Thursday, August 30, 2012

Back to Florida

Back to Florida.  And why not?  Hayes here.  We postponed our trip back to 29 since Dad got a bit delayed.  Mom bought Reeder's homeschool stuff.  We packed up, and headed south for another couple weeks of paradise.

Rainy days provide fun on the Island.  At the nature center the were rabbit sitting for a few days.  Since we're good at babysitting we tried our hat at rabbits.  Voila.  Another talent for the Kappel kids.

OK.  This is the big stuff.  And there are already more pics to post.  But, we're going to work with what Weiler had uploaded as of last night.  I'll ask him to do more tomorrow.

Anyway, we found out that there is a little volunteer group on the island that excavates sea turtle nests 3 days after they hatch to count eggs and such.  So, we went out to see what we could find.

And would you believe if we told you it a retired Master Sergeant of the Marine Corps was leading our patrol?  Yep.  Good instructor, we believe.  So here we are, getting ready to dig up the nest.

That's Patty, she, of course, had the real job as Marine wife.  That's beside the point, and maybe my mom made me type that.  Moving forward, she's taking out all the eggs while the Marine talks to us (are you following who does all the work?).
Weiler was super interested.  And that cute little pile by his foot are the unhatched eggs.  Patty counts all the egg pieces and records how many went unhatched.  Both the nests we checked had about 100 eggs total.  Pretty amazing.

I'm helping count.  Give the thumbs up because it's GOOD that there were no live turtles in the nest.  That means all the hatchlings made it out.  Go turtles, go.
This was on our way to the next turtle nesting site.  An adventure always awaits us!
Bonus!  Horseshoe crab!
Kinda cool.  This is a dead sea turtle.  So it was neat to see the little fellow, too bad he didn't make it to the big swim.
More nests yet to hatch.  Another night, perhaps :)

Horse Camp

Best camp in Cincinnati (or Harrison).  Gallup Again Horse Camp.  When they don't have campers the owners of the camp are rescuing animals.  That place was absolutely amazing.

Here's the gist of it.  Each day I had to take care of a horse and another animal.  Goats, ducks, cats, you get the idea.  Clean their stall.  Chickens, dogs.  Feed em.  The works.  And I earned horse money for all this.  But I also had to spend my horse money on their food and their care (we had a vet tech, farrier, masseuse come in).  You could earn extra by helping other campers out-which I did every day.  And at night we had homework.  I want to point out now that I was one of the youngest campers, going up to 13.  And we had the same assignments.  So, this stuff took me quite a bit of time in the evening.  I had to research hackney ponies and write three paragraphs on the cool animals.  And then present it to all the next day.  This camp was intense.  And awesome.  And wonderful.  And one of the best weeks of my life.

At the end of the week we had a bit of a show to put on for all.  And, of course, that means quite the crew.  Mom, brothers, Big Mama, Manny, Grama Max and Aunt Owi all came to watch the big day!!

First, the relay races, bareback style.  I fell off this thing many times earlier in the week, but I got used to it by the big day.  Here we go!

Then it was my turn to lead.
My baby brother and Big Mama watching.
Papa....
Papa is more there for Y so Mom can keep a super close eye on the events.
Here I am with the other campers waiting for our turn on the big horses.
Keeping an eye on the competition.
My turn.
After leading Ms. Sarah asked me a few questions to make sure I knew all about the horse.  Don't worry, 100%.
Look closely, Papa Jerry following my brothers as they grew antsy.
Getting up for the final show.
I have even learned to trot.  I am so excited to keep lessons up when we get back to 29.
After my ride, my ever supportive brothers brought me amazing roses for a job well done.
The ones next to me were given by Y, Hayes presenting the yellow ones.  We're supposed to plant em in Grandpa Don's yard.
The three stooges, I mean Kappel kiddos.
And all the campers.
Please know that I am a humble girl and I don't want to gloat.  But, I think this is the forum to be proud of my accomplishments.  Did you see all those kids above?  ALL THOSE BIG KIDS?  Guess who got 2nd place in the show?  ME ME ME!!  I was so proud of myself!  Check out how big my smile is!  I am going to keep this ribbon forever!!

Indy Baby

Another day, another adventure.  Reeder, here, to take you to the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  That place is insane awesome.  If you live anywhere near Indy, head over.  We spent over 6 hours there and Mom was making us leave.

