Days With the Duerksens

Another 20 tickets earned = another field trip!   This time, we headed to Lindsborg (a.k.a. Little Sweden). It's such a pretty little town and boy, do they take their Swedish heritage seriously!  After a stop at the Hemsjold Gift Shop to see the Dala Horse Factory and after playing at the greatest little park I've ever seen, we headed north to Coronado Heights.  I've actually never been there before, so this was a fun trip.   Coronado Heights is a hill northwest of Lindsborg. It is alleged to be near the place where Francisco Vasquez de Coronado gave up his search for the seven cities of gold and turned around to return to Mexico (Wikipedia).  In 1936, the castle and picnic areas were built as a WPA project.  We had a good time exploring and eating lunch on top of the castle!   This lady gave the kids their own wooden dala horses which Cambry and Delaney promptly decorated when we got home.  Here she is painting on an ornament we bought...

On Tuesday morning, Caiden and his cousins, Cale and Mace, had the opportunity to learn about life and football from one of the greats and Heisman Trophy finalist, Collin Klein!  We traveled to Salina for a three hour football clinic -- the Collin Klein Passing Academy. From what I could gather from Caiden's limited responses about the morning, he and the other coaches focused on 3 main points:  Leadership, Comparisons, and Priorities.  I also heard Collin talking about obeying their parents and about gratitude - even instructing them to thank the person who brought them to the camp (I'm still waiting for that thank-you).  Trissa and I decided that those words alone were worth the drive up there! Between huddles, the coaches threw in some football drills and scrimmaging (good old-fashioned shirts vs. skins)!  Caiden's favorite part of the morning was scrimmaging - particularly when one of the coaches drew up a play for him to receive the ball - and he caug...

Noah's first handful of grass Last night, our Sunday School class and families took on a big project - the Goessel Elementary School Garden!  In spring, the classes planted seeds, and they grew, but so did the weeds.  Since school has ended, families signed up for weekly shifts to work in the garden, but weeds just grew faster than anyone could control. So, we dug right in pulling weeds (sometimes digging them out with shovels), picking produce, and mulching around the vegetable plants.  I think we worked for about an hour and a half, but we didn't quite get everything accomplished.  It's our family's week to tend the garden, so we have a little work to do yet.  I was amazed at how most of the kids worked at it - some for the entire time.  Eventually, a game of soccer got going on the playground and drew some of them away. It was a great evening, and I was reminded how fun it can be to work with others for a good cause. Most of us have our own garde...