Halloween 2013

Its two days before Thanksgiving and I realized I haven't mentioned Halloween yet!  No surprises this year, same ol', same ol'.  Except that Bree got sick on the day we were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch so we put it off and ended up going much later in the season than usual.  You can see all the vines had been cleared from the fields and most of the pumpkins were starting to rot.  Next time we will drag sick bodies out to the field if we have to in order to get the full experience of tripping over waist-high vines (if you are Bree) and pumpkins that aren't all squishy.  It was a nice day though so I should quit complaining.

On Halloween we went to Trunk-or-Treat at the church and then went around the neighborhood a bit.  It seemed like we spent far less time walking around this year but picked up just as much junk.  I enjoy the neighborhood walks but Trunk-or-Treat sure loads up the kids without much effort.  This year we had a pirate, a horse, a princess, and a witch.  I was sorry to see Halloween go, like usual.  Its my favorite holiday of the year.  Now on to the wonderful institution of family togetherness for the next few holidays.  Wish me luck.

Croup

 Welcome back Croup!  Not really.  It scared us bad enough almost 2 years ago when Bree had it that I never wanted to see it again.  Well, Bree's body had other ideas.  Friday she and I spent all day at the school watching the kids participate in their fun run (pictures at the end) and I knew she wasn't feeling well but I thought it was just a cold.  We had a great time watching the kids run and then that evening Paul and I went to Portland to see the Pet Shop Boys in concert.  Awesome!  When we got home and checked on the kids we didn't like the sound of Bree's breathing because it was loud both in and out and she was struggling a bit.  We turned on the humidifier and I told Paul to check on her again before he went to bed and he ended up waking me up an hour later telling me he thought she needed to go to the hospital.  Here we go again.  We went to the ER in Longview and they immediately saw her and put her on a cool mist to breathe.  Well that didn't do much and as I was holding her I could feel her whole body straining with each breatheso I rang the nurse and told her to try something else.  She got a steroid shot and breathed in some more medicine and it seemed like it was working for about 10 minutes but then she started struggling again.  They gave her another dose of the the mist medicine but the respiratory guy didn't like the looks of her ribs as she was struggling so he pulled the doctor in who didn't like the looks of her ribs as she was struggling so he wanted her admitted.  I guess Longview doesn't admit pediatric patients (?) so they sent her to Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver because it was closest they said.  She made lots of friends in Longview and they gave her a little green teddy bear and a handmade kid's quilt. We got to ride in the back of an ambulance and Bree was so hopped up on steroids that she wouldn't sleep and she kept watching the cars behind us.  We were finally admitted in Vancouver around 5am and by this time she was doing much better.  I think all the drugs finally kicked in and were doing their job.  We stayed in the hospital until 4pm when they discharged her.  We had plans to go to the pumpkin patch on Saturday with some family but Paul and the kids cancelled that and came to visit for awhile and then spent some time with Paul's sister Carmen's family, where Mason was able to convince her that he needed pumpkin pie.  She made us two!  So I guess the day wasn't a total loss for the kids.  Thankfully we took Bree home and she had a pretty good night that night.  Her breathing was still a bit labored but not to the scary extent it was Friday night.  She is improving and getting her voice back too.  Croup swells up the vocal cords so she could barely whisper for a few days.  She was excited to get her voice back yesterday.  I guess some kids are more vulnerable to croup than others and it looks like Bree is one of those.  We will definitely keep an eye on her in the future.

Here's my sweetheart with her breathing mask.  It didn't work very well because it was too big and the cold air went directly into her eyes so she ripped it off.

She did like her pink toe!  The oxygen monitor was stuck to her toe and it glowed pink, Bree's favortie color.

Feeling well enough for some toast.  She posed for this picture so I knew she was feeling better finally.

 The fun run pictures.  Darcy did awesome!  I was impressed watching her.  She went for it and rarely stopped to walk.  I'm pretty sure she would have rather passed out than wussed out by walking.

