A Quick Trip

Last week, we made the spur of the moment decision to drive up to Dave's parents' house for the weekend. Dave had heard a report that the fishing conditions were great, and the pull of the river was just too much to withstand! So, we loaded up our car (and oh, how nice it is to travel in our SUV instead of all cramped up in Dave's truck or my old car!), and headed up north. Dave and his dad headed off to the river early Saturday morning, and the kids and I picked up my niece, Autumn, for them to all play together.
We started off the morning by walking down to the river and letting the kids try their hand at fishing and building sand castles. They had a ball and came home covered in sand and river water! So, Grandma turned on the sprinklers in their field, and the kids raced through them to get cleaned off. Garrett and the neighbor's little boy had a blast throwing buckets of water at each other and seeing who could high-jump the sprinklers.
Autumn and Paige dragged out Grandma's box of dress-up clothes and decked themselves out. Paige discovered a bag of makeup and proceeded to "do herself up". I came out of the kitchen and thought she was chewing on something. Then, she took her hands away, and I saw she had lipstick from her chin to her nose! She was VERY proud of her "mommy" outfit, which made me wonder about myself. She was wearing a very outdated black dress with a huge, netted hat. Am I that out of style?? Oh well, she had fun!
We drove back Saturday night, and the kids crashed into bed for some much-needed rest! Here's some pictures of our quick trip!

Quick Trip

The Crazy Days of Summer

It's so hard to believe that June is almost over. I am only "free" for another month and then I will officially be a "working mom". (Although, that term is hilarious, because EVERY mom is a working mom, no matter where they spend their days!!) I had big plans for all the things the kids and I would do this summer, and so far, we haven't done many of them. Time's a wastin'!

Actually, we have been fairly busy with our normal summer routine. There was VBS and all the additional excitement that I wrote about last time. Then we started swimming lessons last week, so every afternoon is taken up. We've also visited the aquarium with some friends, seen the free movie at the movie theater, and attemped the free lunches at the park (verdict...yuck!)

Then I ended up taking a last minute trip to Oklahoma with my mom and the kids. She was going to Ponca City, OK (yes, a real place, not from the Walton's or anything). There was a family reunion with my Grandma's side of the family, and she wanted to meet some of them, since Grandma passed away last year. She had planned to drive there with a friend. Well, her friend ended up not being able to go, and so she offered me and the kids an "all-expense paid trip" to Oklahoma with her. I was going to hold out and see if I could get an all-expense paid trip somewhere better, like, I don't know...Hawaii or something, but I decided to cut my losses and go along!

Even though Oklahoma is humid, hot, tornado-prone, and, did I mention humid?- we had a good time. It was a fast trip, with us driving out Thursday, sightseeing Friday, doing the reunion Saturday, and driving home on Sunday. Whew! The kids only cared about when we were going to reach the hotel swimming pools, so we got tired of hearing "When are we going to be at the hotel? Can we swim?" We also experienced the madness that lies in rural Oklahoma playgrounds. All of them that we stopped at had metal play equipment. Really? METAL? Are you aware of how HOT it is here? And how much blistering will result from sliding down that slide that is 2000 degrees? Perhaps their backsides are used to it, but our kids decided only to play in the shade!

We took a few little drives to see the farm where my Grandma grew up, and where several of her relatives lived. At the reunion, we met this nice older man who told us that the general store my Grandma's grandparents used to own was still on his property "only about 12 miles from here". So, after the luncheon, we placed my aunt in his car to hear all the old stories and mom and I followed him in her van. We may have only driven 12 miles, but it was ALL on country roads, and this man would drive 30 mph for 5 or 10 minutes, then zoom up to 50, then slooowwww back down. After 30 minutes in the car, Garrett yelled "Why are we following this old man around???" It occured to us that he could perhaps be someone from Psycho and be driving us all out into the woods to tie us up. But what could we do? He had Aunt Rozella captive in his car!! Thankfully, he turned out to be legitimate, and we got to see the teeny green shed that used to serve as the store for the whole area.

After our brush with the lives of our ancestors, we returned to the everyday life. I can't really even think of anything I can claim I've done over the past week. So, I'll leave you with a few pictures of our "little Oakies"...

Oklahoma

VBS -Very Busy Summer...otherwise known as Vacation Bible School!

Last week was our church's VBS week. It's always a busy week, no matter what, but it was further complicated by our children's minister ending up in the hospital with pneumonia one week before it started. So, my good friend Lydia ended up taking over, and the week flew by! I was in charge of the music this year, so I got to teach all the grades 6 different songs with the motions. If you know me at all, you know that dancing is not exactly "my thing", and dancing in front of people...well, let's just say it ranks right up there with those dreams where you find yourself out in public with no clothes on! But, I swallowed my pride and danced the hula and other crazy motions just to get the kids excited.
It ended up being a great week. The kids loved the music, and we did a program for the parents Friday night. Garrett's preschool class even got up and did a few songs. After the program, we had jumpers, cotton candy, hot dogs, and sno-cones for the kids. It was an extremely busy week, but a memorable one. (And not always in a good way---I have had one of the VBS songs stuck in my head for 3 weeks now!)

Adding to the excitement were 2 trips to the doctor. On Tuesday morning, our sweet dog Sadie had a seizure right before I needed to leave for Bible School. Her legs stopped working, and she was scrambling all over the floor. The emergency vet got me right in and checked her out. He didn't find anything wrong, so he did some bloodwork and sent us on our way. I ended up running into the church about 15 seconds before they were ready to start the first song. Talk about close calls!

Then that same day, I took Paige to the doctor to check her for a UTI or bladder infection. We had gotten her almost completely potty-trained, and then this last week she has had nothing but accidents. So, I wanted to make sure there was no physical reason for it. Well, it's a little difficult to get a 2 year old who doesn't like public restrooms to pee into a cup! After about an hour of her screaming "No, NO, NOOOOOO!!!" and then resting in between tries, we FINALLY accomplished the urine sample. I'm embarrassed to think what the receptionists heard because the bathroom was right behind them. I was singing to her, bribing her, threatening her...anything I could think of to get her to go! And in the end, the doctor determined there was nothing wrong. She's just a stubborn 2 year old who has decided that using the potty is not for her. Bummer! So, we're back to square one. We've told her that if she stays dry for 5 days, we will buy her a pretend guitar, because she's always stealing Garrett's. So far, the bribery seems to be working!

On Saturday, Dave decided to take Garrett out to Shady Lakes to fish. It's a little lake outside Bernalillo where they charge you for each fish you catch, but you are guaranteed to catch something! Garrett was SO excited! He caught 5 fish before Daddy closed the wallet. They cleaned them and brought them home so we could even have them for dinner. I was a little dubious, but it was actually really good trout! Garrett even ate half of one...no small feat for a child who turns up his nose at the mere mention of eating fish! Here's some pictures of our week.

VBS week