Not The Summertime Blues

The Prairie is green! This is the most heavenly time in this high desert prairie. It lasts a short 6-8 weeks and then everything but irrigated fields and watered lawns dries up and turns back to that lovely shade of dull dead. Oh how I love this time. The weather is warm, the sky is brilliant blue, the hills are green (if you're from a really wet climate this is green to us), and the white clouds are like cotton in the sky.
Yesterday The Prairie Daddy, The Prairie Kid and myself loaded up on 4-wheelers and moved some heifers and bulls to the field around our house. I am excited that the dog's shock collar arrived this week because I wasn't sure how he was going to act when I let him out to find the bovines peering into the yard. Thankfully we have gates to close off the driveway to keep them out of the yard. Before we had gates we would find them hanging out in the front of our house like the garage was their barn. Cow patties in my yard are not my idea of appropriate fertilizing this time of year. : )

Then The Prairie Kid had to go out after his nap and talk to the visitors. He was telling them all sorts of things that I couldn't hear from the deck but could only imagine. I saw lots of hand motions so it must have been good!

I pulled out the old camera and took some pictures yesterday and today.

Here is The Prairie Kid conversing with the new neighbors

Oh the dandelions are bad this year!

Going for a little summer drive

The Prairie Daddy weed-eating for me before I mow...

Tomorrow is The Hero Cousin's first home baseball game that The Prairie Kid and I will get to go to. We're excited! The Prairie Daddy will sadly have to stay home and irrigate. : ( Such is life out here.

Well, I supposed I should go mount my tractor and mow that lawn!

Some Shallow Mourning

My mom said to me the other day something along the lines of "you didn't have any new blog posts this weekend." My reply, "I don't have any pictures."

My camera isn't working. Sigh.

Somehow on Mother's Day it decided to no longer turn on anymore. I need to find someone with a camera that uses the same battery to see if that is what it is. I am hoping that it is a simple solution. I do have a back up camera but it doesn't take great pictures.

So, here is a post. Sorry it isn't full of excitement or pictures. Sigh again.

More Trip Fun

The rest of our trip was great. The weather was amazing; it only rained one day. On Sunday we went to Lohman Beach. It was borderline hot out! We got great sun and enjoyed throwing rocks in the water, a picnic lunch, and relaxing.

Here is my sister and her adorable son

The Prairie Kid was sleepy and spent most of the time in this stroller napping...

Here I am with my big sis...

And this is so cute...my teenage nephew fixing his grandma's pants!

That night we went to a restaurant for Eritrean food. Eritrea is a country near Ethiopia. On Sunday evenings they have live music and dancing. Auntie read to The Prairie Kid while we waited for our food...

Then The Prairie Kid played drums on his cousins head...

And we danced and had a blast

We also celebrated Auntie Michelle's birthday while we were in Seattle. I noticed that my red-eye removal on my HP software doesn't do the best job...look at The Prairie Kid's eyes!

We made it home safe and sound late last night. Today we're exhausted and I am about to go take a nap! I love the city, the culture and diversity, but I have to say that once I hit Montana and then Wyoming last night I felt at peace, like I was home. The culture here may be lacking in diversity but the beauty of the area, the kindness of people, and the openness is home to me. And it sure was good to see The Prairie Daddy again!

Fun At The Street Fair And More

There was a street fair in the U-district yesterday. We took the bus to avoid traffic and parking issues which was fun for The Prairie Kid. The Baby Nephew was entertainment for all. What a little ham! He was feeding off of the attention with his smiles and snoots. When we got to the fair we piled the kiddos into the stroller...

The Prairie Kid was excited to find some "kid things" at the fair. He got a balloon sword with a doggie wrapped around it...

Then he was invited to be included in a little performance. He was brave and went right out there.

Although when the guy asked him to put his arms around his neck so he could pick him up The Prairie Kid started to get shy. I thought he was going to start crying but he didn't!

Then he was cautiously up in the air getting "juggled" by the performer...

What a trooper! I love the look on his face....total uncertainty.

Here I am proud of my little star...

The really funny thing too was that my mom was also a small part of the show. The performer was teasing that she was his mom and told her to kiss him on the cheek. When mom went in to kiss his check he turned his head and pretended to kiss her mouth. She was so embarrassed and it was fun to watch her reaction!

Look at these handsome men...
And I had to include this picture. We're always teasing my mom about how much she eats. It is an ongoing joke because she doesn't eat a lot and this morning she was making a stink about not wanting breakfast. So, when my sister was serving breakfast she brought my mom a "special plate" with her size proportions! Hee, hee.
And I get the "cool kid award" for my son. I take full responsibility for this. I haven't bought new, fitting undershirts for The Prairie Kid and this morning he took his over shirt off and revealed the hidden truth...

...we're going to the store in a little bit to buy some new undershirts.

And then we're headed to the beach for some sun and fun. Tonight we'll all go downtown to the International District for some Eritrean food (African). Sunday nights they have live music and dancing. I am really excited. My sister's partner is from Congo and I am hoping to see some great dancing from him! I think The Prairie Kid will really enjoy it too. I hope to have some great pictures for you tomorrow.

