Summer Activities

We've been pretty busy here lately with a flurry of activities. Here's an update of things we have been up to or will be doing soon!

• The whole family went to the 49er Drive in to watch Kung-Fu Panda and The Incredible Hulk. We brought a lot of snacks and mosquito spray to the evening and had a great time!
• Yesterday we celebrated Jayden's 3rd birthday with a trip to Ryan's for dinner! We are also planning on going to Zao Island tomorrow for a party! Hopefully we'll have some pictures from the fiesta!
• We've been doing so much swimming that Mav and Jaecy are growing gills.
• We got some Root Beer Floats and the Port Drive In Restaurant in Chesterton. We were out and about doing some window shopping for homes and came across the Restaurant. Their Root Beer is good stuff!

We also splurged a bit and bought the Wii Fit game and board. We've had lots of fun playing with our balance, conditioning, and strength. Jaecy loves the hula hoop game, and Mav loves running real fast so his Wii character trips and falls. To each their own, I guess! :-)

Earlier this week I spent time with long time friend Kevin Scott and helped him move some things out of his house. He is moving in with his mom as she recovers from heart surgery. Kevin and his wife Nycole have sadly filed for divorce. Kevin's dad recently passed away, it's a rough time for all involved. The Nelson family sends their love to Kevin and Nycole as they work through this difficult time.

There is a serious line up of movies in the theatre that I'd like to see here soon. Hancock, The Dark Knight, and WALL-E are just a few movies that I'd like to see. I usually don't go to the movies this much but there are some neat movies out there! The kids loved Kung-Fu Panda!

G-O-A-L!!!!

I'm not sure I'd believe it if I hadn't seen it myself, but Maverik Tyler ended his first full soccer season in style with his first ever goal! We were fortunate enough to catch it on camera, so today's video is of Maverik scoring a big goal! Most times Maverik lays back and lets everyone else do the work, but for whatever reason when the ball squirted out of the pack this time Maverik kicked it once away from everyone then kicked the ball straight into the goal from about 8-10 feet away. Way to go Mackie! Check out the video, Kari did a great job of catching the action.

Last night the kids and I went to Andy and Cindy Trevino's house to celebrate Andy's birthday. Andy and Cindy both work at Calumet with me, they are very nice people that care about the Calumet community. Jaecy and Maverik got to do some swimming, and lots and lots of people stopped to visit and chat a while with Jayden. The Trevino's and their family are wonderful people, we had a great time!

Splish Splash!

I'm now all caught up with the Heroes episodes, all the way up to season 2. We've been doing a lot of swimming, sleeping, and hanging out in between sessions of basketball and work. The Calumet boys are working hard and have a long way to go. Kari and I both just got new cell phones! They have the same numbers, but we're now able to take pictures with the phones. They are pretty darn snazzy! I always get the rugged kind because I tend to beat up on my phones and MP3 players.

Jaecy went big time and used some magic jelly beans to score her first goal ever this past weekend for her soccer team! She was very excited, and her whole team was happy for her!

Jayden is back to full health and really seems to be picking things up. He has a check up today so he and Kari are headed up to Chicago for a visit. Mav and Jaecy have their last practice of the season today....the season went so fast!

Heroes!

For my birthday on June 10th I was thoroughly spoiled by my family. I received happy birthday hugs from the kids, a three person swing from Kari to go along with Season 1 of the TV show Heroes. It's a neat show that follows a group of people that through evolution have special powers. I've seen before where people were asked what one superpower they would assume if they could just chose one. When I was a young pup I think I would've said super strength or the ability to fly, but now I would say that I'd like the power to heal people. How neat would that be, to walk into a hospital and go room by room changing lives? I would definitely hunt this little cutie down and give him and hand. His story is way too real to me:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=clemmons/080612&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1

We are close to wrapping up our first soccer season! I really think it's been good for the kids to be a part of a team. The family that coaches them have been pretty nice to the kids, it's been fun to step back and be a spectator for a while.

It's also fun as Maverik and Jaecy grow older and watch them become friends. They like to pick on each other from time to time, but at home there are some very sweet moments where they really look out for each other and Jayden.

June 23rd is coming up quick! Why is that date important? On June 23, 2001 Kari Lynn Wiseman and Dustin Russell Nelson were married at the Valparaiso University Chapel. That was a neat day that I remember well. It's just the night before that I have trouble with.....

Free at Last!

Late Friday night Jayden was released from the hospital, and everyone is very happy that Little Diddle is home! Maverik and Jaecy don't like it one bit when their Mom and little brother stay at the hostible (as Jaecy calls it), so they like to sleep in Daddy's bed when this happens. That leads to the Nelson family being sad, tired, and cranky (and the kids aren't happy either!). Any who, Jayden got lots of rest on his first day home and even spent some time visiting with Isabel on Saturday evening. All is well now that family is back under one roof!

A Nice Place To Visit, But I Wouldn't......

The Nelson family has been fighting the sickness bug on and off for about two weeks, and on Wednesday it finally bit hard. Kari took Jayden to the doctors only to discover that he was dehydrated and had elevated kidney levels (the bad one's :) ) So, with that in mind Jayden was admitted into the hospital in Valpo for a visit. At this wonderful vacation spot Jayden gets to sleep in a cage-like bed, get blood tests every two hours, hang out in his diaper, and gets all the juice that he can handle! Kind of like a trip to Vegas for some of you fine folks! :) We're keeping our fingers crossed that he'll be home for the weekend.

I finally went to the doctor on Thursday to get some antibiotics and nose spray. I've been having trouble with overall energy, my ears, and breathing here recently and good ol' doc says it's due most to the recent pollen and ragweed counts in the air along with a bit of sickness. Hopefully I'll get to feeling better, when I ran in my last running "race" I felt like I was breathing through a straw the whole time!

Maverik and Daddy are now done with school for a few months! We celebrated by visiting Jayden and getting lunch at the hospital, then went home in the evening and took a quick dip in the pool! Maverik made sure to tell me, "Daddy, I love the summer time!"

Basketball is off and running at Calumet, and we're so young that I'm not sure I could take my team to see a PG-13 movie! At this point it looks like we'll have a small handful of seniors that can contribute. Right now as it stands there are 3-4 sophomores and even a freshman that might end up helping us on the varsity level. We have a few games coming up this next Wednesday, it will give us a small indication if we can compete next season.