8-25-08 End of summer fling

Sigh. Summer is over.
Tradition has it, that on the last day of summer vacation, Lindsay, Matt & their friends, Michelle Claassen & Edward Griley, along with Karen & last year for the first time, Madeline, head down to Santa Maria. We got out to lunch at Weinerschnitzel, go to Boomers, go to the mall for cookies & last year we also added in dinner at In & Out.
This year is different. The older kids are all in high school & the boys have football practice. No chili dogs, no chocolate chip cookies, no inflatable guitars, or huge pink sunglasses or tiaras, no hole-in-one. Instead, we went out as a family to dinner at CPK in SLO. It was nice to have Michael along too! (He usually has to stay home & work-someone has to pay for us to play!)
Maybe this is a new tradition? We'll see about next year...

1st day of school

Remember the Staples commercial from a few years ago? Parents were joyously dancing through the aisles to the strains of "It's the most wonderful time of the year"! That was us at home today! LOL

It was really nice to be able to drop the older kids off at the same school-first time in like 6 years!

Hopefully, it will be a good year for both kids. It's hard to believe that Lindsay is a senior & Matt is a freshman.

Day 11 Hendersen, NV - Morro Bay, CA 8-17-08

The last leg of the trip. Tonight we will be home in our beds.
Our goal today was to be on the road by 10 & we were pretty close to it. We did have a few delays trying to leave the hotel. While Michael was loading the car, Matt & I were down getting some juice & breakfast items & Lindsay had Maddie in the room with her as she was trying to get ready to go. We were all back in the room drinking our juice & eating the breakfast items, when there was a knock on the door. It was maintenance. They said they had a flashing light from our room. I guess Maddie pushed a button on the phone when she was playing with it. Oops. Well, that was taken care of.
Michael had another trip down to the car & when he came back up, he commented that there was a police car out front & an officer standing by the front door. Wonder what’s going on? We’re soon to find out. Another knock on the door & we’re greeted by 2 of Hendersen’s finest police officers! I guess the emergency button on the phone had been pushed & the line had been left open, so the police have to follow up on every call. Oh my goodness! Maddie must have pushed that button too! We apologized about it & they were very understanding about it. Quick, let’s leave before anyone else shows up!
After stopping for Krispy Kreme donuts & gas, we are finally on the way. It is about 11 & we have just over 400 miles to go until we are home. This will probably feel like the longest stretch-you know, the closer you get to home, the longer it seems to take to get there!
We are almost at the end of our eating out at different places then we have at home. (Lindsay can’t wait to have BK again!) We went to Del Taco today in Barstow. As we were leaving there, Lindsay yells “mom!” & I look back & Maddie has blood all over her face & hands. So we pull over real quick in the parking lot & we get her cleaned up. She had a bloody nose. Her first one that I can remember. We get about 10 mins down the road & she starts gushing again. Really gushing. We had to pull over on the side of the road to try to get it to stop, clean her up & get going. I switched seats with Lindsay so I could sit by her for any more. I think we had a few more, but not quite as bad. She wasn’t real fond of me trying to hold a tissue on her nose, or having blood on her arms or hands. Will have to definitely change her shirt if we get her out anywhere! Thank goodness she fell asleep, so we didn’t have to worry for awhile, at least. But it only lasted about an hour. She had nose bleeds off & on the whole way home. She was quite the sight when we got home.
We stopped for our last meal at In & Out in Atascadero. We went through the drive thru so we wouldn’t have to get Maddie out of the car. She seemed to be doing pretty well-especially if you kept the dvd’s going! She is liking the Elmo goes potty DVD! (Sorry Rachelle, it’s not Barney! Lol)
She was so excited when we got home. It was about 7:15. She wanted to play in her sand table, so we let her as we unloaded the car. Then it was bath time. The cats seemed to be happy that we are home too. Pepper seems to be limping, so we’ll have to keep our eye on him.
Now it’s time to get back to the real world! The kids have school registration & pictures tomorrow in the morning & Matt starts football practice tomorrow afternoon. Got to get the laundry done so they have clean clothes for the pictures.
It was so wonderful to get this opportunity that we had to go visit some very special friends in Nebraska. To see some of the country & appreciate God’s handiwork. A question for God though, why does he bring special friends into our lives that live so far away? Already Matt is trying to figure out when we’ll see them again.
I will try to get pictures up as I get the pages done. Thanks for following us on our adventures to Nebraska! We had a wonderful time. Thanks SO MUCH to Mark, Rachelle, O’Cessa, Ethan, Cole, Ellie, & the 4 kitties for a great time. For giving up beds, for sharing rooms, showing us how things are on a farm, driving, fishing & shooting lessons & the gift of friends. We love you all & miss you.

