The Wild West

Today was a special family day and we were so excited to do it! Knowing that Pete was going to only be home with us for a couple short weeks, we wanted to do something fun with just the 5 of us, so I began looking around for something in this area that we could do that was more original than a simple trip to the zoo. My friend Gwen had told me a while ago about an old wild west town in northern Illinois, so I took to the web and found Donley's Wild West Town( http://www.wildwesttown.com/ ). So, we headed up there today and it was a ball!!



Of course, you can't go to the wild west without the appropriate attire, so we decked the kids out in cowboy hats and bandannas. Livie wore her cowgirl vest and Noah had his handcuffs and sherriff's badge. Cute 'lil cowpokes, aren't they? :-)

The drive was a little long, about an hour and a half, but it was worth it! The kids were ready to go!

First thing that greeted them was this big stuffed buffalo. Hard to believe there used to be millions of these giant things all over the west. What a loss to our country to lose so many of these amazing animals!

We took a ride in a carousel and checked out this teepee.

Then headed over to try our hand at lassoing. Noah was pretty good at it!

Livie tried lassoing too, but had more fun riding the cows instead. ;-)

Madie got it down after a few shots too.

We wandered around a bit and checked some stuff out, but thought boarding the train was an easier way to see the whole town. Here are the kids and Pete waiting for it to pull into the station.

Livie and Daddy sat behind us, while Madie and Noah sat up front with me and another mom and daughter duo. They were from Montana! I asked them why they came out here, when they already LIVE in the wild west, but they were on a 2-week trek going all sorts of places. Sounded like quite an adventure for them!

After getting an idea of all that was there, we headed to another section (the town is divided into 2 sections by a row of houses/shops). We stopped by the petting zoo and the kids all got their chance to feed the goats.

They were very eager for all that yummy feed!

They had a bunny, sheep, pig, ornery geese, and some shy chickens as well.

Then came the pony rides. Noah rode like a pro and loved it!!

This was Livie's first time on a pony and her pony was the smallest. Told her it was just her size. :-) She thought it was just great!

Madie loved it too!

I tried to get a shot of the backside of the town. It's just such a fun place and full of great activities.

We got to pan for gold and they were always so excited to find a little nugget in their pan. They each found 5-6 pieces and put them in their little bags to bring home.

This originally was going to be a shot of just the kids on the horse, but Noah got a little nervous being up so high, so we got Daddy in there too. :-)

After all that fun, which included a real wild west gunfight!, we headed over to the steakhouse for some grub! And, boy, was it delicious!!

We decided after being there for a few hours, it was time for the kids to get sent to jail. All that orneriness had to be caged up for a while. Noah tried to escape, but the sheriff wouldn't let them out until they sang him a song, so they finally did and were released.

They tried their hand at driving a wagon. Did a pretty good job at it! Of course, it's not nearly as hard to drive when the horses aren't moving..... or real for that matter!

They gave archery and cork-gun shootin' a try. Weren't very successful at either, but they gave it their best shot. Most of the time, during the archery, they shot not only their arrows, but their bows as well!

We stopped by the Rock and Mineral Shop and got ourselves a bag of beautiful rocks.

They had a big play area of old western houses and Noah took that opportunity to claim himself as sheriff of those parts and promptly arrested his sisters and took them to jail. Wondering how long he's been waiting to do that!

What "Wild West" experience would be complete without a visit to the saloon?! They got to sit on real saddles when they saddled up to the bar. We drank up some water, lemonade, then hit the hard stuff - blue raspberry saspiralla!

Wonder if cowgirls back then were as cute as this one right here?! ;-)

Only takes a saddle to get these kids to be taller than me already!

Madie took this one of Pete and I. :-)

The kids did the hand cars and a visited the Blacksmith shop before we had to head home. The weather was wonderful, though we felt a few raindrops, and we had such a great time!

Here's a little video excerpt of the Wild West Show we saw. They use real guns with blanks, so the popping sound was SO loud! It was funny and exciting and the kids loved it! Probably our favorite part of the day. Yee-Haw!

Camp Finale

Today was the last day of Madie's camp. On the last day, all the parents are invited to come and see a big presentation of all the different majors that week.



Here's Madie as she got ready for all the other students to file in. She was so excited for us to be there!

Her group was up first and they went down the row and had the kids tell what special rocks they found. All the while, there was a slideshow behind them. That's Madie' in the middle - the short one with blue pants.

