Vacation Day 1 - Temple

Sunday was our first day of non-travelling vacation. Our hope was to arrive early enough Saturday evening to be up early Sunday morning to head to Church. But we didn't arrive until after 10 pm so we missed Church.

Why we missed church:

1) Didn't arrive until after 10 pm and we slept in.
2) I failed to mention in the previous post that on Saturday we discovered
bumps on Kaylyn's shoulder that looked like chicken pox. When we arrived at
Mary's, Kaylyn had a fever. It was low but it was still there Sunday
morning.
3) We wanted to attend Church with our friends the McIlquham's so Kaylyn
would have someone to go to Primary with (she wouldn't go without knowing
someone) - but did I mention we slept in? The McIlquham's have church at 8:30 am
and it's 30+ minutes away.

Sunday afternoon, Kaylyn was feeling better so we headed to the Temple Visitor's Center as our first vacation stop.

Adam got hold of the camera and took some pictures of the Temple.

We also took some pictures of us walking toward the Temple. I think we need to frame this one for Kaylyn.

Vacation - the big drive

Here's the first post about our grand vacation. We left our house at 4:30 pm Friday afternoon. We returned at 4:40 pm, after a trip to the bank where I realized I had left my travel sickness meds at home. We left again at 4:45 and returned at 4:50 after realizing Kaylyn did not have her hearing aid. We drove to Effingham, IL for the first night, arriving a little after 10 pm. As we started out, the girls wanted to watch videos. But the video players kept restarting. We noticed that we were also having power problems to the GPS at the same times the DVD players restarted.

We slept in, not setting an alarm, ate breakfast and headed out about 8:00 am. We made a pit stop at O'Reilly's to buy new fuses to fix the DVD issue.

It didn't work. The DVD players have reached the 1 year old mark (we bought them at the beginning of last summer) and decided that that is their life span.

Here's Kaylyn after hearing the news that we would be without a DVD player.

Grumpy but not bad.

This next shot is what happened when I smiled at her. She covered her face because when I smile at her, she can't help but smile back. So she covered her head with her blankie so I couldn't see her smiles.

I decided to take this next shot to prove that I DID go on vacation with my family. I'm always the one with the camera so it's difficult to prove that I was there sometimes.

We left Effingham at 8:30 am and headed along I-70.

Here's what things looked like at 5:20 pm.

Our first views of Maryland, a little before 6 pm (Central)

About 2 hours later, here's what it looked like in the van.

Our girls did amazing! If they'd had a DVD player, I would have been impressed if this had been their attitude. So without, they were even more amazing.

But the trip wasn't without consequences. When our girls get tired, they get "loopy". Here's Morgan as we drove through Western Maryland Saturday evening.

If you can't tell in the video - she's asking if we can go home (as we are almost to our destination).

Beggar on Vacation

Many people think I only have one cat because they have never seen the second one. Well here she is for you to see.

Her name is Beggar. She was born in our garage and has only left in order to go to the vet - which she doesn't care to do, thank you very much. That is until this Spring. We started planning our vacation to Washington, DC, and I wanted to take Beggar. It's not because I am addicted to having my kitties with me (although Adam would say he wonders if I love them more than him sometimes).

Here's the situation - Beggar has had seizures for over a year now. She is on twice daily medication for them but everytime I leave her for more than overnight, when I get home she has a seizure. She is also a very shy cat by nature and doesn't let many people see her, let alone catch her and give her her medication (including Adam). So when I leave, she doesn't get her meds as regularly as she needs. Plus, my additional theory is that my leaving stresses her, especially with others trying to give her her medication. So I decided to try taking Beggar on vacation.

To prep her, I would grab her in the mornings (unless she was hiding) and she would ride with me in the van to take Kaylyn to school. The first day she was terrified. The next trip she started looking out the windows. She often hid but anytime she wasn't hiding, she got to go on a car ride. I wanted her to not associate being in the van with the vet only.

Vacation day arrived and I loaded the van. I also loaded a litter box and all of Beggar's gear. After everyone else was in the van, I grabbed Beggar and climbed in too. And off we went.

Day 1 - she sat in my lap the entire time, never sleeping but occasionally looking out the window. We arrived at our hotel and she immediately hid in a corner. At some point during the night, she did use the litter box.

