Road Trip Day 2 Saturday

After a quick little breakfast–thanks hotel…

of anything and everything you can think of…

we’re back in the car…

and off again.

We had more of this…

and these…

and even this to let us know that we were still in Colorado.

Or is it Colopado?

Have we been saying it wrong all these years?!

Whatever. We were here in Colorado, until we weren’t.

Welcome to Kansas!!

We noticed immediately that they had waaaay more land that looked like this.

Lots of hay and tons of corn…no picture though. I must have been too stunned at the shere volumn of the corn to focus. Sorry man.

Pretend you can see us driving allllll through Kansas and allllll that corn, until at last, at LAST we got to Arkansas and…

found my cute long, lost boy!!! Ooooh I’ve missed those big, strong arms.

April’s family beat us here by a day because they drove straight through without stopping. Yikes.

We got in so late that Dane’s family were already in bed.

The kids still loved meeting up with their cousins that they hadn’t seen…

in a whopping 3 days!

They live down the street from us in Utah. Haha.

It was good to get a little piece of our Daney-boy before he went off to bed.

We finally made it!!

Good-bye, Again

And just when we thought we had them, for real this time…they’re off again. Dane will be attending school in Arkansas for a year and then going wherever the job market takes him. I know he needs to do this, but that only helps my heart a tiny bit.

I’d love to dream that something, someday would bring them back here, to stay.  But, honestly, I don’t know if anything ever really will. They love traveling and having adventures and being in new places all the time. I think we must just be too sedate for these little nomads. *sigh*

I’ll miss them more than they will ever know.

I’ll miss all the hugs

and the impromptu drop ins

and the lending books

and the dinner invites

and that cute face looking in my door window

and the Mr Grinch parties

and those lovely whiskers

and putting special candy in the treat jar

and going to summer booths

and the little shy smiles

and…

and…

and…

*sigh* again.

Believe it or not, this is me…

being brave.

 

 

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Arkansas Skies

My boy Dane and his boy Merrick went on a road trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas.

They camped a bit on the road and had a lovely time.

Even had a little rain. But who’s afraid of a little rain–right?

Ummmmm….until it changes to a bunch of this nasty looking stuff and we get this text from Dane:

Next I get a scary, very emotional call from Kortney, at home, saying that the guys are in the hotel and the sirens are blaring, the power is off and they’ve been evacuated to a lower hallway. They are crouched on the floor, in the dark with their heads against the wall…praying.

Sent the message out to the ENTIRE family to please, PLEASE, PRAY!

We watched the weather service and it was not looking good. They were expecting the tornado to rip the roof off of the hotel.

Praying. Praying. Praying. Praying. Praying. Praying. Praying. Praying.

Dane is comforting his terrified 7 year old saying, “Be brave, Merrick. Heavenly Father will protect us.”

Then, the miracle happened.

The weatherman said, “Well, would you look at that?! Sometimes a tornado will take a sharp turn and go the other way, for no reason at all. We call that a hook.”

A hook that completely went around Fayetteville.

We call that...a miracle.

Our boys are safe.

Thank you Heavenly Father for being so good to us.

Prayers work.

 

My New Flagpole!

So, we had this nasty patch on the side of the driveway that didn’t grow anything but weeds and ugly stuff and was just creepy and embarrassing.

Till one day, my cute boy came over and tilled it all up…

and dug a big, deep hole, and filled it with cement…

for the new flagpole that Rhen gave me for Christmas!!

Christmas AND Mother’s Day all at the same time!  WAHOOOO!

They even hand printed it for me!

Awwwww…I LOVE it!

Thanks boys!! You’re making one of my dreams come true.

It seemed only fitting that my most patriotic son should be the one…

to hang our big, beautiful flag.

I love that it is on the side where the business parking light is. It will shine on our flag all night long.

But the best part…

is the view from my kitchen window.

Love. Love. Love.