Back home AGAIN in Indiana????

Though I realize my blog is a little out of order lately, we have had a LOT going on.  I figure it's better to have it posted out of order, then to not have it at all.  At least I'm going with that, because I have nothing else to hold on to at this point. Good intentions, bad follow through, time-sucking kids. :)  

So, back to Indiana we went for a very brief 5-night stay.  Much like our last visit, it was all a whirl-wind, but the girls and I had a great time with Oma and Opa (doing laundry and our hair and such)... :), so I thought it was appropriate to at least post a little about the good time we had while there!

Maggie dancing with the My Size Barbie Opa bought her

Maggie kissing her.

Oops!  Did anyone see that?

Maggie strangling her.

All made up at the post-party!

Lots of cookies were made, lots of baths given (my kids never smelled so good!), lots of kisses, shrieking, screaming, and general mis-behavin'...and the kids were no picnic, either!

Northern Lights and Other Cool Stuff

We witnessed our first Northern Lights this evening!  We weren't totally sure at first, because they were all blue and the ones we've seen on TV prior to this have been oranges and reds.  However, we watched them transpire and dissipate and agreed that they were, in fact, Northern Lights.  It wasn't on our 'to see' list, though it should have been (just never thought of it), but it was magnificent!

Other cool stuff?  The Wisconsin Deer Park!!! http://wisdeerpark.com/

It was a little high in price for us frugal folks ($28 for our family w/ 2 free kids), but SO cool!  We bought crackers to feed the deer (they have other animals too), and they ate right out of our hands!   Talk about cool stuff!  We have deer in Indiana, but have never gotten close enough to actually hand feed them (though I think my husband had some stuffed and mounted in another life).   There were tons of fawns running around and bucks just getting their antlers and were covered with 'velvet'.  All new stuff for me.  We went at a great time of year, too.  Some of the babies were a day or so to three weeks old.  Beautiful!

Careful with the young male antlers though!  Apparently they are easily punctured and we had a one with a bleeding antler chasing us around for food for a while.  He didn't seem to mind that he was dripping blood everywhere, but we did!  You can also feed goats, horses, peacocks, and lots of animals I've never seen before. We all enjoyed it.  The kids learned a lot, and so did I!  Amazingly enough, I think our 4 year old liked the ladybug she found and cherished more then any other animal...until she was ready to feed it to the goats.  Mmmmmm.  Good stuff.

We also checked out the Circus Museum in Baraboo, WI.  It was ok.  We went to the circus a year or so back and it was a BIG to-do, so my hopes were high, but it didn't pan out.  It was, however a nice visit, and the kids really enjoyed it.  As you can see, Emmy pretty much likes to go anywhere she can stick her head in a wooden cut-out and smile.

My favorite thing in Wisconsin is still cheese curds.  And family, of course!

The Badlands are Good!?!? Who knew?

After our 3 day stint in the car with our brand new (to us) rig, and our brand new (for real) dual dvd players, and waaaaay too many Dora movies, we finally made it to the Badlands.  And wow!  This is one area where I wasn't all that excited about visiting, admittedly, but Chad insisted we go.  So go, we went.  And here we are.  The views are breathtaking. 

For the drive here everything had a very familiar mid-western feel all through Iowa and half-way through South Dakota.  The towns just got fewer and further between, the winds got stronger, and the roads got less lanes to them.  

My favorite part of the 3 day car ride?  The often talked-about-but-seldom-seen simultaneous nap-time.  

While in Iowa, Chadly insisted we pay a visit to the Antique Archaeology store (American Pickers).  So we did.  Not a highlight for me, but I have pictures to prove we were there.  No one 'famous' was present, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

On the way here we stopped at the WORLD'S LARGEST TRUCK stop in IOWA.  Yes, be jealous.  It must be true.  It said so on their sign.

