Not Coming Home From Wyoming; Moving Here

I forgot to mention that yesterday on the way to church Aron had EIGHT voice mails. The plant was having problems and he's the go-to guy with sporadic phone reception. By the time he called them back it was all fine. See how emergencies turn out fine when someone just steps up and figures it out themselves?

Sunday (Day 28) rocked beyond belief, just like any other day Aron has off. I wonder if the days off would be as sweet if we had them every single day? Probably not.

Sunday started with some milk drunken through these flavored straw thingies. The simple things thrill my kids!

Then they split open a coconut we got at the store and had some coconut milk.

I love me a man who mops. I'm a HORRIFIC housekeeper, so thankfully Aron's mama taught him about cleaning, and he actually doesn't mind it. If he could nurse, he might have been the stay-at-home parent. I would have come home to duck a l'orange and a sparkling home every night!

Michael petting a dog. Proof for my family.

Me RELAXING with a sleeping kitten. Shocker. Also, Rosie gave us some fresh-baked bread and since her husband is called Ned and he brought it over, Sam called it Ned Bread.

Later we sent Aron and Joel down the river for an hour-long kayak ride they will remember forever.

After, they had some rock-throwing fun trying to make huge splashes in the river.

You gotta love the country. I never let Aron do this in town, but on country roads it is no big deal ... just go slow. I got to drive Ned the manager's truck.

As the sun started to set, after spaghetti and meatballs dinner, we headed to the fire pit to light a fire and do s'mores with our new homeschooling friends. Sam nursed to sleep and we walked back to our room in the bright moonlight.

A rare photo of me and my awesome man, taken by 4-year-old Eva! We've been together almost 17 years, and we still dig each other.

Oh, yeah, 1 sleeping baby and 4 kids ready to pray and go to bed. This is how we sleep every night. Just kidding!

I have to put on a pic of the star of the day: the water tanks. They are housed in our house and keep shutting off ... bad pump or dry well? We sat and held the dealy bob so the psi would go high enough for our friends to get through a shower. Earlier I got half a shower, had to mess with the pressure while half-nekkid, then got the other half of my shower. The washer and dishwasher like to stop halfway through a load. Grrrr.

Don't forget to check out Saturday's post, as well, just below this one! It was a great weekend!

I would like to give a shout-out to Nathan, who is an avid blog follower. We love you and your siblings and your mama! Can't wait to get home and hug you all until you squeal.

If you missed any installments of the Real World: Wyoming series, head to the right-hand side of this here blog, look for Categories, then click on Wyoming. And if you aren't following The Kerrie Show on Facebook, you are missing out on some cool stuff every now and then!

Day 27 in Wyoming = No Water, No Dishes to Do!

Saturday, June 2 = Day 27 of Wyoming travel (I count the 2 days on the road, folks). Still on location. It's not really vacation (well, kinda, but with the rare appearance by my husband), so I say we're on location.

The ranch is having water pump/well issues so we never know when we'll have working water.  So the dishes piled up. Oh, well. We can always buy paper plates and cups, right?

This is Aron on a phone call with the plant. Even when he is off work he is always on call and always gets some sort of work call on days off. At least he had a cute little girl and a kitty close by for support.

Sometimes babies just like to hide in fridges.

Michael is getting used to the animals here. Time to buy a ranch?

Callie leading Rapid Fire to the arena for some riding practice.

Joel leading Boomerang to the arena.

Sam leading his horsie. You can't see it, but he has only one shoe on. It's how he rolls.

All the kids got to ride but Michael, who was not interested.

There go Joel, Aron and Callie with the manager, Ned Silvester, on a trail ride!

So I got to hang out with my 3 other kidlets. This is the gorgeous walk to the beach.

A little stream and bridge on the way to the beach.

After church we went back to TC's Steakhouse (find them on Facebook!). Because I did a review of them, they gave us free desserts plus Andrew gave me a rosemary lemonade (I had ordered the minted lemonade and loved it, so he gave me a rosemary one also!) The Kindlers are good people.

Later we made a trip to the RiverWalk, where we once again found the little hideaway spot where the kids can cross the river. Here they are gathering rocks to throw back at their dad, who was splashing them with thrown rocks.

If you missed any installments of the Real World: Wyoming series, head to the right-hand side of this here blog, look for Categories, then click on Wyoming. And if you aren't following The Kerrie Show on Facebook, you are missing out on some cool stuff every now and then!

Natural Gas Plant Field Trip in Evanston, Wyoming

Day 26 in Wyoming = Friday, June 1, which is the official start of summer in my world. Let's start summer out with a funny:

Summer started with Michael loving on the kitty. This is Pepe. This is Michael's kitty. Michael isn't big on dogs, but he loves these kittens.

We hung out at the pond for a little while, and Sam insisted on wearing his lifejacket for hours. Cool shades, too!

Joel and Michael went kayaking. Later, we met our Overland Park homeschooler neighbor mom, and I like her a lot! She let her youngest daughter, Callie's age, play at our pad for a while. They are fast friends.

Later we went to town for groceries at ... you guessed it ... WalMart! Then we had an impromptu field trip when Daddy invited us to where he's working. After about 20 minutes of driving north, we encountered this going up the mountain. We like to make fart jokes about Daddy working on a natural gas project. Look, all I'm saying is my man is in a dangerous job right now and I don't think he makes NEARLY enough cash for being so smart that he doesn't blow up the plant/mountain. Just sayin'.