 Drew was great again.  She kept a steady pace and ran most of it too, unlike lots of kids who take off like a rocket and then have nothing left half a lap later.  I watched 3 different runs and it seemed the older the kids got the slower they ran and there were many more walkers than with the younger groups.  Maybe we hit our peak at 5?

Mason did a good job too.  I'm hoping in the future my kids all use their running potential and take cross country or track so they will have a love for it and be runners for life.  All three of them are pretty good at it.  They sure don't get it from me!

Back to School

Welcome to the 2013-2014 school year!  This year Drew started 4th grade, Mason is in 2nd, and my little Darcy started kindergarten!  The month between returning home from our trip until school started was kind of tough to adjust to.  There wasn't a routine to go back to since we left before school got out, so it felt like we were just kind of hanging out and waiting for school to start so we could have our new normal.  Drew and Mason started out well.  No surprise there.  Drew was a bit miffed in the beginning because the math was so easy but after I attended the parent's curriculum night I think Drew will be in for an exciting, challenging year full of growth.  I love the new vistas opening up to her as she gets older.  No more ABC's and adding and subtracting.  I'm excited to watch her learn this year.  Mason is doing great like always.  He doesn't get down or complain about much.  He's pretty easy going.  He had a kid throw a chair in class early in the year and totally forgot all about the brew-ha-ha it caused in his class till I asked him about it after reading the note sent home to parents.  He just goes about his business and I love that about him.  Its also exciting to watch him learn.  He is a great reader and I LOVE catching him reading a book at home instead of computer games or watching tv.  I love that he loves to read.  Drew too, she just finished the Hobbit and is now reading the Little House on the Prairie series.  I love having conversations with my kids about books and ideas.  Too much fun!

Darcy's first day was OK I think.  I cried pretty much the whole way home after I dropped her off.  My anxiety over her anxiety was out in force that day.  Her anxiety had been working up to the first day of school and I knew it wasn't going to be easy.  She was having trouble letting me go running again in the evenings and she stuck by my side like glue for weeks.  She probably went the first 3 weeks with tears in her eyes as we parted from each other but she is good to go now.  As long as we give lots of kisses and hugs and I love you's at the drop off.  She is doing great in her school work too.  Every day she tries to be the Superstar, where she gets 2 skittles at the end of the day instead of one for being so well behaved and on task.  And the little sweetheart always shares her skittles with me.  Even on a day where she isn't a Superstar we will take turns eating the one skittle she gets.  Its all warm and sticky from being held in her germy little hand, but I never refuse.  She is so kind hearted, I don't want to upset her.  She is getting the routine down and I think she is going so excel at this school business.  She just has to convince herself its OK to do it without mommy constantly by her side.  She is reading the Bob Books at home and is in the stage where she and I have to sound out just about everything and I have to spell everything to her.  Kind of an annoying stage I'll admit as a parent but I know its a short one and it leads to reading! I'm very proud of Darcy and her strength once again.

Bree got a princess backpack this year and for days wore it waiting for her first day of school.  Sorry sweetheart, I'm not ready to give you up yet.  She's only 3 so she has to wait another year till I will put her in preschool.  She wants nothing more than to be big like her siblings, but she also likes a warm, extended snuggle with mom.   I'll hold on to that for as long as I can!

Road Trip 2013 Wrap Up

About 2 hours after I posted the week 7 recap, we got a call from the mechanic telling us we could pick up Max.  Hallelujah!  We were finally able to leave Billings around 3:30 that afternoon, after finding a very convenient sewage dump at the Cabellas right up the street.  I had no idea they were such a full service store but it was perfect timing as we desperately needed to dump.  We made it to Cardwell, MT that evening and were back on the road bright and early the next morning so we could cross the Rocky Mountains of northern Montana/Idaho when it was relatively early and not too hot.  That was an adventure, only because Paul and I were so worried the car wouldn't make it.  I think we both held our breaths the entire 4 or so hours it took to climb those darn mountains.  On the way down we pulled over for lunch and Paul discovered a crack in one of the wheels so he changed yet another tire.  We were down to 2 flat/broken spares then.  Thankfully we were able to make it to my brother's house just north of Spokane, WA with no more troubles.  Jay and his fiance Tamara bought a nice house on 5 acres with this huge pole building on the property which we thought it would be fun to park in.  It was until about midnight when I woke up abruptly and freaked out.  It was completely dark and I couldn't get my bearings.  I felt like I was in a black box with the walls closing in on me.  I have never been claustrophobic before but I couldn't get myself to settle down.  I had to get out of the trailer just to breathe.  Even then, it was very dark outside since Jay lives no where near a city.  I just wanted light!  I went back in the trailer and slept with my light on and I still had to concentrate on reliving the trip in order to take my mind off of feeling so closed in.  It was freaky and I hope I never experience anything like that again.  What a nightmare.  But Jay's place was cool, and the kids had lots of room to run and explore, and they fed the friendly deer some bread.  We are excited for Uncle Jay's wedding on the 17th!