After all the groups had gone, we all went outside to see the rockets being launched by the students in that class. They did a great job this year! All went off without a hitch! We had to stop for celebratory ice cream on the way home too, of course. It was a fun afternoon, made better by the fact that Pete was here to join us. :-)

Here's the video of Madie talking about the shark teeth she found. She's the only one who said her name and really gave it her all! :-)

Home.

After 19 VERY long days, Pete has finally returned. YAY!



We have VBS all week, so he was due to return while we were there. But, we didn't want him to not get a proper welcoming home, so the kids and I made signs and put them up in front of our front door. Please excuse all the debris. I really need to get a broom out there and sweep! Anyway, got the signs up, which I'm sure was fun for him to get around. Even I had to duck!

But, we headed off to VBS and later got a text that he was home. So, when it was over at 8:30-ish, the kids were playing and hanging around and I said, "Hey, don't you think we should get home and say hi to daddy?" Well, that's all it took! They ran to the door, ran to the parking lot, and ran to the van. Once we got home, they ran inside and started screaming and hugging. Those are Noah's arms wrapped around him in the back. He was so happy about Pete being home, he said, "I think I'm going to cry, I'm so happy!" and he did. He got really choked up and just made me smile to think of my sweet boy so filled with joy.

Pete had laid out all the goodies he got us. He got Madie this doll, which doesn't look Chinese at all, but she loved it nonetheless. :-) Also got her a hair clip, which is down by her elbow on the table.

He got Noah a couple of jade balls and a rubix cube with 4 sides of 4, not the normal 3 sides of 3. He thought it was awesome!

And, Livie got a hair clippy and this dancing frog. She was thrilled! Of course, I got another beautiful purse and he got a couple things for his dad and mine. But, most of all, we're just glad to have him home. He's only home until the 9th, so we're going to soak in as much family time as we can, between all the busyness of camps and VBS and, well, LIFE! ;-)

Ed'Venture Camp

Yesterday started Madie's Ed'Venture Camp at IVCC (our local community college). The same place Noah had his lego camp. She went last year and just LOVED it! You get to pick a "major" that you to in the mornings each day, the different "minors" in for the afternoons. It's a little like going to college and it's just so fun! The major she picked this year was "Reading the Rocks" which is all about geology and they're going on a field trip to an area around the college to look for different kinds of rocks and fossils. And, if you know my daughter, she loves 2 things - the arts (singing, acting, dancing) and looking for rocks! So she is totally in her element.



We got their by 9am yesterday and today and got her signed in. Can you tell she's excited?!



This was a shot of half of the students waiting in their groups to get started. Don't know if you can see her, but she's at the very left in the black capris and she is easily a full head and a half shorter than everyone in her group! It's so funny! Don't know where she gets that from. ;-)




Camp lasts 6 hours every day, so we headed over to pick her up around 3. Yesterday, when I took this picture, she had just left her first minor class called "Feathered Friends". All about birds and bird-watching. They were given these bird feeders and a bird pamplet and got to go outside, use binoculars, and look for birds. She's really gotten into this lately and just had a ball. Today is Native American weaving. Excited to see what she brings home! On Thursday, camp ends, and instead of doing a minor that day, the entire camp does a presentation of all the majors that week. There are about 8-9 of them. We all get to go and see a slide show and everything. We love it and so does she, because that means she's on stage and there's no place she'd rather be than on the stage. So, I'll take more pictures at that. Until then, she'll just enjoy her fun-filled camp where she's learning all kinds of new and exciting things!

Chattin'

