Memorial Weekend

Here is our weekend in pictures! The Nissen family was camping at Split Rock Creek State Park with Grandpa Dick & Grandma Peg and Troy, Patty and Olivia. Oh, and don't forget the four dogs ... Henry, Reno, Belle and Holly.

There was campfire ...


Lounging in lawn chairs ...



Chilling with cousins ...



Playing in the water ...



Beautiful sunsets by the lake ...



And more playing in the water ...



Oh, and don't forget the FOOD! If there is one thing our family does well, it is camping food! This weekend we had even more yummy stuff since Grandma brought a chocolate cake with fudge frosting for my birthday and Dave surprised us all by making both a strawberry and a pecan pie! We enjoyed tacos, hamburgers, salmon, and steak this weekend. SUPER GOOD FOOD!

Because of the holiday, we stayed at the campground until today when we left for Holland to attend the Memorial Day service and the dedication of the new Veteran's Memorial. We marched from Main Street out to the cemetery as usual, the kids waving flags.




Grandma Darlene, as auxiliary president, laid the wreath during the ceremony at the cemetery.



And then we walked back, up the hill to the senior center for treats before lunch at the park.


The dedication ceremony was very nice with short speeches by veterans, several songs and another 21-gun salute.



More than anything, these two very special ceremonies reminded me that my freedom most definitely was not free.


So now it is back to reality and more importantly, back to laundry!

Project Life Tuesday

Tuesday, May 25 ... time for Project Life again! You will see from the pictures that it FINALLY got nice here in Minnesota. Almost a little too nice, if you ask me. I want some 70's before we hit 90's, thank you very much! Anyway, here is our week!

May 17, 2010

I won't bore you with the details since I did such a huge post about the dance recital last week, but here is a shot of the girls together after it was done. Their last time wearing these costumes ... good thing too, because Ryleigh's shoes do not fit any more!

May 18, 2010

These are the flowers we bought for the girls at their dance recital. The flower sales are used to help offset the cost of going to the competition up in the cities each year. They came from Wendy's in Edgerton and were just beautiful!

May 19, 2010

So here is momma bird hanging out in her nest. I still have not seen or heard any baby robins, but I would assume they are here by now. Momma was not too sure of me getting even this close to her nest ... she definitely kept her eye on me while I snapped a few pictures.

May 20, 2010

Dave mowed the lawn tonight in preparation for camping this weekend. I love the smell of freshly cut grass. (As a side note, Dave mentioned that every time he went by momma bird in her nest, she was on the ground flopping around to distract him from the nest above.)

May 21, 2010

Ahh, the first campfire of the season! YIPPEE! We camped in Ihlen this weekend. It was Holly's first time camping and she did really well. She slept in her kennel in the back of the truck and the only time she made a peep was when I walked "up the hill" early Saturday morning and did not take her with. The weather was beautiful all weekend and we had fun helping mom do her campground host duties.

May 22, 2010

In my many trips to and from the campground today (I brought Tricia to Ihlen to meet the girls for her Sioux Falls birthday party, then Ryleigh and I went to a birthday party in Jasper, and finally back to Ihlen to pick Tricia up after her party.) I kept seeing these turtles basking in the sun on a log. They were there every time, so I just had to go snap a picture. It is not the greatest picture since I used my little camera and had to zoom, but you get the point. There were even more turtles hanging out on a couple of rocks further down as well ... remind me never to jump in here!

May 23, 2010

Just because I am crazy, I decided to make our weekend even longer by taking the girls to see Shrek Forever After. It was okay, some funny parts, some parts that scared Ryleigh a little bit. But it was just fun to hang out with the girls.

So there you have it ... another week in our lives. I got a bunch of pictures printed and put in the album. I am into May as far as printing pictures. Journaling, well, not so much. I brought the stuff with me to the campground but did not get much done. I think I am into March for journaling. At least I have my blog to keep track of the pictures and my thoughts after taking them!

Remember to head over to Jessica's blog to see all the other Project Life posts!

Dance, Dance, Dance!

Are you ready for total picture overload? Because that is what we have here! The girls had their end-of-year dance recital last night. It was a wonderful show, but I think you'll see just how wonderful after all these pictures!



