Birthday Blessings

I had such a wonderful birthday weekend. I got to spend my actual birthday with my niece and nephew. We had them spend the night so Jeff and Lesha could have a night off together before Jeff goes to training for six months. Having the twins over was the best birthday ever. They are so sweet and fun. All the kids were just playing and laughing, but then they settled down nice and quiet for books. They even kneeled with us during family prayer which, if you have never seen 5 children under the age of 8 kneel in prayer together, is one of the most special blessings ever. Thanks for sharing them, J & L. We are sure going to miss you guys for 6 months. -Pam

Summer fun!

Yes, we are back from Wisconsin. We have just been too preoccupied with summer fun to blog about it. We had a wonderful trip. 5 days out there, 2 full days there and 5 days back. We traveled through WA, ID, MT, ND, MN, WI, SD, WY, MT, ID, WA. Can you get all that, because I'm not writing them out. The kids did great, although before we even got through all of Montana Evan was asking if we could go home to play the Wii. We stopped in a few fun places on the way out there, like a neat little zoo in Billings, MT. We went lots of little places in Wisconsin, like my Grandma's old house and the school I attended for a few months each time we traveled through. It was very hard to see my Grandma. She was not the lady I remembered at all. Old age and illness take away so much and what replaces that is not very good. But after we left, she had her second chemo treatment and is doing much better. On our trip home, we stopped by one of the most amazing sites in America. The Corn Palace! What? you may say. Well it is a Palace made out of corn, of course. The world's only one. Seriously, it was so funny. They even had a picture of the Space Needle on the outside, MADE FROM CORN! (pics below) Actually, the neatest things we saw were the Badlands and Mount Rushmore. Evan especially loved "The Faces." It was amazing to see them and learn the story behind why and how they were made. Just amazing. By the time we hit Washington again, we were all ready to be home. It really was just wonderful to be able to spend so much time together. Once we got home, though, we just lounged for while. Now we find ourselves doing back to school shopping! Wow. Nothing on our house. :( The market is really slow. In the future, I will try to keep up a little better. -P-

This is our first night when we drove to Spokane.

This is one of the many corn fields we saw. Miles and Miles in S. Dakota!

Some of the hundreds of caution cones we drove passed. All of I-90 is under construction!

We found out we have long, lost, rich relatives!
Zoo Montana in Billings
An albino peacock at a free zoo in Wis.


We rode up a ski lift and came down an alpine slide. It was great.

Anna had to ride with me, but Riley was old enough to go on his own, not that he would go fast. We now call him 'The Slug'

Anna at a rest stop.

Evan started saying, "Look for the blue signs that say Rest Area" because that is what we told him every time he asked to go potty.

The Badlands in S. Dakota.

They were amazing

One of the marked graves in the Little Bighorn National Monument Park.

And this is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, S. Dakota. Most of what you see is corn.

The corn Space Needle

The Corn Mt. Rushmore. I really don't know why we even stopped for the real thing after this.

Oh, yeah, this is why! Just incredible.

We did it again. Another blown tire coming back through Montana. Happened two years ago while coming home from Wyoming.

North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck, N. Dakota. Wonderful museum and it is free to everyone. We did leave a donation. It was really neat.

First sign we saw that has our destination on it.

Grandma Bea with all her great-grand kids.

We love you Grandma Bea.

Wisconsin, here we come!

My grandma was diagnosed with terminal cancer and so we have decided to drive out to see her. She lives in Wisconsin, so this is quite an undertaking. I'm not sure if we will be able to blog any pictures along the way, but I'll upload them as soon as we get home. -P