Aug 1st we visited for a while while Paul got a spare repaired in town, just in case.  We figured it would take us two days to get home from there since we didn't move very fast on the road, but once we got to Hermiston, OR we thought we might be able to make it home that day.  Paul said it would all depend on how hot it was and the winds in the gorge because head winds were a killer to our huge caravan.  I don't know who we thought we were fooling.  Of course we weren't going to stop just a couple hours from home!  Luckily the weather wasn't too hot but I have never experienced such awful wind in the Columbia River Gorge before.  We had horrible head winds trying their darnedest to push us off into the river I swear.  A couple times a big gust would hit the long, broad side of us and we would skid just a bit.  I was cursing the vacation gods at this point.  All we wanted to to do was get home.  Thankfully my awesome driver of a husband muscled us through and it calmed down in Hood River.  Smooth sailing from there and we made it home around 9pm.  I will admit it was nice to be safely home, but I really did not want the vacation to end.  I  don't know that I could live indefinitely on the road, but I could have gone a couple more weeks for sure.  Other than the stress of knowing your life and safety revolves around a stupid machine and is barely in your control, life on the road was kind of simple once we got the routine down.  Mason, Bree, and I would have been good continuing on I think but all good things must come to an end I guess.

So just a few final stats from the trip.  We saw 36 states in 55 days and put a total of 11,197 miles on Max.  At first I was thinking Max was a lemon, but holy cow.  He was pushed to the limit every day for 2 months hauling us and the trailer around for at least 6-8 hours a day.  I would probably give out a time or two also.  It would have been wonderful to have had no problems what-so-ever but that is so unrealistic.  I am just grateful that when we did have troubles we were never in danger, and we never actually blew a tire while we were driving.  We were blessed by many wonderful people who went above and beyond their job descriptions, and we had some very timely cloud banks roll in as we were stuck on the side of the road which dropped the temps to manageable.  I could whine and complain about it (and I have) but I am choosing to acknowledge all the good that surrounded the bad.  I would recommend a road trip like this to everyone!  What an amazing experience it was for the entire family.  It makes our country seem so small now that we have seen so much of it.  I have been asked what my favorite part was and I honestly can't say one thing stood out more than the rest.  I loved the diverse landscapes, the cities, the small towns, the regional agriculture (sugar cane in Louisiana, tobacco in North Carolina, etc) the animals, of course the Braves game was awesome, and I realized we saw quite a few places memorializing death.  Places like Carthage jail, Gettysburg, Ford's theater, Little Bighorn.  They were all pretty moving places to visit.  I liked visiting the cities but I am much more comfortable in places like South Dakota where there is open road and its not quite as densely populated.  It was such a long trip that its hard to believe Zion and Grand Canyon were actually part of this trip and not one we took last summer.  I'm glad I kept up with these posts just because I have a hard time remembering everything we actually did so its nice to have a travel log.  Now that this trip we have been planing for a few years is over I will start planning "Trip B."  There were so many things we missed this time that its a must to do it again and see the not quite as famous stuff.  I will have to do some convincing though.

