Longest Night In the History of Ever

 Since we had another trip planned to Colorado in August, we knew we had to get the AC fixed. we priced around how much it would cost and discovered it would be cheaper to drive up to Iowa and have Dad fix it. Much, much cheaper! Aaron already had his guys' weekend planned and that was the only time we would be able to go before our trip to Colorado. Sooooo, the kids and I showered up, loaded up the van, and left at 9pm Friday night. Jacob fell asleep right away. Isaac didn't last too much longer. I think Anna was worried about me falling asleep because she kept checking on me. She eventually fell asleep. Jacob didn't wake up once. Anna and Isaac slept fitfully, but they did really good. We got there at 3:15am. It really wasn't that bad. The last hour was the hardest, but we made it! God protected us. Of course, Isaac was up and ready before 7am!! That was okay because there were some major garage sales to hit up! So off we went...

 I love his "cheese" face!

 The lack of sleep caught up with her!

 And him :)

 Of course we had to stop and see the John Deere dealership!

 Found a bike seat for Isaac. He loved it, despite his face here!

 Yummy watermelon

 Brothers ridin' combine

 My brown-eyed boy :)

 Thankfully, the problem wasn't more than the air compressor. He thought he was going to have to take everything apart to fix something else. Don't tell Dad yet (they're on an Alaskan cruise), but the AC went out again yesterday! At least there's a warranty on it...and no more trips on the horizon!!!

 Jacob wound up with 2 black eyes and despite what this picture shows, they weren't from Anna! :)

 She thought it would be fun to ride this down "the big hill"! 

 Papa's helper!

 Isaac fell asleep while Anna drove all by herself.

 "Helping" me mop the kitchen.

 Fun at the park. It was hot and humid!

 Anna finished TWO chapter books on the way home!!! And notice the blanket? The AC was nice and COLD!!!

We made it home. I have to say, the trip was much quicker and easier at night!!

Hottest Trip Ever

We took our 3rd trip to Colorado last month to see Erick's family.

 Thanks to Pintrest, I found a great idea for road trip snacks. I just picked up some cheap tackle boxes, added some stickers I already had, and voila! The kids love them and it cuts down on the mess :) So the kids are allowed food in the van again, but only from their snack boxes!

 Poor Isaac. We got a couple hours into the trip and all the sudden we all smelled something quite yucky. I asked Isaac if he was stinky and this is what he did! I looked a little closer and realized we had a massive blow-out on our hands! We were in the middle of nowhere with miles to go before we would get to any sort of a place with water. So we pulled off at the next exit and made do with what we had in the van. It was a MESS!! Poor Isaac. His car seat cover had to come off and with no water to rinse it out, we had to leave it off...it wasn't a very comfortable trip for him!

 Our plans changed a little for when we were going to be out there. Anyway, long story short, the rest of the family already had plans to go to a Rockies game so Grandpa got us tickets to the rodeo at Cheyenne Frontier Days! The kids loved it! It was so much fun. Aaron said we should make that our anniversary trip from now on! :) Isaac was enthralled for over an hour and then he wanted to just run around.

 I think it goes without saying that Anna thoroughly enjoyed it!

 Isaac made it onto the big screen with this shot. Such a big boy!

 These two old cowboys needed a nap I guess! 

 So many people!!

 After the rodeo, we stopped by Aaron's aunt & uncle's and relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful view (and a delicious supper!) while the cousins kept our kids entertained! It was so nice.

 Saturday, it was off to the farm for a family reunion of sorts. Ivan reminds me of Jacob in so many ways, but I think he might even have Jacob beat in the size category! Ivan is close to Isaac's age but nowhere near Isaac's size! :) It took me back a few years when I picked him up! He makes Isaac seem like a newborn.

 And of course we had take a tour and visit all the animals!

 Feeding the goats. 

 Tow-headed cousins! :)

And the trip home is where it started getting hot...

 The AC started going out a bit. It would just get not-so-cold for a bit, then it would come back just fine. It had done it a couple times in the past month or so, but not very often. 

 We stopped for lunch and found a school playground to picnic.

