so long party

The night (Monday) before we left, we had a few people over at Chris and Val's: The Wurzbachs, Thomas, Polks, Fishers and Nunes.  Bring your own meat to grill, a side to share and we provided some sodas and ice cream novelties for dessert.  Simple, fun.

During the whole time we have been in Fairfield, Cade has been in his glory.  Very few times of melt-down or bad-behavior.  This last day, however, he officially lost it.  He was done.  He kept up with his two cousins most of the time - had a few times of needing to sleep a little extra, get a little space for himself, etc. - but it was time to get back to some normalcy for him (which isn't going to happen for several more weeks, unfortunately).  He was not himself at the party and spent a good deal of the time crashed on dad's lap.

Val did a little routine trim on Jake's hair  - you know, normal party activity....

There was one point where I needed to have a little "one-on-one" time with Lucy; a little chat, shall we say.  I just had to capture her enthusiasm for these times we get to have together.  That one needs to be shown extra-large!

Many of the kids adore Maddy as she usually spends some time playing with them.  While crappy pictures, it does show some of the fun that was had!

Lucy and Hailey (Best Friends and Worst Enemies Forever!..... they are more like sisters at times.....) decided to put on a lovely little show for us after the pool excitement wore off.  Hailey has been taking piano lessons and Lucy seems to be a natural with the recorder.  Rachel and I were amazing at how she could retain the same note and tone regardless of which holes she closed and opened.  That's some skill.

Then it was time to say good bye to everyone.  Not so much a fun time.  Did a little crying of course.... Some goodbyes were a little more fun - like Lucy and Hailey's attack-and-roll-good-bye-hug.

Can I just tell you, yet again, how tired I am of saying goodbyes.  So many incredible people in our lives.  Ah, when we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be.

Amen.

heading home?

Once again - the definition of the word is up in question.  What is home, where is home?  They say home is where your heart is.  Hmmm.  Well, it sounds pretty dumb and corny but I'm thinking it is true. So then, if that is the case, I have several homes.

Today was leaving day - leaving one home to possibly, hopefully, establish another.  So we loaded up the truck and moved away from Beverly.... Hills that is.

 Good old Eggar Asanté, our friend the Albisio, bid us farewell.  Some might recognize Eggar to be Carson Ackermann.  That may or may not be true, but Eggar spent just as much time with us as Carson did this summer.

 Token hugs, mostly because they have to.

 And some hugs happened because they really wanted to.

 Cade and Eric thought they'd get into the action....

 No one cried (hahahahaha)

 After drying our eyes, blowing our noses and pretending we didn't do any of that.... we hit the road.  A little while later, we hit Nevada.

 Time for our last In-N-Out opportunity.

I can't honestly say that I enjoyed it that much.  I'm rather ill - a pretty bad cold.  Sore throat, coughing, running nose, sinus pressure, whiny attitude, pouty face, feel-sorry-for-myself and sleep most of the drive type of cold.  The good news is, it is the first time I've been sick since leaving Ecuador.  That is a record - and it is really and truly an I-can-put-my-finger-on-it sickness.  How refreshing.
On our drive we sighted a funnel cloud.  Well, it was more of a dust-funnel, than a tornado.... actually seen somewhat often on the barren lands of Nevada, but it was a thrill for us!

We stopped in Elko, Nevada at the High Desert Inn.  We splurged and upgraded for our anniversary.  Yes - 19 years today.  Crazy.  This is how most people like to celebrate - driving several hours pulling a trailer, with your four kids, mouth-breathing, in a smokey hotel, with your husband doing everything because you are a pathetic mess of snot.  

Smooches, darling husband.  You are a dreamboat and I love you.
As tribute to Eggar, Mia, Cade and Lucy jumped in the water as Albisios.  Although the picture doesn't show it, the pool was very loud and very crowded, so we didn't last too long.  The kids were kind of going crazy and so was I!

 Of course, the game made it out, as usual, although I think Eric made most of the sightings.

you got holes in your ears!

Oh, I have so much catching up to do!  I really need to get in the mood and get 'er done!  Here's a little bitty start....

One of Mia and Lucy’s goals for our furlough time (this was before furlough became a little more extended.... as in moving back) was to get their ears pierced.  It didn’t come up while we were in Steinbach, but they wasted no time once we hit California.  We arrived Sunday and Tuesday was set as the day.  Thankfully Maddy had her i-whatever with her so she documented.

Lucy was having second thoughts and for a while decided that she might just put it off for a while.  After she saw her brave older sister, however, she went right back at it.  They both did fabulously.  And they even spoke a little Spanish to the lady who did their piercing.

