Yellowstone or Bust!

Well the day is finally about to arrive. Tomorrow we leave, bright and early on our most ambitious cross-country family trip ever! The Dexter Bows are heading west to see The Black Hills of South Dakota, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park. We hope to have a really fun 12 days!
I will try to update the Blog on the road. Hope you'll be watching!!

Mission Impossible

Nikki had her Mission Impossible Meet today at Infinity Gymnastics Academy in Brighton. The judges seems to be scoring particularly hard today, but she had a very successful meet. Her dismount from bars was a little wonky (assymmetrical), and she got a -0.1 point time penalty on beam so missed out on a blue ribbon in that event. (Time penalty? What's that? No one ever said anything about a time limit before!)
Here are her scores:
Vault 9.05
Beam 8.9 (ranked 8th)
Bars 8.675 (ranked 7th)
Floor 9.10 (ranked 2nd)
All around 35.725 (ranked 4th)

Great Job Nikki. Nice start to spring break. One more meet to go before State Meet!
xoxo

Cats

About 3 weeks ago we adopted 2 more cats. Yes, Bob is still alive. He's getting pretty old and not the high energy entertainer he once was. He also had developed a bad habit of yelling for no apparent reason. He's deaf, but we are not and the really loud MEROW, MEROW was getting tiresome. One afternoon we visited our neighbor's house and barn, where the kids played with dogs, goats, fed chickens, ducks, bunnies and horses. They also had 4 baby kittens running about. Of course, Nikki and Jenny started begging for kittens. We almost had Dad convinced when we came up with a compromise plan. Immediately we found 2 1-year old cats for adoption on Craigslist. Before we knew it, they were ours. Already neutered and up to date on their shots, these two brothers are now know as Charlie and Tiger. Bob's yelling had almost completely stopped. Charlie is very defensive and hisses and growls at Bob, who is oblivious to the hostile sounds. In time, they'll become friends, I'm sure.

Early Spring Update

Well the snow is gone and the spring flowers are starting to pop. We've witnessed the return of the robins, sandhill cranes and killdeer. It's the time of year when a man's mind turns to thoughts of......spring break in Mexico! Dave found a good deal on an all-inclusive vacation on the Carribbean coast of Mexico. We'll be flying to Cancun and staying at Playa del Carmen for 4 nights April 4-9.
Nicole and Jenny got their 2nd trimester report cards and both are doing super. Jenny is reading a lot now and it's great that they can read to each other, finally! Jenny's teacher Mrs. Elkin is going on maternity leave in a few weeks so we'll be anxiously awaiting news of her new baby boy later this spring.
Nicole had Second Grade Music Night last night and Mom enjoyed sharing a night of music, dance and fun.
Nikki's gymnastics skills continue to amaze us. In the past few weeks she has made some major achievements - she got her kip (this is big!) on bars and her handstand and backwalkover on beam. She's also routinely landing back tucks on the backyard trampoline. Her confidence on beam is really coming back and was her highest score at the last meet (9.4). We hope Team Infinity blows 'em away at the next meet!!

Our Family Blog

This is an experiment. We'll see how many people will actually follow this blog, but I thought it might be a nice way for Nikki and Jenny's extended family to keep up with what they are doing. Since all the grandparents have passed away, it's very difficult to keep in touch with all the family, especially those in Canada.

I'll be posting pictures, video and short updates on family news. Nothing too exciting, but hopefully some of the aunt, uncles and cousins will be interested enough to follow.