A Visit With The Moellers

Last Saturday, we were blessed to visit with the Moeller family at their home!

As we were talking, Amber suddenly commented, "Oh, it's the golden hour."

Some of us didn't know what that was,

so she explained that it was the time of day when the sunlight was perfect for pictures.

Of course we had to take advantage of it, right?

The sun went behind a cloud for this pic, but I think it still turned out nicely.

The rest of these pictures were not taken during the golden hour,

but we'll post them anyways because they're fun!

We were talking about Mrs. Moeller's bubble gun,

and Amber hunted it down so we could try it out.

The bubbles were so pretty in the sunlight!

We even got the guys in on it. Jason was absolutely fascinated by the bubble gun. He wanted to know why we didn't buy him one for his birthday!

Because it was so breezy that day,
all we had to do was hold out the wand, and the wind would take care of the rest.

I didn't know you could direct bubbles...

"Altogether now on one..."

I don't care what age you are, BUBBLES are FUN!!!

After supper, we all went outside again to play beanbags.

Bryan was at some truck thing (I'm still not sure quite what it was.) in the afternoon,
but it was nice to have him there in the evening.


New trend? I know people wear hats or visors during golf,

so maybe this style will work for beanbags. Actually, the gnats were awfully pesky, so Dad thought maybe the bag would keep them off his head.

Dad and Mr. Moeller won every single game together, and we played several!
We decided they needed to have a playoff game

since they were the champions for the evening.

They were so good that they kept cancelling out each other's points,

and the game took twice as long as the others.

Mr. Moeller was the winner. Maybe Dad should have left his hat on!

Jason and Shannon being spectators. Why those looks, I don't know.

We had a wonderful time with this special family!

What to do with leftovers....

Too much cake? Can't eat it all?

Don't throw it away - we have a solution for disposing of it!

Boy, are we ever messy!

Jason really got me with a big glob of frosting - it was so thick that I could hardly breathe at first!

I know that many of you will think we're absolutely crazy, but it was fun. I love making memories with my brother!

This past winter we did something similar. Right before Christmas we had an abundance of sweets from various parties; we had some chocolate cream pie that had been sitting in the refrigerator for awhile and we just couldn't eat any more. Jason agreed to let me put the pie in his face and we saved a piece for him to get me with later. (I had somewhere to go, so I didn't want to take the time to clean up then.) He protected his clothes and hair that time (thus the bandana and apron), and I love it how he says in a muffled voice, "You got it up my nose! You got it on my socks!"

So now you know what goes on behind the scenes at the Hemmer house! This'll break the image for those who may have imagined us as sedate little homeschoolers!

Flooding

These past two weeks we have had quite a bit of flooding along the Rock River.

Since the river had gone down this year by the time we got down there to take pictures,

I am including a couple pictures from last year so you can see how high it was originally.

This is an island in the middle of the river, and it's now completely under water.

The force of the water going over the dam has created high waves.

We three kids went down to watch it last night--it's mesmerizing.

The fishermen are loving it.

You can stand there and see huge foot-and-a-half fish jump out of the water every few seconds.

Dixon is cut in half by the river,

and we have two bridges to get across to the other side of town.

These three shots are under the Peoria Ave. bridge.

The walkway underneath is normally 6-7 feet above the water level.

You can just barely see the top of the wall.

The water has receded some.

This is under the Galena Ave. bridge where the walkway is a bit higher up than the other bridge.

The North side walkway is completely under water. It's about 6 feet under water here.

I guess the fishermen won't be fishing from that anytime soon!

This is a park on the North side. In case you're wondering, those big cement things are old railroad bridge supports.

We used to have a third bridge only for the trains.


The ducks and geese are enjoying the water.


Mel thought these benches looked lonely without anyone to sit on them.

Well, that's it for our small town flooding report.

Bachelor Party

Lucas had a bachelor party the Thursday afternoon prior to the wedding, and the activity was a video scavenger hunt. Both teams had to travel around Bloominton filming themselves doing various things at each place. Leon H., Jason S., Sam K., and Hans B. were all on Jason's team. The other team was made up of Lucas H., Adam S., Brendon U., Nathaniel B., and Greg W. The groom's team won.

Each item on the list had a different point value, and the team who lost had to buy ice cream for the winners.

Some of the activities included: singing our national anthem in front of a flag,

sitting on a fire truck with a fireman,

spelling out the word "love" using themselves as the letters,

hanging upside down on playground equipment while singing the Pledge of Allegiance to the tune of "Gilligan's Island",

standing with the Wal-mart greeter and saying hello to people as they came in,

going to four different churches,

using workout equipment such as lifting weights,

giving someone a hug,

finding someone to spell "hors d'oeurves".

and filming someone on a motorcycle.

I can't remember what all was on the list, but you get the idea.

I chose a few of the videos to share with you all. Enjoy!

Singing the Oscar Meyer Weiner song. Do you think they need voice lessons?

Jason walking Sam in a pet store

"Singing in the Rain"

A father and his child shopping

I have never participated in a video scavenger hunt, but it looks like fun!

Hedding Wedding (oh dear, that rhymes!)

Last Saturday we attended the wedding of our friends, Lucas and Melissa. I didn't get pictures of the actual ceremony, but hopefully I can get copies later.

The cake was homemade and absolutely lovely!

My handsome brother was one of the groomsmen. I think this pose looks like something out of a men's fashion magazine!

Jason and Jason
All weekend when someone would call, "Jason!", they'd both answer!

It was good to see so many friends at the wedding.
Adam and Johannah Stanford...

Gretchen Phillips and Kelli Hedding (sister of the groom)

Nice pose, Kelli!

Faith, Haley Sisson and Jill Wallace

Sissons, Gretchen and Stanfords

There are some people who don't mind posing for pictures, and Matthew Sisson is one of them!

The groomsmen had the job of decorating the bride and groom's car. They wrote all over it and attached streamers and filled it with silly things.

The guys had purchased toilet plungers to suction all over the car, but unfortunately they were too cheap and didn't stick well. Instead, they filled the back seat with the buckets and plungers.

Melissa and Lucas exiting to a shower of birdseed

Hmm, now what to do with all these toilet plungers and buckets? I'm sure we'll think of something...

Yep, they were put to good use!

Following the reception we went to the King's house for a cookout and then over to the Hedding's for some English Country Dancing in their back yard.

How many guys does it take to figure out how to play the music?

I enjoyed waltzing with my brother - we're both getting much better at it!

Congratulations, Lucas and Melissa! We were happy to be a part of your special day.