Summer Vacation Part 3

Here I detail Leg 1 of our journey (Friday-Saturday), which was Webfest.
Here I detail Leg 2 of our journey (Saturday-Sunday). When I left off we were standing in a graveyard in Grainfield, KS.

I apologize that it took me so log to get this last segment together. I kind of thought I already did. Oops.

We hopped in the van in the middle of Kansas and started the final stretch, possibly the toughest, to our final destination: Estes Park, CO. I am a proud mid Western Kansaser by birth. Because of the people, the history, my own family, and the fun things that happen once we reach our destination. Traveling across western KS? My proudness waivers. Its a little slice of hell going and going and going. No fields, no trees, lots of windmills, and so much wind. Luckily we had Aunt Tammy riding with us, who helped with our kids, we were caravaning with my other sister Angie, and Max hopped in their car (he basically would like to join their family, its fine) and we gained Anthony, so changing things up always helps.

At this point, traveling was getting old. We could care less about nice meals like we had enjoyed at Char Bar, so we got food at a gas station and stopped only in emergencies for 6 hours. When we began to see mountains, things got so real. The Rocky Mountains are, baseline, beautiful.  When you have just trekked across Kansas, they are the most fan freakin tastic sight you have ever seen. When we started our trek around and up the mountains, the weather decided to throw us a curveball. More like slush ball sleet that steamed when it hit our window that, 5 minutes earlier, had been traveling in 85 degree weather. For some reason, I was driving during this point, and I'd like to say I handled this well, but........going from the neverending straight road to the curving mountain road with steamy slush balls coming at me? I didn't. Its embarrassing.

But it was all worth it. My parents hit a grand slam with their choice of house rental. It was fabulous.

The first night there, we had pizza and hung out with my Uncle Tony and his family that JUST HAPPENED to be in Estes Park at the same time as us. Sidebar: if you have 21 uncles and aunts and 36 first cousins, there is a good chance you'll end up in the same town as one or two of them at any given time. Having finally hit the end of our journey there, my butt fell into bed and slept for 8 solid hours.

We woke up to our beautiful house, that fantastic view and a week of vacation in front of us. We went to downtown Estes Park to shop and visit a traveling art show and have lunch. 

After visiting the town, we started out on our first hike. It was suggested to us as an "easier hike, good for the kids" by my extremely in shape aunt.  You hike up a mountain and come across 1-3 lakes, depending on how how you climb. Oh my Jesus, it was one of the most beautiful places I have been to in all my life. However.....we didn't really count on.....snow. Because it was June. And we live in Arkansas.And when you look at snow capped mountains, you don't really imagine yourself ever going up that high. No lie, Max was wearing shorts. Proud mom moment.

But, it was a fabulous hike, with fabulous views.Pretty much everyone fell at least once. My brother in law saved me from a certain death (still need to get him a thank you gift for that.....). But, we were in great spirits and ready to tackle more hikes. With more clothes, better shoes, and snacks. 

On Tuesday we took professional pics and then took the kids to a fun park as a thank you for smiling for an hour straight.

We hiked, toured a brewery, found more beautiful lakes, hiked, found wildlife, ate like kings(not the wildlife), rode horses, and hiked. It was so fun. And relaxing. And beautiful. Colorado has not been on my radar as a vacation spot, simply because I am somehow trained to think you need a theme park or beach for it to be a vacation. I am so thankful it was put on my radar for me.

This is the view when you get coffee at the little shop downtown. So ewwww.

Serious hiker

This guy can move mountains. 

Hands down, cutest creature, ev. Marmot Love 2016.

Glacier Falls

These Elk were about a block and a half from our house, just chillin and eatin.

I bought a Self Portrait Pole at Dollar Tree (not a selfie stick!!!!) Rob thinks its funny when I use it

Until next time, Colorado.

Summer Vacation Part 2

We left Arkansas on a Friday and drove to Salina, KS, where we spent Friday and most of Saturday with my mom's side of the family at Webfest. Saturday, we left late afternoon and drove an hour and a half west to Hays, KS, which is where my sisters and I were born. I lived there until I was 6. The place where my dad worked (Travenol) shut down their Hays division, and my dad got a job in Arkansas at a different division in Mountain Home, which later was renamed Baxter Lab.  So, we are the only members of either side of our families that live in Arkansas. 3/4 live in Kansas.

My Grandma, (Grandma Kathy to my boys) is in Hays. I grew up visiting her at the same house she still lives in. She is a lovely human being and I am proud to be her granddaughter.  We pulled up to her house and in about 3 seconds my kids had found her treasure trove of toys that she keeps for the great grands.