We collected quite a list of animals we saw around the country.  This is a horned toad we found in our campground outside of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.  We also saw lizards, bats, roadrunners, tarantulas, a pink snake, jack rabbits, ringtails, wild turkeys, deer, dung beetles, Texas longhorns, alligators, turtles, armadillos, dragon flies, fireflies, cicadas, prairie dogs, long horn sheep, coyote, pronghorns, mountain goats, buffalo, wild burros, and bald eagles.  That would be quite a zoo if we put them all together.

I know I will never forget this trip and Bree will probably never remember it, but I hope everyone in between will have great lasting memories, or at least impressions, of the summer we toured this amazing country of ours and lived to tell the tale.

Road Trip 2013, Week 7

Greetings from Billings, Montana!  We have been here for a few days now, through no choice of our own, but I’ll get to that later.  I’ll pick up where I left off last week, with us heading south from Missouri to pick up the last states on our list.  On the 22^nd we drove through the Ozarks in Missouri (I thought they were in Arkansas, which they are, but they are also in Missouri).  We camped right outside of Joplin, the city that was hit by the devastating tornado in 2011.  It was a bit disconcerting being there as there were severe thunderstorm warnings for the area and the sky was black.  But lightning never strikes the same place twice, right?  Same goes for tornadoes I told myself.  We dropped off the trailer and crossed over into Kansas, my 49^th state!  We were able to drive a bit of the original Route 66 and we found a cool store(?) I’m not really sure what it was but it had Mater from “Cars” so the kids were thrilled.

From Kansas we crossed into Oklahoma.  I was so excited, it meant that Paul and I had now been to all 50 of our beautiful states!  What an accomplishment.  Paul said he put his hand up to the windshield so he would cross before me and get his 50^th state first.  I love that guy, but I insist it was a tie.  We drove a little in Oklahoma and found a pit stop, then returned to Missouri.  From there, we went south about a half hour so we could cross into Arkansas for Bree and Darcy, who will never remember a thing about it.  We managed to escape all storms that night and were back on the road headed north the next day.

 The 23^rd we thought would be a driving day.  Our main goal was to get the heck out of Missouri.  I had never been there before this trip but now I can say we have seen pretty much the whole state.  We drove the entire east side, across the south, and up the west.  That afternoon we made it to Iowa, where we left the trailer and drove over to Nebraska for Bree and Darcy again.  We found a Lewis and Clark interpretive center on the Missouri river there.  It was a pretty neat place.  It has been fun following Lewis and Clark’s trail from the beginning, knowing we live at the end.  That was quite an undertaking back then.  We have our difficulties and we are in an air conditioned SUV!  I am very thankful for all those who went before us and made our life as amazing, and easy, as it is today.  Our ancestors worked harder than I can even imagine and I am very grateful.  We went back to our camp site in the Loess Hills of Iowa (hills made by wind-piled hills of loose soil, China is the only other place with hills like this) and the kids scrounged enough twigs to have a campfire and roast hotdogs for dinner.  We took a walk on the trail along the ridge of the hills and Mason had a horrible bloody nose.  We didn’t have any Kleenex or anything with us so we collected some leaves, hoping they weren’t poisonous, to wipe his face with.  There were bloody leaves everywhere when we left and I probably should have moved them off the beaten path.  The next person to come upon them probably thought a murder was committed there.  The hills were pretty but I’m not sure they are worthy of being a tourist destination (we stumbled upon them).

 On the 24^th we drove north to South Dakota, with a minor jog east so we could go to Minnesota for Darcy and Bree J.  I loved South Dakota!  For some reason I think it was my favorite state.  The sites were all kitschy and fun, with awesome wildlife and the weather was perfect.  We camped in Mitchell, SD, where the only Corn Palace in the world resides.  It is a large convention center place where they play basketball games, rodeos, concerts, conventions, etc.  The outside, and inside in places, is covered in corn murals that they change out every year.  It was pretty amazing the pictures they came up with only using corn.  We had fun there and got back to our site where we realized we had another flat tire.  That’s 3 now if anyone is counting.

