Time to start posting menu lists again, I keep losing the sheets of paper where I write them.
Mac & Cheese
Spaghetti
Sloppy Joes
Chicken Italienne
Mock Rissotto
Cranberry Pork Roast
Crock pot chicken
Italian veggie soup with soft bread sticks
Sheppard’s Pie
Over the weekend we had our good friends, the Davis family in for a visit. The day before they arrived our yard looked like this:
I was a little worried that we would be stuck inside the whole time with no ways to entertain our guests, they would be bored to death, and then never want to drive all the way out here to see us again.
Luckily most of the swamp disappeared, just enough to get in a little time outside. The girls trekked all around the field, checking out the arena next door and then hanging out at their “secret” clubhouse most of the day. “It is peaceful!”, Myra told us. Sometime I need to take a picture of their secret location. I think I’ll wait until the field is a little more dry before I do that.
While the girls were adventuring, the boys threw the football around. Noah got in on the action when they told him he could tackle anyone that had the ball. He is a pure defensive man.
Kids can not resist the decrepit fake, concrete deer. With its missing antlers, back leg and part of its face, the deer just looks like it needs to be ridden.
It was a drizzly cool weekend though, so even with the little time we spent outdoors, most of the visit was inside. There was much football watched and even more Rock Band played. In fact, if I had to guess, I would say that we spent about 60% of our time rocking.
You know how sometimes you just aren’t sure what’s going to happen when you throw kids together? I mean, you hope they get along, but you secretly think there will be lots of time when parents will have to mediate instead of just getting to hang out with each other. Here’s something that made the weekend really great. Allison and Noah had a blast. It’s like they were in their own little five year old world. Even when what they were saying made no sense to the grown ups, they completely got each other. It was terrific.
We need to get the band back together for a reunion tour.
Last week Alli’s class focused on the letter H. On Friday, each person was allowed to wear their Hilarious Hat to school.
Allison was super excited when Greg gave her one of his old fishing hats. She ran around the house finding all kinds of wacky things we could glue onto it. School colored feathers, Mardi Gras tassles, glass beads, gold ribbon and a hibiscus flower. Individually, not too funny, but when combined on a fishing hat? Pretty hilarious.
What do you know, a post about something that actually happened this month. Slowly but surely getting caught up again. On Sunday of Labor Day weekend we went camping at our favorite place within close driving range. This time setting up camp on the “primitive” island. “Primitive” meaning no water or electricity. It also meant no RV’s and their loud generators. Greg and the kids tried it out when they took Nick camping and came back with tales of how nice it was. They weren’t joking. It was pretty and peaceful.
Looking over the pictures makes me want to go camping again soon. The weather has been absolutely perfect, cool in the evenings and warm, but not hot, during the days. If it’s not rainy this weekend, we may have to pack up the gear and go. Why does it have to be rainy on the weekends and perfect when a person is at work or kids have to be in school?
School started last month. We have one seventh grader, one sixth grader and one kindergartner. All three in real school. Every day for a week Allison woke up and asked how many days there were before school started. On the way to school, the morning of the first day, Allison said, “I think this is going to be the best day of my life.”, and she meant it. She comes up with some of the greatest things to think about and say.
Here’s a quick picture of the latest middle schooler. She tried to get away before I could take her picture. You can all hear it in your heads, right? The slightly exasperated, “Mo-om”. She was a little nervous/excited to be moving up to the new school. After receiving their schedules at meet the teacher, she proceeded to draw up a map of the campus, pinpointing each of her classes and the best route to take.
The first 3 weeks have been busy. With Nathan and Zoey both in middle school, we have something going on every single evening. Pep squad, band, tennis, various clubs and required attendance to sporting events leave them with hardly any free time. I know, it’s only going to get busier.
Wow, I really was terrible about posting this summer. Two whole posts for each month in July and August. Pitiful. Want to know something sad? I don’t even really know where August went. I mean, it felt like we were super busy but in trying to think of what to type here, it’s all a blur. Old age and senility are clearly on their way to my house.
Here’s what I can remember and if anyone else can tell me what happened last month, I would appreciate it.
