Our Whirl-wind Summer....There's No Place Like Home: Kansas

No matter how much fun we have, or where we go, there truly is no place like "home". We all look forward to hanging out in the pool, shooting Grandpa's guns, horse-back riding, catching up with cousins, seeing old films and slideshows, riding on the tractor, catching fireflies,...just being with Grandma and Grandpa, it all makes our annual trip to Kansas a family favorite. I love for my kids to see the "farm" side of life, the slow pace, surrounded by nothing but farms and fields and peace and quiet! It was great as well to gather with the Bacon Family, seeing cousins that we haven't seen in years...thanks everyone for making the trek back to Moran! No matter what, we always find our way back home...


Hope you enjoy the slideshows!

Kansas Trip 1

Kansas Trip 2

First Day of 2nd Grade

With such a fun filled, action packed summer, before we could even blink it was August 21 and the First Day of School...

Excitement fills the air.....

Abby was not overly excited or nervous to start school. She was really more of a mindset that that's what you do, so that's where I'll go. The night before she lay in bed and we talked about what I remembered from second grade and having my favorite teacher, Mrs. Hess. She asked lots of questions, then drifted off to sleep.

Once in her class Abby was pleasantly surprised to find many of her friends from 1st Grade still in her class and a handful of girls from the neighborhood.

Abby with Mrs. Dunlavey and at her desk.

As fun as school was, what happened after school is the story to tell...

We had gone to play at a friend's house. The kids had taken to playing a sliding game on the treadmill. I had just realized what they were doing and was processing the "I don't think this is a good idea" vs. "Oh we do it all the time" views in my head (Yes, if I would have just listened to the prompting in my head and my mother intuition....) when Abby started screaming. She had slid down the treadmill, keeping her hands above her head to be "safe", but as she hit the ground she put her hands down to catch herself and her pinkie got caught in the belt! I tried to calm her, while examining the damage and knew instantly it was serious. All of the skin was pushed back, but there was no blood! Just white...my limited first aid knowledge knew that white means a burn. I called my pediatrician, who agreed with me and told me to take her to the ER. So off we went...once in the ER they gave her Tylenol with codeine and ibuprofen! This pretty much knocked her out! After having her finger x-rayed and examined, she did have a friction burn but fortunately nothing was broken or fractured or filed away and her muscle did not seem to be torn away from the finger. There was one spot that they thought she might need a skin graft, but everything looked as good as could be hoped for. I have pictures on my phone, but have not been successful in downloading them to my computer, so the night after picture will have to do...


So a whole lot of tears and pain and $$$$$ later, once again we learn... LISTEN TO THE STILL SMALL VOICE, listen, listen....

We Did It!!!!

OK, so I am giving up on catching up on summer before I share what else is happening with our family....otherwise it will probably be Christmas before I get to the first day of school or anything else!

Our crazy event over the summer was we finally ditched the mini-van club!!! Call us crazy, in this lovely economy and sky rocketing gas price era we are in, but after 18months of researching SUVs and test driving and researching and test driving and talking with dealers and then thinking we should just keep our van, it is paid for, but we really want something that can pull a camping trailer and maybe even a boat.... What to do, what to do? While on our trip to Washington we realized that we really did want to trade in the van and spend the money so that we could have a family get away and a reason to escape with just our family and friends. Camping and boating is a great way to leave the world behind. So we came home and put our van on KSL, just to see what would happen. Well, it SOLD! in 5 days! So, suddenly we found ourselves as a one car family. So the research and test driving and research and test driving continued...to the point the kids refused to go to "one more" dealership and we could probably tell you anything you want to know about any SUV! Our first thought was to purchase the GMC Acadia (for a year we test drove and thought about and test drove and watched prices...we know the "GM Guy" really well), but when we were finally ready to buy they did not have any 2008 with the options that we wanted and they were not making anymore 08 models so we'd have to wait for the 09 model....so back to research and test driving...when we discovered the new 2009 Honda Pilot pulls 4500 lbs and seemed to be a perfect fit for what our family wanted and needed...so we ordered one...then because of production issues the dealer could not guarantee he would have it until October!!! (Being a one car family for the summer when the kids and I can ride bikes and walk places is doable, but OCT??? carpool does not work so well without a "car"!) So back to research and test driving...and in the end we found our "buggy" as we call it and WE LOVE IT!


The "Buggy", 2008 Toyota Sequoia