First Blog

Okay, I'm going to try this blogging thing to keep everyone up-to-date with the happenings of the La Giusa-Riedeman household for this summer. Then we'll see where it goes from there!
June was a pretty busy month for us. School was out on the 5th. Jered was involved with playoffs for his Little League team (the Brewers) through the 7th. And the kids had two dance recitals to perform in on the 7th. Wow! Of course they did awesome!
For the next week and a half, Kassandra was busy with dance practices to prepare for Stars Nationals Competition in Las Vegas. We left on the 18th, and competition was the 19th and 20th. Santa Clarita Stars wowed the crowd! For the first time, all of Kassandra's routines placed first in their categories. And our entire team routine took first. Jered's hip hop number took second in its category, wow! We didn't do a best show this year, so the team couldn't place as sweepstakes or national champs, but the kids were very proud to bring home the national Sportsmanship Championship! Throughout the competition weekend people vote on which team they thought displayed the best sportsmanship! It is a very important award to bring home, as it involves not only the kids, but the parents, studio staff, etc.
We stayed an extra day in Las Vegas, enjoying the bowling alley, arcade and pool at the Suncoast. And avoiding the Sunday traffic home!
After we were home we got things ready for the garage sale that we had on June 27th. The deal was that if the kids were willing to clean out their rooms and sell some of their "stuff," then they could have the profits from the sale for their spending money on our big vacation this summer. It worked out so well! What we didn't sell went immediately to Goodwill and donated.
The night before the garage sale was the end of the year banquet for the dance team. That is always fun! It is held at the same place every year, and it is where we had the wedding in January.
Be sure to check out the photos!
This last week we have been letterboxing in Long Beach, Castaic and Lake Hughes. If you aren't familiar with letterboxing, check out the website www.letterboxing.org. It's a great family activity that gets us out and exploring. And it doesn't cost much! Basically, you go looking for small boxes with stamps and logbooks, using the clues provided by the placer. When you find them, you stamp the logbook with a stamp that identifies you and you stamp your personal logbook with the stamp you found. You rehide the box and go find the next one! It's low-tech
geocaching. We even found two hitchhiker stamps this week that we plan on hiding in boxes later this summer!
Today is the 4th. We are supposed to go to a party later and then fireworks. But, Jered was running a fever last night. I have been sick for a couple of days and Tere is sick, too. So we will see how it goes. I love the 4th of July. I think it is my favorite holiday.