The Schommer family

(I should look back and see how many posts are written on the last day of the month. My goal is to have at least one post per month and here we are on the last day of January…without a post. I’ve meant to share some pictures from our trip to Florida, so here goes.)

We were lucky enough to be able to spend a week with my Mom and Dad at their place in Fort Myers right after Christmas last month. The sun shined every day and there was much relaxing had by all.

 

Gator in the pond right out their back door:

 

Right idea, but FAIL:

 

Fort Myers most famous residents (Firestone, Ford, and Edison):

 

Manatee Park:

 

 

Captiva:

 

Parasailing on New Year’s Eve:

 

As with years past (2010, 2009, 2008), I put together a photo collage to include in our Christmas card this year. If you’re on our “nice” list, you will receive your very own copy this week (if I ever get the labels printed and put on the envelopes).

Without further adieu, here is this year’s collage:

Clarifiers:

We traveled out to South Dakota this summer and saw the Badlands, Custer State Park, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Wind Cave (among other sights).

We also spent a long weekend in Louisville and made it to the Louisville Slugger factory and museum (Hannah and “Babe”) and  to Churchill Downs.

Congratulations to Hannah for wrapping up her high school volleyball career this fall. The 2011 team finished 4th in the conference – the best in her 4 years at Marshall. As with most years, there were a couple of matches that could have gone in the “W” column, but maybe they overachieved and took a few that should have been losses. Either way, it was great fun to watch her and the team grow, improve, and come together as a group of outstanding young women. Thanks to Coach Young for helping everyone stay sane during all this “togetherness.”

As far as individual honors, she was fortunate to be voted honorable mention all-conference as a Junior last year, and earned a spot on the 2nd team all-conference team this year – way better than her old man ever did!

There were traditions that we knew about (cow tags, team dinners, big sis/little sis, “do work” chants, etc.), and probably a few others about which the parents knew nothing. Let’s keep it that way.

Good luck to the team in the future. Keep playing, keep improving. Hit it hard – it might just go in.
We’ll definitely be back to watch a few matches. Go Cardinals!

Not to worry, club practices started this past week so there still will be a little more volleyball in our future.

It’s hard to avoid the clichéd “stay off the roads!” and “clear the way!” for any new teenage driver, so why try?

Congratulations to Clare for earning(?) the right to drive on Wisconsin roads with a responsible adult.

It would figure that our first trip to the DMV to get her temps (sorry, PERMIT) ended when I realized I didn’t have her social security number for the form. Of course at that time, there were maybe 3 people waiting and we whisked from one station to the next. Sign here, get your picture taken right away, up to the counter, and…sorry. Come back next time with complete documentation.

Armed with enough paperwork to choke a horse, the next time we went and there were about 100 people waiting. Lines for every station along the way. I didn’t realize that when they say they close at 4:30, that means they lock the doors at 4:30. Everyone who made it into the building prior to that time gets processed before any employee goes home. Hard for me to say, but good for you DMV.

She, of course, hates her picture, but we learned she will be able to get a fresh picture when she passes her driver’s test and gets a real license. Thank goodness.

We’ve been out a few times when the weather has cooperated, and she’s catching on quick.

…continued from Part I.

Moving on to Saturday of Homecoming weekend.

This year, both Hannah and Clare went to dinner and attended the dance with a group of friends. Apparently, couples are definitely less of a “thing” now.

That afternoon found my house filled with 5 girls getting ready for the evening.
Oh.  My.  Goodness.
Not surprisingly, I was nowhere near the inside of the house. It was a wonderful day so there was plenty to keep me busy.

Here are some pictures of the happy groups before they left:

     

Congratulations to Hannah who was on court and was voted queen. Traditionally, the king from last year crowns the new queen. Coincidentally, Juan was last year’s king. Awww.

I also remembered that direct sunlight is not flattering for pictures. People who know photography talk about harsh shadows and now I know exactly to what they are referring.

Keeping up with my “I –better-post-something-before-I-forget-the-details” streak, I thought it was time for a Homecoming recap. Since it was a 2-day extravaganza, I’ll be bold and create 2 posts.

