Cooper, Rockets, Gunieas and Night Show

 Our pandemic pup Cooper finally got to the point where his hair was so long it was starting to get matted on his legs. My plan was to buy a shaver and learn how to shave him at home so I wasn't hauling him into the groomers ever other month. Apparently I put that off too long and decided to let someone who knew what they were doing give it a go. My parents highly recommended their groomer Jessica so I took him in and she worked her magic. Cooper looks like a whole different creature. He has eyes! Who knew? 

 

The fifth graders do a rocketry project each year and this year Greta got to decorate a rocket, put it together and shoot it off. I think it's a fun project for the kids and reminds me of doing the same thing each year when I was a kid in 4H. 

 

So the guinea fowl experiment came to a close last weekend. As you remember I got several guinea keets from the feed store and hatched several more out in the incubator. They were integrated into our chicken flock and all was going fairly smoothly. They were free ranging and returning to roost nightly with the chickens. The only downside is that they were incredibly LOUD. I mean I knew this from the beginning. I was warned by everyone that I told that they were loud creatures. I just wasn't prepared for the constant cackling. It was like we lived in Africa and there were these strange cackling calls all day. I had mentioned to the neighbors that if it ever got too loud for them to let me know. Well, they let me know in a text that it was a bit much. I agreed. I gave them to a guy that had a dwindling flock and needed more. I hope they have a good home. 

With COVID-19 on the rise the school has had to change up a few things. Once of them being the band and choir concerts. The band director came up with the idea to have an outdoor concert at the football stadium. We were all able to socially distance from each other while enjoying music. The kids did a great job! The high school band finished it up with night show. They turned off all of the stadium lights and attached glow sticks to their uniforms and preformed a fun show for us. 

Halloween 2020

 I think we are nearing the end of the Halloween trick or treating tradition. I think this was Wesley's last year (he's an 8th grader) and maybe a couple more years for Greta. I wasn't even sure if the city would allow trick or treating with COVID rates on the rise again, they had canceled the trunk-or-treating event. But we wore masks and felt pretty safe about the night. 

Greta found an inflatable pink flamingo that she really wanted to be and Wesley reused his awful caveman wig and beard to completely hide his identity since he was too cool for it all....but still wanted candy. 

We found out earlier in the day when she had her school Halloween parade that it's incredibly hard to walk in the flamingo suit so she ditched it that night and Aunt Jessica was kind enough to whip together another Jelly Belly costume so she and Abby could be twins (thank you Aunt Jessica, you rock!). 

 

Evie was Hermione from Harry Potter.

Wesley and Alex were unrecognizable, which was their intent.

Wheels

 About two months ago we did a thing. We decided to sell my Edge and the Mini Cooper. I had been looking at the possibility of getting a new (to me) car and had begun shopping for one. Sean said "if you are really serious about wanting a new car, perhaps we should sell some cars first". What we normally do is buy a car and then decide what to sell afterwards. I don't think I thought about it enough before posting those two cars online, but 24 hours later both were sold. It was crazy fast, definitely a sellers market. I was kind of shocked to be sitting there without my car. I mean we have cars, three left but those two were my main wheels....my main kid haulers. I was sad to see them go, I get attached to cars for some reason. If they stay too long there is a chance they will never be sold and will forever stay with me (for instance my old 98 Ford F-150 that I bought my freshman year in college). 

So I started the daunting task of car shopping. I feel car shopping is a love/hate thing. I really enjoy the aspect of getting something fresh and new to me but dealing with salesmen at dealerships is a lot of work. Especially if you put out interest to multiple dealerships all over the country as I did. I was getting text messages and emails all day for weeks. 

I wasn't even sure what I wanted to replace my daily driver with at the time. I was bouncing around on several vehicles but finally decided on a Wrangler. I've wanted one of those since I was a teenager (I think everyone does as some point in their lives). They aren't exactly practical but sometimes you just need to step outside your box and try something new. I really liked the convertible Mini we had, the fresh air and wind in your hair was really fun. The whole family enjoy those outings. I will always have a special spot in my heart for Mini Coopers and will probably own a Roadster at some point in my life but driving that lowered car on our gravel roads was too much. It was always dirty too, it was literally never clean. The black interior was dusty even if cleaned daily. It was just not a dirt road car. 

