The Gerdings

Photo Drop!

2010-09-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

We have oodles and oodles of new photos to share. Everything from baseball to football to camping to even more football. Click here to see the latest and greatest!

Back to School

2010-08-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

We kicked the school year off with a bang--or rather a bash. We hosted an awesome back to school bash at a local park and invited family and neighborhood friends. The boys had always wanted pinatas for their birthdays. So rather than wait for their actual birthdays, we set up some at our back to school bash.

Click here for photos of the party and of the first day(s) back to school for the boys. Since Nick was starting kindergarten, he had one 'transition' day that the other boys did not have. Basically it was a practice day on Monday. On Wednesday, school officially started with Nick in kindergarten, Kyle in 2nd grade, and jack in 5th grade. Aaack!

We were thrilled with our teacher assignments. Nick has the same kindergarten teacher that both Jack and Kyle had and we love her. Kyle has the same 2nd grade teacher that Jack had and we love her, too. And while we have no firsthand knowledge of Jack's 5th grade teacher, Jack seemed pretty excited to be assigned to her classroom.

Worlds of Fun!

2010-07-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Ever since our first family trip to Worlds of Fun at the end of last summer, the boys have been BEGGING us to go back. We decided to go on Monday and once again had a blast. Kelly convinced Jack and Kyle to ride on a BUNCH of wild rides...Below are two pictures taken from our ride on The Prowler, an awesome and VERY FAST wooden roller coaster. Great time. For more pictures of our trip to Worlds of Fun, click here.

Eureka!

2010-06-01T11:03:00.001-07:00

This Memorial Day weekend, we traveled south to Eureka Springs, Arkansas for a family getaway. What an incredible experience! We stayed at a very small, very quiet, very secluded resort called Pond Mountain. It was perfect. Our cabin was tucked back into the woods, completely hidden.

Just a two-minute walk away were two beautiful ponds (hence the name Pond Mountain) surrounded by nature.

The boys enjoyed fishing and skipping rocks, and Momma and Daddy simply enjoyed the family time. Also on site at the resort is horseback riding. We took off on a family trip through the woods.

Along with some swimming and grilling, it was an incredible weekend getaway. Feel free to check out more pictures from our trip here.

New Pictures Posted!

2010-05-25T17:55:00.000-07:00

Long time no type. Over on the Photo Page you'll find links to a bunch of new photo albums including pictures from Easter, Nick's Kindergarten Roundup, and highlights from our 2010 soccer season.

Check back next week for details on our upcoming Memorial Day Weekend getaway to Eureka Springs, Arkansas!

Cabin Fever!

2010-02-28T08:30:00.000-08:00

So we're sick of the weather. Sick of the cold. Sick of the fact that there's been snow on the ground at hour house every single day since Christmas Eve. Solution? Hit the road and invade Dave & Buster's. For those of you who don't know, Dave & Buster's is like Chuck-E-Cheese, but for grownups AND kids. Awesome video games. Very good food. There's one about 45-minutes from our house. So on Saturday after soccer, we packed up the kids, filled the iPod with rockin' road songs, and headed out. We had a great time, including some very intense video game racing.

And today, despite the fact that there's still snow and ice on the ground, Ryan has pulled out his new smoker (birthday present from Momma and the boys) and is smokin' some ribs today! Woohoo.

Happy Birthday Jack!

2010-01-17T19:10:00.000-08:00

Our birthday/holiday cavalcade finished tonight with Jack's tenth birthday celebration. On Saturday he invited four of his buddies over for a sleepover. They stayed up late (1:30 in the morning) and got up early (7:00...aaack!). Below is a quick video of some of the boys dancing to one of the Wii games they played on the sleepover.

Click HERE to see more pictures from Jack's birthday weekend.

Photo Overload

2010-01-09T06:46:00.001-08:00

Well, as is usually the case, it's been a while since the blog has been updated. We'll put it on the New Year's Resolution list to try to keep things more up to date. That effort will probably last much longer than the diet, you know.

It looks like the last update on this blog was in the fall. Well, we've done a lot in the late fall/early winter. A trip to Lafayette to see Kelly's folks, Halloween, Nick's Birthday, and a very white, very cold Christmas. We've uploaded photos of all of those things to our Photo Page, which you can see by clicking here.

More to come...and hopefully more often....

Labor Day Wknd Fun

2009-09-07T15:37:00.001-07:00

We had a great 3 day weekend. Saturday we did some running around .. groceries for a BBQ, daydreaming at Home Depot, some fall flowers ... and hunting for a fire pit.