 July 25^th we toured the Badlands National Park.  I was there 12 years ago and I loved it then, just like I loved it this time.  It is a strange place and when I was there last, the only thing that would come in on my radio was Indian chants and it was a very cool experience.  I was looking forward to that again this time but alas, radio reception has improved and we got a million stations but no Indian chants.  I was disappointed.  But we like the Badlands and the kids liked to climb on the rock formations, even though there were rattle snake warning signs everywhere.  Eh, you only live once right?  We also got to see some workers chipping away at fossils, as the badlands are a hotbed for fossils.  The ranger said our own John Day fossil beds in Oregon are more impressive than theirs.  We will have to check that out sometime because Mason was very impressed with it all.

 After the Badlands we finally made it to world famous(?) Wall Drug!  A huge store full of junk in the middle of the tiny town of Wall, SD.  We had fun exploring the craziness of it all and topped it off with an ice cream cone.  That was kind of fun I guess.

 Here is Paul with a hottie he was looking to hook up with at Wall Drug.  Actually, I know without a doubt that Paul loves us all dearly.  How do I know?  Because he empties our sewer every single day.  That is unconditional love.

On the 26^th we went to Mt Rushmore!  I love that place.  Did I mention I love South Dakota?  The Black Hills are beautiful and I just love the whole area.  I doubt I would ever live there but I could go back to visit over and over.  The kids all loved Mt Rushmore too.  We took a trail and hiked a bit, but poor Paul was on his worst day of the cold he caught from Mason so he was kind of miserable.  That is a great place though, one every American should visit.  We also saw the Crazy Horse monument which was started in the 1940’s and still has centuries to go before completion I bet.  I don’t know why its taking so long but that probably would have been explained to us if we had paid the entrance fee to the monument. Instead, we are cheap remember, we took a picture of it from a distance on the highway.  It worked just as well.  The Sturgis motorcycle rally is in a week so we saw quite a few bikers in the area.  

 We left Mt Rushmore and headed south to Custer State Park where we were promised a herd of buffalo.  We decided to try Wind Cave National Park just south of that first.  At the cave people were breaking down and Paul felt terrible so we decided to skip it.  They only had guided tours and they lasted over an hour and we felt like no one could handle it so we left.  On our drive up to Custer we were treated to prairie dog towns all over the prairie.  They are so cute!  What fun little animals.

We found the promised buffalo at Custer SP, along with more prairie dogs, pronghorns, coyotes, and “friendly burros.”  These burros were begging from all the cars on the road.  A pretty white one approached our car and I guess Bree couldn’t see the burros from her window and she was also oblivious to our long and boisterous conversation about all the fun burros around the car, but when this white one all of a sudden stuck its head through her window she screamed and freaked out!  It was hilarious!  Poor Bree, she has been our best entertainment when it comes to animal interactions on this trip.  

 Saturday, July 25^th, we saw a bit of Wyoming, though we had all been there before, on our way into Montana.  We drove in southeast Montana, in the middle of nowhere for a few hours, and we finally made it to the freeway, where the Battle of Little Bighorn monument is.  I was impressed by the place.  We were able to stand at the top of the hill where Custer and his men made their last stand, and the black marker in the picture shows where his body was found after the battle.  It was a pretty sobering and scary place.  You are at the top of a bald hill, with rolling prairie all around you, and its easy to imagine the Indian “army” swarming up the hill from all sides.  Custer and his men never had a chance.  I can’t even imagine the horror of it all.  We missed the informational movie at the visitor center because they only play it at certain times during the day.  Even though its only 25 minutes.  And their theater room is tiny and is packed to overflowing with watchers.  Seems like a very easy solution to have the film play every half hour but what do I know?   I have all kinds of suggestions for all kinds of places we have visited to make them better J

