Madisen cracks me up!

Lately Madisen has been talking more than usual which means that she basically never stops talking. She jumps from one thought to the other with no connection between the last and current thought. This makes for very interesting conversation especially when I am not completely listening to her. Here are a few things she has said lately...

I got pulled over for speeding the other day while coming home from soccer and while we were waiting for the officer to write up the ticket she was silent. WEIRD! I looked at her in the rearview and saw tears running down her cheeks. I turned around and asked why she was crying and she said, "i don't know how to drive a car and i don't even know the way to our home, so with you going to jail how do I get home? Do I just have to stay in the car?"

This one came out while driving in the car so I wasn't really listening to what she was saying before this comment but I do know it had nothing to do with our country or politics at all.

Madi-"Mom. that Obama dude who is like the president. Well he has a black face." 

 Mom-"Yep he does. Tanner turn around in your seat!"

Madi- "Hum...well Miss Lydia and Miss Evelyn have brown faces"

Mom- "Tanner if I tell you again how to sit in the car I swear... that's right Madisen. "

Madi-"Mom Tanner is turned around in his seat and is putting his cream face in my cream face."

Mom-"Tanner!!!..."

Tanner-"I know your swear.. whatever that means."

 Laughter erupts from both the kids

Kids say the funniest things!!

It's that time again!

SPORTS!!! The kids started playing again a couple of weeks ago, but this time Tanner has chosen to play Little League instead of soccer. He is a rookie this year and is playing on the Red Socks team.  

So I am learning a whole new set of rules and cheering to "keep your eye on the ball" instead of "get that ball." At least on Thursday nights. He is catching on faster than he ever did in soccer and he loves it. He is on a team with a couple of boys from our ward which is good. He is so hard on himself if he strikes out. He hangs his head and comes into the dugout disappointed but his team mates a very supportive as well as his coaches. We will just work harder and he will get better with every game.

 

Come Saturday morning it is off to the soccer field with Madisen who again this season is a super star on the field. She is a natural. Last week she was about 5 feet from the goal, dribbled with her right foot and slammed it into the goal with her left foot. She was so excited and her coach about fell over that she scored using her left foot from that far away. She is playing with a friend from our ward too named Brinley and I love that. They will hopefully be great friends forever if we as their parents have anything to do with it. 

Madisen our little "RUFF RYDER"

They are so fun to watch. It is the greatest thing for a parent to see their kids develop self confidence and make great friends who share the same beliefs and morals that we work so hard to teach them. I love having a few families with kids our kids age who we can socialize with and know that the conversation and activities will be some that we would approve of.

Day 2- Sightseeing in Prague

Jenessa, Leslie, Briton and Melinda in the hotel getting ready to leave for the day

The Municipal Building

Justin

The Powder Tower

Joe and Leslie

Jenessa, Joe, Leslie, Melinda and Briton. Joe says that the way they knew we were Americans is because every time you us we were standing in the middle of the walk way blocking the sidewalks with ourselves and umbrellas.

Jenessa, Leslie, Briton and Melinda at Charles Bridge with Prague Castle in the back round

Justin and Joe wanted to film a scavenger hunt of unusual things we stumbled across and it started day one while we were walking to find something to eat and saw two guys shooting up crack on the steps of a building in the middle of a busy sidewalk. As to not be too obvious they were filming them Justin turned the camera on Joe and Joe began to talk like a news reporter doing a story. So the rest of the trip they started and end the day with a "take" and added things that were interesting throughout the rest of the day. Justin's video is actually very good and will be on our website soon. I will post the website address when I get it posted.

 

Well here we are day two in the Czech Republic. We stayed in Prague to see the sights there and had a blast. We all woke up late so we got started about 11am. We visited the Municipal Building, The Powder Tower and did a little shopping in an open market in Old Town(i think).

The Municipal Building is where they use to hold meeting and court but has since been turned into a museum. When it was being renovated the government wanted the old columns which were damaged during their civil war replaced and the people objected. So if you look closely you can see white dings in all the columns which show where they were hit by bullets or canons.

The Powder Tower was used for years as the place where they loaded bullets and canons with gun powder thus earning it the name the Powder Tower.

Also we stumbled into Charles Bridge that night and took a few pictures of Prague Castle despite the rain that was drizzling on us. Joe and Justin wrapped up taping the closing broadcast  for the days events and we walked back to the hotel and played Jungle Speed until we were delirious with exhaustion and I was getting slap happy. I was laughing so hard at nothing by myself and missed my sisters. They would have laughed with me at nothing!!!

Prague-Day One

Justin and I getting ready to ride the subway for the first time as we head to the train for

 Kutna Hora.

The family crest made of actually bones.

Justin in the Church of Bones.

Stained glass in the St. Barbara's Cathedral in Kutna Hora.

Joe and I on the bus in Kutna Hora. I am smiling but behind the smile is pain from being sooooo cold! That day I had on thermals, socks up to my knees, a scarf, hat, gloves and hand warmers in my gloves as well as in my pockets and was still shivering all day long. But I pushed through and was very grateful that it warmed up a few degrees the next few days we were there.

 

I decided that since we had six full days in Prague that I would blog about each day individually so that I could add the pictures that I wanted to as well as being able to remember what exactly we did and saw each day. 

The first full day we had there we took a train about an hour out of town to Kutne Horna. While there I experienced many firsts. As I mentioned above we took the train which I had never done. Finding the train station we thought would have been very simple which it was. The tricky part was finding the place to buy our tickets as well as finding the correct platform that we would need to be at to get on the right train. We found it in the nick of time boarded and headed out to visit the Church of Bones and St. Barbara's Cathedral. 

The Church of Bones is exactly that, a small church which houses actual bones which make up the chandelier, a family crest, and basically every thing in there you see. The bones had been dug up from near by graves, cleaned and sterilized and finally used to decorate with. Sounds creepy? Well it sort of was. 

At St. Barbara's Cathedral was beautiful. The stained glass and old wood pews are beyond description. The pictures don't do them any justice. I tried so hard to get them as true to what the eye was seeing but failed miserably. 

We had some really great food while in Kutna Hora too. This was the first meal we ate that I thought "oh I won't actually starve in this country."  We rode a train, walked for miles, saw some great and interesting sights, ate good food and returned to Prague on day one.