Westward Ho!

Yes, we are heading west for a little vacation! 8 1/2 years ago when we had to cut our honeymoon short because of a funeral we needed to attend, Jere promised to take me back to the Black Hills someday. Well, we finally did it! Not exactly a honeymoon with 3 children in tow, but fun to show these places to our children.

 

First, however, we stopped in St. Paul to visit my grandparents. Then to Fargo to say hi to Michele and Lena, and we even got to see my Aunt Mary and cousin Erica!

 

Waiting for lunch, Fargo, ND.

From Fargo we went to Milbank, and attended at the church where we got married. It was incredibly sweet to reconnect with so many old friends there! Seems like there wasn't near enough time... But we had to keep heading west. This time, instead of taking the interstate, we traveled more through the back country. It was so much more fun, and very beautiful despite the rain and heavy cloud cover. We took a turn through the Badlands, and of course had to stop at Wall Drug...

The Badlands.

A Bighorn ewe--we saw a fair amount of these!

Taking a little walk, despite high winds and sleet.

We finally made it to the cabin we were renting, and the children were glad to have a place to stay for a bit! It's a nice cabin with a full kitchen and two bedrooms, and a creek running through the front yard. I'll have to get a picture of it sometime before we leave...

Yesterday we decided to take a drive to Deadwood, thinking we'd avoid the rain and cooler weather spending the day inside museums. Well, once we got into the high country on the way to Deadwood, the rain changed to snow... It was gorgeous, but got a bit interesting when the wind would gust down a valley so we couldn't see the road! Jere estimated they had 6-8 inches on the ground.

Heading down the hill into Deadwood.

However, unhappily, ALL the museums in Deadwood were closed due to weather. So we drove down the historic street downtown a couple of times, and then headed out to lower elevations. The only picture I got was of the main welcome sign!

After leaving Deadwood we went out for lunch, then decided to just go to the nearby Cabela's instead of trying to find another museum. At least it was raining again instead of snowing!

Leanna and the moose. Can you tell we were out in the wind?

Spring? At last?

Well, I think spring is finally starting to think about arriving! And we're loving it! It seemed like things were finally starting to dry out a bit, and I was SO glad the muddy part was about over... or so we thought. Then it rained, and rained, and then snowed. Um, this is spring for you in Wisconsin! So we looked out at our yard, where the mud was washing down onto the driveway, and I couldn't help but sigh. Now the muddies are worse than ever! That was the previous weekend. Through the week it dried up again a little bit, and warmed up enough that some of us went outside in short sleeves, and barefoot for a bit! And I encouraged Jere to work at cleaning up a little in the yard so it doesn't look so much like we live at the local scrap heap, instead of on some of the other inside projects. While pushing some mud around to try get rid of a few of the riverbeds the rain had washed into our yard, Jere found a spring on our property, bubbling up not too far from the house. Which clinched our suspicions through the winter that all was not well with our water pipes to the house. So, he started digging, and digging, and digging. I didn't get any pictures, as I was up to my ears in other projects, and now I wish I had! He dug down to where the water was coming from, and sure enough, where he had connected to water supply to bring it into the new house, the ground had settled and pulled the pipes apart. So late Friday evening all of our water was turned off, and didn't come back on till he had run to town Saturday morning to buy another fitting and more pipe. Even though that wasn't what he wanted to do that day, we're glad he was able to get it fixed!

It rained again this last weekend, so any drying up that happened is now back to mud soup. But, the grass really greened up yesterday! It was so nice to see GREEN on our way to church! Even our in our pasture things are looking greener. I can hardly wait till the grass is tall enough to turn the cows out and see them fatten up after our hard winter. There's green in the basement as well, where all my little seedlings, waiting for it to warm up enough to go outside, are growing happily. I'm anxiously keeping an eye on our new garden spot, waiting for it to dry up enough to plow, and till, so I can get my peas and carrots planted. Somehow it doesn't look very promising yet, and I have a feeling we will have a late garden this year. Oh well! Not like I don't have plenty to do in the meantime...

The children are LOVING the sunshine and warmer weather! The boys went with Jere to help a friend on Saturday, and spent pretty well the whole day outside in the sun and wind. They came home sunburned and windburned and looking like lobsters. But they had loads of fun anyway!

Out and about

Last week I was blessed with the opportunity to go with some very good friends for a girl's time out. We had a blast, and it was very refreshing to just hang out with such wonderful ladies, and go shopping and swimming. And the most important, of course, was LOTS of talking! Love those ladies!

Just a couple days later, we left for the Lake Home and Cabin Show in Milwaukee. Now that was a bit challenging! It was too far away to drive back and forth every day, so we stayed in a hotel. We had many adventures, such as trying to park the enclosed trailer in a parking garage that gave us only a couple inches of clearance to the ceiling, and whose parking spots must have all been designed with an economy car in mind. We also had to run to Walmart to grab a few last minute things, and I fought culture shock as we ended up at the most disorganized, crowded Walmart I've ever seen--made me think inner city, though it wasn't. I know, I'm a country girl all over! But the show itself went well, and we made a lot of contacts.

