2013 Chicken Trip

A few weeks ago we came to the understanding that our laying chickens that we have had for the past 3 years are “done” laying so we found a new home for them. With a nice lady whom was going to use them for yard (field) bug control. We took a field trip out to see them and they are truly loving their new place. So with that said it was time for us to get new chicks. So we went over the my long time friend Matt who opened his own feed and farm store. Haggenan Farm and Home

One of the best parts of visiting Matt place is that the kids get to visit with Margarita, official store pet.

Sometimes she likes to take a short trip around the store to stretch her wings.

But she is always willing to go to Matt when he asks her.

But we are here for chicks. The kids all got to pick their own chicken to name and to take care of.

Overall it was a fun day…. Here are a few pics of some other stuff that we saw in the store.

Oct 24

Homeschool trip 2013: Part 2: Mount Rushmore

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Visiting Mt Rushmore was our fist “official” home school stop.

I was so bummed its out of focus but she is still so cute!

Many, many…many stairs

We took a lot of pictures of the “faces.” And just when we would decide they really hadn’t changed and none of them blinked…

We took one more just to be sure.

Greg and Zoe reviewed history facts at each stop. Greg loves history and I loved watching these interactions.

Each of the kids completed their workbooks to earn their Junior Ranger badges. There was talk of the trees smelling like something mom would have in the spice rack. It was suggested we give one a smell to identify it.

Like any good home school dad, Greg was the first to test it out.

Unfortunately, we were not able to detect a spice smell.

We left Mt Rushmore and drove through the Black Hills.

There were many tunnels like this. Inside, the chisel marks are still clearly visible.

At the end of the day we asked ourselves “What did we learn?”

Zoe: I learn about the presidents, the presidents were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. And my favorite thing you learned was how the sculptures used a crane house to get up and down to the faces.

Ezekiel: I got a ranger badge from that man.

Oliver: I learned nothing, but I got tired on all the stairs. And we looked at a lot of rocks.

Abigail: I gave a park ranger a high five!

Mom: I like seeing the pictures of them working on the Mountain. And the fact that they had to use sealant to keep the faces together.

Dad: That Mount Rushmore was supposed to be a lot more finished.

It was a great day at school.

Oct 23

Homeschool Trip 2013: Part 1

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As many of you know our trip this year did not end well. But before everything crashed and burned (or just burned) there were some happy times and good memories made. So, lets start there.

We left for our trip in the wee hours of the morning. Wanting to take advantage of less traffic and sleeping kids. We actually slept in the bus the night before so we wouldn’t have to move kids. This worked great! I think Zoe woke when the bus started but did fall back asleep once we got on the road. Our first destination was Western Idaho to visit my brother and his family. We had a wonderful visit and were able to see their new house and get a tour of the area. We even headed to a museum for some history! This is a home school trip after all.

The boys working on their lake and bridges

Zoe and her cousin Rose reconnecting

Next on our list was Mt Rushmore. So, we headed east. Our first mechanical adventure happened in Billings, MT. It turns out the bus did NOT appreciate the extreme heat we encountered so, we spent a day at a shop in Billings while they worked it out. We took over their waiting room (thankful for the air-conditioning) and even did a bit of our school work. Thankfully, we were back on the road by that evening ever eager to get to South Dakota.

Here are a few photos of our drive there.

Because we’re all a little crazy

Lots of cows and “mountains”

One of the best views we found!

So great we had to stop to take a family picture

Beautiful sunsets

Goodbye Montana!

Greg drove through the night and by sunrise we were driving through the last stretch of woods.

Cabin in the woods anyone?

Our campsite at Mt Rushmore was awesome. Probably one of the best we have stayed it. It was a KOA and they had so many things for the kids to do. The kids and I were able to head outside to explore while Greg took a well deserved nap. He was, after all, the one doing all the driving at this point. We decided just to hang out at camp this first day and hit the ‘faces’ when we were all refreshed.

Here are the kids playing around after a long drive:

These jump pillows are one of the best things around! Absolutely loved it.

Aug 14

The Beach

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It has been my desire to get caught up on my summer photos and blogging. While that may not happen I will at least give a glimpse of our summer.

We headed to the beach with my sister-in-law and nephew. She’s supper cool and got in the water with the kids looking for fish and crabs while I got to sit in the sand and take pictures. Perfect.

Zoe was bummed she forgot her kite but guess what she found?

The beach was crawling with caterpillars. The boys were quite excited by it. When Zeke had one stuck to his back his brother thought the use of a rock was the best method of removal.

Silly me forgot swim gear. Oliver hiked his shorts up as far as possible and walked across the giant pool.

After too long it no longer mattered.

Toby enjoyed himself in his normal way.

Jul 25

Summer time news

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Jun 22

Anne Tea Party

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Zoe and I recently finished reading Anne of Green Gables. I thought it would be fun to have an Anne tea party and let the girls watch the movie. I love coming up with these ideas but my real goal this time was execution of the plan. With some quick phone calls we had our party date set and well on its way to becoming a reality.

Never having actually done a real tea party I borrowed all of the tea supplies from a dear friend.

All the girls dressed in their finest and Zoe was even able to borrow and American Girl costume. It was so fun to listen to their conversations and giggles as they ate lunch and drank their tea. With four to choose from I laughed when they all chose peppermint with cream and sugar. We moms even had a chance to visit over tea while they watched the movie.

Being our first real party I learned a few things. One of which is I need to figure out how to take pictures and host a party. So these were the only ones I got. For more one the days events check out my friend Ruth’s blog Blessed by Five.