 And after that, the AC never came back. Just blew out hot air. We tried a few "tricks" Dad suggested but none of them worked. And of course, again, we were in the middle of nowhere! We found the next gas station and loaded up on ice and bottled water. I rinsed out Isaac's "wipes spray bottle" (filled with water and baby oil to get his wipes wet) and used that to spray the kids and keep them cool. And handed out his wipes (baby wash cloths) dipped in ice water for them to use. It was absolutely miserable!!!!!

 We finally made it to Goodland and stopped at Walmart to get some freon. I wasn't in any hurry to leave and get back in the heat. Of course the farther east we went, the hotter it was getting. By this time it was almost 100* outside. So the kids played in the automotive isle while Dad helped Aaron figure out what to get and how to put it in. That didn't work. We spent I don't know how long in the HOT parking lot, talking to Dad on the phone, trying to figure out what else it could be and if it could be fixed. Of course, it was Sunday so no auto shop was open. After much discussion (okay, there might have been some heat-induced arguing!), we decided to head up to the Swiharts' and hang out in the AC for a while!!!

 It sprinkled just a little bit...the kids had forgotten what rain was like! ;) We ended up staying there for a few hours until it "cooled" off. We left around 9:30pm, loaded up with pillows and a blanket for the kids (we had forgotten our pillows at home on this trip!) and plenty of ice and water. The kids, thankfully, fell asleep pretty quickly and slept the rest of the way home. We got home at 2am and, praise the Lord, all the kids stayed asleep!!! It was a miserable trip, but at least it was below 90* outside!

And this is my garden haul after being gone for 4 days!!! Whew. I was busy in the kitchen for a few days!

Day 1

Well, travel season has started. And it's starting out with a bang-Aaron's first trip is 2 weeks long! :( The day started okay since both kids had school this morning I got an extra nap in. Which is good because I never sleep very well when Aaron is gone and add to that the multiple bathroom visits...not much sleep!! After school both kids were just whiny & grumpy. I figured naps would take care of that, but they woke up in even worse moods! They finally agreed on a movie & after it was over they were in much better moods. Jacob loves to play at the sink so that's where he went. Soon sister joined him & they played there for over half an hour! Now for supper...hmmmmmm.
Sent from Jennifer's BlackBerry

Gone Again

Man, we've spent a lot of time on the road this summer! It's well worth the time spent with family and friends, though. And we're getting ready to head out again tomorrow (well, technically today!). Aaron's annual half marathon with my uncle is this weekend in Colorado! We're looking forward to seeing lots of family and having fun. We're stopping off to see our "other" parents in NW Kansas on the way. It's county fair time and Anna LOVES the fair! :) I think Jacob will really like it this year, too. I better pack my running shoes, though. I have a feeling he's going to be all over the place!

Jacob gets thrown sky-high! He loves this game and it gives a pretty good arm workout, doesn't it Papa?? :)

A big ol' storm rolling in.
*I didn't edit these pics, so I might repost them when I do:)*

We're praising God for providing for us...Aaron is only unemployed until Monday :) It was a test in trusting and believing He would provide, that's for sure! Because honestly, the phrase "When it rains, it pours" has never been truer in our lives!! It's just been one thing after another for the last several months. One very small example: We were waiting to hear back about this job and I ran to the pharmacy to refill Anna's allergy medicine (evidently it's made of gold). I knew how much it was, so I just took that amount of cash with me. When our wonderful pharmacist rang it up, his eyes bulged and he gulped. He asked if we got reimbursed 80/20. I laughed and said that we had to first meet a deductible and THEN it was 50/50. And just to add insult to injury, the drug company hiked the price almost $10!!!!! Granted $10 isn't much, but when it's pouring, $10 feels like $100. I'm just thankful God has guided us down the path we're on right now (by using Mom & Dad and Dave Ramsey!) financially so that we can make it through these tough times.
Enough about that...I better hit the hay so I can get up before 9am tomorrow!

Travelin' Fools!

