Category: Children

Posted on

Carhenge!!

Since this day was waaaay too big to take in one piece,

I give you…

Road Trip–Day 2B!

From Chimney Rock we packed our cute little selves up again and headed to our true destination. But first we still had to pass…

more corn fields…

and a million more trains. No, I’m not kidding.

These people are absolutely crazy about trains.

They LOVE them…

They want to MARRY them.

And if you’ve ever wondered where those sunflower seeds you eat actually come from…

ask us. We know.


At last, at last we see the sign that we’ve been searching all this time for!

Yes, my darlings here it is in all it’s glory!

CARHENGE!! In Alliance, Nebraska–some guy planted tons and tons of dead cars and wired them into the same configurations…

as Stonehenge…you know…the one in England…built by the Druids a million years ago.

Jillian is the only one of us who has actually seen the real thing…in real life. Even she was impressed.

The shorter folks were just thrilled to be turned loose in a big field and told to run.

What do you think? Crazy, huh?

Lyndi has wanted to go here since she was a pup. I guess all she had to do was marry a guy who was a good enough sport to actually take her there.

Some of the stacks looked precarious enough that they looked like they’d fall on our heads and squish us dead. But in reality–a place I don’t visit often–the cars are all carefully wired together.

I probably wouldn’t stand next to them in an earthquake, but they felt pretty solid to me.

Then there was a spooky old dinosaur made from spare parts. Ooooh looky. Dane’s sooo afraid.

Not me. I bring my own dinosaur with me wherever I go.

Ha! Go bald kid.

It was cool and amazing to look at and we never saw any Druids…

well, except this one.

 

 

Oh, and BTW– we did end up with a winner in the “Destination Quiz.”

jenna said:

carhenge!
my friend just told me about it from her last trip to omaha!

I’ll be sending you a marrrrvelous mug from Carhenge. Way to go!!

Posted on

Wyoming’s Winding Roads

or is it Hawaii? I sometimes get them mixed up. ha. ha.

Road Trip–Day 2A

This little dolly is up bright and early because we are excited to get going…you see, we have found…

a real, honest to goodness farmer’s market–

with every kind of fruit and veggie that you could possibly imagine.

Hey they even had some guy roasting peppers in a big cagey thing. And I thought they did that in a frying pan.

Well, I did.

Breads, cake, jellies, jams, candy, jerky–I had no idea. Dude.

Apparently, I have never really been to a real farmer’s market.

I was totally taken in with this fancy Peanut Spread, and Blueberry Jam that you see here.

Then there was the huge loaf of Asiago Bread…and the Cinnamon Streusel. No picture. Sorry…ahhh…bears ate it all…

yeah.

So after our cool little…ahhh…breakfast we realized that we needed to find a grocery store.

Let me introduce you to “Vikki” our GPS navigator. She’s brave and fearless and knows how to find absolutely everything. So we said, “Grocery Store” and she took us…

here. It’s supposed to be Safeway’s but if you look closely, you’ll see that the whole place is totally boarded up and abandoned. Perhaps we should have added, “…with people inside” to our request. Yikes.

Nevermind–we like the open adventurous road better anyway…

with all it’s trains…

and silos…

and cows.

Ever wonder where those fancy Angus Beef burger’s come from?  Let’s not talk about that right now.

Soon we came up on what is known as Chimney Rock. They say that a hundred years ago it looked much more like a chimney than it does now but time has marched across the old girl and now it looks like a big birthday cake with one huge candle.

For the earlier pioneers–it also marked the point in their journey, where the flat, rolling plains ended and the more rugged Rocky Mountains began. To be about halfway to Utah was wonderful, but now their trek got really gritty and dangerous.

And we whine about leg room in the car. Well, that, and having to travel with crazy people.

Sheesh.

And some of our crew couldn’t possibly care less…about any of it.

Grammy will have to save the amazing history lesson for another day.

I can do that.

Posted on

Off We Go!

Roadtrip Day 1

With  just a few meager weeks of summer left to us–if was obvious that a huge, wonderful, amazing trip of some kind was in order. Not just any trip, but a real, live road trip.

