Mid-West Road Trip Part IV

Hi everyone,
I thought I'd finish out my posts from our road trip through the Mid-West. I think I left off at Mount Rushmore so I have a bit to catch you up on. After leaving South Dakota we headed down to the Colorado area to stay with Uncle Greg and Aunt Shireen for a few days. It was nice to meet their little dog, Ginger, and have a place to call home from a few days that didn't have wheels on it.

Unfortunately, within a half hour of pulling up my stomach flu made a re-appearance. I got some sleep and was still yucky the next morning so we just took it easy and hung around the house. The next day we visited the Red Rocks Amphitheater which was pretty amazing! We could have enjoyed Sting in concert that night but Mom and Dad didn't want to spend $150 a ticket. I wonder why?

I know that was a lot of pictures, but the rocks were so massive it was hard to pick which photos showcased them the best. It really was an amazing sight, and even more amazing was that it was pretty much just a big stairstepper for the locals. A bunch of them drive there to do their fitness routines. I think I would have gotten dizzy running along the steps, turning, then running back again up all those stairs, but I guess that's why I wasn't choosing to exercise.

It sure was fun visiting with Uncle Greg and Aunt Shireen! They live in a beautiful area and it was fun to finally see the place that they call home.

Until next time . . .

First Fruits

Hi everyone,

An abundantly producing garden is a beautiful thing! We have been loving the harvest that is coming from our backyard. How fun to watch the seeds sprout up through the ground and get bigger, and bigger, and bigger just in time to pick them! Yummy!

Hopefully by the time you read this we'll have figured out what we are going to be doing for a summer and fall garden and gotten started on at least the summer planting.

Until next time . . . 

Master Baker and Decorator

Hi everyone,

Back to cookies. Remember a few weeks back when I told you that our preschool theme was cookies. Mom let me look through her cookie cookbooks to pick the recipe that I wanted to make. She wasn't surprised when I picked the train sugar cookies, but I think she was a little disappointed because she wanted to see what I gravitated toward in the way of cookie varieties. She might have wanted something a bit more challenging too, or at least different from what we've been making lately, but oh well, when something catches your eye you've just got to go with it or nothing will ever quite measure up.

We made train cookies at the same time that mom made starfish cookies for some thank you goodie bags. Even though I didn't help out much on the cookies, because I was heading to bed, I did get to help out on the decorating. What do you think of my train car cookies?

Still working on my technique!

So proud of my creation!

The seal of approval!

Until next time . . .

Mid-West Road Trip - Part III

Hi everyone,

We stopped in at the Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota on our trek across the state. We had too. There were billboards as soon as you crossed the border on the opposite side of the state that hyped it up. Of course, we had to see what all the hype was. I can now give my honest opinion having experienced it, which is that it really is not worth the hundreds of billboards that we were forced to read in our journey across the state. I did manage to convince my parents to buy me a cowboy hat though. Now I can be Dad's mini me.

 

Mount Rushmore was awe-inspiring though, and definitely worth the trip! We managed to get our trailer set up in time to make it to the mountain at dusk. The drive there was incredible, going through one lane tunnels and on spiral roadways. The spiral roads were a first for all of us! The only disappointing part was that the informational program the rangers put on was having technical difficulties so we didn't get to see it.

Until next time . . .

Mid-West Road Trip - Part II

Hi everyone,

Our Mid-West adventure continues! After leaving the Fargo-Moorhead area we headed down through South Dakota. Our hope was to reach Mount Rushmore before dinnertime but I seemed to have acquired a stomach bug which reared it's ugly head that morning as we were packing up to leave. Needless to say, we didn't make it to Mount Rushmore. We ended our day about 250 miles short of our original destination.

We did get to experience our second Mid-West thunderstorm though, and boy are they awesome! This particular one was tamer than the one we experienced in Shelly and we were able to drive through it and come out to somewhat dry ground on the other side.