After Little Bighorn we were trying to get past Billings and camp for the night.  Well, at the top of a hill on the freeway Max gave out again.  I thought (I hoped) it was a blown tire, but when Paul popped the hood we saw all the radiator fluid pouring out and knew it wasn’t good.  We called our third tow truck (UGH) and waited, and waited.  We were on the side of the road for 4 hours!  Crimony!  The driver was very safety conscious, which is good, and for some reason his cords couldn’t reach our trailer so we didn’t have tail lights and it was getting dark.  So we had to wait for his buddy to get there and tail us and act as our lights.  On the way I was complaining to the driver about the outrageous RV park prices in Billings.  Seriously, Billings is in the middle of nowhere and they charge sky-high prices!  Much more than we paid in D.C. or Stone Mountain, GA.  So our nice driver said we could stay at their tow lot, free of charge, with water and electricity.  So here we sit.  We have been here since Saturday night and it is now almost 11am on Tuesday the 30^th.  Max needs a new clutch fan and radiator and his work should be completed today.  No matter what time it is, we are out of here!  We need to find a sewage dump, its getting kind of ripe in here.  This last break down was pretty bad.  We had a great trip after our Texas breakdowns but this has kind of put a sour taste in our mouths.  Mason and I had no desire to get home before this, but now that we are so close and we can’t get there we just want to go home.  Hopefully we will be out of here soon.  We have had a Harry Potter marathon over the last few days, and yesterday we walked to Burger King for an ice cream cone but their machine was broken.  Bree decided to pee her pants on the toy equipment so we headed home dejected.  Did I mention Billings isn’t my favorite place?  We are planning to walk to McDonalds for lunch and free internet so I can post this in a few minutes.  Hopefully the next time I check in it will be from HOME!

Things I have learned this last week on the road:

1)       Missouri could save a ton of money if they didn’t have mile markers on their freeways every 2/10 of a mile.  Totally unnecessary and sooo annoying.

2)      Drew has a bloodhound-like tendency when it comes to cold water bottles.  She can somehow sense when one is about to be opened and she is right there on you, begging for a drink.  Not a sip, a long drink.  I shouldn't complain, before the trip she would never drink water.

3)      The best state welcome sign award goes to Minnesota.  It was a huge rock shaped like the state with Minnesota written in cursive fancy writing.  Much better than some of the signs we saw with stickers on them or falling off the road side.  Well done Minnesota.

4)      The best rest area award goes to Missouri.  If you are ever on I-44 around milepost 110, heading west, stop for a rest.  They had a cool welcome center with the map of Route 66 on the floor, and then outside they had a mini Route 66 running through the trees, with little false Route 66 store fronts with picnic tables inside.  Cool place.  Well done Missouri.

5)      NEVER buy a Ford Excursion again!

A list of our duties on the road:

Paul is the driver.  He is amazing!  He has done all the driving so far, except when I need to drive to the laundry facilities.  He also does all the hooking up of the trailer to Max.  He also gets the privilege of dumping all our waste water.  What a guy.  We use Mason’s birthday walkie-talkies and I direct Paul into our camping spots and also the hitch to the trailer.  The walkie-talkies have saved out marriage.  I hook up the power as soon as we stop, in order to get the AC running, and I also hook up and unhook the water hose when we arrive and depart.  Its also my job to put down the chock blocks and make sure we are level.  Its also my job to oversee the pushing of the buttons for the three slide-outs.  I say oversee because it can turn into a brawl.  At first Paul and I did it but we weren't careful enough and we caught a few cupboards and toys in the process, so Paul assigned the task to Drew, who is much more careful than we are.  She did so well at it that the others wanted to try and now its whoever gets there first, or cries the loudest, that gets to do it.  I also clean the car out every morning.  At first it was Drew and Mason’s job but I discovered I was much more efficient at it so I just do it now.  I also make sure we have cold drinks in the cooler and snacks in the bag.  The kids are responsible for their backpacks and keeping their room clean.  It is a system that has kept us sane for the last 50 days so I guess it works.