Day 2 - Beggar became adventurous. She explored the entire van and finally picked "her spot".... on top of the cooler (see the first picture above). Eventually, during our 14 hours in the van on Saturday, she became comfortable enough to sleep. Note that she is using Kaylyn's bear "Peppermint" as her pillow.

Both of our girls were upset that Beggar wouldn't sit with them. We tried putting her in laps but she'd just jump down and go where she wanted. Once at my Aunt's, we all stayed in the basement. Beggar picked her hiding spots - in the window sill and also behind the TV. She did great, although she started a routine of crying in the middle of the night. And she didn't sleep on my feet (her normal spot) until the night before we left to come home.

Back on the road again, Beggar checked out the entire van and climbed into her spot on top of the cooler. Half an hour down the road, Adam misread a sign and had to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident. We all got a little jostled but were fine and started down the road. Then I heard Beggar crying. It wasn't a normal cry. I turned around but couldn't see her. Adam couldn't find a place to stop so I finally climbed over all our stuff into the back seat. There I discovered the problem.

When Adam hit the brakes, Beggar must have been on top of the cooler. She fell to the floor, into her litter box. The cooler then fell on top of her. She was trapped. I got her out and buckled in the cooler so we wouldn't have a repeat. I climbed back into my seat (an amazing accomplishment).

A few minutes later, we heard Morgan cry out with glee, and Kaylyn start pouting. When I turned around, this is what I found.

Beggar stayed on Morgan's lap for 30 minutes or so. The whole time Kaylyn complained that it wasn't fair. Beggar then moved back to my lap and stayed there the entire day - she wasn't acting normal so we think the fall either hurt her or scared her. Today she acted normal.

We got home 3 hours ago, and unfortunately, Beggar's had 2 seizures since arriving home. Waiting for a return call from the vet. Apparently, the vacation did stress her more than we realized. I just wonder why she waited until now to have the seizures.

Sandy's "4" day leave

My brother is heading to Afghanistan with the Army.  For Memorial Day weekend, he had just completed his training and was able to get a 4 day leave (which wasn't really 4 days at home but you take what you can get, right?).  So Friday night, his mother-in-law hosted a barbecue for the family and some of their close friends.

I tried taking lots of pictures.  The boys were hard to catch but you'll see some of them.  I also tried to get pictures of my brother - here are the results of the non-posed shots.

Not the greatest but he'll love them once he sees these great shots of my sister. These are also a test to see if she reads my blog :) I really do love my sister. She normally takes great pictures but I got a couple not so great ones that made me laugh so I'm sharing.... Until she asks me to take them off ;)

The kids were having a lot of fun playing on the swingsets and monkey bars and, of course, eating.

Nana and Mom were also there.  But I didn't get many pictures of them.  Here's Nana.

I caught Jo giving Sandy a kiss.

And then everyone wanted their picture with Sandy...

School Year Growth

On the first day of school in August, I took this picture...

On the last day of school, I took these pictures....

Both girls are so much taller!  They are growing up so fast!  I think this picture will become a tradition - at least as long as we're at this school because I can take the picture in front of this pillar and easily see the changes as our girls grow.

Expensive trip to the Strawberry Patch

Have you ever been forced to slow down your life?  I've had quite a few instances in the past few months where Heavenly Father has forced me to slow down.  Normally it's been because I spent time in the sun and ended up with a migraine/nasty headache (I don't confuse the two but I've had both recently) or tummy issues (not vomiting or nausea, but just where my stomach doesn't feel good). 

Then there was the day that I intended to go to Chik-Fil-A with my neighbor for lunch and ended up helping another friend try to break into her van (locked keys inside) and then her house and finally we all ended up at Chik-Fil-A.  That day I decided Heavenly Father thought I needed to spend the entire day with friends.

Today, Heavenly Father decided I needed to spend the entire day at the strawberry patch.  The plan - leave at 8 am, pick strawberries and back home by 10 am, make freezer jam, clean my house before pest control arrived (ants!) and then start packing my family's gear for a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house tomorrow.

Reality....