Day 10 Grand Junction, Co - Hendersen, NV 8-16-08

Up & on the road by about 10:20! Have over 500 miles to go today. Happy half birthday to Lindsay today! Too bad she doesn’t feel better so we can celebrate it! Guess we’ll have to do it later when we get back home. Sorry honey!
Maddie is enjoying watching her new DVDs. She even took a nap before lunch. Since she was sleeping so well, we decided to go further before we stopped for lunch & a bathroom break. But we finally had to stop in Richfield, UT (last stop for about an hour) at Arby’s for lunch. It was good. Had to wake Maddie up, but she woke up in the greatest mood!
After driving for awhile longer, Maddie was starting to get a little restless so we stopped in St. George, UT & found a really nice park to play. You could see lots of lightening & the dark clouds & even a few sprinkles. After we left St George, we heard on the radio that there was a weather alert for severe thunderstorms & the potential for quarter sized hail & wind up to 60 mph in the mountains of NV. We were about 30 miles outside of Mesquite, NV when we hit the weather. I don’t think we had any hail but just hard rain-lots of lightening too.
We arrived at out hotel sometime around 6:30ish & got checked in & unpacked. Then back in the car to drive around some. Ate dinner at Red Robin & then off to see the lights of Sin City (aka Las Vegas). It is neat to see all the lights, but so much other stuff that you don’t want to see, or your kids to see! We took lots of pictures of the buildings & even got to see the water show in front of the Bellagio as we drove by. This bored Maddie-she fell asleep. Poor little thing. We have her schedule so completely messed up. It took awhile once we were back in our hotel room for her to go back to sleep. Good night!

Day 9 Engelwood-Grand Junction, CO 8-15-08

Today we woke up to a drizzly morning. Looks like it has been raining all night. Lindsay is feeling even worse, but we have to get going. Poor thing. I feel bad for her, no fun to travel when you’re not feeling well. She has her bucket by her side in the car. We made it on the road by 11!
It has been raining all the way from when we left the hotel, until we got into the Rockies, then it started hailing & snowing! Egads! We are in our shorts & flip flops. At one point our thermometer said it was 35 degrees outside! This is blowing my mind-snow in August! It is a little unnerving with the weather, especially for Michael driving & slipping a little-after yesterday’s adventure into the mud! We don’t have Mark to come rescue us with his tractor! We actually came to a stand still & crept along. It took us about an hour & a half to go about 10 miles. They had a sign up saying there was going to be a detour at a tunnel we were coming up to but as we crept our way up there, it was open again by the time we got there. It looked like there had possibly been an accident.
We stopped in Frisco, CO for lunch at A&W. The root beer was so yummy. Maddie even liked it. On the sign outside of the restaurant they had John 3:16 up for all the world to see! Inside they had Bibles around on their shelves & fliers up about Bible studies.
We arrived in Grand Junction, CO about 6:30. This is one of our favorite hotels that we have stayed in-it’s a 2 room suite! The kids each have their own bed & we have our own room. We unpacked the car, settled into the room, tucked Lindsay in bed & then the rest of us went to Mesa Mall. We shopped at Target & stocked up on some new videos & then hit the mall. They had a food court, so we all could pick what we wanted. Michael & Matt had Chinese food & I had Japanese & Maddie had both!
We went down to the pool, but the water was so cold, that we got in the spa. It was perfect. Maddie loved it! She threw a fit when we got out-she wanted to stay sooo bad! Maddie hit full meltdown about 30 mins later. She was just so tired (no nap). No one could make her happy. She finally wore herself out & fell asleep on the floor. Ahhhh, quiet. A little computer & TV time & off to sleep.

