The Wednesday Write-Up

-The kids and I are missing summer break. Getting up early and getting back into a routine has been a challenge. Greta starts four year old preschool next week and it's three days a week this year. I'll have some free time to myself soon which I'm looking forward to. She got to go meet the other kids in her preschool class at the open house and all the little girls are about as shy as she is so we had a play date yesterday with them to get the girls warmed up to each other before school starts. They had a blast. She's excited about school which makes me a happy mom. We are going to miss our summer ice cream breaks. This was one with Alex and Abby.

-We took the Ford Edge on our trip to New Mexico and it did great for the most part. We did encounter an issue where it decided to loose power while driving. Sean pushed on the gas pedal and nothing happened. Luckily this happened on the outing to the lake and the road had no traffic. We pulled over, turned it off and let it sit, started it up and it worked fine. It was a little disconcerting, but it didn't happen again for the whole trip home. Then I went to get groceries the day after we got home and it did it again while I was on the dirt roads. Bummer. So Sean deducted that it was a throttle body issue and would probably be covered under the power train warranty. Wrong, apparently the throttle body is part of the fuel delivery system and is not covered under warranty. So my handy husband ordered the part and installed it in under an hour. Thanks Sean!

-We are finally getting the traditional summer heat we are used to....but have been lucky enough to miss out on most of the summer. It's dog gone hot. In fact, it's too hot to have dogs outside. We have three indoor dogs right now and I think it's going to be a new tradition. The neighbor behind us decided to buy a cannon (I wish I was kidding) and he fires it off at least once or twice a week. I suppose I could be grateful it's not daily because it is so LOUD. If I'm outside it's defining and if you are inside the house it makes the whole house shake. Our setter, who is terrified of normal gunfire, just about kills herself trying to find a way inside. She proceeded to break one of our windows in the process a couple of weeks ago. So, yeah.....they are now inside dogs. Which is fine, the stress level with never knowing when or if she'll go nuts is lower with her indoors. I should send our cannon owning redneck neighbor the bill for the broken window. The joys of living in the country.

Problem Solvers

The problem: Favorite red frisbee recently acquired for birthday is stuck in a tree.

The plan: Have sister stabilize garden cart, stand on it and throw any and every item in the yard at stuck frisbee in attempt to dislodge it from said tree.

The reality: Every single item throw gets lodged in tree (including the metal mop stick in his hand).

I found this incredibly entertaining to watch from the living room window. I asked if they wanted help, they wanted to do it on their own. They eventually accepted help from their dad when he got home from work.  

Second Grade

My big kid is growing up so fast. Yesterday Wesley started second grade. Me, being the absent minded parent, didn't even photograph the poor kid on his first day of school. We got to school and all these parents are milling around with cameras documenting their childs first day back.....yeah and I just spaced out on that one. So this morning we photographed him for his second day of school (you know because he's in 2nd grade, makes sense right?). The kid is growing up, that's for sure.

Kindergarten, first and second grade pictures.

New Mexico Vacation 2014

Phew! I'm exhausted. We got home Sunday from our 2000+ mile road trip to New Mexico. Sean's folks live there and we haven't visited in nearly four years (we're such bad kids!). So we loaded up the new car with everything but the kitchen sink and off we went. The kids did excellent on the road thanks to the DVD players. I can't imagine the horrors of that long of a trip without them.

It was lovely seeing everyone. It's amazing how much kids grow in four years! My nieces are growing like weeds. It's really crazy. In fact, having all of the kids together was pure craziness. There were times the adults left the house because of the noise level of the kids. They had so much fun together.

Apparently getting kids between the ages of 4-7 to smile for the camera is impossible.

The weather was pretty damp a few of the days but we managed to get out to the lake for an afternoon which was really fun. We had beautiful weather and calm warm water. The kids got to go canoeing for the first time (really the first time in a boat) and they didn't want to get out at the end.

One of the traditions we do every time we get together is have all the grandchildren do painted hand prints on the wall of Granny Randi's studio. We have little tiny hand prints from when they were all out there as babies. It's pretty cute.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was the hummingbirds. We're used to seeing hummingbirds in Colorado when we are on vacation but it's really just one here and there. At my in laws house they have two feeders that they refill a couple of times a day. There were usually 15 birds at one time and who knows how many in the trees around the feeders. It was awesome.

We had a great time and already miss everyone. It was a really nice relaxing vacation. Thank you Randi and Rich for hosting a wonderful family reunion.