A Tonsager Tribute: There's 104, scratch that, 95 days of Summer Vacation And school comes along just to end it So the annual problem for our generation Is finding a good way to spend it....

1st and last days of school 2012/13,
Ready to kick off Summer!!!

We don't have any trouble finding ways to spend our summer days. This summer we got 95 of them. Normally it will be less. Switching school districts and therefore schedules allowed us a few extra days. On a side rant, I wish school would go back to Labor to Memorial Days. If we can't get it in in that time, we are doing too much. That from an educator. ANYWAYS....

We made a Summer BucketList of things we wanted to do do this summer. We got most of them in before the funding ran dry. Most were free things. We just plain ran out of time and energy for some of them. ~~FULL POST ON HOW WE MADE IT HERE.~~Can't find it, bummer because it was awesome.

With our first days out of school we went on our first camping trip for Memorial weekend to Cook Lake, WY. See the full post HERE.

There was an awesome storm with tornadic activity on our way home.

Wayne and I celebrated our 8th Wedding Anniversary with a staycation.

The 8th year is celebrated with Bronze so Zach and I went and bought a Bronze wind chime & possibly the last belle pepper plant in the Northern Hills. Wayne made an amazing supper & Andy picked out Diary of a Wimpy Kid for a family movie.

We were planning to leave Thursday the 6^th for Nebraska and stay through the 23^rd, however Spearfish’s ESY (Extended School Year) for Special Education students was going on and doing their screenings for new kids. This was an excellent brush up training for me and I rearranged the trip to be able to make it.

Instead on the 7^th of June Zach and I did the Hay Fever Run/Walk. Zach ran in a 1/2 mile kids race where he decided to stop and wait for his friend part way through. We then walked the 2 mile race where I got 4th and he got 1st of the kids. Full post HERE.

On Thursday June 13^th we headed out instead. There’s a full post on our Summer Nebraska Trip HERE.

Trip highlights….

Seeing our Denver cousins

Swedish Days Kiddie Carnival

Holdrege Library

Ribfest

Silver Run (full post HERE)

Swedish Days Parade

Family Reunion

Storms & Tornadoes

The Park

Bike Rides

Camping (full post HERE)

10 year reunion

We returned from NE on Sunday June 23^rd. Wayne went back to driving kids for Driver’s Ed. I was preparing the house for my return to work.

I became a certified Storm Spotter but my scanner broke and I never did get to report in. I did spot a few times though.

We had a garage sale the last weekend in June. I didn’t have any other time this year. Normally I do it the first weekend in June when its usually the first warm weekend and people have their lists fresh. I usually do pretty good. This year being a month into season when I had it, I did okay but stuff that usually goes good just didn’t. People already had found that stuff. So it was a bummer. I will go back to the first weekend in June. Next summer.

Then it was the 4^th of July with all its festivities. Here are some highlights…. Full Post HERE.

This year we went down to Angostura to camp for the 4^th also. It was way too hot out there. FULL POST HERE.

After the 4^th it was the weekend of my birthday. My parents came up and we stayed in some cabins at Custer State Park. We also went to the Drive Inn, hiked Sylvan Lake and got Old Time Photos taken in Keystone. FULL POST HERE.

The next weekend was camping again at Chris’ Campground with the Tonsagers. FULL POST HERE.

Wayne and I also did the Crow Peak Ascent. Full Post HERE

We were going to go camp again but hadn’t heard back from our friends and decided to finally spend a weekend at home. It was nice except when the neighbor kids rang the doorbell no less than 18 times at 7:15am and again at 7:30. I disconnected it.

Then it was Rally time which usually culminates the end of summer. I frantically tried wrapping up my projects around the house and for some reason decided it was a good time to rotate the boys into new bedrooms. I got them into the rooms but they weren't 100% done before school started.

Grandpa Tonsager decided to take the older 3 boys for the week before school started. He had many things planned to do with them and they all sounded super fun. See the full post HERE.

Andy had his end of summer Golf Tournament. Full post HERE.

We visited the Mobile Wall while it was in Hot Springs. It was very moving. An awesome experience.

The Fire Hall to see grandpa’s truck…

We also went to the Hot Springs Museum…

And the new Ice Cream place….

Before school started for Belle, we had our Back-to-School BBQ for neighbors and fellow teachers. Wayne smoked some loin again. We had a good turnout, different crew this time, but a great time as always.

The boys had their back-to-school sleepover, camp-out style this year. I’m doing a “Fix it Friday” post on it as well HERE.

The boys and I spent our final days of summer vacation hanging out in my new classroom and getting it organized. That was both fun and overwhelming. There really wasn't much in there when I got there. It came together nicely in the end though…