After falling asleep that night and then waking up the next morning feeling fine, we decided to try out the waterslide at the indoor pool. Boy, was that fun! I could have gone down it over and over and over again. I was a bit disappointed when it was time to pack up and head out for Mount Rushmore.

Until next time . . .

Mid-West Road Trip - Part 1

Hi everyone,

We interrupt this previously scheduled posting to share a bit about our Mid-West road trip. Our first few days were pretty much spent in the truck driving through to Shelly, Minnesota. I was a pretty good traveler. We typically drove from about 10am to about 10pm and I didn't take any naps on this leg of the trip. That meant that I crashed hard at the end of the day when we were almost to our destination but that allowed Mom and Dad to set up the trailer without me trying to help out.

While we were there we were able to visit with some family and friends we haven't seen in a long time.

                           Uncle Dan (Dad's oldest brother),
                         Auntie Mel (Dad's sister), and Dad           Three generations of car lovers

                                                      Grandpa Leland (Dad's Dad) and Me


                            Auntie Mel and 4 of her kids + Me
                               (Caleb, Isaiah, Leslie, Daniel)                  Auntie Mel, Dad, and Me

 

                              Milissa (Auntie Mel's daughter)          Wade (Dad's friend) and Cheryl
                                reading me a bedtime story            

I'll leave you with a few photos of some of the super healthy food we consumed while on our road trip. I think I just might have a complete collection of happy meal toys after this trip!

 Until next time . . .

Runnin' in the Sun

Hi everyone,

We had a great time over on the east side of the mountains back in the middle of May. I know it's kind of late to be posting about it but that's what happens when you get behind, the behind ball just keeps rolling. Anyway, we headed over to visit with family and give Mom a chance to do her half marathon. She did well, although she didn't break any records or anything. She said it was pretty hot weather for her to be running in so she was just glad she finished. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post because she accidentally deleted them before they transferred over to the computer. Yes, even though she may not have liked a few of them it really was an accident.

After the run, we were able to meet up with Uncle Brad, Aunt Shawna, Summer, and Sam. I don't get to see them often so it was fun to be able to hang out with them for the whole day. After teaching them "C is for cookie" so they could get it stuck in their head as well, we ended up hanging around for the Lilac Festival parade. It was huge! There were so many people lining the streets it was amazing. The favorite thing to do before the parade for the kids my age was to push other kiddos around in the stroller. Here I am with my cousin, Sam, who is about 2 months younger than me.

There were over 200 entries in this torchlight parade and they had actual floats and everything. I probably should mention that even though there were over 200 entries I really only saw just about 100 of them because I ended up falling asleep. Yes, if you can believe it, I stayed sound asleep even when the fire engines went by with their sirens blaring. I also stayed asleep as the marching bands passed and stopped right in front of me with their drum section (much to mom and dad's displeasure). Slept right through. I even slept through them putting me in my stroller and wheeling me to the car. I was disappointed that I didn't get to see the final fire engines but I was easily consoled as I fell back asleep.

Until next time . . .

C is for Cookies

Hi everyone,

Who wouldn't love to read books about cookies, draw pictures of cookies, bake and decorate cookies, and of course, eat cookies! That was our theme for preschool a few weeks ago and I was all in on that one.

We read a book where Clifford gives into temptation and eats a giant cookie, and while it wasn't the best moral lesson it sure got us craving a giant cookie! Cravings should not go unanswered, I say, so I grabbed the candy bag and started measuring for our recipe.

You can see below my different methods at rolling the cookie out. I started with a non-chalant one handed strategy, but then moved into a two handed, and finally ended with a two handed with some weight behind it.

Don't you love those wrists that at times still look a bit chubby? How cute is that!

Ta da! The "C is for cookie" saying came from my song for the week. I was introduced to Cookie Monster singing his rendition of it on youtube and we had that thing in our heads forever, at least it seemed like forever. It still haunts me in my dreams!

Until next time . . .