Falls Park -- Sioux Falls, SD

Since we had some free time between baseball games at the tournament, we decided to take Brianna to Falls Park and look around. Falls Park is located just north of downtown Sioux Falls. The history of Sioux Falls revolves around the cascades of the Big Sioux River . The falls were created about 14,000 years ago during the last ice age. In pioneer days, the Falls were tapped for water power to run the Queen Bee Mill, built in 1887. The foundation of the mill is still visible, as well as a hydroelectric plant built in 1908. Today, the park covers 42 acres. Each second, an average of 7,400 gallons of water drop 100 feet over the course of the falls. With all the recent rains the area has gotten, the Falls was an exceptional sight to behold!! This is definitely a spot worth checking out when you have some free time in Sioux Falls... and the best part is that it is FREE!!!



A view of Falls Park from the parking lot:
A view of the Falls while standing on the walking bridge:

Brianna standing at the "look-out point" in front of the Falls:

The Falls Overlook Cafe (formerly Sioux Fall Light & Power Plant):

This is the Observation Tower with a Souvenir Shop located on the bottom floor:

Baseball, Fathers, and A Birthday

What a weekend!! We crammed in three trips to Sioux Falls for a baseball tournament Friday thru Sunday, and also managed to celebrate Father's Day and my mom's 60th birthday along the way!!!

Zach had a wooden bat tournament in Sioux Falls this past weekend. Instead of staying the whole weekend in Sioux Falls, we thought we would just drive back and forth each day. It is only a little over an hour away... and Mom was coming to Sioux City for the weekend and we wanted to be able to spend some time with her, too! As it turns out, Zach's first game was on Friday night at 8pm. The team rode a school bus up there and the bus driver took a route that took longer than the coach thought it would to get to the ballpark. They barely had time to get their uniforms on before the start of the game, let alone warm up on the field and do a little hitting with the wooden bats that they aren't used to using... East ended up losing the game to an Omaha team (Papillion-LaVista) that night and we got back to Sioux City around midnight. The next game was scheduled for 2:30 pm on Saturday afternoon... this time the bus left with plenty of time to get to the ballpark!! We headed up around noon after taking Brianna over to my sister's house to see Grandma for about an hour. East did a great job, winning this game against a Sioux Falls team (Brandon Valley). Their next game was at 7pm that night. Since there was three hours to kill before the next game, the East coach took the players to CiCi's... a pizza/salad bar buffet. We decided to take Brianna to the Falls Park located north of the downtown area of Sioux Falls. (I will post about that in my next post!) Upon returning to the ballpark, East played another awesome game and won against Sioux Falls East! We found out that the next game was going to be on Sunday at 1pm... so we headed back to Sioux City and got home about 11pm. I called my sister because we had been trying to figure out way to get us all together to celebrate Mom's birthday and have cake... we decided to do a breakfast thing, since we had to head back up to Sioux Falls for Zach's 1pm game that afternoon!!

Everyone in our house got up early to go over to my sister's house for my mom's "birthday party"/breakfast!! I ran to Casey's and got a breakfast pizza to go with the cake we were having for breakfast!! It was really nice, because even Zach got to spend about an hour helping Mom celebrate her birthday before he had to run and catch the bus back up to Sioux Falls. CJ, Brianna and I stayed a little longer, since we didn't need to get there til the start of the game. Sioux City East played Mitchell, SD for the final game and WON!!!! I believe they ended up in 5th place out of 16 teams from the tri-state area... Great job, Black Raiders!!!... Happy Birthday, Mom!!... and Happy Father's Day, CJ and all the other fathers out there!!!

Zach up to bat during the final game of the tournament:

Zach throwing a pitch during the final game:

Seizure #5...

As if our night wasn't bad enough already... Brianna has to top it off with another one of her seizure episodes... don't know if the evening's events might have been some sort of "trigger" for it or what -- that will be a question for the doctor when we see him in September...