Then we watched the MU - IL "Arch Rivalry" game ... all the ESPN analysts picked against our Tigers. But we showed 'em! Big ZOU win. Fun game to watch with the boys. They all watched the whole thing.

We relaxed the rest of the evening with some Cranium family fun ... then after the kids went to bed, Daddy & Momma played a couple rounds of Scrabble.

Sunday we slept in - no barking dogs woke us up! Woot! Then we cleaned up the house a bit and just enjoyed the day. We had our neighbors over for a cookout -- BBQ ribs and all kinds of good eats. Then when it got dark, we lit up the new fire pit and make s'mores. We stayed out pretty late - in fact, the kids eventually all went inside and fell asleep to a movie, while the adults sat around the fire pit outside. I can see us doing that a lot ... it was a nice, relaxing and fun evening.

Today, we all went to the Royals game. It was the first time Momma had seen all the new renovations -- cool stuff! Billy Butler got 2 home runs - exciting! It was a good game to go see, and perfect weather.

We're getting ready to have some leftover ribs for dinner ...and get ready for the week. Sure was a nice weekend.

School's Back .. and so are the fundraisers....

2009-09-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

The kids are selling stuff. Cookies and trash bags. Yeah, you read right. Not really sure who thought trash bags was gonna be a big seller, but there you go.

We emailed "key" family our sales pitch. But we won't turn down a sale to anyone else ... pre-made, already in serving chunks cookies are in a box of 48 for $15.00.

Email us at ryan@thegerdings.com for more details.

And ... We're Back!

2009-09-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Team Gerding is blogging again -- from the littlest guy, giving his stream of conciousness on his blog .. to the oldest, talking sports, sports and more sports.

But this is the main page for the main updates on what we're up to .. and pictures to keep you posted as our family ... our TEAM... takes on the world.

And we like to know you've stopped by - - so please, leave comments -- say "Hi" -- or comment on the post. And be sure to scroll down to see everything .. from Twitter updates (which are done very, very often) to the links to the kids' blogs (they LOVE comments).

We'll be bringing back the "quotes" segment ... as well as "kid stories." So stay tuned!
Go Team Gerding!

New Pictures Posted!

2009-06-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

We've posted a couple new picture pages. One, found here, has photos of a lovely Memorial Day family picnic. The other, found here, is of our wild and wacky sports and sun weekend. Enjoy!

Lots of Updates!

2009-05-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know...horrible at updating this site. Well you're about to get a bunch of stuff to look at. Three new albums on our photo page, including pictures of our recent trip to Vegas, a fun visit to Paradise Park, and pictures of a crazy sports weekend that culminated with Jack's team winning their second championship in a row!

Oh and there's a neat video of our Paradise Park visit, too.

Easter 2009

2009-04-16T05:12:00.000-07:00

Who are these handsome young men, and what have they done with our boys? As you can tell, Kelly picked out some adorable clothes for the boys to wear to church on Easter Sunday. And what a hectic Sunday it was. For the first time in a long time the weather actually cooperated, which was great for our church Easter egg hunt. Click here to see photos from the Easter festivities along with a video of the Easter egg hunt.

Basketball City

2009-03-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

This year Kansas City is one of the cities hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament. We decided to get in on the excitement and take the boys down to the Power and Light District just across the street from the Sprint Center. What an incredible sight! Thousands of people in an outdoor plaza watching basketball on an enormous big screen TV.

We looked for tickets to the games going on inside, but couldn't find any. So we headed next door to the College Basketball Experience. It was incredible! Couldn't think of a cooler place to be on game day. There were TV's showing the NCAA games on everywhere and basketball courts everywhere. Games, hoops, hoops, and more hoops.

Click HERE for tons more photos of our trip.

Back to Ol' Mizzou

2009-03-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we drove to Boonville to visit Ryan's Grandpa Gerding to celebrate his 86th birthday. Then we took the boys to the Mizzou campus for some fun, photos, and dinner at Shakespeare's pizza. Click HERE to see more photos.

Do Not Adjust Your Monitor

2009-03-03T20:24:00.000-08:00

Lots of big changes coming to TheGerdings.com We're doing our best to revamp it so it's easier for us to update and make changes. So please be patient while we make our changes.

BUT, we have some new pictures to post. Six and a half inches of snow this weekend made for lots of fun in the front yard. Click here to see photos and a video of the fun.

test

2009-03-01T09:10:00.000-08:00

First Test post

2009-02-21T12:22:00.000-08:00

Blogety Blogety blog blog.