The first weekend we went to Shreveport. New shoes (thanks to slipping into a mountain stream) and a few school supplies were purchased. Then we all tried dinner at a hibachi grill which was great fun and a movie for Zoey’s birthday. Eleven. Double ones. Here’s a portion of a post that I never published from that week:
Zoey is counting down the days until she turns eleven. I am counting down the days until Top Chef starts.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I can wrap my head around one of my favorite television shows starting it’s new season. It’s a little more difficult to believe she is eleven and starting middle school this year.
The next weekend we drove to Dallas to pick up Nick (Greg’s youngest brother) from the airport for a week of visiting.
As soon as he stepped off of the plane from San Diego he was drenched in sweat, “There is a lot of moisture in the air in Texas!”. To try and beat the heat there was an almost nightly water balloon fight.
I’m pretty sure we bored the poor kid. There is no cell phone reception in our house, one computer all of the kids share, no places to go within walking distance, and it was over 100 degrees most days.
Want to know something? He had never gone camping before. City kid.
So, on one of the last nights of his stay, Greg and the kids remedied that situation.
Camp fire, hot dogs, s’mores, and lake swimming.
After they returned home, Nick asked, “Can you believe I’ve been in Texas almost a whole week and haven’t eaten at a restaurant?”. I could, because… you know, I was there. We hardly ever eat out. It didn’t even occur to me that not going out to eat would be strange. On the way back to Dallas to drop Nick off for his flight we stopped for breakfast. Now Nick can say he has been camping and eaten at the World Famous (according to them) Dairy Palace. Lucky guy, right?
The weekend before school started we took a trip to Houston for school supplies and clothes. It was only our second time to drive to Houston since we moved here so many years ago. I don’t know why, but I always thought it was so much farther away than it really is.
I guess that’s why it felt busy. We weren’t home any of the weekends in August. Ever had a month just fly by you?
After relaxing in Northern New Mexico it was time to start our long drive from the top to the bottom of the state. The drive from Eagle Nest to Roswell was uneventful. Rocks, dirt, old style wind mills and farms of their more sleek and modern replacements.
Our plan for the day was to stop in Roswell for lunch with Greg’s Grandparents before heading to Carlsbad Caverns to watch the bat flight. Roswell was an interesting city.
They have taken the Alien theme and run with it. A McDonald’s space ship play area, an Arby’s sign that says, “Aliens Welcome” (Illegal or Extraterrestrial? I want to know.), and many shops dealing with outer space.
I couldn’t resist taking this picture. The bumper sticker just cracked me up.
We didn’t really do anything touristy while we were there because the whole point of this stop was to visit Greg’s Grandparents. It was really nice to spend time with them. The kids and I got to hear new to us family stories.
Our last real stop of vacation was Carlsbad Caverns. It was the season for bat flights. Sure, sure we toured the cavern and it really was impressive.
Allison was the best at seeing different shapes in the stalactites and stalagmites. Young minds full of imagination.
At dusk we all started walking towards the bat cave. No cameras were allowed so after a few quick shots of the crowd, the camera was put away. First they told us that if we were quiet, the bats might fly right over us. Then we were told that we were one of the larger crowds they had seen in a while.
The two don’t usually go hand in hand. They didn’t on that night either. Once some people got bored and left though, the theater got quieter and the bats started flying closer and closer. They started flying over and through the remaining audience. If you can go during the summer, you should.
After the bats it was time to kiss a sweet baby good bye and start our drive home, across the whole state of Texas.
This vacation is one of my favorites. We didn’t pressure ourselves to be anywhere or rush through anything. We were able to take our time and just really enjoy where we were, what we were doing, and spending some great time together as a family.
After the refuge it was time to hit the road. We were bound for New Mexico. I warned the kids that we would have to drive out of Amarillo to get there. It is a place they had heard of, but never been through. I gave them my run down.
First you get hit by the smell. Cow crap and urine. Then you see them, and it looks like cows, standing on top of cows, who are standing on mountains of poop.
I know, pretty accurate, right? Greg thought it was hilarious to keep rolling down the window as we drove through Hereford and Bovina, “Ah, the smell of fresh cows.” The rest of us tried not to gag.
