Vacation Adventures!!

Well, I am sitting in the camper listening to the rain while in the Rocky Mountains. We have been gone for a little over a week and already have lots of stories to tell. We loved our time in the Black Hills of South Dakotah. We have been there before but this time we stayed in a campground near Hill City and really enjoyed the area around there. It is basically south of Rapid City SD. The only bad thing was that we had storms three nights in a row. Bad Ones, too. It hailed twice!! The camper keeps amazing us at its durability. We lay in bed listening to the wind, rain, lightening and thunder and wonder when it will just fall on our heads and yet we wake up and all is well.

Next we drove through Wyoming and stayed at a hotel one night. YEAH! I was so glad to get in out of the rain and actually have a bathroom within a few feet of the bed for one night. Wyoming is beautiful in its own way. There is so much space and you can see for miles and miles that we could see the storms we missed and the one we didn't. Then on to Denver and car trouble.

Correction: tire trouble. We were set to arrive in Colorado Springs early when we almost had a blowout on the camper. Justin was able to change the stripped tire in the blazing heat of a Denver highway. That tire trouble cost us 3 hours so we arrived when we originally planned. You may not know that the reason we went to Co. Springs was for the wedding of Justin's mom to a man from San Diego. His daughter lives in C.S. so the wedding was there - halfway for all of us. Well, we met our new cousins, and in-laws and really enjoyed ourselves for a few hours. The fun stopped (at least for a few of us) when Hannah fell on the trampoline and broke her arm. Thankfully the hospital was close but it was a slow night in the Pediatric unit so we had to wait for a nurse to arrive before we got a room. Then we had to determine when the best time for surgery was. Because she had eaten right before the accident she couldn't have surgery until at least 7 hours later. That was 3 am...so we decided to just wait until 6 so we could sleep a little. We finally got into the room at 1:30am and thought Hannah would like a movie to settle her in. I thought we'd watch a little and then she'd be out. Well, needless to say she watched the whole movie and we really didn't get to sleep until 3:30am. Surgery was at 6:45am. They came and got us up at 5:30am to get ready. Surgery went really well, and fast but she was in a lot of pain when she came to. The rest of the morning we watched tv and moved her toward discharging.

The wedding started at 1pm and I wanted to at least see a little. We arrived just when everyone was mingling around after the ceremony. Hannah was a trooper. She was really funny in the hospital - a bit demanding - but really she just did not want anyone touching her arm.

Now, what is it three (I can't keep track) days later she is still in a bit of pain but back to regular activities. She broke the upper arm, just above her elbow so her cast is from her wrist to half way to her shoulder.

We drove in to Estes Park Colorado tonight and were in awe. It is so beautiful here and I love the smells. It brings me back to when I was a kid and we camped here. I am struggling a bit with the altitude but hopefully tomorrow it will be better.

Summer is here..

Summer officially starts tomorrow and I am a bit nervous. While I love all three of them they are really crazy all together! We are off this week to Wisconsin and then we head west the following week. I love the travelling and time away from the day to day, ie laundry, dirty toilets and unloading the dishwasher. I always have these goals of books we are going to read in the car and then the pull of the dvd player is too strong to resist. I do have Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time to read to everyone so I hope we'll get that one read by August. Well, laundry calls.

Oops I forgot to post on Hannah's b-day!

Here is our newly graduated (from Kindergarted) and newly 6 year old! Hannah was such a momma's girl. She wouldn't let anyone else hold her but me. She also had another curious habit of putting her hands up my sleeves whenever I held her. She is certainly a tactile kid. She has grown into an exuberant, fun, creative kid who I am proud of.

Gearing up for another birthday

In a way I am glad that these birthday's have come now because the house was getting pretty messy! Caleb's birthday was a bit crazy with so many kids here, but it was also fun to see him interact with all his friends. We invited all the girls in Hannah's class and a few other's for this week. She is so fickle with her likes and dislikes that this party has no real theme. I found some generic invites on clearance so we sent them out just in time. I need to plan both parties at the same time next year so Hannah's is ready to go right after Caleb's.

I was telling Abby that a party she went to recently was this boy's first party with friends and she couldn't imagine that. They have been conditioned that they get a party every year. Is that good or bad?

Four years ago today!

This morning this is my conversation with Caleb:

Me: Caleb, do you know what today is? It is your Birthday! Happy Birthday Bud!

Caleb: Really? Are you kidding? Are you serious?

Me: Yep, it is today!

Caleb: Really, I am four now?

Me: Yep, you are really four!

Caleb: I am not three anymore?

Me: Nope, not three anymore

Caleb: I want to be three still...

Sound familar Kellie? He is my crazy, fun, funny, silly boy. When he was born it was so bittersweet. I have always sang the song (which refers to Scripture) that says "He gives and Takes away" He gave us Caleb four years ago! What a crazy kid. I will just list a few things he has either destroyed or broken or lost: cd cases, washcloths down the tub drain, toys down the toilet, the thermostat set to 80 yesterday, countless toys and books, papers, the girls' homework just to name a few.

He also says the craziest things...the other day he said that something "tickled my feelings", He just said to me (with a toy gun in my face) "Maybe I can be of assistance" I am not kidding!

Community garden

One thing I have been thinking about a lot is a community garden that some folks at our church want to build. It is so exciting thinking about summer and flowers! I went to the farmer's market last week and oh, do I love that! The energy there is so amazing! All that discussion about growing things, sinking my hands in the dirt just makes me tingle with anticipation for seeing this garden finished. Our plan is to prepare it and get all the policies done so that next summer we can offer it as true community space. This is a whole new world, too! Raingardens, and rain barrels, were the topics of a seminar I went to this week. There are two more in the coming weeks on planning a garden and starting a community garden. Whew!

Sometimes when I think about where we live and what our winters are like I do wonder why...but then spring arrives and I know!! I love this place! Just having the long hard winters just make us Minnesotans all the more thankful for spring and summer. It makes us find contentment where we are!

Wiped out

I think it was Monday that the pain set in. Now it is Wednesday and my head feels like it could explode at any point. I think it is just head cold but wow I have not felt this bad for a long time! I sat down with Caleb today and told him today about what was happening when he was born and it was fun to talk to him about my mom.