This is Ryleigh with her best buddy Riley! They are in preschool together this year and dance too. Watch out when these two get together because they like to make trouble!

This is a majority of Tricia's group backstage before the show. They wore their Super Girl costumes for the first time tonight.

Ryleigh's group did three numbers tonight ... Pirates, Splish Splash, and Butterfly. Seriously, little kids in plastic tubs - oh, I mean pirate ships - does it get any cuter?

Oh, there it is, even cuter! Now they are in metal tubs for their splish splash song!

The little girls just love this song. It is a Miley Cyrus song and they get to wear butterfly wings and run around the stage like they are flying. They were so excited by this time, that they missed the ending of the song completely. But really, when you are this cute ... does anyone honestly care?

Yeah, I thought not!

Tricia's group did two numbers. They did their competition song, Sneaker Night, and Super Girl. This group of girls has some real talent. They look great on stage and the smiles are awesome. You can tell that they truly enjoy dance. I hope they all stick with it a few more years!

The girls performed Super Girl for the first time. They get to do some fun stuff in this dance.

Like the roller coaster ...

Dancing on and hopping on and off of the blocks ...

And a really cool lift!

But this is really their best dance ... Sneaker Night. This is the one they performed at competition and did really well with.

They show a lot of attitude when dancing.

Show their strength by lifting the littler girls.

And show their flexibility by doing scorpions and splits. I think that most of the girls are able to do really great splits, but Tricia especially loves them! Great pointed toes and smile!

And, okay, not the greatest picture of Tricia since her eyes are closed, but more fun tricks for the final pose!

These last two are from the finale of the show. Miss Cindy has all the girls come on stage and do the same dance. They just have a blast and it is fun to see so many different ability levels working on the same thing. The stage is just a mess of girls wearing different costumes! So much fun!

The show was fairly long last night ... we got home a little after 8:30. But it really was a great show. Miss Cindy has done a great job with this group of girls!

ps - Don't say I didn't warn you about the pictures!

Project Life Tuesday

Here we are again ... Tuesday! I have no idea how many weeks I've been doing this, but since we are almost in June, I am getting close to SIX MONTHS of documenting our everyday lives by taking a picture every day.

Remember to visit Jessica and the other participants in Project Life Tuesday.



Monday, May 10, 2010

Rain, rain, go away! It has been raining and icky for a long time here. I want some SUN!



Tuesday, May 11, 2010

I made camping reservations today for this fun place. A bunch of my classmates are going to get together for a weekend of camping! The campground has over 500 sites! Wow.



Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Just a silly picture of Ryleigh eating her Goldfish Soup wearing a duck hat I got at school!



Thursday, May 13, 2010

I did it! The girls and I hopped in the car after work tonight and made a quick Sioux Falls run. We only made two stops ... KFC and Barnes and Noble. I got my NOOK tonight! SO MUCH FUN!



Friday, May 14, 2010

Today, I took Tricia to the Science and Nature Conference at the college. We had fun. Don't ever let anyone tell you science is boring! But really, the highlight of her day was getting to come to Breezy Meadow with me for a few hours. Tricia got several pages done before Dave came to get her about 8:00. Because we were so busy, I did not manage to get a picture of the two of us together! BAD MOM! For this picture I will insert the little "Welcome" card that was on my bed.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

This time at Breezy Meadow it was not a full house so each of us had our own room. I stayed in the Grandpa's Cabin room. I COULD NOT fall asleep tonight and was up until 3:30. Darn quiet house!



ps ... I got 54 pages done this week! I am up to August 2009 in the scrapbook!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

On my way home from Marshall I stopped at HyVee and got camping provisions! We are so excited to get the camper out for the first time next weekend.


Stay tuned! I'll be posting a major photo-fest of pictures from last night's dance recital later today!

Show Us Your Life - Books

Ahh, now here is a subject I can get into! This week, Kelly is talking about favorite books or kids books for Show Us Your Life.

When I was little, you could almost always find me with my nose in a book. I think if you ask my parents they would tell you that pretty much all I did was read. My brother would take off on his bike with his fishing pole toward the lake. My sister would take off for Kari's house. I would take off for the library. I could spend hours there.