Later that evening, we went over to my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tim's house where they had a picnic dinner for us. I have three cousins on this side that live in Hays and they have a combined 7 kids who were all there and we had a great time catching up, watching our kids become reaquanted (had not seen each other since Thanksgiving).

My cousin, Kim's, son Jack

My Dad and my Aunt Rachel, holding Henry, the baby I will eventually kidnap.  #bidingmytime

The kids had played at the park with the other side of my family for 3 hours earlier that day, and then had a big dinner followed by trampolining, basketball, and running for 3 more hours with this family. We took them back to my grandma's dirty, sweaty, and almost comatose.

I slept like shiz. Rob calls it my travel brain. I get so excited I cannot sleep. I was up by 2am, ready to get the third leg of our journey started. I do this almost every trip we ever take unless I get Benadryl on board.  So, I sat in the guest bathroom playing games on my phone and watching Netflix like a giant weirdo.

We got up and had a scrumptious Grandma Kathy breakfast. We call her kitchen the magic kitchen because it is tiny, and seems like it would have very little food offerings, but she always has something magical whipped up in minutes in there. My children started an all out shoving wrestle match on her floor and grandma laughed and said she loved the noise of kids playing. Don't you just love it when something you are apologizing for ends up being something that makes someone smile?

Not sure where I got my height from

he

We left Grandma waving to us from her porch and had a different kind of reunion. We took flowers to my Grandpa Gene's grave and then drove another hour west to Grainfield, KS (where my mom grew up) and put flowers on my Grandma Webers grave and my cousin Michelle's grave. My cousin Michelle was born 3 weeks after me and we were very close until she passed when we were 6. I think about her all the time and wonder what kind of 36 year old she would be today. She is forever 6 in all our minds, and she was the sweetest, most precious 6 year old you would ever know.  I hadn't been to see her since my Grandma passed in 2008. We brought her some summer flowers and I told my kids about her. It was hard for my kids, as Max is 5 and Rylan is 7 and Michelle was right between their ages when she died. To them, people die when they are old and sick.  I am so glad that we stopped and did this. Our cousin, Adam, who did not go to Webfest was able to come meet us and we had a nice visit before we moved on to the third leg of our vacation journey..........

Summer Vacation Part 2

We left Arkansas on a Friday and drove to Salina, KS, where we spent Friday and most of Saturday with my mom's side of the family at Webfest. Saturday, we left late afternoon and drove an hour and a half west to Hays, KS, which is where my sisters and I were born. I lived there until I was 6. The place where my dad worked (Travenol) shut down their Hays division, and my dad got a job in Arkansas at a different division in Mountain Home, which later was renamed Baxter Lab.  So, we are the only members of either side of our families that live in Arkansas. 3/4 live in Kansas.

My Grandma, (Grandma Kathy to my boys) is in Hays. I grew up visiting her at the same house she still lives in. She is a lovely human being and I am proud to be her granddaughter.  We pulled up to her house and in about 3 seconds my kids had found her treasure trove of toys that she keeps for the great grands.

Later that evening, we went over to my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tim's house where they had a picnic dinner for us. I have three cousins on this side that live in Hays and they have a combined 7 kids who were all there and we had a great time catching up, watching our kids become reaquanted (had not seen each other since Thanksgiving).

My cousin, Kim's, son Jack

My Dad and my Aunt Rachel, holding Henry, the baby I will eventually kidnap.  #bidingmytime

The kids had played at the park with the other side of my family for 3 hours earlier that day, and then had a big dinner followed by trampolining, basketball, and running for 3 more hours with this family. We took them back to my grandma's dirty, sweaty, and almost comatose.

I slept like shiz. Rob calls it my travel brain. I get so excited I cannot sleep. I was up by 2am, ready to get the third leg of our journey started. I do this almost every trip we ever take unless I get Benadryl on board.  So, I sat in the guest bathroom playing games on my phone and watching Netflix like a giant weirdo.

We got up and had a scrumptious Grandma Kathy breakfast. We call her kitchen the magic kitchen because it is tiny, and seems like it would have very little food offerings, but she always has something magical whipped up in minutes in there. My children started an all out shoving wrestle match on her floor and grandma laughed and said she loved the noise of kids playing. Don't you just love it when something you are apologizing for ends up being something that makes someone smile?

