Travels so far...Saturday and Sunday--Sept. 25-26

We left our home on Saturday morning after literally stuffing everything except the cooler and grill into the van.  These were to ride on one of those shelf gadgets that go into your hitch.  Oh yeah, we also had the car top carrier on top with the kids luggage squished into it!  We set off to pick up my sister, but quickly realized the shelf that held the cooler was not going to work out since it was scraping every time we hit a bump!!!  We went and got our small trailer, put the cooler and car top carrier on it and finally headed out of town!! 

God has been good, He has kept us safe and reminded us often of His handiwork. 

Saturday took us through Minnesota into the badlands of South Dakota and some of the Black Hills.

Sunday, we saw Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills National Forest, and Crazy Horse.  We were also blessed to find two good churches to go to. 

Monday, we started the day bright and early with a Buffalo Round Up at Custer State Park--where we also saw prairie dogs--a couple villages of them, wild turkey, wild donkeys, and antelope.  The Round up was a lot of fun.  We saw the Buffalo in their natural habitat and then watched the Cowboys round them up and stampeded them into the corrals.  This was a bonus because we had no idea this was even going on until we got to the campground on Sunday!  We also got to see the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and mountains in Wyoming and ended the day in the Rocky Mountains driving through the Roosevelt National Forest!  We stayed at a KOA in Estes Park, CO after driving through Fort Collins.  I never cease to be amazed at the many beautiful things God created.  We have already seen so many different landscapes and we are only on Day 3!

Buffalo Round Up at Custer State Park

Wyoming

Estes Park, CO in the evening

Stay tuned for more updates.  I am not sure how often we will have an internet connection!

A sweet kid

On Friday it was raining pretty hard, T came down stairs and asked me for my car keys.  He wanted them so he could go out to the van and get my umbrella and bring it in so I wouldn't get wet.  He also started the van for me since it was "kind of nippy" in the van.  I think he's a keeper!

Weekends recap

Last weekend, the kids got to go to our small airport here and go on a 30 minute flight.  The pilots volunteer once a year to take kids up to get them interested in flying.  The kids, needless to say really enjoyed it.  :o)

We then went and played tennis and then grilled out and had dinner on our deck.

This weekend, we celebrated Z's birthday, we got him a new bike.  His birthday dinner was:  ravioli, cheesesticks, french bread, peas, strawberries, and chocolate cherry cheesecake.  He was quite happy with his choices.  :o)  He also got a new camera, clothers, a remote control care and a gadget that shoots an air plane into the air.

Busy

I know my blog has become very neglected.  At some point, life may slow down enough that I can think of posts again!  The kids are enjoying soccer.  Emily's team is undefeated.  The others are still enjoying soccer in spite of losses.

Work is going really well, but incredibly busy.  I don't know if I'll ever be caught up.  I had a conversation with a co-worker about how my dream job when I retire from nursing will be to have that job of a runner or transport person.  You get your exercise, and every day is a brand new day, nothing left over from the day, week, month before!  I feel very blessed to work with such great people, though.  They are truly a great bunch of hard working people.

Soccer Mom

The kids are back from Illinois after a month away.  I am happy to say that children and grandparents all survived and still claim each other as relatives!!!

Three of them are now in soccer, so I suppose I am officially soccer mom!  I have to say, it is going to be a busy 6 weeks.  We have soccer at least Monday through Thursday.  "E" and "Z" have something going on at the same time in different locations almost every Tuesday and Thursday.  I guess it's a good thing we have two cars and can each take a different kid somewhere.  Oh, yeah, just remembered, "K" and "E" both have soccer on Monday nights too!  Crazy!!!

Recap

I know that this seems to be all I post anymore.  I just don't seem to have a whole of creative juice lately, could be the reading about ENT things--like ethmoid sinuses, olfactory nerves and all kinds of diseases that has done this to me!  There is just so much to learn at my new job that my brain is full of all that!!!

I am still enjoying my job and feeling really blessed that God gave it to me.  It is just enough challenge and very interesting.  :o)  I work with a great bunch of people, but really miss my old coworkers still. 

We had a quiet week here on the home front.  Last graduation party of the year was yesterday.  We also went to a nearby state park with some friends and made Smores.  :o) 

Timothy mowed the grass again--all by himself, even started the mower himself. 

We also planned Kaitlyn's birthday meal--Macaroni and Cheese, corn on the cob, mozarrella cheese sticks--the kind you bake and carmel/shortbread/chocolate dessert with Neopolatin icecream.  Hope the nutrition police are not nearby on Wednesday night!!!

Have a great week!

Recap

This past week was a busy one.  We had Vacation Bible School at church.  We had a great time with the kids and quite a few decisions for Christ! 

We had only one day that it rained during Bible School, but it threatened several others, but God kept the rain away. 

Speaking of storms, Thursday night there were tornado and severe weather warnings for our area.  My kids decided it would be fine if a tornado hit our house because then we could move out in the country!  They were nice enough to be concerned about the dog and thought we should maybe bring him with us in case a tornado hit.  Kids!!!