Family Time

The Prairie Kid and I had a smooth, fun day getting to Seattle on Thursday. I have to say that my 3 1/2 year old is an amazing traveler. Our day started early and I had things to do in town before we officially took off and he sat in the car and never complained. I think he was in the car for over 3 hours (except for one potty stop) and didn't complain. On our way to Billings he heard me on the phone talking about getting him measured for a wedding he will be in next month. He got nervous and was asking me what this meant. I think he thought that it was going to hurt or be invasive. At home he plays with my measuring tape like it is a rope. So I told him that is what they would use to see how long his arms and legs were and that it wouldn't hurt but it might tickle. A bit later in the car he asked, "Mom, I gonna get roped?" : )

We had time to go to the mall and have some lunch and then headed to the airport. The flight was easy and The Prairie Kid was great. And as soon as we landed it seemed like the clouds parted and the sun came out in Seattle! Yay!

Thursday night we had a yummy dinner at one of my sister's houses and my mom, The Prairie Kid and I went to our hotel.

Yesterday my mom and I took The Baby Nephew, his dog and The Prairie Kid to Green Lake park. The Baby Nephew is walking now and wasn't so sure about the sand.

Look Auntie! Sand!

Uh, I don't think this tastes very good...

I love that picture! Look at the look on his face!!!

Here is The Prairie Kid playing dinosaurs. He shared with all the kids around him, it was so cute!

Here I am with Jones, the dog with the longest tongue I've ever seen, and The Baby Nephew
Swing Time
Cutie Prairie Boy

After the park we drove downtown to Pioneer Square to see my sister's law office. She is in an old building right on the square. It was great! There is an awesome Mediterranean joint across the street and we had a great lunch with fallafel gyro, hummus and other fun Greek foods. Yummy! Here is The Prairie Kid playing in Pioneer Square:

Last night was "girl's night out." We started out downtown at the Black Bottle for some really fun food and drinks. The food was amazing...don't know what you call it but it was a great variety of dishes to share. We had something called laab gai (pronounced "lob guy"), broccoli blasted, lamb and hummus, steamed clams, eggplant flat bread, fried Spanish olives, and more. It was SO good.
Then we walked down to the water and shared a few fun drinks overlooking the water. We laughed a bunch and had so much fun.

As we were heading to the car my one sister says to me "what about dessert?" I said, "I thought I was the only one thinking that!" So we turned away from the car and headed to another place for dessert! We shared Volcano Cake and a Pear Bread Pudding...stuffing ourselves to the max and creating a great need for the walk back to the car!

Today we're going to a street fair in the U-district and then having homemade Mexican dinner at the house. My stepbrother and his wifey will be here too. It should be a great day.

There were more pictures on my sister's camera that I wanted to post but I don't have access to it right now. You'll just have to wait to see those : )

Mother's Day

I wasn't sure if I would be in the "land of the living" on Mother's Day or not after all of the festivities. We also had company come to our house while we were at the wedding. So, it was going to be up in the air until the morning of.
I woke up to The Prairie Kid passing by my door on his way to the bathroom "MOM!!! I am going to go pee!" "Okay, good job." I looked at the clock and realized if I jumped in the shower right away we could make church.
So we were off to the races. And we made it to church and then to Dairy Queen for lunch. We have a friend at church that knows the friend that was staying with us, so we all had lunch together. Then we got a wild hair and decided to take our guest to Yellowstone since she had never been.
On the way to Yellowstone we stopped off to show her the Buffalo Bill Dam.

Here Katie the Kind-hearted is with The Prairie Kid

The Prairie Kid was being a tricky picture-poser...but we tried to get him to face the camera
Here we are at Yellowstone Lake


What a view!

We didn't get to see any bears but we got to see a couple moose from a distance, bison, a coyote, and some big horn sheep

The sunset was gorgeous on the way home

Monday I was able to show Katie around the ranch a little bit and we took a few hours to go on a horseback ride. Her camera batteries died on the way out so we didn't get to take many pics but we did get this one of her and Jed

And we had my camera phone, so here is me on the top of a big overlook

And we picked The Prairie Kid up at the tractor on the way back to the barn and he rode in on Jed

Katie left yesterday morning for Seattle (where she lives). What is funny is The Prairie Kid and I drive to Billings tomorrow to head to Seattle for the week!

I am still super tired from all of the busyness but I am looking forward to a getaway. I told my family that they can do all of the planning because I have had enough planning on my plate to last me awhile!

Match Made In Heaven

What a fun and busy weekend we had getting Brett and Angela married off! Friday the girls gang took Angie out for the last time as a single woman.

Around here you can't honor a girl without dressing her up a bit!

And The Groom was a little suspicious of what we were about to do with his bride...he was looking for the stripper in the back of the van...the only stripper we had was Noah (who is 4 months old and showed a little thigh during a diaper change)



What a group! Am I the only one not in cowboy boots?

We went bowling first...it was fun. I laughed HARD when I was heading up to take my turn toward the end and as I swung back the ball went flying out of my hand...toward the audience! Ooops!

Here is Angie with her grandma and Faith's baby, Noah:

Then we headed to a sports bar and grill and had Angie open some presents.

And then she had a surprise appt. to get her hair done for the rehearsal.

Bless this salon, they let our bachelorettte party take over for awhile.

Here is the rehearsal at the church

And after the dinner we started to tackle the decorating for the reception...

The bride was obviously not in charge of decorating! : ) Glad she could just hang out and have fun.

I didn't get any pictures of the actual wedding. At that point in the day I was not about to do anything but sit back, relax, and see the event take place. I did swipe some pics from a friend's facebook page:

Here Angela is coming in...single...

And here she is leaving...married!

And here is a picture of the bridal party's attire...

Ta-Da...Mr. and Mrs. Brett Williams!

Here is The Prairie Kid dancing on stage...

And my dear hubby and I dancing on the dance floor...

We got to bed about 1am and you can see what we did for Mother's Day in the next post!