Sprinkler Fun

It's been a very hot, and very dry summer.  Sounds like a perfect day to try out the new sprinkler.  The brown (dead) grass will show you how dry its been.  Below are two videos and some pictures.

Chris

Sprinkler Video 1
Sprinkler Video 2

A Week of Firsts and Levi's Birthday

First 1st:  On Saturday I participated in my first 5K run/walk.  My plan was to walk the entire 5K since running has never really been my thing.  About 1 mile into the walk I noticed that I was getting passed by a lot of people that were switching between walking and running.  My ego started to kick in and I thought, 'Hey, I can do that too'.  I would estimate that I ran about 1/3 and walked about 2/3's of the race.  My time was 35:21 (not bad since my goal was to walk in under 50 minutes).  You can see all of the results by going to this link and choosing Renaissance Race.  The purpose of the race was to raise money for cancer research.  There was over $25,000 raised.  I dedicated my race to Cari's uncle Dave who passed away last year after a battle with cancer.

Second 1st:  Levi had the opportunity to throw out the first pitch at Monday night's Wisconsin Rapids Rafters game.  He did a great job.  The three kids who threw before him were all short and their balls hit the dirt.  Levi had a very strong throw that the catcher had to reach up to catch the ball.

Levi's Birthday:  We celebrated Levi's birthday with a traditional Payne family 'birthday weekend'.  It was a great day that was topped off with the first pitch at the game.

Here are some pics for the race, the pitch, and the birthday.

Photos

Chris

Levi's Movin' On Up Ceremony

It's hard to believe that Levi has finished elementary school and is moving on to middle school. This week they had a 'Movin' On Up' ceremony for all the kids that have finished 5th grade. Below is a short video and a few pics from the ceremony. And yes, the picture with me it is not one of my best, but everyone else looks good so I added it to the post.

Chris

Video

Pics

Soccer 2012

Below is a slideshow of pics from Josiah's final soccer game of the season.  You'll also find links to two videos. 

Soccer is a strange sport in Wisconsin.  In the 6 week season we went from wearing winter coats and covering ourselves with blankets, to wearing shorts and t-shirts and dumping water on the players heads to keep them cool.

Chris

Video Links
http://youtu.be/eAWq8GT6FOg
http://youtu.be/wp1G7VuM6nQ

Variety Show

Here is a link to a video with Levi and some of his classmates in the school variety show.

http://youtu.be/87Pg3lpniX0

Chris

Chris' 34th Birthday

As a family we believe that birthdays are to be celebrated for at least a weekend, and sometimes an entire week.  I had a great end to my birthday week (trip to Green Bay was the start of birthday week) with a birthday pinata and homemade calzones.  Below are pics and a video of the birthday celebration.

Chris

Spring Break 2012

We spent two days of Spring Break in Green Bay.  We spent time in the hotel's water park and we went on a stadium tour of Lambeau Field and went through the Packers Hall of Fame.  The stadium tour and Hall of Fame were great.  We had about 15 people in our tour group.  States represented in our group were Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Missouri.  Below are pictures of our trip.

Chris