*again, lots of pics! :)*

We have been travelin' fools the last 2 days (and we're not done yet!). Friday evening we drove down to Wichita to see our friends and their new baby in the NICU (please pray for Ryan, Christie and baby Caleb), and then went to Jamie & Cassie's to have supper with them and Papa & Binga. It was a quick trip, but Jacob had a lot of fun chasing the dogs around. Poor dogs didn't know how to get away from him!! This morning, Papa & Binga came here and we went out west to see Grandma Betty and then out to the farm to see Grandpa Elmer & Grandma Mary. The kids had a lot of fun playing, and at the farm they were cutting corn, so Anna was excited to see the combine and tractor up close!

I really wish I could download the pictures in my head sometimes. On the drive out west, the colors of fall were everywhere! This is my favorite season. I love Kansas in the fall. Perfect weather and beautiful colors. There was the bright green of the winter wheat peeking through the ground, the deep rust of the milo ripe for harvesting, the golden brown of the corn stalks, and the contrast of dark green hay being picked up and rolled into huge golden bales. And then the trees! They are turning more out there than they are here at home. The golds, reds, yellows, greens, browns...so beautiful! What a wonderful world God created for us to enjoy!!

Anna found the dominoes, so Daddy set them up for her. He started on a card table in the living room, but after several times of the table getting bumped he moved to the dining room table...

He finally got them all set up (Grandma even knocked them over once!! :)). Anna was so excited!

One, two, three!!!!

That was fun! Let's do it again!!!

This is the country church I grew up in (side view). It eventually closed when I was in college. Never was really big, but I loved it. It's less than 1/4 mile from my grandparents' house and used to be a school house, too, where my Dad and his siblings went to school for a time. It's sad to see it sitting empty and deteriorating but such is life. That is also where Aaron proposed to me (he said he knew I'd always wanted to get married there (that's also where my parents got married), but since that couldn't happen, he figured proposing there was the next best thing). There used to be a great big swingset on this side--with a teeter toter, bar, swings, rings, and ladder. And then there was a really tall slide in the back. Lots of wonderful memories in that building!

Watching the combine in the corn field right behind Great Grandpa & Grandma's house. We had to go through a "forest" to see the combine (there's a tree line of evergreens between their house and the field) :)

A flower Mom! She had so much fun being outside. She even picked a couple of pears off the pear tree!

A girl full of contradictions--tractors, pears, and flowers, wearing overalls and sparkly dress shoes!!!

Daddy! Daddy! We saw a combine and a trater and gain caht (grain cart) and I found a plower (flower) and I picked some pears!! Two was wipe (ripe) and the west (rest) weren't so we threw them out fow (for) the buhds! (birds) She was super excited to tell everyone all about what we'd seen and done! :)

Then she helped Papa & Grandpa work. I made her change her sparkly "church shoes".

Not sure why this one is blurry, but she loved being right next to Great Grandpa and watching what they were doing.

Again--contradictions! She is so girly, and yet she doesn't mind one bit to get her hands dirty playing in the dirt or helping work :)

After listening to Papa & Grandpa discuss what they thought needed to be done, she added her 2 cents worth!

And add she did!! :)

They have a cat who recently had kittens. Anna remembers the last time we were out there and she got to hold one of the kittens. So we went on a search to find the kittens.
Here kitty! Mom, I don't know where she is!

*gasp* I tink I hear it!!!!!!

(it was Papa on the other side of the trees meow-ing)

Shhhhh!! I hear it! *gasp* What's dat?!

(Papa was now meow-ing and rustling around in the trees)

So she runs around the trees to see if she can find the kitty. And she finds...

Papa! He growled and tried to scare her, but she was FOCUSED!

Anna: Shhhh!!!! Papa, we hear da kitty!! Over dare!

Papa: Did it sound like this? MEOW!!

Anna: YES!! Shhhh!! We gotta pind da kitty!!

It was too funny! She really had no clue that it was Papa all along making the kitty noise!!


Jacob found his favorite toy at Great Grandpa Frank and Grandma Betty's house. I don't even know what it's called, but he sat and played with it all afternoon!

And chewed on his bottom lip while he was at it :)

In the car, Jacob is king and his carseat is his throne (evidently). He's watching Veggie Tales.

Anna is just Anna and she tends to crash... :)

And the king likes to chew on his toe. How royal of him.