A magnamonious one.

We are indeed ready and waiting…seat belts fastened…sippy within reach. If you’ve been following carefully, you may have a clue where we’re headed. If not, just follow along.

Here we go!

We have about 7 or 8 hours of driving ahead of us–so toddler entertainment is essential.

Big people entertainment is dang important too. We played the license plate game that kept us busy for a lonnnng time. We even spotted a Maine and Alaska–clear out here in the mid-west.  Stunning I tell you. But I’m holding out for Hawaii.

Well, I am.

Pretty easy to tell when we crossed the border into Wyoming because there were THESE stores all over the place, but since the type of fireworks they carry in there are totally illegal in our home state…we just kept on driving.

Til lunchtime that is. Taco Bell is a lovely place to take a break. Oh, and I showed my BagBag–the one made from Taco Bell bags–to the Taco Bell ladies. They told me to send a picture to the corporate because, “they’d be dang impressed.” Who knows? Might be good for a free Chalupa or something.

Most of us were just glad to get out and stretch around for a minute.

Then, of course, it was back in the car, for more…

of this…

and this…

and this.

Luckily, we had a bit of “Ponyo” going on as well. This, my friends, is one high-tech road trip.

Which is lucky, because there was a heck of a lot of this to look at. Beautiful, yes…but after a few hours…

even the most stalwart travelers get hazy.

The scenery was occasionally broken up by construction cones–we have them at home, thank you very much–and…

huge piles of sand. Almost thought we’d driven clear to Egypt when I saw this one.

After the pyramid thing, it was pretty exciting to see a semi-truck filled with Burmuda onions.

Filled, I tell y0u.

At the end of the day we were so pleased with the good natured, patient, happy little travelers we have here.

Yes…yes. What good-natured, patient, exhausted travelers we have here.

Sleep well my lovelies.

We have a big, big day tomorrow!

Posted on

Beasty


I’d like to introduce you to our dearest and most beloved kitty from my childhood. Laurie and I brought her home in the wagon one day. A neighbor lady from down the block saw us playing with the kitten in her yard and came out and said, “You can’t have that kitty, but…” handing us a different kitten, “you can have THIS one,” you know, like we’d won the grand prize or something. We felt pretty dang lucky–winning the kitty lottery like that, so naturally we took her and ran all the way home.

Now Laurie was a little older than me and much smarter–at the time–so she briefed me on the plan. See, Daddy didn’t particularly like cats. He liked dogs…big dogs…that don’t really get along with cats.  But mama–she liked cats, so it would be important to get to mama first, waaaay before daddy caught on. Because if we sold mama on something, then it would be so. She could talk daddy into anything. ANYthing. Trust me on this.

So, I stayed out on the side of the house while Laurie went in to see if the coast was clear. It was. No daddy in sight. We brought the kitty in and she purred right up to mama and that was that.  We gave her some warm milk and fixed her a snuggley box bed with an old towel for a blanket. By the time daddy came home that little cat was curled up fast asleep in mama’s lap and we’d already named her Beasty.

Poor Daddy never stood a chance.

Posted on

The Parakeet Who Was.

When I was a rolly, polly, rubber-doll of a baby, we had this parakeet named Percy. From what I’ve heard he was a friendly sort and let even the scariest of creatures hold him–as shone above. Apparently, we kids could just walk around with a stick or pencil for him to perch on and he’d just sit there like his life was in no way being threatened by the 100 ft. baby. Yikes. The story goes, that 1-1/2 seconds after this picture was snapped those sweet, dimply baby paws grabbed up that poor unsuspecting birdy and gave him the toddler version of a one handed bear hug. My mama had to pry him from my grasp before he became “The Parakeet Who Was.”

Fear not. He lived.

Didn’t particularly care for baby-face Nelson any more…but he lived.

I swear. I can prove it.

You see, he went on to star in several family Christmas cards before finally passing on to the big Animal Kingdom in the sky…of causes completely unrelated to the baby grip of death.

But he always liked my big brother the best.

No earthly idea why.

heh.