Sorry for the screwy format again!  I did what I could to get this posted :)

Road Trip 2013, Week 6

 Week 6 was a different week for us.  Instead of hitting as many sites as possible in as little amount of time as possible, we slowed down (slow for us I guess) and actually stayed for 3 nights in the same area in Michigan.  The first night we stayed in the driveway of Paul's Aunt Merrie and Uncle Arnie's home.  They have 50 acres of beautiful land.  Merrie is an amazing gardener and I was extremely jealous of her beautiful vegetable and flower gardens.  We had a great time visiting with them.  I think Merrie caught wind of Mason's love for camp fires so we had a fire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows for dinner.  Poor Uncle Arnie had Mason dogging his footsteps the entire time, talking his ear off.  He was thrilled to be there.  There was plenty of room to run, we played baseball, toured the land, Mason, Merrie, and Paul took a walk to visit a neighbor's herd of sheep, and we climbed trees.  I even climbed the tree and impressed my son.  He told me he didn't know I could do fun stuff like that.  Gee thanks, I'm not in my grave yet!  We were lucky enough to hit Michigan during that horrendous heat spell that was over the entire mid-west and east, and wouldn't you know it, every time we tried to turn on the AC it would trip the circuit breaker in the house, as we were plugged in to it, and shut everything down.  We spent the night with the windows open, stewing in our own juices.  Just reaffirms my love of Michigan.  I really do love the people there though!

 Uncle Arnie was great entertainment for the kids.  Darcy loved "Uncle Army," which is pretty cool since she doesn't like many men.  He was great.  He pulled the kids around in his own wagon from when he was a boy, and he took us all on a tour of the maple syrup making process he and Merrie are heavily involved in.  It was pretty cool.  I would love to go back there in March and help tap some trees!

 The 16th we drove about 1.5 hours north to the old family farm, where we stayed for 2 nights.  It was hot there too.  The first night we didn't run the AC because our extension cord was getting too hot, but we made it to Walmart to get a heavier duty one for night 2 and boy did we sleep well that night.  That was some rough weather.

 That evening of the 16th all the cousins from the area came over to the farm for a pot-luck dinner.  It was fun to see everyone again.  Paul has some really great family in Michigan.  They all have an open invitation to come visit us in Oregon whenever they get the chance.

 Here are Aunt Merrie and Uncle Arnie.  We love them a lot and sure appreciate all they did for us and the kids for those few days we were together.

 We had a great time at the farm.  Mason actually said it was the best day of his entire life.  On the 17th he lost his tooth, rode around on the 4-wheelers ALL DAY, caught his first (and second) fish, shot his great-grandpa's 22 for the first time, and we lit the sparklers we bought way back in North Carolina.  Wow, every 7 year old boy's dream I think.  He loved the farm.  All the kids did actually.  Drew and Mason climbed up the windmill.  I did that years ago and I think I freaked out Paul and his dad when they saw me at the top.  I didn't even think to ask if it was stable.  We drove around all day on the 4-wheelers in the field and all around the property.  The kids loved it, Paul loved it as you can see from the next picture, and I guess I loved it too.  I was more than willing to give another ride when someone asked for one.  If it wasn't for the swarms of bugs, the high humidity, no AC, no mountains, no internet access, and the unsettling feeling that I can never get my bearings there, it might be fun to live there.  Or not.  There is a reason I live where I live and when I live I guess.  I wasn't cut out to be a farmer.

 Darcy was content to lounge around with the helmet on, even though it was so hot and her face was a sweaty mess.  I guess things like that don't matter when you are having fun.

This is Mason's first catch.  I have no idea what kind of fish it is.  He caught 2 fish while his sisters didn't catch any.  We watched quite a few fish eat the worms off the hook though.  Maybe it had something to do with all the kids trying to fish in the exact same spot.  Or that Bree dipped her entire pole into the water, thinking that might work.  It didn't.  We had a great time at the farm and hope to get back there sometime soon for some more fun with family and all the great things to do there.

 We pulled up stakes on the 18th and headed south.  We were able to wade in Lake Michigan for a few minutes, though it would have been nice to stay a while and swim, it was so hot.  The water was almost too warm though, it didn't quite cool us off.  That's the third Great Lake we touched this trip.  We kept moving south, into Indiana and then Illinois.  I was greatly impressed with the corn fields in Illinois.  I knew Iowa was all corn, but not Illinois.  The fields were everywhere and never ending.  I'm pretty sure we won't be hurting for corn this year.  The fields are a beautiful dark green and it was just a neat experience to see all that work the local farmers went to to grow such magnificent crops.

