"Hello"..."Goodbye"

We took a Power Trip to Iowa this weekend with my in-laws to celebrate Aunt Bernice's 80th birthday. This is not to be confused with a "power nap" because it does not rejuvenate or provide rest. This is what it looks like in a nutshell:

Day 1: Drive all day long across Wyoming and South Dakota. Stop only long enough to potty and refuel. Eat while on the road. Pull in to Mitchell, SD and sleep.
Day 2: Leave first thing in the morning and drive across the rest of South Dakota and most of southern Minnesota. Stop for lunch in Spring Valley, MN and then continue to the final destination...Waukon, Iowa.
Relax for a very short time in motel, load back in the car, attend a family function saying hello to hoards of wonderful extended family members that you haven't see for too long of time.
Sleep a bit.
Day 3: Pack as much family time into the day as possible. Go to bed really late and sleep a bit.
Day 4: Get up early, head to a family member's house for breakfast, say goodbye to the hoards of people, load up, drive back to Minnesota, drive back to South Dakota, drive almost all the way across South Dakota. Only stop long enough to potty, refuel, and continue to eat on the road.
Pull in to Rapid City, SD, take 5-10 minutes to regroup at the motel, load back up in the car and eat dinner with a very tired crew.
Sleep a bit.
Day 5: Get up, load up in the car, drive back to Wyoming, eat lunch in Buffalo, WY, drive over the Big Horn mountains, stop to potty at Ten Sleep, say goodbye to the part of the family driving another route, head home, and completely and totally crash.

In total:
5 days
36 hours of driving
2250 miles
3 motels
5 adults, 1 4 year old
2 white Suburbans

That is a Power Trip; my 3rd Iowa Power Trip since I married The Prairie Daddy. The Prairie Kid has gone on all 3 of these Power Trips too. He is a true trooper.

Here is a math riddle for you:

Question:
Aunt Bernice had 8 kids. Each of those 8 kids got married. Each of these married couples had an average of 3 kids a piece. Many of those kids got married and had kids. How many people are in this family?

Answer:
Hoards.

Thankfully they are a wonderful hoard of people! I love these folks! They are genuine, kind, down-to-earth people. I am blessed to call them family. It might take me 3 hours to figure out "who's who" and tease that they're the only family I know that needs name tags and a children's program director at a birthday party, but they are awesome! I just wish we had spent more time there with them.

I didn't take many pictures this trip but I have a few to share:

The Awesome Trooper

Windmills in Minnesota
Iowa

Family Children's Program...aka "Red Rover"

The Prairie Kid checking out all of his cousins and deciding whether or not to join in

Hmmm...decisions, decisions.

When Red Rover switched to Hide 'N Seek he was sold

And then he REALLY loved the girls toys

Aunt Bernice and her kids (she is the one in aqua)

Dad and his sister

And that my friends is an Iowa Power Trip. I might not want to see the inside of my car again for weeks to come but the laundry is almost done, the snacks are put away, and the recovery process continues.

I did make The Prairie Daddy promise me that next time we will stay an extra day or two and actually see some of the fun things to see around there. : )

Happy Birthday, Aunt Bernice!

Ride Together

One of the moms at Moms Together at the beginning of the month offered to organize a day for us to all go out riding together. The morning came after the first snow and really cold night. Thankfully, the sun was shining. It made for a beautiful ride...the trees were turning, the sky was brilliantly blue, the snow was glistening in the sun and the air was crisp and fresh.

We had a little brunch first. It was delicious!

Group picture!
Timber Creek and my big fat horse, Dually

Snack time!

Molly the Marvelous on a new horse of ours, Diamond Jim (Jimmy, I am wanting so bad to ride you soon but I guess we'll have to wait until I have time again!)

On A Sad Note

On a Wednesday night after coming home for Galaxy we received sad news. Our family friend and National Geographic photographer, Bobby Model, had passed away.

Two years ago June Bobby was in the passenger seat of a small truck in South Africa and a large piece of cement was thrown through the window and crushed his head leaving him fighting for his life. With the help of amazing medical care and his caring family Bobby survived several months in a coma, multiple surgeries, transporting from South Africa to New York to Denver and eventually home to Cody. He did come out of the coma eventually and began rehab to talk and become more mobile again. He was doing pretty well considering.

Unexpectedly Bobby took a turn for the worst and passed away. From what I understand he suffered a hemorrhage in his brain and it led to his brain shutting down the rest of his body.