Some of my favorites were the Babysitter's Club books, the Sweet Valley High books, anything by Roald Dahl, anything by Beverly Cleary, and anything by Judy Blume.

Right now, Tricia has found a pretty cool series of books: The Doll People, The Meanest Doll in the World, and The Runaway Dolls by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin. So far, we are about half way through the first one and it is pretty good. I have also been pretty interested in the Magic Treehouse series of books, although sadly Tricia has pretty much outgrown them already. The future teacher in me loves that many of the books have nonfiction counterparts that can really teach kids something.

While lately my life has been consumed with books like Teaching and Reading in Middle School, Math for Elementary Teachers, and Science for Elementary Teachers, I have still managed to find time in between semesters to read for pleasure.

I DEVOURED the Twilight series in about 10 minutes flat. The Harry Potter books were like an illness for me too ... I had to have each new book as it was released and then suffered from total letdown for a year while waiting for the next. When I pick up a Jodi Piccoult or James Patterson or Nicholas Sparks book, I cannot stop reading until it is done. Oh, and let's not forget anything by Dan Brown or Nora Roberts. Sometimes a good fluff book like a Jennifer Weiner is an absolute must!

I also have to mention two books that I just got ... The Simpsons in the Classroom and I Will Carry You. The Simpsons was co-written by my lovely college roommate and her friend. And, well, you all should know about Audrey's story. If you don't, please head over to Angie's website to read some of her very inspirational words.

And now, even more exciting is the fact that, just tonight, the girls and I made a very quick Sioux Falls run where I bought myself a lovely new thing. I got a NOOK! It is currently charging up so that I can get it activated and start reading! Tricia can hardly wait to get her hands on it too.

So, there you have it. Honestly, if I could spend my life reading, I would totally do it!

Project Life Tuesday

Welcome to another edition of Nissen News Project Life Tuesday! The last week was hectic and crazy! Some of these pictures are duplicates of pictures I posted this weekend so feel free to gloss over those!

Again, Project Life is the brainchild of Becky Higgins (by the way, make sure to visit her website every day this month ... photographers nationwide are giving away family portrait sessions, you can bet I am trying to win one) and Project Life Tuesday is a lovely group of ladies posting their pictures weekly and then linking back to Jessica Turner's blog, The Mom Creative. Make sure to visit both of their sites!



Monday, May 3

For the second year in a row, momma bird has built a nest right above our bedroom window. I wish I could see inside to see if there are any eggs, but it is too high.



Tuesday, May 4

I have started watching the new NBC show Parenthood after Biggest Loser on Tuesday nights. I think I like it because it is such a realistic portrait of family life with all its ups and downs.



Wednesday, May 5

X marks the spot! Okay, maybe not, but it does mark the tree that needs to be chopped down. Dave called the city to have them check out our lovely, rotting tree. We want to make sure it gets CHOPPED down before it FALLS down on our camper!



Thursday, May 6

So this is a repeat from my graduation post, but oh well. Today Dave and I made the long trek to Bemidji to begin the graduation festivities! In this picture are some of the greatest friends and fellow elementary education students around, along with a few of our professors. I can hardly believe that our journey is THIS close to being complete!



Friday, May 7

Graduation morning we awoke to snow on the ground and more falling. It was so cold! The DLiTE crew all stayed here at the Hampton, a beautiful place on the lake with a view of campus. I am sure it is lovely when the weather is nice. I did not actually get an individual picture of myself in my gown and "motor boat" as Dave lovingly called it. I'll order one from the graduation photographers and add it here as well.





Saturday, May 8

This is just one of many pictures of the day! We just had to stop at Itasca since we were so close. Who knows when, or if, we'll ever make it back up to Bemidji. Ryleigh was none too sure of being this close to such a large body of water. Tricia watched two people slip and fall into the icy water, so she decided not to brave the rocks to walk over the Mississippi River, but she did put her feet in!



Sunday, May 9

Mother's Day! Two pictures for today ... me with mom and grandma and me with my beautiful girls.




Don't forget ... it is not too late to start your own Project Life! You can jump in any time you want. Take a picture every day, select one picture that perfectly describes your week, find several pictures that tell the story of your month. That is the beauty of Project Life! It is your life, share it with the world in your own way.