Can anyone guess what the kids are doing here? Gathered around the computer screen? Not talking with Pete. Nope. We had an extra-special surprise late this afternoon that had the kids very excited! While getting ready to go to VBS, we happened to find that my Aunt Phyl and Uncle David happened to be online. So, I asked the kids if they wanted to Skype with them and they came barrelling into the bedroom to chat with them. I sent them a quick message and within a few seconds we heard the familiar sound of someone calling us. It took a few tries to get it to work. Haiti's not known for having the best skyping connections, but we finally got them and the kids were talking their ears off! They all want to see lizards and tarantulas (gross, right?!), but there were none to be found at that moment. And, I'm sure that's to my Aunt's great delight! Don't think even 35 yrs of being down there makes dealing with tarantulas any easier! I didn't get to stay for the entire conversation, because we were getting ready to leave for VBS and I had to get a few things ready, but Aunt Phyl chatted with them and then turned the camera over to Uncle David and they got to chat with them. Right before we were disconnected again, Aunt Phyl had taken the computer outside the house and was showing them the flowers and stuff. They were SOOO excited! The kids have been very interested in Haiti, especially after the earthquake, because it was such a topic of the news, at school and church, and they could relate to that, because their aunt and uncle were down there. Now, they pray about Haiti all the time and always want to give things to Haiti. When we got our new TV recently, Livie said, "We should give the old one to Haiti." :-) Like I said, Haiti is always on their minds. So, to talk to them and know they were talking to them in Haiti was a real treat and very exciting for them. Unfortunately, as I said before, we got disconnected, so it was a brief conversation, but they enjoyed it a lot and are excited to chat with them again sometime. So amazing to me that we can talk to each other, let alone SEE each other, while we talk. Not to mention, do it for FREE! I can totally remember my mom getting up at like 5 am, so she could talk to Phyl before the rates got higher at 6am. And, even then, the conversations by phone were brief, because they were difficult to make and very expensive, even at that crazy hour of the morning. I believe she even did the old HAM radios. And, here, my kids are able to see them - albeit sketchy and out-of-focus - and talk to them like they're down the street. Unbelievable! I think Skyping is without a doubt the new, best way to communicate. And, we never would've done it had Pete never gone to China. So, guess there are a couple good things about him going over there! Anyway, a fun chat with a great couple of people. Let's just hope that next time, Phyl doesn't follow through with the "We'll skype again when I have a lizard and tarantula.". Though, I'm sure my kids would go nuts for it!

The Excitement is Building!

This is my new message center. Courtesy of Target. :-)



I've been wanting a message center to keep all the kids activites and school stuff straight. I have our main calendar on the frig that I put everything on, but the little clippy I had on the side of the frig that held all their baseball, dance, church, school papers and information sheets on was just not convenient to use. So, I found these boards and got them up and ready to go. We've been using the bottom right board as our countdown to Pete's return.

Noah keeps adding things to it each day. He added a "Yay" to the smiley face and today he added "Less then a week!!!!" to the bottom. Yep. The excitement is building as we anticipate the return of Daddy!

Lego Camp

Today was the last day of Noah's Lego Camp at our local community college. It's actually not really "local". It's about 40 min from here, but he LOVED it and driving that way back and forth every day didn't deter him at all from enjoying it fully. Wish I had taken time to go and take pictures of him actually working on the projects, but he didn't do it in a classroom nearby. They gathered in the lobby of one of the main buildings and then walked the group back, so I wasn't able to get pictures. But, each day he came home telling us of the fun stuff he built from windmills to cars to cranes. All of the lego inventions were motorized and he thought that was really cool! Challenged his mind and his skills and worked on his science and math in the process - two of his favorites! He got this cool certificate at the end today to show that he's an experienced Lego builder now. Way to go, Noah!

China Update

While talking to Pete on Skype today, he showed me what it looked like outside his hotel room in Tianjin. This is not fog, people. This is SMOG! It was 8am over there when I took this picture. Ugh. Can't imagine waking up to that. Won't be quite so quick to be annoyed with this sunshine and hot weather now!

This has been a busy week for him. They've been working 6 days a week from 7:30 when the bus leaves until dinnertime or later - depending on if they have to attend a banquet. He's got the day off today, so they are hitting a local market, then going bowling! Should be a fun day off for them all. Hopefully he'll take a few pictures of his first Chinese bowling experience. Wonder if it'll be at all different from our American bowling? He misses us a lot and we miss him, but starting tomorrow our countdown is in the single digits! Yay! This trip has been harder on us than it has been in the past. Mostly because it's so soon after his last trip and even longer than that one as well. Plus, knowing he'll be gone again next month kind of sits in the back of our minds and makes it feel like this journey we've been on this summer isn't over yet. But, he feels like they are making good progress over there and he's with some of his buddies too, which helps.

I will say this about the trips he's been going on, I've never realized what amazing friends we have here. Not having family close enough to help can sometimes be hard. I try not to be a whiner and complain about how tough it can be sometimes. But, to be honest, having 3 kids home all day, every day, without a help mate can be tiresome at best. But, I have had such an outpouring of offers from my friends with this trip. They can see through this "I can do it myself" facade and have offered so much to me and my kids. Of course, getting me to accept the offers isn't easy. I hate putting people out, but I'm working on that. I know in my heart that these gestures are made out of love, not obligation. Our friend Jayson has been mowing the grass for me since Pete's been gone. Made him cookies as payment and he was happy as could be with something as simple as that. Had several people offer to have us come over and play in the pool, to take the kids for a movie night or a trip to the zoo, so I can have time to myself. Wow. Just such an outpouring of kindness from our friends and I cannot tell you how much it means to me. Pete and I have lived here for 10 yrs now and never have we felt more at home than we have these past few years. We have a loving church family and wonderful friends who help out their neighbors and it warms my heart. Growing up in Royal Center, we didn't have family around. They were, in fact, a lot farther than just the 3 hours that separate us from our families here, so my parents often had to rely on the kindness of their friends. Those friends remain dear to us still and I see that same thing happening with our friends today. So, yes, this is an update on China and how Pete's trip is going, but it's also to thank God for giving us such amazing friends, that would help us with anything, without a moment of hesitation. We are so blessed!