Day 8 Diller, NE 8-14-08

Not wanting to go, but knowing we had a long drive, we wanted to leave by about 10. Not bad, we were on the road by about 5 mins after 10. We had our GP(M)S directing us & it had us going a different way then we had come. I think it was going to take us through Kansas-alright, we’ll see another state! J Within minutes of leaving the Weers, we followed the GPS down a muddy road, (it had rained last night), where we quickly lost traction & started sliding & down into a small ditch. Michael put it into reverse, but the tires just spun. Great-another adventure! J Thank goodness for on star-as we have no cell service there! We called Mark & their phone was busy, so we started trying other numbers we had for them. One of the boys had checked caller ID & saw our number so they called us back. Mark & the boys come over in their truck & realize they need something bigger to get us out. So they call for the big tractor! In just a matter of minutes, we hear the rumble of the big John Deere tractor coming to the rescue! Ethan & Cole were over the moon-they were sorry this happened to us, but they LOVE helping people out like this. They hooked the tractor up to us & pulled us out & down the road until we were back onto a gravel road, where we still slid around a little! We followed the tractor back home so Michael could scrub the thick gooey mud off his flip-flops. While we were there Mark & Ethan washed all the mud off the Tahoe too! Talk about full-service friends!!! Thank you guys so much for all you did for us! So, we’re on the road, again!
Now it’s about 11:30 when we are leaving. We are going back the way we came originally! Quickly becoming a Runza fan, (Ok, so I had one & loved it! Is that so bad? We don’t have Runza’s at home!), I asked Michael to stop & get us one, if we passed any. Being the great guy that he is, he did! He didn’t have to, as I was asleep & never would have known that we had passed one!
So, you think our adventures for the day are over? Far from it We are probably about 2 hours into our drive, Matt & myself are asleep, & Lindsay & Maddie are watching Ni-Hao Kai Lan, when we start pulling over. We look behind us to see those famous red lights! Yep! Michael was getting pulled over. L We were coming out of a work zone (where it is 55mph), when the trooper pulled us over. He said his buddy had radioed him saying he had clocked us going 66 in a 55 zone! So he got a ticket. First one in over 20 years! Poor guy-what a day it has been.
Our next mini-adventure-Madeline melts down! She had been asleep for a little over an hour & woke up pretty grumpy. We pulled over at the nearest exit & got her out. She was crying really hard & wanted to be held but pushing away at the same time. She didn’t want to walk or even “drive” the car. It took about 20-30 mins to calm her down. We think she may have had a gas bubble. But then she was fine. Thank goodness.
We could see out in the distance the dark clouds & lots of lightening. Neat to watch it. We stopped at Sterling, CO for dinner at Pizza Hut, just as the rain started coming down. It rained pretty hard too. It had let up some by the time we were done with dinner & back on the road.
We got to our hotel in Englewood, CO about 9:15. It had been an 11 hour car ride. Lindsay was feeling pretty yucky. She just crawled right into bed. After bath time & a little tv, it was bedtime for all of us!

Day 7 Diller, NE 8-13-08

Driving lessons for Michael today! Mark taught him how to drive the big tractor. They programmed the GPS & went for a spin. Then Ethan took me for spin too. He put it on GPS & it could drive itself!!! That blew my mind! It can keep it within 1 inch of maintaining a straight line. It also can go pretty fast. This trip gave us a new appreciation for the work of a farmer-it is a very tough job-physically & mentally! And the farmer’s wife! Wow! Constant cooking & laundry. Speaking of which, she made a wonderful lunch of bbq hamburgers, hot dogs & sausages.
After loading up the fishing vessel, the 3 boys took off to go fishing in the creek for several hours. The rest of us went for a driving tour of Diller & Beatrice. We even stopped & met Rachelle’s Mom who seemed to enjoy taking the little girls on a ride in a shopping cart through her seniors residential living area. Lindsay went with them to make sure the girls stayed in the cart!
We had a Runza, which is very similar to a beerock. Very yummy. (Mom, ready to make some again?) Stopped at a DQ & got some blizzards & an ice cream cake for my birthday, & then headed back home. Got back about the same time as the boys. They had caught a few little fish.
Again, we are eating. This time filet mignon, cheesy potatoes & other yummy foods! We have been fed the best food!!!
Something else the guys learned how to do-shot a gun! They shot a 22 riffle, a slightly larger 22 riffle & then 2 high powered riffles. Those were loud! But they all seemed to have fun doing it!
The Weers’ had saved some of their fireworks from the 4th of July, so we had a 13th of August celebration! Maddie wasn’t afraid of them this time. Lindsay did sparklers-I think for the first time in her life. We had lots of firecrackers, fountains & we even got to see some lightening bugs!!!! That was cool. We moved the rest of the party back into the house where we took lots of pictures & had birthday cake! Mmmmm.
Sad to say, but our time with the Weers was winding down!