We went down to Milwaukee early Friday morning, and spent the day Friday setting up the booth and moving into our hotel room. And taking naps, to make up a little for the early morning start! Then on Saturday I took the children to the zoo while Jere manned the booth. Now, that was interesting, driving the big truck out of the parking garage, through downtown Milwaukee, to the overcrowded zoo (which, on an odd chance, was having a free day--nice on the pocketbook, but VERY crowded!), and then pulling out of the parking spot where others had parked very close. So much for choosing a nearly empty parking lot so I could maneuver! Big city attractions are obviously made with small cars in mind...

At any rate, the children had a blast at the zoo! There's been a lot of talk around our house the last couple weeks on bears, so it was nice to see bears in real life that weren't all that scary. :-) Jaron, for the first time, was able to read the plaques when he wanted to, so that was an exciting discovery for both of us!

The thrill of the day was getting to ride a miniature train. The boys were pretty pumped about that, and I was really glad for the opportunity to rest my weary feet! And, to have all three children contained in one spot for once, not getting lost in the crowds.

We came home again Sunday night. It ended up being later than expected, as the truck ran out of fuel thanks to a malfunctioning gauge. At least we had just gotten off the freeway so there was a gas station relatively close. Only, that one didn't have diesel... Needless to say, it was 9 before we got our supper and midnight till we got home. Ah adventures! I was just glad to see my bed...

Young start CPR

Thought I would take a moment to share a special video with you! Enjoy!

More mud..

Yes, it seems like spring is really arriving, at long last! The snowbanks are disappearing, and the mud is ankle deep between the house and the driveway. The boys are loving being able to go outside without bundling up to their eyes, and little sister mourns her lack of mud boots as she can't go out to join them. Somehow the boots the boys had at her size all sprung leaks and we can't find any that small right now! Oh well.

Jere's been working away at our house on the weekend and evenings. He gutted the bathroom upstairs and has been working at re-routing the plumbing.

Here's where the old bathtub was removed!

He also has the mudroom done! Well, done till summer once some of the other more pressing projects are done, then he wants to take out the paneling on the outside wall and find out where the WIND was coming from last winter, that was so strong it even blew the handle-less door open into the living room! Everything we had out there froze, despite the heat vent. It was just as leaky as can be. So, there's a job to figure it out so by next winter we can still use the room. :-)

Yes, the two little ones had their baths in the utility sink Saturday night! Hey, it beats the tote we were using!

Here it is, all done! LOVE it!

 

 

And just in case you think it's all work and no play at our house:

Mudroom

Hooray for spring! Though slow in coming this year (it didn't even get above freezing yesterday!), it IS coming. Along with mud. LOTS of mud. With re-doing our driveway a bit last fall just as things were beginning to freeze, we didn't really get a chance to do it right, and it's a mess. Plus, we have almost no yard left anymore, thanks to all the dirt work and big machines that were tearing stuff up last summer. At least where the swingset is there's grass--under the snow still. I'm really hoping the new grass grows FAST this summer!!!

But, with the presence of mud comes a dilemma. What to do with muddy church shoes and muddy jeans and, well, just muddy everything? Well, the back entry is one room we hadn't really touched yet. Even though it's one that need the least amount of work, and we did rip out the carpet, it was being used for storage. We blocked it off over the winter because every time the wind blew from the west (which is to say, a lot) there would be a cold wind blowing through our house too, coming from that entry. Even though there's heat ducts running to it, everything we'd put out there would freeze. Which we didn't discover until we went to use some of the paint, and it was frozen. Ooops. But now, it's warming up, and I was feeling a great need to have a mudroom. So, Jere dug in on Saturday and, with the children's help, cleaned out the room of all the building supplies that we were storing in there. Then he started getting ready to lay tile...

All done!

I'm SO excited to have another room almost done. All he has left in this room (for now!) is to cut a hole in the counter, set the laundry tub in, and hook up the plumbing to that. I think later, once we have some other things a bit farther along, Jere wants to take down the sheathing on the outside wall and ceiling and add some vapor barrier and maybe insulation so hopefully next winter it won't be so frigid. But, that's not a necessity, and we need to get some of the necessities done before that happens! I'm hoping... maybe we can actually start working on the upstairs bathroom this weekend? Maybe? Now, that would feel like progress!

I also got a few random shots of my little folks. I just got thinking that I have lots of cute pictures of Jaron when he was Leanna's age, but because she's the third I hardly have any of her. And she's at my favorite stage! So, I took time to grab my camera...

And I couldn't quite ignore the handsome little fellah sharing the school table!

Crazy day!

Whoops, looks like it's been awhile since I posted... I'm sorry! Life has certainly been busy enough, and thankfully I've been feeling up to doing a whole lot more up and about type stuff, so I guess that's a good thing. It's been finally starting to warm up outside, so we live in the center of mudville right now. Seriously, ugh. Even just getting from the house to the van is a treacherous endeavor, 'specially when little people are dressed in Sunday finery. Or when they're carrying something I DON'T want full of mud.

We went to a science class yesterday, something we've been doing with some other young families. We moms are dividing up the teaching of the classes, and I think we enjoy the chance to get together as much as the children do! It was very enjoyable, as usual. Thanks, Cheryl, for letting us make a mess in your house!

Today was a crazy one. I was just getting started with school when an ambulance page came through. And I ended up going. Much to my scholar's delight, I might add. We had an interesting run. Then, on our way home, we stopped to grab a little lunch and someone came up asking if we could give her some advice on her chest pain. Well... We ended up taking her to the hospital too. We've never had that happen before! Made for an interesting day, to say the least. Now it's time to think up something for supper...