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!

Pictures...and that's about it.

People ask how I feel and the best answer is "It's still the first trimester!" Three weeks (or so) and hopefully things will start getting better.

Saturday...pathetic, right? Although I can't blame Jacob for not wanting to watch "Angelina the Ballerina" and I can't blame Anna for not wanting to watch "Thomas the Train" again. They're getting to the ages that there really aren't a whole lot of shows they both like. Dora is about the only one!

I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but I love it.

My lilac bush is blooming! It smells so good out back. It's almost as tall as the house (the flat roof part, anyway)!

Got the garden in!!! Trying lettuce and spinach this year. Aaron was a HUGE help--he pretty much did all the weeding to get it ready for the tilling. It was so COLD Saturday morning!!!

Miss Blue Eyes...with Mrs. Blue Eyes behind her :) Anna's eye color is very much like Gma Betty's.

Poor boy was ready to go to Aunt Cara's house for 2 days!! Both mornings he woke up and thought it was time. This was the day, but he had to wait until afternoon! He put the boots on all by himself and was ready to go with his Easter basket and Anna's backpack!

Dirt, Storms, and Flying High

I mentioned that my kids love to play in the garden. So the other evening I just let them play. And then I hosed them down (not really, but they were filthy!).

He wouldn't hold still enough but the dirtiest part of Jacob was his bottom and his hands! Of course, they'd been playing in the sprinkler before getting in the garden, so they were wet and the garden was wet from rain.

See his diaper? That's mud.

Happy, messy girl.

We were at my grandparents' one weekend and a big ol' storm rolled in. It was awesome to see the storm clouds coming in over the "regular" clouds that had been around all day.

Look at the colors of the sunset, barely peeking through the storm clouds.

Jacob LOVES to be thrown in the air. As high as you can throw his 30-pound body! Papa obliged this time :)

The smile never leaves his face during this game!

I've Got a Lot of Catching Up to Do!

Here's your grandkid fix Binga! :)

We're back. It's good to be home! We had a lot of fun, but I've got a lot of catching up to do (hence the title. duh)! When we got back from Iowa the end of July, I could NOT believe how huge everything in the garden was. Tomato plants? CRAZY huge with well over 100 tomatoes between the two! The zucchini plant? Leaves much bigger than Jacob's big noggin'! Peppers, green beans, cilantro, zucchini...out the ears! The kids love playing in the garden. After a few times, Jacob quit pulling on the green onions and just dug in the dirt. Who knows what all games Anna was making up for them to play!

Jacob, hidden by a huge tomato plant. (We had to get the 4' step ladder in there to put up our own "stakes" to hold the plants up...they are so big and tall!)

Look at those zucchini leaves!!! Practically bigger than all of Jacob!

Oh. My. Stars. The cilantro was INSANE. There was so much. And stupid me picked ALL OF IT. I thought "hey, I've heard you can freeze this...I should just pick it all and freeze it. Shouldn't take too much time." What was I thinkin'?!?! And this bucket? Only 1/3 of what I picked!

Here's another 1/3 getting washed.

And another 1/3 that's already been washed and pulled from the stems. Then I had to chop it and stuff it in ice cube trays and cover with water. Ugh!!! It took forever. I like the smell of cilantro. But I was starting to get nauseous!

The green beans. They are SO YUMMY. And they're really easy to wash and prepare. I cleaned these up and blanched them, then stuck them in a freezer bag. They were still yummy a week later when we had them for supper!

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And it's not just all this traveling that's got me so tired. (NO I'm not pregnant!).

It's THIS boy!

He can get into trouble faster than you can say Rip Van Winkle!!! I have to admit, even though he's managed to really mess up my desktop and shuts it down on a regular basis...it's pretty cute to see him sit there and "pretend" to type! Then he sends emails and deletes files and makes programs disappear and it's not so funny anymore! just kidding...he hasn't done any of those things. I don't think?!

Go away Mommy! I'm talkin' to Binga!!

And he knows when my phone is locked. He doesn't want it then! Lucky for me, he hasn't figured out how to unlock it (you have to enter a password). But he did figure out how to not only unlock Papa's blackberry, but also change the country code! HA!

Oh but then he gives me his sweet smile and those big blue eyes just melt my heart. And I almost forget about all the gray-hair-growing stunts he's pulled all day long!

He now likes to put on any shoes he finds. The bigger, the better!

You don't want to know what was pulling that swim diaper down! It was not pleasant! (sorry)

Summer Time!

This is what we'll be doing this summer.....

Watching magnificent storms (I still haven't convinced Anna that thunder is awesome!)

Exercising at the track. Anna actually ran 1/2 a mile!!!!! She walked a few steps here and there, but she ran most of it...at once! It was amazing. Jacob and I cheered her on all the way around. Aaron has started training for the annual 1/2 marathon!

Jacob doesn't understand why Daddy keeps running past him! But he soon found something to distract him.

My garden is growing by leaps and bounds! I can't wait to start eating from it! This year, I've got 2 tomato plants, zucchini, 4 pepper plants, red onions, green onions, green beans, sugar snap peas, and cilantro. Everything I planted is growing this year! And I hope I've left enough room for my zucchini this time!!!

And playing in the pool. I knew Anna would love it, but I wasn't so sure about Jacob. Oh yeah...he LOVES it. They got in right after it was filled up and stayed in until Jacob's lips were turning blue. Of course, after the storm last night blew the cover off, it got a little dirty and that was NOT acceptable with Little Miss Priss! Good grief.

It should be a fun summer with lots of outside playing! :)