We were able to join other close friends and family on the other ranch to celebrate Bobby's life and share in the closure of a service. I have great respect for Bobby's family. They graciously walked through this last 2 plus years. Our hearts and thoughts are with them.

Lapse In Photography Leads To The Unknown

My pictures stop telling my story at this point. I don't know who I am or what I have been doing since my sister-in-law's birthday party.

I just looked back at my schedule book. Now I know who I am and where I've been again. I had some great "girl's time" that next week. Faith the Fabulous and I went to see Julie and Julia. Loved it! The only disappointment was the fact that we couldn't go out for a gourmet, authentic (or even pseudo) French dinner afterward. We did go out for dinner though and it was awesome to be kid and hubby free for an evening. Although, we're never entirely hubby free since Faith the Fabulous' hubby seems to need to be connected through phone and text on any given occasion that the girl's are trying to be void of any testosterone in the air. : ) Love you Faith the Fabulous' wonderful husband, but come on! Open the fridge, choose a tupperware, set it in the microwave, push a series of buttons, and eat! She will be home soon enough!

We have an on-going inside joke that all he eats is burnt popcorn when she's gone. Sadly enough, its not really a joke. Bless you Faith the Fabulous...and at least you're not unsure of your necessity and importance around your house!

Anyways, back to girly-girls.

I got to spend a lot of time with Molly the Marvelous that week too. It was fun! We got lots of stuff done for Moms Together and her daughter's 12th birthday party. We also had to practice the Hannah Montana Hoedown Throwdown dance for the birthday party too. I don't know if I will allow for pictures or movies to enter this blog on that one. We'll have to see. : )

I think I am ready to move on to the next post. Wow! We're cruising now!

Happy Birthday, Auntie!

The day after Monica the Magnificent left we got to celebrate The Prairie Daddy's oldest sister's birthday at Mom and Dad's. (Wow, that was a lot of apostrophes!) It was a fun time to get the family together and hang out. We hadn't all gotten together since the end of Spring and it was high time for a family get together!

The Prairie Daddy's other local sister gave The Birthday Girl this awesome bird feeder! Neat, eh?

And this is what starting preschool, having company, and running around like chicken's with your heads cut off for more than a week does to a little guy...

And at this point I was feeling the same way...only at 6pm I wasn't able to conk out on the recliner like The Prairie Kid.

And Then What?

The last night Monica the Magnificent was in town we had a BBQ for her over at Cowboys With A Mission. It was a whole lot of fun. Many of our friends from the region came down and we had a great time. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.

Oh Monica...I love you sooooo much!

Monica the Magnificent got to finally meet Brett's new wife, Angie

And my great friends (it is nice being friends with The Law!)

And my dear Molly the Marvelous. Smoooooch, girl! Love ya!

The Morning After

And after the crazy ride up the mountain we had a whole day off, lounging around, eating bon-bons, getting pedicures, massages, mud masks, and ..................................
Sorry, I just had a lapse of reality. The morning after the Crazy Ride The Prairie Kid had his first day of preschool! So we were up getting ready and making sure we were on time with our i's dotted and t's crossed. I took his cutie patutie little picture and he left with his auntie who is conveniently taking him to preschool the 3 days a week that he goes because she is already headed to town.
Here is The Prairie Kid on his first day of full-time, real-deal, 3 days, 3 hours per day preschool

After The Prairie Kid left Monica the Magnificent and I sat down to a cup of coffee and a good, long chat. It was a great time together and when we were done I decided to start tackling the list of things I had to get done before that evening...because it was the first night of Galaxy, the mid-week children's program I coordinate at our church! (Yes, I am crazy...I pile up loads and hoards of huge things to accomplish in one week on my plate and hope that I survive).

So...there I was...starting to accomplish the hoards of things to accomplish. And I looked at the clock. PANIC!!! The Prairie Kid's preschool had ended 15 minutes ago!!! "MONICA!!! WE FORGOT THE PRAIRIE KID!!!" And off I ran to the phone to call and tell them I would be there soon. I raced to get myself in the car and managed to get him picked up with my tail between my legs and my identity on a platter with a decorative title "Humbled."

Yep, I was the mom that forgot to pick her kid up on his FIRST day of preschool. Way to go, Prairie Mama!

We regrouped when we came home and I was a wild banshee accomplishing the tasks at hand and managed to get Galaxy launched. Whew.

Here I am helping the kids through the "Instant Drama"

Here is where the Red Sea crashed over the Egyptians after the Israelites were safely across...
And God only knows what we were doing here...

Whew. I am exhausted just recounting this wild week that we had. I think I need a bon-bon.