Another bonus?  It's halfway between my grandparents house and one of my 29 besties grandparents house.  Did that make sense?  Oh, well.  

Matti and Hayes racin'.  I like that Hayes is looking at her so intently.

Then Matti and me in a mean game of checkers.  I don't know about her, but this was my first ever game.  I now own travel checkers.
This is when it was getting heated.  Matti ended up taking this one, but a rematch is in the planning phases.
And the whole group.  You don't think we went without our Manny (and his wife) did you?

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Cincinnati continues to rock

Weiler here to walk you through some more of our Cincinnati tourism.

The duck boats.  Hilarious.  And wonderfully fun.

And they give you your own duck quackier.  Which we still have.  Mom was very happy that they gave us each one.  She really likes toys that make us louder.
The next couple are the actual moment when we are driving from land into the glorious Ohio river.  Now, most of you know that my brother and sister are very different people.  I think the next two pics show it all.  From the color of their hair to the looks on their faces, those two are complete opposites.

And our beautiful queen city as seen from the Ohio.
Safely back on land, we get a little tour of downtown Cincinnati, all the while quacking at anyone we pass by.



This is Reeder getting ready for her district swim meet.  She and Mom got to the pool super early, got set up, then Reeder got a pep talk from Dad.  The girl is awesome.  She earned ten ribbons this year, and a medal.  Good job Reederbaby!


I love having older siblings.  I follow them everywhere.  I love to try and do what they do.  Sometimes I act like I'm 6, other times like I'm 4.  This day, I'm following Hayes around on a hike.  It makes Mom nervous when I copy Hayes.
This is Crazy Hayesy.  Hayes saw the zip line and went immediately to it.  No questions asked.  No hesitation.  Hook 'em up.
There's the tower...
And after he did it Reeder felt that is was safe enough for her to give it a try.  Mom has video of all this craziness, but I didn't upload it.  You'll just have to imagine how crazy this all seems.
Oh, and we're also really good at babysitting.  This is Wes.  His mom went to the Bengals game, left him in our care.  I think we did a really good job.  OK, I so I went to bed before he even arrived, but Reeder and Hayes bathed him and fed him and sang to him.
Weiner dog races!  Woot woot!  What 1.5 year old doesn't love dogs?  And have you met my grandparents?  Who doesn't love a good track?  Well, we couldn't bet on the races but we sure had a good time.
Mom is always commenting on how long Reeder's legs are.  I thought I'd share this pic for you.  I don't think my legs are going to be quite like that but you never know.  I think I'm built more like a Hoobler.
Check out the track!  The dogs had to go ALL the way to those orange cones!
And Papa during all this....




And every so often all the nuns come over and we just HAVE to entertain them.  Reeder choreographed, the three of us practiced, then came time for the big show!



Man, going back on all these pictures make me realize what an incredible summer we've had.  As if all of that isn't enough, we also went out for some glider time.  These planes don't have engines!  Amazing.  That's Kari's mom and step-dad who fly these things, we spent a couple hours drooling.  Or I did anyway.  I love planes.  We're in the golf cart watching their friend put together his glider.

I couldn't get enough.  I'm looking at a landing here.  Amazing.
Get it?  MK?  That's moms' plane :)
Thanks Ms. Ronnie!!!  We had an awesome time and can't wait to be old enough to get in the cock pit!!


Then Reeder left us.  She went with Big Mama and Papa to Boulder, time for some boy bonding time with our mother.  It almost looks like Reeder and Hayes are going to miss each other.  Almost.
Hayesy went to art camp.  You do the math.  That means that for the first time in my life I was alone with my mother.  It was pretty amazing.  We snuggled.  We napped.  We bonded.

Here is Hayes' most prized possession-a dragon.  Or dinosaur.
And he did it alongside his twin, I mean cousin, Kate.
And we had a nice date night with just mom at Zips.  We love Zips.  And they love us there too.  Hayes may have flirted his way behind the bar to hit the bell for the train that constantly drives along the ceiling.  I must admit, that was pretty cool.
Well, folks, that's it for tonight.  I'm gonna go climb in my bed.  But, I already did the legwork and uploaded a bunch of pics, my sis and bro will have to type more tomorrow.