Leave home at 8 am
Arrive at strawberry patch, sample some strawberries as we pick them (Incredibly good!  The best I've had in 20 years.).
Pay for strawberries and load all 4 kids (mine and my neighbor's) in the van.
Turn key to start van.  "Click, click, click".
Wait a minute.
Try again.
Click, click, click.
Call Adam.  He's in Monett, at work. This was not his week to drive so he doesn't have a car and left his cell phone at home.
My neighbor calls her husband.  He's at work - without enough gas to drive out to us and he left his wallet at home.
Call local mechanic - he's out for the next hour.
My Mom, who lives close to the patch, is out of town.
Think - if we leave the van for someone to fix it there or to tow it back, who can we call to pick up all 6 of us since we won't fit in the tow truck.
At 10 am, Adam leaves work with a coworker who drops him off at home.
My neighbor's husband borrows a work vehicle and picks up his family.
The girls and I hang out at the strawberry patch.
Adam goes to O'Reilly's and confers with them - it's the starter.
12 pm  Adam purchases a starter and drives to patch, stopping at McDonald's on the way to get lunch for his stranded family.
1 pm Adam arrives with food, tools and a starter.  Everyone enjoys lunch.
After eating, Adam installs the new starter.
We try starting the van.
Click, click, click.
Arghh!!
Look in phone book for closest auto parts store for battery.
Adam experiments with the van and believes we have another problem.
Adam calls Henry's to tow van to our mechanic - estimated arrive 1 hour.
I call our neighbor to come pick up the girls and take them to her house.
I move everything in the van to the car.
Henry's arrives and tries jumpstarting with their power jumper (or whatever you call it).
Van starts.
Neighbor arrives and takes our girls to her house.
Adam and the wonderful guy from Henry's try turning off the van to see if it will start on its own.
Click, click, click.
They rejump the van - success.
I drive van, with Adam following, back to Springfield. 
4 pm-ish Arrive at our house, Adam drives the van to O'Reilly's and gets a new battery.
I do some cleaning to prepare for Pest control (did I mention the ants?)
4:30 pm Pest Control arrives and Adam calls to say he's headed home with a van that will start again.
4:45 pm Pest control informs Adam that our neighbor's house has active termites!
5:40 pm pest control finally finishes spraying for ants inside and outside our home and yard.

We were so blessed today!
Why?  We were blessed to have the van break down at a location with water, shade, plenty to eat (strawberries), a bathroom (port-a-potty) and a swingset.
We were blessed that this did not happen halfway to Grandma and Grandpa's tomorrow.
We were blessed that this did not happen halfway to DC later this month.
We were blessed with an incredibly detailed pest control company!  If you need any kind of pest control, call Priority Pest Control in Springfield - and yes they will travel to the boonies in SW MO (the owner, who is the one who came to our house today, had been in Pittsburg KS working earlier in the day).  Pricing is comparable to what we've spent every other year as we've fought these ants but never have any of the other pest control companies spent almost an hour and a half searching for the ants (and termites now) and spraying.
We were blessed with a very friendly, helpful, and informative guy from Henry's Towing.  I'd heard others recommend them but I have to say, he was better than I expected.
We were blessed with a friendly and patient owner at the strawberry patch who had no problems with us hanging out there all day.

After all these blessings, I'm going to be pondering what I'm needing to change so that Heavenly Father doesn't need to send me any more "Slow down!" messages.  And we're ready to relax for the evening.

Poetry Hour

Updated with pictures!

Kaylyn's first grade put on a Poetry Hour last night.  The kids who wanted to participate got to read 2 poems each.  The audience snapped after each poem instead of clapping - which Morgan loved since she loves to show everyone that she can snap.

Kaylyn's first poem is very cute but I was surprised that she doesn't like football.

I like Silver
I don't like gray.
I like hot dogs.
I don't like brocklie.
I like computers.
I don't like PE,
I like cats.
I don't like frogs.
I like basbase ball.
I don't like football.

This second poem brought tears to my eyes.  It's a biographical poem.

Kaylyn

Girl, green eyes, sister

Daughter of Eden and Adam

Lover of my mom and dad and my sister

Who feels loved, happy, learning

Who fears spiders, snakes, and dogs

Who gives mom and dad hugs

Who would like to see Washington D.C.,

Pennsylvania and the woods

Resident of Springfield, MO

Allison

For those who don't know, we're heading to DC for vacation this summer.  The reference to Pennsylvania and the woods is from the Magic Tree House books.