nice time together, no matter where the location. Grandma Jo is such a lively, vivacious woman. It’s sad to know that her health is really causing her some problems these days. I hope that she’ll have a health-filled summer.

Category: General News