South Dakota has been a very interesting state to drive through.  Chad and I were discussing on the way out here how good it is to not see so much 'civilization'.  Makes me feel like we aren't totally destroying our earth.  There are huge stretches of absolutely nothing except green, green, and more green.  And not really trees.  Just land.  Big, beautiful open land.  After we crossed the Missouri River on 90W, it got REALLY interesting.  The terrain took on this wild, hilly transformation.  I've never seen anything like it.  It didn't last long...maybe 20 miles, but it was breathtaking.  And then a whole lot of nothing again.  Pretty nothing, but nothing all the same.  

We had a stop-over in Mitchell, SD, which is home to the Corn Palace and visited my first ever Cabela's.  Neat place!

Then we arrived at the Badlands.  Again, my expectations were low.  Boy, was I wrong. 

It's also very welcoming to see friendly, smiling faces from the locals.  

Emmy went to her very first Junior Park Ranger talk today.  She earned a pin AND a badge!

 I can't tell you how proud of herself she was (and how proud of her I was).  She was BEAMING!!!  She took the Junior Ranger Oath, and it's official!  She's a Junior Park Ranger!  It's a wonderful, beautiful thing. 

Then we took the Loop Drive around the park.  It was really breathtakingly beautiful (if not a little scary for those of us that are afraid of heights), but we were really hoping to see some wildlife.  We drove to this dirt road section, which I (again with the whole fear of heights thing) wanted to have NO part of meandering down, but much to my dismay my husband, once again, insisted, and I'm glad he did.  We saw buffalo.  And I lived to tell about it.  It was a good day. 

The buffalo that we really saw (there were some so very far away that they really could have been any very enormously large land mammal..or a big, dark rock...we'll never know), we REALLY saw.  Up close.  REALLY, up close.  We admired it for quite a while from about 100 yards away, and it crossed the road right in front of us...or maybe we pulled our car up so it was right in front of us, either way, it was CLOSE.  We all really enjoyed it.  I think Maggie even stopped whining for a minute or two.  

Prairie dogs are cool.  We saw a bazillion of them out here (mostly on the hold-on-for-dear-life-dirt road)...(for the record Mom, for what it's worth I'm exaggerating...no need to fret...it wasn't THAT bad...I just really don't like heights. Or falling.  Or falling from high heights).  

Yes, it's been a good couple of days.  I even ate my first bison burger on the same day I saw my (kind of) first wild, bison.  A good day, indeed.  

Family Reunions and Other Crazy Stuff

Anyone else's summer been busy?  I wouldn't know.  I've been too busy to notice.

So...our last month in a nutshell...we stayed at my parents for waaaaay too long (thanks mom and dad), sold our motorhome on Ebay (thanks Ebay!), bought a totally awesome 5th wheel with a bunkhouse (thanks Mt. Comfort RV), bought a truck (Dodge Mega cabs are cool!), sold our Honda Pilot (too small for 3 kids in carseats), camped at Chad's parents condo, drove to Wisconsin and had 4 days of fun filled, family reunion stuff going on complete with brats, cheese curds and lots of beer (or so I was told - 3 beer runs in one day is just too much...but it IS a family reunion and you know how families can be...) :)

And now, sigh.  I sit back in our new home with my 3 sleeping kiddos (sleeping oh so peacefully in their new TOTALLY AWESOME bunkhouse) and feel that life is good.  God really pulled everything together for us and made it all happen.  He answered EVERY prayer we had whilst making all of these crazy transitions.  I feel very undeserving of His grace.  It has, however, built up my faith that He is watching over our family.  We are not perfect, and I, as a mother and wife, screw things up every day, but He loves me anyway.  How blessed am I?  God is good.

We intend on heading west until we hit water with lots of stops in between.  Well, that WAS the plan anyway.  We now get to go BACK to Indiana.  Sigh.  I can't say how disappointed we are.  We have to take care of some business issues that were unforeseen and beyond our control.  I'm sure God has a reason for it, but that doesn't mean I always have to like it.