31 May, 2012

Texas Trip

Hello Everyone,
We got home from our trip last night around 9. The house was dark and looked very lonely and the dogs were very excited to see us back, not to mention my dog howled he was so excited! :) We unpacked what was necessary and went straight to bed. This morning we unloaded the van and brought everything into the house on a huge heap. It took a while getting everything sorted and put back into its spot. Even though we stopped on the way home and did around 12 loads of laundry at the laundry mat, we still had a few loads to do when we got home. 
The degrees soared up to 100 today, but I was surprised to here the little boys saying that it wasn't even hot outside. I stepped outside and realized what they meant. The heat without the humidity is nothing compared to what we experienced in Texas. :) There is a fire somewhere near, so the sky was all smokey today, making the sun red. There was no breeze today, so we paused when we were eating supper on the porch and the silenced seemed to almost engulf us. It is so dry here, it will be nice when our rains come! :)
Three chicks were hatched while we were gone and Koda grew a couple of inches. The garden went wild and the raspberries have bloomed and we are just waiting for the fruit to ripen. We picked a whole basket of fresh strawberries this morning and they were so good!! :) 
So yeah, life is starting to get back into full swing! 

The boys playing the ipods. The only thing that really helped to pass the time!

We left for Texas at 2:00 in the morning on the twentieth. We were all half asleep and we tried to fall back to sleep once we got to driving, but it is kinda hard to get comfortable when the van is full and there isn't much room. We survived though and we got bits of sleep here and there. We wanted to get to our Cousin's house in the evening, so we drove straight through. We arrived at their house around 8:30pm and sat down to an awesome meal. We all hit the bed early, so that we would be refreshed for the morning.

picking peas

We helped the girls pick peas in the morning and shelled them while they picked the green beans. Believe me, there was a lot of peas!! We shelled them all and then helped to cut of the green beans. We took them out to the bakery that they have there and blanched them all and put them into the freezer.

shelling peas
It was fun sitting around talking while we worked! :)

cutting green beans

Darletta and Micah David
Jesse and a kitten.

After all our work was done we went to Dinosaur Valley State Park. We went to the river and had a blast playing in the warm water, which felt so good that hot afternoon.


Micah David getting wet. :)
My awesome sister and brother-in-law and the cutest little nephew ever! =D

Micah David loved the water!! :)

Justin checking out the dinosaur tracks.


A cute little family =D

Cousins forever!! :)

Mom helping to quilt..
While we were there we slipped over to the Miller's for a short visit. (Christina Miller is Mom's first cousin.)We had a hot dog roast in the back yard, and our time together was really awesome, short, but sweet!




We had an awesome time with them all and we stayed until the morning of the 23rd. We always enjoy getting with our cousins and every time is a better memory then the one before. :) 

17 May, 2012

Homeschool Trip to the Zoo


Visiting the zoo with 17 little people is quite the chore looking after them all. We dressed them all in red and that made it a lot easier
Waiting to go in..
...and we are off to see the zoo!
What did we see at the zoo? We saw a bear eating grass,
a ant eater walking around,
eggs laying around big enough  to get inside, :)
a happy little boy,
a trainer training a tiger,
lots of little children standing in a row,
monkeys swinging back and forth,
otters playing in the cool, clear water,
little children getting wet  in the water,
questions and answers,
beautiful flowers,
Joanna,
more little kids playing in the playground,
we found out flamingos only weigh 5 lbs,
two girls that didn't go by the dress code,... :/
trainers feeding the elephants,
mommy and baby elephant,

tall giraffes, 
and a peacock.
Yes, everyone loved the zoo. We saw many other animals and I think the part the little guys loved the most was just being together.

We are all excited about Jasper Texas camp that we will be leaving for on Sunday.  We get to see lots of awesome friends and family!!:)))