High Junior

As Love Man would say, "look at my baby." 

When Blonde Girl was younger, we would be driving around the neighborhood.  As she was sitting in her car, strapped in her car seat, she would say, "when I go to high junior."  She would begin every goal and aspiration with, "when I go to high junior."

Today, she is at the two-day orientation for high junior.  I hope it is everything she thought it was going to be when she was a small child.

By the way, she is holding Becca not Tree, her doll.  Yes, her beloved doll was named Tree.
That should have been my first clue......

It is Official

Miss Brunette and her friends from the pool are now certified lifeguards!  This was taken on their last day of class.

Small Town 4th of July

In Iowa, the girls went to the 4th of July celebrations with their cousins.  They had fun.  They watched a parade, were dunked in a dunk tank and participated in a frog jumping contest.  I guess the best time of all is the night before when the frogs are collected.  Sadly, they missed that.

They ate something called a walking taco and we now have to each tacos with Fritos Corn Chips.
It does taste great. 

Big Fans

Do you know that show on the History Channel, "American Pickers?"  Well, we do and we are huge fans.  The store that Mike picks for is his own store, Antique Archaeology.  Naturally, we had to stop.

We were near Le Claire, Iowa, so we made our way to the store. 

Mike or his picking partner, Frank were not there.  But, lots of tourists were.  It was fun.

Love Man and the girls bought t-shirts.  

A lot of the stuff in the store, was picked on "American Pickers."  Remember the DeSoto and the "Majestic" sign?

LOL.  I am sure a gazillion t-shirts are sold there daily.

Barn Quilt

We finally ended up in Wisconsin, where we had a memorial service for Love Man's parents.
In was in conjunction with a big family reunion.  It was really great to see everybody.

Love Man's brother and wife have three grown children and two of them have children,  It was nice to see them all together.  I don't think we have seen them all at once in seven or eight years, maybe longer.

My nephews went on and on about how I am the greatest living or "DEAD" aunt.  LOL.  Some of the things I did with them, I am surprised my sister-in-law speaks to me.

Here are some examples.  Now, before you judge me, I would like to say I was in my twenties and did not have children. 

I bought my nephew a comb at the Grand Canyon that looked like a switch blade.  It was later examined at the airport and he was told not to take it out of his suitcase.  This was pre, pre 9-11!!!

I also bought the same nephew a hatchet.  We took him camping and I wanted him to be prepared.
It was a small hatchet and he reports that he still has it.

My oldest nephew flooded our back yard as he forgot to turn off the water.  I sent him the bill so he could see how much him forgetting to shut off the water cost us. 

On a road trip with the two youngest nephews, I gave my youngest nephew the brand new "Guns and Roses" CD.  I have no idea why I had it.  Evidently he listened to it non-stop for many months and he still listens to it!   He said it changed his life. 

There are more examples, but I think I have incriminated myself enough.  Love Man was also mentioned in the love fest as being the best uncle ever.  So, there you have it.

They credit us with teaching them to love driving on trips rather than flying, as they can see the country.  They also credit us with them liking to camp.  We always took them camping. 

Miss Brunette said, 'how come you are not as cool with us?"

I replied, "they were not my children."

Origin of a Saying

We did stop at the Corn Palace.  There is really not much I can say about the Corn Palace, I am pretty sure it was the origin of the expression "corny."  It was corny......

Live and In Person

Miss B would jump out of the car and photograph the sites.  We have many photos of the buffaloes from Yellowstone.  I think this one might have been just roaming in Wyoming, though.

Then, we saw a moose.  Three really.  The others ran away, but this one stood his ground and let Miss B photograph him.  She was very close, Love Man kept yelling, "you are getting to close, he may charge at you."  Apparently moose have an attitude.  We make her back away, rather than turn her back on him and get charged at. 

Really, my only experience with moose is "Rocky and Bullwinkle" and "It You Give a Moose a Muffin".  They seemed nice to me.  I have also never seen one before.  Ever. Not even at a zoo.

Photo Credit

By the way, all of photos from our Road Trip were taken by Miss Brunette, who has a slightly new camera purchased for her next photography class.  This photo was taken at Love Man's Aunt and Uncle's farm.  It is now the screen saver for my mom's computer.

Slow and Go Traffic

We were driving through Wyoming, when we came upon a cattle drive.  Right there on the highway!

There were a lot of cows, hundreds I guess.  I don't know, cows as far as you could see.  Miss B immediately stood up through the sun roof and started snapping pictures.  She also got out of the car and took a few, the camera makes her very brave.  We sat there for a long time - the cowboys, ranch dogs and cows pretty much ignored us.

Finally, Love Man was close to one cowboy and he asked, "do you just want me to just hang back or do you want me to try to drive through?" 

The cowboy in the blue shirt said, "don't be bashful, but don't get your car dented in either."



 By this time, the cowboys and cowgirls were very amused with our picture taking.  I am sure they also thought the fluffy dogs who were hanging their heads out of the window to get a closer look were pretty funny too. 

So, we started to slowly drive through.

We came upon this big cow, about the size of our car.  Love Man sat there for a bit.  I said, "don't be bashful or you will get your car dented in."  I mean really, that was a big cow.

Some of the cows did not look very friendly.  I won't tell you what got all over our car and tires.
I am sure you can figure that out for yourself.

Old Faithful

For the next few posts, I am going to regale you with stories of our trip.

In Yellowstone, we arrived at the Old Faithful Geyser about twenty minutes before it was due to erupt.  Perfect.  Naturally, the dogs were with us and we had them in our perfect spot to watch the proceedings.

Evidently, dogs are not allowed on the boardwalk.  Some guy told us.  The is a fine and we did not want that.  So, Love Man and I moved to a spot behind the boardwalk.  We proceeded to be surrounded by children and foreign travelers who were admiring our dogs.

One little girl paid no attention to Old Faithful.  Her family took tons of pictures of her and Sam.

One boy was so enamoured with the dogs,  Love Man finally said, "look buddy, you're going to miss Old Faithful."  He did not care.  He never even looked at the geyser!

An Asian family, loved the dogs, particularly Sam.  The daughter had to translate for me, "don't forget to give them water."  "Okay, I will when me get back to the car," I promised. 

The girls watched from prime seats on the boardwalk without the dogs, who were busy getting their photo taken.  They seemed relieved not to be with us.  I think we embarrass them.

Whew!

We returned this week from a whirlwind tour of the United States.  We canvased 11 or 12 states.
We saw The Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Little Big Horn, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial,
Wall Drug, The Corn Palace, etc.

In addition we attended the memorial service of Love Man's parents, had a family reunion and
watched the longest 4th of July parade in history.

We visited with my mom, the nephews and my sister and my sister-in-law, too.

On the way home, we stopped in Santa Fe, where I went to the Georgia O'Keefe museum.  We also had dinner with Love Man's cousin and family who we reconnected with at the reunion.

It was fun.  Exhausting.  I am almost finished with the laundry and I did about 7 loads at my mom's house.

All of this in the car and the dogs came too!

Hotter Than...

It is way hotter than the 4th of July.  And, I like the heat.  That is all I am saying......

Fire Cracker

Spent the 4th with Love Man's side of the family.  It was an exhausting, but fun day, involving a parade, BBQ and fire works.  Which were great!  I will post later about what else I have been up to.

It is actually hotter in the rest of the country than Phoenix.  Thank heaven for dry heat.  I don't like humidity.