Maddy had thought for a while that she would get her nose pierced (for real).  We told her that she could (her expense, of course) but the place we went to only did ears, so that never happened.

 This is telling:  Mia picked little gold crosses for earrings. 

 Lucy chose peace signs.  Mmmmm.....

 In other appearance changing news, Lucy also lost two teeth (eye teeth) in three days.  Now for the anticipation to see if she gets Giesbrecht or Ackermann permanent teeth.  I got money on Giebrecht but am hoping for the latter.

Being reunited with family is always good and one reunion that was much anticipated was with Uncle Michael.  Uncles don’t get much better than Uncle Michael.  Aside from normal uncle-awesomeness, he happens to make up his own recipes.  Like what he made for lunch when we were at his house the next day: blackened grilled cheese.  Some might have thought he just got caught up in the story he was telling and forgot about the grilled cheese on the stove, but we knew better.  We knew he was showing off his culinary delights and treating us with his latest invention.  The kids’ taste buds were not quite advanced enough, however, so he relegated to remaking regular sandwiches for them.

Aside from a delicious lunch (it truly was), he schooled us in all things fishy.  Michael has three fish tanks and knows an awful lot about the whole deal.  He has always known an awful lot of stuff about an awful lot of stuff, but now he knows even more about fish than before being that is a volunteer docent at the California Academy of Sciences, fish-type division.  Cade is quite set on getting his own tank and some guppies now.

We also took the usual trip to the cement slide, but it just wasn’t quite as fun without a neighbor lady yelling at us (yes, this has happened two previous times).  Maybe we can look forward to her another year.....

rush more, please

July 5th is starting to be a soggy one, although I am enjoying the rain and slightly cooler temperatures.  We have only gotten on each others’ nerves twice and it is 9:33 a.m. Mountain time.  We are about to see the world’s smallest biker bar.  No, I’m not making this stuff up.  We’ll see if we can sneak a picture....

It is 9:54 and Lucy just asked what we are having for lunch.  I told her that we are going to graze with the buffalo because that is what you do at Mount Rushmore.  She didn’t believe me.  But we were heading to Mt Rushmore, in fact, grazing or not.

Oh, and no world's smallest biker bar.  While we saw the signs, the bar itself must be so small that it can't be seen.....

First glimpse of the men:

 And on the way into the parking lot, we finally got Alabama.... as Eric put it "Look, it's the famous handicap car from Alabama!" (all personal, distinguishing marking removed from the photo....).

 Maddy picking Washington's nose.  Gross.

 The kids were very unhappy when their mother told them to pose like the four presidents.  Very unhappy indeed.  Eric had to lovingly tell them to cooperate or....  well, they had just better cooperate.  Once I told Cade to hold his finger in front of his nose for a mustache, things got much better.  He thought that was pretty stinkin' hilarious.  He then thought he should give Maddy a beard and since that was so complicated, Mia took over his mustache.  Once they drew a crowd and got entertaining comments from onlookers, it was no longer a chore to perform for mom.

 Maddy - stop smiling (although smiling is her favorite)!  Lets try that again.

 Much to the dismay of my lousy knee and not-so-easily-entertained children, we did the little walk around the place.  It was quite lovely and smelled like no stress.  Eric said he felt life and stress go further away with each breath he took.  Certainly worth some hassle and an $11 entrance fee!

 Heading back to the parking lot....

Oh, the kids have started to get annoyed with us about trying to find license plates.  They wouldn't let us drive around the Rushmore parking lot to seek them out!  What's up with that?  If we are ever going to get Washington D.C. or Hawaii, that is the place.  Sigh.... today's youth.  They have no passion.

Driving through Wyoming you see a lot of antelope.  Or, as Cade said, “I think I saw a cantaloupe!”  I guess it is possible that there was a cantaloupe....

We stayed in a lovely little hotel in Rawlins, Wyoming  where there was no fitness center so I put on my best senior citizen face and did some water aerobics.  It was actually quite fabulous considering that I haven't been able to exercise hardly at all in recent years.  Mainly due to migraines that come each and every day I tried to work out at high altitude.  And more recently because of bad knees... one really bad knee in particular.  Since I sound like a senior (I'll give you a quarter if you rub my bunion.... and I'll give Audrey a quarter too.....) and my body seems to be functioning in that category, I may as well exercise like one.  The kids enjoyed my workout as they (minus Maddy) jumped over me into the pool each time I passed.

After 45 minutes I thought I had come up with the best work out in the world for my situation until I started walking a bit and discovered that the bottoms of my big toes were completely thrashed.  Hm.  Do I have to go all the way and get aqua socks?

Dominos pizza (are we in Ecuador?) and root beer (no we are not!) in the room made a dandy dinner and that was that for day three.