A gorgeous sunset going up the mountain.

Here we are. Aron works in one of those buildings down there. I can't tell you which one. Highly secure information. Plus I can't pick it out. See those greenish pipes? Those will go into the ground and hold natural gas. My man makes sure that stuff is automated.

Hardhats required, plus super cool glowy vests.

Playing on the equipment is a MUST.

Then we took a drive to see the DRILLING RIG. Drilling for natural gas, not black gold, Texas tea. Aron gave the kids quite the informational little talk about what he does. There will be a test.

The plant is almost an hour from where we are staying so we got home super late and hit the hay. Come back to see what the heck we did Saturday, as our trip comes to an end. Really, I mean it this time!

If you missed any installments of the Real World: Wyoming series, head to the right-hand side of this here blog, look for Categories, then click on Wyoming. And if you aren't following The Kerrie Show on Facebook, you are missing out on some cool stuff every now and then!

Overland Park Homeschoolers (Day 25)

Thursday morning we found out there were some Overland Park homeschoolers staying in a cabin down the road at Kingfisher Bend Ranch.

WE ARE FROM OVERLAND PARK!

WE HOMESCHOOL!

How cool is that? We were going to walk down to meet them but I was busy with household junk and before we could go we saw them drive by, leaving the ranch. Darnit. Later when I was struggling with a rowboat filled with 3 kidlets, the grandma of the homeschooled kids came to help me and meet me. She's very cool! Later we met the 2 girls when the kids all had a kitten love fest.

Kids on the dock.

After some kayaking and row-boating, the kids caught some crawdads. 

Sam and Eva got up on the counter to see our new pets.

Eva dressing in her brothers' clothing ... with attitude.

Joel came down the stairs too fast and broke a glass all over the place. Thankfully, he was not hurt.

What a way to end the day ... holding a sleeping  baby who just nursed himself into Dreamland.

Highlights of the day:

• Callie learned about symmetry in math
• Kittens were loved upon
• Joel learned about decimals
• Michael learned about odds/evens and writing addition sentences
• The kids caught crawdads and wanted us to cook and eat them.
• We Skyped my dad while he's on our family vacation. I cried because we are supposed to be there, but I got over it ... I just want to hug and hold my family and friends; Skype is so sterile. Let's just say Skype is not satisfying like a Snickers.
• Went into town at dusk to get Wendy's ice cream treats.
• On the way home we heard Bicycle by Queen and I told the kids Aron and I used to bicycle Michael's legs and sing "Mikecycle" and the boys died laughing.
• Aron got home before 10
• I Skyped my pal Andrea

Thus ends the month of May ... now we get to start a new homeschooling logbook in a nifty spiral with pockets I got here. This homeschooling logbook will be called "Summer 2012". No, we don't need to keep records in Kansas, but I like to look back on what we did during our all-too-short time together.

If you missed any installments of the Real World: Wyoming series, head to the right-hand side of this here blog, look for Categories, then click on Wyoming. And if you aren't following The Kerrie Show on Facebook, you are missing out on some cool stuff every now and then!

Wyoming Big Bear River Rats (Day 24)

I swear we will soon turn into loaves of bread the way we LOAF around the house! We play, color, explore, bake, cook, do dishes and laundry, do stuff on the computer ... somehow our days get filled. Oh, and since we discovered Skype, we did some of that with friends and then I got to see my dad's face on Skype and it was so cool! Then we play with the kittens:

He's not hurting el kitten ... just leashing it a little bit.

We grabbed Wendy's for dinner. I have a friend named Wendy and DANG I wish we were at her house for dinner instead. I don't even care if she serves us vegetarian porridge; just to be in the presence of our friends would be AMAH-ZING! Then we headed to the Riverwalk to eat. We had to fend off all the birds that wanted our food.

Can you spot the elk?

Can you find all 5 kids?

Then we went down by the river, where Joel was up for the challenge of getting everyone across this shallow part while I was on a couple of emotional phone calls home.

I want to cry when I see these pictures. Joel helped Sam and Eva across the river like the best big brother around.

Here's what we learned today in homeschooling:

• Elk spotting
• Buffalo spotting
• Bird chasing
• River forging
• Rock throwing into rivers
• Kitten loving and wrangling
• Skyping (Dad, Andrea, Matt, Wendy, Julia)
• Loafing
• Town-going
• Grass tossing into river
• Dollar Tree shopping
• River walking

Aron didn't get home until 10-ish. I've asked him to please work as much as possible so Scout Camp is not an issue and going home next Thursday isn't an issue. I just pray for peace at his job and for this project to end. Again I say he loves his company, just not this particular project. I think his boss thinks Aron is not happy at work, but it's just this one thing. I mean, I'm sure when his boss was on a job where he was working 80 hours a week, he probably got a little pissy, too.

I feel guilty relaxing and recharging, but it is so nice. I'm ready to take on the world when we get home!

If you missed any installments of the Real World: Wyoming series, head to the right-hand side of this here blog, look for Categories, then click on Wyoming. And if you aren't following The Kerrie Show on Facebook, you are missing out on some cool stuff every now and then!