Fruits of Labor

Back in May, right after Mother's Day, (it's the best time to plant 'round these parts) Logan and I planted some sunflower seeds. I dug the hole. Logan tossed the seed in and covered it back up and then happily sprinkled water on top. I showed Logan a picture of what to expect and he just looked at me and simply said "Yeah."

Then about 3 weeks later we saw a glimpse of green with the seed still hanging on to a sweet little leaf. I told Logan he could carefully pull the seed off. And every day, several times a day actually, Logan ran outside to check on his beloved little flower. And as the days turned into weeks that flower grew taller and taller. Finally growing as tall as the planter. Then, without warning, that little flower grew to twice the height of it's laborer. And just yesterday, it bloomed. Revealing this:

I waited all summer for this moment. And so did Logan...and with any luck we will be harvesting our own seeds soon. Isn't God amazing? All that love and hard work surely paid off.

And God said "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so.

Road Trip

Yes. We are crazy.


I mean, who wouldn't be to drive 1,310 miles with a 1, 3, and 8 year old?


ooohhhh but was it ever worth it. Especially the part where we had to scalp PRCA Rodeo tickets.


More on that later.


First...a few words from The Man:


"Things I learned on my vacation:

• Driving from Indiana to Wyoming through Illinois, Iowa and South Dakota takes a long time.




• Making that trip with a one year old diva isn't as bad as I though it would be.




• There are plenty (more than 100 east to west and more than 60 west to east) of signs that point the way to Wall Drug.




• The Badlands literally took my breath away.




• The WYO Rodeo gets better every time I go.




• It's better to buy tickets in advance though..
  



• My little boys are daredevils when it comes to mountain climbing and water sliding.



• Dry heat really isn't as bad as the heat in Corn Country.



• As long as the trip was..I enjoyed it...and I'd be willing to do it again."
  
  

You mean this Diva?

Good thing we stopped twice.Still takes my breath away... It was a record breaking night at the Sheridan, WYO fairgrounds...
So, most years we have successfully walked up to the ticket booth on the final night of the Rodeo (it's the best night to go, dontcha know?) and bought general admission tickets. But for some reason I had an achy feeling in my stomach that we might want to grab our tickets a little early this time. 'Just in case.'

That afternoon I shimmied up to the Wyo Theater to buy 5 tickets. One for you, two for me, one for you, three for...

never mind.

I needed five tickets.

As I approached the theater I saw The Sign. It simply read "Rodeo Sold Out."

Yes.

I plopped down on downtown Main Street and had a real good cry. We drove exactly 6,956,459,231,120 miles for THE RODEO and now we weren't gonna see it. I cried some more. Then I stomped my feet and screamed. Then I started making frantic phone calls. Did anyone have tickets they didn't want?

Dumb question. Who on earth would not want their PRCA Sheridan WYO Rodeo tickets?


Then we sped up to the fairgrounds where we were simply told "sorry." Sorry? Sorry! I was sorry. Then a little man stopped me and whispered in my ear "you know there was a woman up here last night giving away her tickets."

He smiled and I smiled and walked away.

I had a plan.

We'd go eat dinner as planned. Then pile into the car and head to the fairgrounds. Where we would take a stab at scalping. And oh did it work. In fact, it worked so well that we ended up with eight tickets. We needed five. So we did some quick math and started selling tickets.

Yeah.

We got five PRCA Rodeo tickets for 5 bucks. A buck a ticket. No pun intended.

Ha! Take that Wyo Theater!

We saw the rodeo in all it's glory. We cheered. We yelled. We covered our eyes. We counted to 8 a whole bunch of times. And we answered the age old question that our 8 year old posed "What do they do to the horses and bulls to make them buck?" Well...it's funny you ask young Lukas. You see they use this rope thing and they tie it around that nice horse's, or bull's, ...what ever animal you want to make mad, waist and tie up their um, their..uh, private parts...and well um, wouldn't that kinda make you mad if we did that to you? He got the picture real quickly...

Then he ran and climbed a mountain. Glad that he didn't have a rope tied around his waist.

Then he decided to see if he could stand on his little brother's head. Obviously Logan is one tough cookie. He makes it look so easy...

Almost as easy as driving across the country.

A Little Fun in the Sun

I waited all year for this heat. And I just want you to know...

it's here.

Hotness.

Do I complain about it occasionally? Sure. However, I'd much rather been blazing hot than freezing cold.

The end.

How do we deal with the hotness? Let me count the ways:

Start with a good water gun fight. Preferably, with your clothes on.

Then throw in a little cannonball slide:

Do a little pool sitting: Then...

Go find an old, black, plastic, tarp.

And do this: And this:And this:
But maybe not this: First of all, I realize Logan needs either a) betting fitting shorts or b) to learn to pull up his pants. Now that we got that outta the way lets analyze what's going on here. Logan is trying to get outta the way as fast as is possible when standing on a wet, soapy, slippery, tarp. And Matt has Logan in his sights, knowing a crash is inevitable. You can see it in his eyes. Classic moment.

I can say with confidence that everyone is okay.

Except for Jessica's hip, Jonathan's neck, and Joe's sternum.

Hot, Sweaty, Tired.

And they still have time to fight over something.Lukas was recovering. Trying to cool off. Rest. It was a hot day in Kentucky. And there had been lots of playing with lots of cousins...cousins that were 3 or 10 times removed. I'm not real clear on all that stuff. But there were some blood lines.Logan's a bulldozer. Even though he's a mere five years younger than his brother, he definitely has the upper hand. If he wants it. This clearly does not sit well with the oldest brother.
Lukas still has the tongue. It always makes him feel better to just stick it out there. In the end, I'm not sure who won.

Oh wait, yes I am.

I won.

Because I got to eat two pieces of Honey Bun Cake while these two little honey buns got to have it out with each other.My heart be still...and my mouth stop drooling!