Not sure where I got my height from

he

We left Grandma waving to us from her porch and had a different kind of reunion. We took flowers to my Grandpa Gene's grave and then drove another hour west to Grainfield, KS (where my mom grew up) and put flowers on my Grandma Webers grave and my cousin Michelle's grave. My cousin Michelle was born 3 weeks after me and we were very close until she passed when we were 6. I think about her all the time and wonder what kind of 36 year old she would be today. She is forever 6 in all our minds, and she was the sweetest, most precious 6 year old you would ever know.  I hadn't been to see her since my Grandma passed in 2008. We brought her some summer flowers and I told my kids about her. It was hard for my kids, as Max is 5 and Rylan is 7 and Michelle was right between their ages when she died. To them, people die when they are old and sick.  I am so glad that we stopped and did this. Our cousin, Adam, who did not go to Webfest was able to come meet us and we had a nice visit before we moved on to the third leg of our vacation journey..........

Summer Vacation Part 1

It has been a month since this trip, but I feel it is the best place to start blogging again.

School got out on a Wednesday. On Friday, we set off for Salina, KS for the first leg of our family vacation. This was a 6 hour roadtrip, with a stop in Kansas City at Char Bar for lunch. (If you ever got to KC, GO TO CHAR BAR).

The reason we went to Salina, KS, was Webfest. My Mom's side of the family is the Webers.  7 years ago we started doing a family reunion called Webfest every few years.  I was born in KS, and we moved to Arkansas for my dad's job in 1986. So, we are the only family in Arkansas. So, it is nice to have these reunions where we get to see (almost) everybody at one time.  I have 20ish cousins on this side of the family. 3/4 of us have reproduced, so it is always nice to get the kids together so they can meet their 2nd cousins.

Don't worry, I worked my way to stealing that baby at least for a minute.

My uncles Tom and Gary

My mom and 6 out of 7 of her siblings

This is a little over half of the Weber side of my family. My mom has 7 siblings, six made it. There are 22 grandchildren on this side , 9 are pictured here. I believe 3 or 4 came later this evening. We have had a combined 90,000 children, give or take a few, so some are missing from the pic. Some had to work, others had, literally JUST had a baby in Houston, and for some reason weren't ready for travel. Whatevs. 

Friday night was spent eating BBQ, playing cards and Twister and swimming for the kids. Saturday some of the ladies shopped in downtown Salina and then we met up at a park for lunch and more playing. It was beautiful weather and it was so much fun getting to spend time with our family that we live so far away from.

Mid afternoon we had to leave the family to continue on our trip for the second leg of our journey......

Back in the saddle

Coworker: "Sara, you should have a blog"
Sara: "Um, I do....."
Coworker: "sweet let me have the address"
Sara: "I can't remember the last time I updated it." sad face, embarrassed face, sad face

Every year that I have had this blog I have done less updates than the year before. I am the least organized person, and this blog is proof of that. I do not MAKE the time to do it, or make a list of things to blog about, therefore, it stops getting done.

The first year of the blog, I had no instagram, facebook was new, and none of my family was doing social media, therefore, this blog helped me share pictures and stories. Social media kind of took time and some of my reasons for blogging. Yet it still feels like I want to do it.  So, I am going to MAKE time to do it.

So, I'll quick play catch up.

We are a year and a three quarters into living in Fayetteville, AR. We actively love our town.  It is the BEST place for our family and the move, though taxing on our stress levels for a while, was the BEST thing we've ever done. We have been to so many street festivals, restaurants, shopping to keep our wallets empty, bellies full, and smiles big. We frequent the awesome library and we have found a great church that deserves its own blog post about its awesomeness.

Rob still loves the job he took here, working in computers at a local medical school/clinic. I got a job January of 2015 working as a nurse in a recovery room. It is busy and lots of days have me pulling my hair out, but overall, it is a good job and I truly enjoy it. I am still PRN, which means as needed. I get to pick my own schedule for the most part and work as little or as much as I want. Unless they are overstaffed, in that situation, I am the first one to go home. Sounds scary, like I might not get enough work, but in a year and some change this has happned exactly twice, so its not really a thing to worry about. I generally work 3 days a week from 8-3:30 or 4:30. Once summer comes I am dropping down to 1-2 days a week. Once school starts again I will work more days a week, but get off in time to get the kids from carline, so 2:30 or so.

Speaking of.....

Max? Is going to kindergarten in the fall. Oh sweet 6lb 9oz baby Jesus. I. Can't. Even. He and I have had a lot of Mommy and Me time since Rylan went to school. Rylan is a mover and shaker, and wants to go go go. He NEEDED kindergarten for structure and something to keep him occupied and give him people ALL THE TIME.  Max likes to hang out at home. He could sit in my lap reading books and watching shows for 8 hours if I let him. We hug 90 times a day and dance and hold hands and giggle like buddies. I will need therapy in August.

See? He will still let me shove him in a stroller and go on a walk. He is an awesome stay at home kid.