I figured a Jeep Wrangler would provide the fun, open air (if we wanted to) ride that the Mini provided but with the height of an SUV like my Ford Edge. So we started to hunt for them. We researched engines and decided on the 4.0 liter 6 cylinder motor in the TJ. They stopped making the TJ in 2006 so I wanted to find the newest low mileage one we could afford in our price range. I also didn't want to drive 1500 miles to pick one up. It took about 2 weeks but we found a 2004 with 77 thousand miles within a 3 hour drive. We took the car hauler trailer down with us since we weren't sure how it would do on the highway in the rain. 

 

I just think they are the cutest vehicles ever. I've always wanted a white one with a tan top (the new top is in a box in the garage as I write this). It's a good thing we brought the trailer as it had some suspension issues that needed to be fixed. It has (what we think) is a 3 inch lift and many of the parts needed to be replaced. Sean has been out there every weekend for the past three weeks replacing links or bushings or bars. He's such a good guy.

 

It's been quite the work in progress. It came with a set of Corbeau racing seats and a rhino lined interior. I decided to take the interior back to stock so I found a set of seats (it didn't have a back bench at all when we bought it) and carpets from a 2004 in a salvage yard, along with roll bar padding and covers (which had been removed). We were able to sell the racing seats (I wasn't a fan of the squeezed in feeling) and that paid for most of the replacement seats and back bench. I've been out there doing little things to customize it. I sprayed the D-rings red on the front and back. The inside panels on the half doors were the wrong tan for the year so I took them off, cleaned them up and sprayed them black with some vinyl paint. I put down sound deadener and a heat shield before putting in the carpet and seats. I figure anything to help it be quieter is a good thing.

 

The black soft top that came with it was in ok shape but the previous owner said the back window zipper was crap and if we took it out it probably wouldn't go back in. Sure enough we wanted to see it with the black top down and when we tried to put it all back together the zipper wouldn't work. What's the good of having a soft top that can't be opened? So we took it off and ordered a Bestop Trektop in tan. Looking forward to putting it on this week while it's sunny and in the 70's (soft tops are easiest to put on when they are warm and pliable, found that out from my Dad- thanks Dad!). It will just need an alignment from all the suspension work done and then it's ready for the road! It's just the cutest little Jeep ever.

 

 

Katy Trail Bike Trip

 A couple of weekends ago the kids and I piled into the truck and hauled our bikes out to Missouri to meet my family for a long bike ride along the KATY Trail. We've done this before, maybe three years ago, and decided to go again. This time Greta wanted to come along which was fun. She hasn't been a very confident bike rider up until this summer and I was excited she felt she could do this long of a trip. Honestly I think the hotel is what made her come along, she loves staying in hotels and swimming. But that's ok. 

We met my parents, my sister and her family and my dad's cousin and his wife at a campground along the bike trail. They all brought campers and tents while the kids and I stayed at a local hotel (we're not much for roughing it). Since we met at the campground it meant fun evenings around the campfire. It was a bit cold with the evenings in the 30's but we brought winter gear and the fire did a decent job of warming every one up. 

The next day we set out for a day of bike riding along the Katy Trail. It is an old railroad right of way that has been turned into a very nice bike trail. It's 237 miles long and is part of the "rails-to-trail" project. It's quite beautiful! We've now ridden it in spring and fall, both times equally beautiful. I believe we rode 20 miles and I was feeling it at the end. We had some bike problems along the way and I let Greta ride my bike to see if she liked it. She really liked it and took off leaving me to ride the remaining three miles back to the campground on her 24" (knee killing) bike. It was brutal on my already screaming knees and I ended up walking it mostly. It's time to get my tall girl onto an adult sized bike. I'm not sure my creaky old woman knees are going to allow me to do that bike ride anymore.

 

We came upon a closed section of the trail where the bridge washed out. We were afraid we would have to turn around but instead found a path that had been created across a low water bridge. It was down a rather steep embankment and was quite the detour but we were able to get back on the trail and continue the journey.  Wesley was excited that we bent the rules a bit to get around the washed out bridge.

 

The cousins loved these giant hay bale pigs they had all over the town of New Franklin, MO.