 On the 19th we pulled in to Nauvoo, IL to visit more historic LDS church sites.  We camped at the State Park in town so we were close to everything.  That afternoon we toured Carthage Jail where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred.  It was a very moving experience for me.  I hope the kids understood what it was they were experiencing.  On the way back to Nauvoo from Carthage, we crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa so Bree and Darcy could say they have been there.  We stayed on the Iowa side for a bit and found a great little park where we could get our feet in the river, and it also had an amazing view of the Nauvoo temple across the river.  What a beautiful temple it is and it has such a commanding presence sitting on the bluff.  Absolutely gorgeous.  We also saw the graves of Joseph, Hyrum, and Emma Smith that evening in Nauvoo.

 Saturday morning Paul got up early to get us tickets for events throughout the day in Nauvoo.  My parents said it was an all day place to visit and they weren't kidding.  We took a horse-drawn wagon ride through the historic part of the city and the kids loved the horses.  That was pretty fun.  We also toured some of the homes where there was an example of a school room from the 1840's, a post office, a brick making place where we got to take home a brick with "Nauvoo" stamped into it, a horse-drawn carriage ride through the countryside, and a tour of Browning's home and workshop where he made his famous rifles.  Pretty interesting, I didn't know he was a Mormon.  We also saw a musical play put on by performing missionaries about life there in the 1800's.  Darcy was thrilled with it.  I was having more fun watching her than the play I think. I was able to do a session at the Temple (AWESOME) while Paul made mac and cheese for the kids and bought souvenirs at the little store in town.  That evening we watched the Nauvoo Pageant.  It was smaller than the Hill Cumorah Pageant but I think we might have liked it better.  Well, the four oldest of us did.  The two little girls were asleep right after it started.  They had a long, hot, day and were beat.  Today we went to church at 8am (UGH) and then left town.  It was a great place to visit and I'm glad we were able to spend so much time there.

 We arrived in Missouri (my 48th state!) this afternoon, found a place to camp, dropped off the trailer, and headed to St. Louis.  We were able to ride the tram up to the top of the Arch and it was pretty cool.  I was surprised but happy that it felt quite stable at the top and wasn't blowing around in the wind.  That is the highest monument in the US.  All the kids enjoyed looking down through the little windows at the top, but it got pretty crowded so we only spent about 20 minutes up there, most of it in line to catch a tram back down.  Great experience though, and Paul made sure we crossed under the arch from the east to the west when we got back to the ground.  This is where we say goodbye to all the old brick historic looking cities and move west into prairie and all that stuff.  First though we will go south tomorrow so I can go to Kansas and Paul and I can cross into Oklahoma, finally hitting our 50th state.  I think its kind of cool that we both have the same one as our last.  Cute!

Things I have learned this week on the road:

1) The time zones are all messed up.  Paul is sick of hearing me complain about them, and I guess there is no perfect solution, but Michigan is in the eastern time zone and it doesn't get dark till well after 10 pm this time of year.  Meanwhile, Atlantic City, NJ is also in the eastern time zone and it was dark at 8:30.  Doesn't make any sense to me.  I think Michigan should be in the Central time zone.  Also, western Texas has no business being in the Central time zone, it should be in the Mountain time zone.  I guess you really don't see the disparity in it all when you stay in one place, but while traveling like we have it is easy to see what a mess it is.

2) Mason now is deciding on a new career path.  He no longer wants to be a Ranger or an astronaut.  He is now considering being either the President or a farmer.

3) As we drive by the beautiful corn and soybean fields of the midwest, with the quaint farmhouses and silos, it makes me think I could be a farmer out here too.  And then I see that it is only 8:30am and its already 86 degrees with 100% humidity, and I smile as I turn up the AC and drive on by.

4) I have learned not to sweat the small stuff.  If my "orange juice" (diet Sunkist) doesn't make it in the fridge the night before so it isn't cold for me in the morning, I just grab a Dr Pepper instead.  No reason to get worked up about it. 

I need to check a couple of my facts from my last post.  I have actually been in Michigan 4 times now and there is something wrong with the weld on the tires of the trailer that went flat.  Thanks Paul for keeping me honest.