Happy 4th of July!

We had both sets of Grandparents over to celebrate the Fourth of July! Unfortunately it rained like crazy on the night of the 4th so we didn’t get to celebrate with fireworks on the 4th. We did enjoy the fireworks on the evening of the 5th! We even found some of Cade’s fireworks he bought in Kansas a few year ago. He was pretty excited to light them off! And we realized Cade hadn’t been to the Zearing Park fireworks before!

Summer Baseball

We had baseball games as soon as we returned home. Back in the swing we went!!  This was the last week Mom and Dad could be at the games before we left on our mission trip. The boys both played great this week. Joel’s team really looked good on Friday night and had high hopes for the tournament. Though the baseball season is long with the chaos of the summer and fitting things in here and there, I do think the boys enjoy it. It is fun to see them improve individually and their teams throughout the season! We are so proud of them! 

Grandma Glenna and Grandpa Bill made it over and were excited to see the boys play.  Joel played two games while they were here and did well. Unfortunately Cade’s game got cancelled because the team forefeited. It was a disappointment for Cade and for Grandpa and Grandma.

Home Coming!

Callie and I arrived home Sunday around 1pm! Josh and Tori were in town so came by to see us before they left town. While they were here, a storm blew in! We were sitting in the living room chatting and Cade walked into the dining room, looked out the window, and said “Mom the tree fell down.”  We didn’t quite no what he meant, but what he said, he meant! So our crabapple tree fell down! We didn’t even hear it. God just laid it down and didn’t hurt our neighbors home or anything. Wow! On Monday, Curtis and our friend cut up the tree with the chain saw and took it to the city lawn waste facility! Crazy! Time to plant a tree!! 

Baseball

We have two weeks left of baseball. Joel’s team is on fire! Cade’s team has been playing well, but the LaMoille team has cancelled on them which has been rough. It has been fun to see the boys grow throughout the season. Even through all the busy moments, it has been fun! 

Megan’s Wedding

We had a wonderful time at Megan’s wedding! She was so beautiful! Callie got a great picture of Megan in her dress! She is starting to capture our memories!! Mommy saw one of her other high school friends at the wedding, Abigail, with her family. We hadn’t seen each other for many years before Megan’s wedding celebrations. It was fun to share in this special day with Megan! 

Playing in Iowa

While the boys went back home to Illinois, Callie and Mommy stayed in Ames to wait for Megan’s Saturday night wedding! We worked on laundry and packing up bedding from the camper. We washed Callie’s carsear cover! Wow it looked like new!! Grandma Glenna cleaned our van while we were gone, and even scheduled for the seats to get shampooed. Our van was so nice!! We got to play with cousins, go to garage sales, and spend time with Grandpa and Grandma! We had a great time relaxing and just being together. A special surprise while we were there was one of the postcards we sent while on our trip, arrived! 

Token & Penny Collections!

We added at least 12 new pennies to our penny collections and at least four new tokens!! A tradition to see where we have been! 

Long Day!

We started the next morning and decided we would see how far we could get with the destination if Ames in sight. We pushed it and made it! It was only a 16 hour day! The kids were troopers and Daddy did a great job driving! 

We did have one unexpected moment when we discovered we lost a hubcap off of the camper in Wall, SD. We wanted to check in the Badlands for the hiking stick for Joel so we got some tape on the cap until we could find an auto parts store. Unfortunately we didn’t find a stick, but we were able to add Badlands tokens and a penny to our collections. We made some phone calls in search of the hubcap and found a hardware store that had some in stock about 20 minutes off the interstate. As we were exiting to go towards the hardware store, we came to a KOA just a 1/2 mile off the interstate. We decided to give it a try in hopes they had some camper supplies! They had just a few supplies, and the size of caps we needed, they had! Praise the Lord! $6 later, a bit of stress, a ride on the merry-go-round at the KOA playground, and we were back on the road! 

Thankfully we pulled into Ames at 1am on Thursday morning and got a nice night of sleep. After sleeping in a bit, we emptied the camper, started laundry, packed the truck for the boys to head home to catch Thursday night’s baseball games! 

Bighorn National Forest!

As we looked at the map at Cody, WY, we decided to trek through the Big Horn National Forest to get to our stopping point of Buffalo, WY for the night. We had no idea we were going to be going on such an adventure! We left TenSleep, WY at 3,645 feet and climbed through the canyon up to 9,600 feet and then back down into Buffalo. It took us about 2-3 hours to make our way through the mountains. It was beautiful and we saw animal after animal!! We viewed a field of almost 100 elk, a moose, over 50 deer, and a fox. It was magnificent. Our adventure was filled with many 8% grades heading down and Daddy learned to shift gears well to save his engine and his brakes. It was an adventure. Thankfully we did not have any problems and pulled into a Super 8 motel with a good rate and decent rooms as soon as we were out of the mountains. We spent 12 hours in the truck today and traveled just a bit over 350 miles. Mountains make travel a bit more time consuming, but the trek is breathtaking to take in!

Yellowstone!

As we left the Tetons we hit a traffic jam. What we thought would be something quick, we realized it was the line for getting into Yellowstone. We went about 1 mile 45 minutes! Eeek! We forgot the headache of Yellowstone traffic!! We had hoped to find a hiking pole at Yellowstone for Joel like we had picked up at previous parks for Callie and Cade. We stopped at four stores in Yellowstone Park with no success. We saw the end of an Old Faithful eruption, Buffalo, and got quite a view of Yellowstone Lake with our drive towards the East entrance. We went through the Sylvan Pass so enjoyed climbing and falling as we left Yellowstone. It was a different look at the park than we saw when we had visited in the past.

Goodbye Beautiful Tetons!

God your beauty has been good to us! We will be back!! 

Jackson Stop!

The kids had a great desire to go back to the toy store, so we headed back into Jackson for a bit of fun! They had so much fun with their toys while camping, we knew it was worth the stop and a great place to add to their Playmobil collection! Thank you Grandma Glenna and Grandpa Bill for the birthday money!! We also stopped in at Lee’s Tees (upstairs of Teton Toys) and Daddy found a hat he really loved. Every summer he wants to get a hat on vacation but then we talk ourselves out of it since he doesn’t wear hats at home much. We decided to go for it this time, and come to find out, Mommy looked pretty good in the hat too!! Smiles all around as we started our travel day! 

Packing Up and Heading Out

After our canoe adventure, we enjoyed another dinner back at the campfire, some widdeling, and a bit of packing for our departure in the morning. We were not quite sure of our traveling plans back home so we had much discussion as what to do. The kids were ready to be home, but there were so many wonderful sights to see as we headed back, we were not sure what to do. We finally decided on a ride north through the rest of the Tetons Park and then into Yellowstone. Then we would exit Yellowstone through the east entrance and onto Cody Wyoming. 

We had a great surprise when we woke Tuesday morning with the sight of a moose in our campsite! Wow! So beautiful! She was our sixth moose of the trip! 

We have figured out it takes about an hour and a half to two hours for us to pack up. Though we hoped for an early departure, we have learned our kids need the rest in the morning hours since they don’t rest in the vehicle while traveling. Pushing our morning time too much will end up with very unhappy riders. Every mile and moment we travel, we are learning what works for our family and what doesn’t. Growing!!