Let’s start with the football game Friday night. Hannah and another girl (we’ll call her Jamie…because that’s her name) won the drum major battle last spring. For that honor they get to conduct the field show and march out front in parades. They both attended camp this summer to hone their skills as potential drum majors (yes, there’s a camp for that) and Homecoming was the first time for Hannah to show her skills.

  

The finale is the best part (such that it is). Here’s a 30-second clip:

While September 1st brought the first day of school to the ladies of the house, they headed off in different directions for the first time ever. Hannah, a senior, and Clare, a sophomore, continue their studies at Marshall High School. Monica, meanwhile, begins her tenure as Principal of Park Elementary school in Cross Plains, part of the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District. (While she actually started in July, this is the first day with a building full of children.)

It turns out principals are supposed to be at school much earlier than the kids, so we weren’t able to get everyone together for pictures in the morning.

Separately, but about an hour apart, here they are:

 

 

 

 

 

I finally figured out what to do with Google maps in order to put pins in a custom map. Over the years, I’ve been collecting e-mail messages from Schommer’s around the world and keeping them in a table. I knew you could customize maps, but I never had the time to do anything about it. I still don’t have time, but the Schommer Sightings page has been updated to reflect the new maps.

And they’re also here:

USA

View Schommer sightings (USA) in a larger map

 

Europe

View Schommer sightings (Europe) in a larger map

 

Don’t be shy! If you’re a Schommer and there’s pin for your town, send me an e-mail.

Our grand plans of taking a little over 2 days to get home was officially put in the trash when we hit the Missouri River near the middle of South Dakota today. We were supposed to roll into La Crosse on Monday, get Monica settled for her (final) class, catch some fireworks, and the girls and I would head home Tuesday morning. According to Google Maps, it would take us 12+ hours of driving time from Rapid City before we reach our driveway. Is everyone OK with that? A resounding “YES” was the answer. Monica would have to drive back up to La Crosse by herself for her class on Tuesday, but she’ll have her own vehicle to cruise the city. OK? OK. Since I had logged every mile of the trip behind the wheel so far and had no intention of being a passenger unless absolutely necessary, it was up to me to finish the job. You may now mark the job as completed successfully.

Overall, the trip home was uneventful (read: boring) for the most part (South Dakota and Minnesota), but friendly and welcoming for the final couple of hours (thank you, Wisconsin). Getting home early allowed us to actually unwind for a while, get the car cleaned up, and get started on the laundry before resuming our normal schedule.

(Sorry to those we didn’t see on Monday for 4th of July festivities, but the last thing anyone wanted to do Monday was to sit in the car and drive.)

For our last day in the greater Rapid City area, Hannah wouldn’t be denied her chance to pan for gold. The other option was Devil’s Tower in far eastern Wyoming, but that choice was voted down. After doing a bit of research on the available choices, we decided on Big Thunder Gold Mine in Keystone.

After a 2-minute introduction to the craft, the girls (including Monica) had a great time in the troughs panning for gold. The idea was to scoop up some rocks, gravel and water, slosh is around your pan for a few seconds and let the gold flakes (if there are any) settle to the bottom. Dip your pan back in the water and let the gravel drift back into the trough. The weight of the gold will keep it in the pan and, if you’re lucky, you’ll have a gold flake to pick out from the fine gravel. Put a dry finger on it and drop the flake in your water vial. Repeat for as long as you can stand it. Most of time you come up empty, but every once and a while – just enough to keep you interested – there’s an excitement that comes when you find that elusive shiny flake. I think they each found about a dozen flakes over the course of 2 hours.

It was a pretty warm day so we were in and out of the gift shop a few times during the afternoon to cool off and look around. One of the last times through all the lights were out and we we informed the power was out. OK, whatever, let’s go to the building next door and get some ice cream. Shucks, the power was out there, too…and in the whole town. This is obviously not good for the town at the base of Mt. Rushmore on the Saturday of Independence Day weekend. We headed back to Rapid City before learning what happened with the power.

Overall, the gold panning experience was quite fun because the girls were great on their own. They learned the proper technique and found a flake every once and a while. There were, however, plenty of younger kids running around with the attention span lasting maybe 5 minutes. You could see the frustration growing in the parents as they tried to find a flake or two for little Johnny while he was running around and digging in the trough with his bare hands. If you have any interest in panning in a very controlled environment, go ahead and give this a try.

(Link to all unedited photos from Big Thunder.)