So, I will have 2 children in school and no littles at home. There is no coping mechanisms suitable for my brain at the moment. Maybe next year this time, I will be regrouped.

Rylan is done with 1st grade. This has been a harder year for him. He has a very serious teacher, not as lovey dovey, and the classwork is harder. He has a hard time concentrating and we have finally found some help for him. THAT is a whole 'nother blog post.  He is happy it is summer vacation and I will be home more and he gets to play play play.  I think it will be easier for him once his brother has to go to school as well.

Pre Fun Run at school. His class earned Hat Day. 

Max's Luau themed graduation

Farmer's Market in Fayetteville. Max is dressing himself these days

There, I've done a brief update of our lives at this point. I promise on my favorite tshirt's life that I will make a very strong effort to blog 3 days a week this summer.

Rylan goes to first grade

I'm not going to be all cliche "I don't know where the time went....." Maybe I will for one sec. 7 years ago, I was laying on the couch on bedrest, trying like crazy to stay pregnant longer. I went into preterm labor at 31 weeks and stayed on bedrest until at 38 weeks, we had an 8lb baby boy. Nothing in the world makes you think, one day, this 8lb sack of cuteness that needs me for EVERYTHING, will grow into a tan, muscley (its a word), TALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL 6 year old that can dress himself, read books and help you pack his lunch. You just kind of forget to look ahead and suddenly they come to lay on your chest like they have for 6.5 years and they are almost as big as you and you are suffocating.  Its cracker jacks.

Anyway, last year we moved to Fayetteville a week before school started and the school our apartment was zoned for was overfull and Rylan got overflowed to Butterfield Elementary. We were at first bummed, but then we met his no-nonsense teacher and got the flow of everything and were so happy for the overflow. So much so, that 6 weeks into school, they wanted us to go back to the zoned school and Rob and I went to the superintendent's office to fight for him to stay. Which he did. Cause I fight gooooooood. I'll talk till you decide I'm right. Or I'll just cry.

When we found our house that we just bought, one perk was that it was in Butterfield's zone, so Rylan could continue 1st grade at the same school he started in. We've come to get used to going to that school, everyone knows Rylan there (even the principal, grrrrrrr) and he has buddies there, and quite frankly,  that other school is kinda a little uppity. Or so I've heard. And we aren't upity. What's the opposite? Downity?

Its hard to read all the wording. I am not exactly the kind of mom that has the awesome board all filled out. This is a sheet of typing paper. I do what I can. It says that when he grows up he wants to be a Master Lego Builder (its a thing, go to Legoland), his favorite song is anything by Crazy Frog, his favorite food is Sorbet and Pizza, and his favorite thing to play with is legos. 

He's so presh. He has homework now. Usually spelling and sorting words to learn vowel sounds. We are working on his negativity a bit. But overall, he has had a good first few weeks. 

Max got a sign too. Max is still at his same school he's been at for about a year. He has a new teacher and suddenly he can recognize AND write every letter. He WANTS to do school work with me and loves telling me what letters are in words and on signs around town. When I helped Rylan with therapies, I learned all the things that they need to know to be Kindergarten ready, and I'd say Max is more than ready a little early. 

When he grows up he wants to be Optimus Prime (totally doable goal). His favorite song is Scatman. His favorite food is Peanut butter and jelly, and his favorite thing to play is Transformers. 

These kiddos make our world go round. I am so glad they are ours.

Ch Ch Changes Part II

I have been very infrequent with my blog in the last year. A lot of that has been working more, being busier, not really knowing WHAT to blog about, since this blog really started as a way to let my family know about my babies, since we live(d) far away from a lot of relatives and I didn't really have babies anymore. I had big kids. That are still wicked awesome, but maybe whose every move doesn't strike me as quite so blog worthy as much as yesteryear. Really, my poor blog has been a victim of Facebook and Instagram. Once I started having both of those places to post a pic with a (let's be honest, sarcastic) one liner,I got lazy and started doubting that anyone even read my blog.

I went on a girls trip in July and my friends asked about my blogging (or more, lack thereof). With the sweetest of compliments and pushing, they encouraged me to get back to blogging. They told me that I had stories to tell and wanted me to blog more. Apparently I'm not the only crazy mom trying to find her place in the world, and my sometimes funny, sometimes sad stories about our nutty life were readable to them? Or maybe I just have really good friends.

I'm going to give it a really solid effort. I have life kind of handled right now (cue major catostrophe) and it feels like a perfect time to fire up the old typing fingers and get going.

I will start with where my family is now. A year or so ago, I wrote this post about our sudden move to Fayetteville from outside of Little Rock. And by sudden, I've blogged about the fact that that move was 8 years or so in the making, but the actual move took no less than 3 weeks.