iCarly Fun

iCarly is the kids new favorite show. They've recorded over 50 episodes of it on our DVR. I'm not joking. They watch it every chance they get and since Pete's been gone, it's been pretty often! iCarly diversions are keeping my sanity in place. ;-) Anyway, I noticed one day that Livie was doing this hysterical dance to the theme song. She tries to do the moves that they are doing on screen and it's so cute! I got a short video of all 3 of them dancing to it. Thought I'd share it here.

Emptying the Piggy Banks

The kids got some extra dollars yesterday (Thanks Nana and Papa!) and decided it was time to spend all those dollars they had been collecting in their piggy banks! I want to preface this entry by saying none of these outfits were chosen by their mother. This was all their own doing - even after some pleading about wardrobe changes before we left. They were sticking to their choices, so the pumpkin socks and fedora were totally their ideas.



They each counted up their money and found that they had between $25-35 a piece! They were very excited!

Target was the store of choice, so we headed over there and spent QUITE a long time making the decisions about what to buy. Ran into a couple of friends, which added to the time, but it was a successful shopping adventure.

The kids counted out the money for their purchases, all staying under budget, and walked out with bags of goodies! Noah got a purple nunchuck for the Wii. Livie got a Fancy Nancy doll set, shirt, and baby outfit. Her wonderful big brother even gave her $3 of his own dollars, so she could buy a little baby doll. :-) Madie bought 3 Chicxos sets and has been playing with them since we've been home. Oh, and the cart beside them was all the goodies I got. ;-) My friend Jennifer who was there just happened to mention at the end of our adventure that the outdoor stuff was 50% off, so I went back and found several fun things of my own. If Pete asks about them, I'm just blaming her. ;-)

We didn't want to leave without hitting the mall and getting some soft pretzels! They were so delicious and thought of Pete the whole time we were eating them. Noah got the one with a hot dog inside - Pete's favorite! So, we wished he had been there with us. It was a fun afternoon spending our piggy bank money. Thanks to Nana and Papa D for all those dollars!

Visits

Since we (the kids and I) had the week off, we decided to head back to IN for a short visit. Nana T was up in Chicago with Trevor and Ty, so we headed up there to spend a couple hours with them and then bring her home with us.



The only picture I took was of them playing Wii together. The reason why I only took 1 picture? Because the rest of the time they were outside, gathering cicadas and their shells to make a bug potion! Yeah. Not an easy thing for Aunt Lori to handle, let me tell you!! Our visit with them was a quick, but fun one. Always love seeing our nephews - even if cicadas are involved!

Then we headed home, but not before stopping for dinner at Red Robin. None of us had ever been there, but we all really enjoyed it! Noah couldn't get over the fact that there was a tv in the bathroom. That made it a pretty cool place for him!

The next day we just hung out with Nana and Papa T. We enjoyed sitting on the porch, while the kids rode their bikes and scooters in the driveway. It was a beautiful day and sooo relaxing!

Then we headed up to Goshen for a visit with the Drexler side. Here is sweet Kendalyn. She gave me so many smiles! It was terrific!!

I spent all of Tuesday working on cleaning and straightening up mom's kitchen. The reason I wanted to go back was to have time to organize at their house. Mom can't do it really and dad doesn't have time, so I decided with our free week to get some stuff done around there. I threw away over 6 bags of stuff and didn't really even finish it, but we made good progress and was glad to see how much counter space they have now! I took a picture of the above to showcase the two special items we found in the pantry. A dip packet from 1996 and the cinnamon container that we've had since the early 80s. It was time to say goodbye to both, though Em was sad to see the cinnamon baseball guy go. I'm a little disappointed in myself, because I didn't take a "Before" and "After" shot, but I'll probably do more organizing when I'm there next time and can take pictures then. All in all, we had a good time and had safe travels and managed to get a lot accomplished. :-)