Jun 14

The Final Mt. St. Helens Post

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I know, I know. You thought I forgot didn’t you? Well, here’s the last little bit of our trip. I’ll warn you, it is heavy on the pictures. Saturday was our big mountain outing. Our first stop was the creation museum:

We were all very excited to start this leg of our trip. And it wasn’t raining!

The museum was a lot of fun. The front section had a number of hands on stations and lots of posters and pictures explaining what happened before, during, and after the eruption.

Given Oliver’s love for rocks this was, by far, his favorite corner.

We were fortunate to visit on a day when the operator, Lloyd, was doing his presentation. Here he was showing the kids different stones including pumice. They had to pick ones they thought they could float. The stone Zoe picked was not pumice and she is telling everyone it sunk.

This A-frame house was build shortly before the eruption and was flooded by the mud flows. The owners tried to dig it out but soon found that the waters were flooding. It has been saved as an example of the eruption’s effects.

From there we worked our way up the mountain a little more before stopping for lunch at a place with playground and good views. I can’t remember the name but it was something the forestry people created. Samantha and I headed inside to check out their displays. It was a lot of fun and much bigger than I expected. Last year when we came it was the end of summer and everything was dry and brown. It was a much bigger impact of the devastation the eruption had. This time, being the start of spring, things were green and full of life.

The final stop was the Johnston Ridge Observatory. And snow at the top.

Clouds prevented us from really seeing the mountain.

The family picture attempt with tired kids.

We took a different path back to the car. Just a tad more snow.

We ended the day with bike riding in jammies and a campfire.

Oh, and the last battle of Ticket to Ride between these two.

This was the last picture I took on the trip. Sunday we headed to a church about 20 minutes south that Greg had looked up online. After that we hit Applebee’s for lunch then picked up the rest of the crew back at camp and headed to visit some dear friends of ours in the Portland area. Greg really wanted to show them the bus and he asked if we could drive it down. I don’t know what they were expecting but we could tell by their reaction when we pulled up they weren’t expecting The Bus. It was a great visit and a great end to our trip.

May 30

Mt. St. Helens (part 2)

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Ok, so most of last post was about the bus. How about some actual trip footage. Our first day there found us at the children’s Museum in Portland. The desire was for the zoo (right next door) but the spring rains forced us indoors.

There was face painting…

An awesome gravel pit…

This was Oliver’s favorite.

And one darn cute little 3-year-old!

I want one of these in my house. Giant Light brite.

We ended our museum play with clay. They had a great setup that even allowed for your pieces to be painted and fired!

The Ape Caves (Day 2)

Day two took us to the Ape Caves. Since it was (still) cold and wet outside this seemed to be better option than hitting the outside of the mountain. Although, I do think we got just as wet in the cave. But it was on our list to do and we are, after all, northwesterners!

Oliver cautiously taking the stairs down to a very long, dark cave.

Needless to say it was challenging to take pictures in the caves. At least for me. Greg was able to get some better ones and some cool camera effects along the way. We started hiking down the kid friendly side of the caves. I’m not sure how far we traveled, given our slower pace with 9 kids 8 and under but it was far enough to be in awe. I was very proud of all the kids. At first I wasn’t sure we would all make it very far but each one overcame the darkness and enjoyed the hike.

Melia, Zoe & Kellina a bit more wet than when we arrived but still all smiles.

May 29

Camping Mt. St. Helens

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Or should I say “Glamping?” Our first trip of the year was also our maiden voyage in the bus. We had a few hiccups on the way down but all in all it did great. The ride down was fun. Kids were able to play in the back or hang out in front with us.

Oliver was able to nap in his bunk.

Apparently these are the only pictures I took on the drive down. I did get some book reading in though. This is not usually an option for me on road trips as motion sickness takes over. Greg did a great job driving down and avoided smooshing the people who jump in front and slam on their brakes. I mean really? We are big. Hard to miss.

So, I know I’ve skipped a lot of bus remodel posts. But how about some pictures of the finished product. They are the most fun anyway. The finishing touches (you know like doors, paint, curtains, a few extra shelved) were finished the day before we left. And no, this time, it was not procrastination. But, working well under pressure we pulled it off.

Here we have the front just as you come up the steps. My co captian’s chair on the left.

Kitchen with full-sized fridge and extra-large sink. Both were very handy and well used this weekend. Two cabinet doors will be added to the pantry (above and below the microwave).

The hallway just past the kitchen. The bathroom on the left and clothes closets on the right.

Our soon to be tiled shower. This is on the left side of the bathroom. The only thing not functional in the bus this trip. Not bad.

The other side of the bathroom.

The bunks. We had Oliver and Abigail on the bottom bunks with Zoe and Ezekiel on the middle bunks this trip. Until we get a bar or ledge on the top one we’ll hold off on that. Both Zeke and Zoe fell out of their bunks the first night due to slippery sleeping bags.

The back bench/bedroom. We wanted extra bench seating and play area in the back. We have boxes under the seats that fill in the middle section and cushions to go on top that turns this into a bed. It worked out pretty well. A little tweaking is needed to keep a crack from developing between one cushion. I was not effected but poor Greg kept falling in the hole. It will be an easy fix.

And a final view from the back bench forward. There are still a number of things that need to get done but this project has come a long way in a short time. We call this our mobile Monticello. I hope you enjoyed the tour. I’ll post the rest of our trip soon.

May 11

“Summer” Fun

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So even though we are still in spring we have been enjoying some amazing weather. Not wanting to waste a minute the slip and slide has already made its way out of storage.

Oh yeah, notice Zoe’s foot?

Here you go. Last week she fractured the top of her foot. The first Thames bone injury. She jumped off a playground structure and just landed wrong. She will have her boot on for 3 weeks (as long as she follies doctors and moms orders to let it heal). But that doesn’t mean a trash bag and duct tape can’t come into play!