The drive itself was plain. I mean sure it’s pretty, but scenic flat fields of rocks and windmills only last about 5 minutes before it turns into pretty boring. It’s a good thing we had some entertainment. Allison happened to get a book on CD with her meal when we stopped for dinner. At the end of the story there is a really terrible, corny song. We all groaned and rolled our eyes as we listened to it the first time. Then thought it would be fun for the kids to memorize because it was so awful. I may try to record them singing it, because it is terrifically bad.
After staying the night at Stephen and Donna Mae’s, we headed North to the Enchanted Circle in New Mexico. As we were driving along the scary curved roads, we rolled down our windows (because it was 60 degrees) and slowed down to take in the scenery. Alli kept taking deep breaths. “Ah, Nature smells wonderful!”. After a few more curves we drove into the valley where Eagle Nest is located. It was pretty, quaint, picturesque all of those words that you can use when a closed in view opens up to a valley with a lake dotted with a few cabins.
We woke up for an early breakfast and then some sight-seeing and hiking. Each of the kids wanted to scout the way.
We climbed rocks.
Made bridges of fallen trees.
And hopped across streams.
We looked for signs of wildlife, but didn’t see any animals, only flowers.
Allison kept begging to put her feet into the water, tennis shoes and all.
I had just finished telling her we had to wait until we were done hiking when we looked up to see Nathan slip into the stream. “See Mom, Nathan gets to!”. I love how Greg and Stephen are just chuckling at Nathan in this one.
After we finished our hike, it was time to hold up my end of the deal.
Then it was back to the cabin.
Naps for Stetson and his parents. The rest of us spent a lazy, rainy afternoon playing Carcassonne (and holding the baby after he woke up).
Since my blogging has been lacking over the summer, I thought I would do a few posts with monthly wrap ups for July and August and get back up to speed. My problem is, I feel like I need to write about everything that has already happened before writing about current stuff. Which just starts a whole vicious circle. If I get all caught up, maybe I can stay that way. Although, if my cleaning my house is any example, it will just fall right back behind in 4 days or so.
July was mostly all about our vacation. Sure we went to Dallas for the fourth of July and spent some time with all of our friends watching some great fireworks, Nathan and Zoey went to a few of the local camps offered, and Allison went to her swimming lessons and the library. You know, usual summer activities. That stuff is all fine and dandy. It also keeps us all pretty busy but doesn’t quite measure up to a full week off from work visiting fun places and meeting a new nephew.
We started our vacation by driving to Lawton, OK. Greg (and his family) are all from the Lawton area. It wasn’t quite our destination, but was so close on our drive that we took a detour. Greg drove us around the neighborhoods where he lived. We stopped and played at a few parks, visited the Museum of the Great Plains and saw some prairie dogs.
After this we decided to have the world famous Meers Burgers for lunch. They were alright, but the fried green tomatoes were better. On our way to Meers we stopped at Medicine Park. Allison was so mad that we didn’t have our swimsuits on because it looked like great fun jumping from the rocks.
Those places were just stops along the way to the Wildlife Refuge.
We went on some hiking trails. Greg says that as a kid they used to play in this man-made forest. I’m sure it must have been a pretty cool site to see all of those pine trees. I mean, what a change from the normal landscape around that area.
I saw this freaky lizard and was determined to get a picture of it. I had to use my super quiet Indian-sneak walk to get close enough.
We watched the buffalo roam, and took a scary drive to the top of Mt. Scott. Not scary for anyone else, just me. I hate drives like that and this vacation was FULL of them. Even though the curves are irrationally terrifying to me, the view at the top is always worth it.
During our brief visit with Greg’s grandparents, it was brought to my attention that I have been slacking way too much on this blog. Some people would actually like to know what is going on in their grandchildren and great-grandchildren’s lives. Keeping that in mind, I’ll try to get back in the swing of things. It might not be very much at first, but as school starts up and we get back on normal schedules, I should be able to post more often.
I have many things to recap from our trip but thought I would leave you with these pictures.
I was putting the ironing board away after using it for Stetson’s quilt. I must make ironing look fun because Allison decided that she needed to try it out. Especially when she realized that it could be moved down to her level. “I am so Great at this!”.
I love how she looks so serious while she is doing this.
Just as a side note, almost the only time the iron gets used is when I am sewing something. Our clothes are about the most wrinkled you will find.
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