It's almost always the same scenario... Brianna had gone to bed and hadn't been asleep long. I was still up watching TV and she came walking out with her hand over her mouth and nose. I asked her what was wrong, but she didn't answer me, so I followed her into the bathroom. She was standing over the toilet and next thing I knew, she started convulsing. I grabbed her and held her up, but I don't think these convulsions were that strong that she would have fallen down... still, I wasn't going to take any chances. After about 10-15 seconds, she stopped convulsing. She was immediately aware of what happened and said that she was sleeping and thought she was going to be sick and throw up. She got up to go into the bathroom and felt like she had vomit in her mouth, so she had her hand up over her mouth. She doesn't remember the actual convulsions, but she had the same "after effects" as before... drooling, paralysis of one side of her mouth that lasts about 5 minutes afterwards... This is about the only time that I find myself wishing that Brianna was 15 or 16 years old already and has grown out of this... It is so frustrating that there are no answers!!

Baseball Games Can Be Scary...

The night started out like any other of our summer evenings... hurry up and get home after work so we can head out to a ball game!! On this particular evening, Zach was playing a double-header against another local high school team -- North High. During the 2nd game, Zach came up to bat and hit the ball fast and hard... right into the pitcher!! The next thing we saw, the pitcher just dropped to the mound and lay completely still for a good ten seconds or more. By the time people were rushing out to check on him, he was trying to get on his knees. Zach's coach called 911 because the kid was having trouble breathing and swallowing. He did manage to tell the coaches and trainers that the ball hit him in his collarbone, then bounced up and hit his neck. The pitcher's father also ran out to the field to see about his son, only to collapse on the field himself, so another 911 call was placed. We ended up with three cop cars, two firetrucks, and two ambulances arriving on the scene. The paramedics determined that the baseball must have struck the adam's apple and partially lodged it into his airway... once they squeezed his neck, the adam's apple moved back out and he was able to breathe and swallow better. Turns out the father that collapsed has a history of cardiac arrest... they think his blood pressure probably spiked when his son got hurt. The paramedics also noticed that his pulse was thready, so they wanted to take him to a hospital. Both the pitcher and his father went to the hospital that night. And throughout all of this, Zach just felt TERRIBLE... it was really hard for both teams to continue the game after this incident. I am just so thankful for some of the parents from the opposing team that came up to Zach after the game to let him know that "it was OK", that "these things happen", "baseball can be dangerous", etc. etc." The best part was the next day at Zach's practice... his coaches let him know that both father and son were OK and recovering fine...

Okoboji 2010

It is that time for our annual trip up to Okoboji... only one change was made this year. We traded Zach in for a younger girl!!! LOL

Due to Zach's busy summer schedule and also having a basketball camp the same week that we were going to be in Okoboji, Zach decided to stay home so he wouldn't miss out on all these things. This was a big step for both Zach and us (his parents!) to leave him home ALONE for a whole week!! Needless to say, he followed the rules and earned himself a higher notch on our trust level!! It probably helped that all the neighbors and friends were "looking out" for him and his schedule was so busy that he didn't have time to find any trouble!!

Since Zach wasn't going with us, we let Brianna bring her best friend, Madi! It worked out really great - the girls got along great all week, and the bonus was that I actually got a little free time to myself since Brianna had someone to entertain her!! They spent the week going to the movie theater on the resort, shopping in the souvenir shops, and lots of swimming!! We also spent a day at Arnold's Park towards the end of the week! This is always a great time for us up there and it always seems so short... before we know it, it is time to come back home. (Actually, this time we really did have to cut it short -- we came back two days early because Brianna really wanted to go camping with her Girl Scout troop on that Friday night!) I didn't get the camera out much while we were there, but I am posting some pics from Arnold's Park...


Madi and Brianna posing by the Boardwalk:

Brianna and Madi on the Log Ride:

CJ is "hanging around" with his new friends!:

School's Out!

The kids got out of school on Friday, May 29th!! Look out summer, here they come!! Of course, not sure if Zach will get to enjoy much of it... he has a full plate. Every day consists of weight lifting for football at 7am... then basketball practice/workouts at 8:45am... followed by baseball practice at 11am.... there are even going to be some weeks where he has a sports "camp" in the afternoons, and we can't forget about the baseball games in the evenings!!

Back to the school note... both kids brought home awesome report cards and will be advancing to their next levels... 11th grade for Zach and 5th grade for Brianna!!! GREAT JOB KIDDOS!!! Keep up the awesome work!!!

Congratulations, Jessica!

Congratulations and Best of Luck to my cousin, Jessica!! Now that you have graduated from High School, we wish you the very best of success in the rest of your endeavors!! Love you!!