When we moved here, we had not sold our house yet. We knew it would take mere minutes to sell it, so we found an apartment that only had a 9 month lease. We had visions of selling our house immediately and banking the money we used to spend on mortgage while we ONLY paid  for an apartment.  We were wrong. It took 11 months to sell our house. Eleven months of a mortgage and rent. Two months past the time our lease was up. In the end, we had dropped the price $10,000 and ended up accepting an offer even lower than that. But, we had paid a mortgage and rent for 11 months and we were D-O-N-E.  It was sad times. But happy times all the same. THE HOUSE WAS SOLD!!!!

Bye Bye East End/Hensley House you were good to us. 

At the same time that we heard wind that there was a possible buyer for our house in Little Rock, we started looking here in Fayetteville. We had driven around a lot and gotten a lay of the town. We knew for sure we didn't want to live in a town outside of Fayetteville. We'd had 10 years of the suburbs and our 11 months in the apartment might not have been ideal, but one thing that apartment had going for it was PRIMO LOCATION TO ALL THINGS FUN. Seriously, you could get in the van and go to Walmart, the gym, the gas station, pick up the dry cleaning, go to the liquor store, the hardware store and the bank, and then bring home either BBQ or Mexican for dinner and have only put 1.5 miles on your odometer. To say we'd gotten spoiled to being right in the thick of things was an understatement. Rob's 40 mile each way commute from Little Rock had turned into a 10 minute trip and that included dropping kids off at school, I don't lie. I used to have to go 20 minutes to drop kids off at pre-k and then 30 minutes in the opposite direction back to town to go to work. And on my off days, the zoo, museums, splash pads and all our playgroup friends were miles and miles away.  My job is now 5 minutes from the house. Playdate fun is less than 10 minutes away in any direction.

The one problem with the area our apartment was in was that the actual houses were very pricey. One day, we received an email from a realtor saying, "here is a house in your area and price range. This one will go fast." Rob looked at it on his lunch break immediately and only felt okay about it. His description and pictures didn't make me want to see it. I'd almost put it out of my brain but something just made me say "see it yourself, and then you'll be able to stop thinking about it." And I saw it and I wanted to put an offer down immediately. I saw so many possibilities. I saw it the way the home owners had decorated it, and I thought about what we could do to make it more 'us'. The pictures hadn't done it justice. The "small closet" was 3 times the size of mine in my old house. The smallish kid's room wasn't so small once you were in it and realized there was a ton of furniture taking up a ton of space. Let me also mention that our favorite park is LESS than 1/4 mile from our front door. There is even a little walking trail from our neighborhood into the park. I saw its charm, its GIANT deck, its proximity to all things important (like Walmart, lezbehonest), and I wanted it yesterday.

We put in an offer May 31. It was accepted June 1. Our house outside of Little Rock put in an offer June 5 that we accepted June 7. Our house here closed July 10. Our house in East End closed July 25. We lived out of boxes for 11 days at the beginning of July, our new house was supposed to close July 1 and it too 11 extra days. I took a long ago planned girls trip and left the kids with Rob for three days in the middle of all this. I took the kids to Kansas City with no Rob to attend the wedding of my cousin while Rob hired movers and moved us in the house when we FINALLY finalized the house. At the end of July, I once again packed up me and the kids and we went to my parents house for an end of the summer getaway I had promised them. In the middle of all this I started taking call at the job I got in January, so some nights I was at the hospital at all hours. Life as we knew it has been so nuts lately.

And oh, so awesome. Like really awesome. We really live in this town. Not renting. Not still owning a home in another town. For reals, we own a piece of this town that we have wanted to live in for years. We both have jobs that we (usually) love, Rylan is in a school he loves, Max MOSTLY likes his pre-k and we live so close to tons of family.  The new house is not just bigger than our old one, it makes better use of space. Open floor plans are awesome in their own way, but I like the older floor plans where a kitchen is a kitchen and a den is a den. This new house has something our old house was lacking: closet space. Rob and I have a walk in, there is a double doored closet in hallway that is huge, a linen closet and then another closet in the hall that has a secondary closet in it, meant for guns. We don't really know what to do with that closet, so we just keep our vacuum and medicines in there. That's normal, yes?

I cannot wait to do updates on how we are changing things. The house had amazing bones and had been kept up with well. But, it was built in the 1970's and was owned previously by the Methodist Church down the road and used as their pastor's house. So, we've got some painting and buffing and wall hanging and nailing and ship shaping to do.

I will be back with pics of the new place. SOON!