Thursday, June 12, 2014

A Busy Day, Wed June 11, And I am finally Caught Up!

First before I forget, if I am not returning your calls or texts, please know that I have limited signal here at my parent's home and they don't have long distance.  Please don't think I am not paying any attention to you!

Now on to yesterday's adventure and that will bring us caught up to today, finally!  We needed to do the shopping to prepare for this weekend's gathering with all of our family.  It is our intention to celebrate my father's 60th birthday, albeit a little early, with everyone gathering together.  We headed down yesterday to Enid (about 40 minutes south) to shop and get all that we needed.

I am truly blessed that my sweet husband allows me to wander around the state of Oklahoma for about 1/12th of the year.  It is wonderful to be able to get to know the roads and be comfortable here in this state. This morning he called to check in and Anna picked up the phone.  She started by saying, "This is Anna, not Noelle," and then proceeding to give Dan a complete run down of the day before.  It was so cute.  Dan said he caught some of it, but he didn't care it was so great to have her share her day with him.

Capybara, world's largest rodent
We began by heading into town to see the weekly library reading group/show.  They had an animal show yesterday, which my kids loved. At this moment, at least two of my boys want to become zoologists, so they ate it right up.  Toucans, bullfrogs, spiders, capybaras, and their favorite a Burmese python.  It was great fun.  I love Medford, it is such a great little small town.

My Birds in a Tree
We then headed to the courthouse where my father works and played in the lawn while we waited for his lunch break.  Lunch was a Smurka's, a local diner known for it's pies.  Gianni loved the meringue and Frankie loved the filling.  Anna and Vinny couldn't be torn from the giant table of toys that are left out for kids to play with.  It was great fun!

The kids and I headed down to run our errands.  Grandpa came and met us later to help us with our final errand, picking out boots at Atwoods.  I loved the groan I received from Dan when I told him where I was heading.  He does love this farm store.   Last year, I did a poor job and their boots didn't fit well.  It took us some time, and Frankie changed his mind a few times as did Anna who kindly tried to rearrange the boot area, but finally we did it.  They all have new boots and they love them!  Frankie and Anna can't be persuaded to leave them in the house despite the mud, preferring to pick their way around the yard and it's muddy spots
.

After this we went to a great park, Government Springs with a new playground.  The kids were disappointed, last time it had a merry go round and teeter totter, which apparently the city decided were too rickety to be played with any longer.  The new play equipment was great, but the boys mourned the merry go round.


Grandpa and Anna


Grandpa and Anna took a walk, it was so great to see them walking and talking.  Well actually, I do believe that Anna did most of the talking.  She was so animated with her hands going.  My dad echoed Dan's sentiment, "I didn't understand it, but it was wonderful to listen to."

We came home late, up the backroads to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  I was completely toasted.  The van had a wrestling match with an armadillo.  Unfortunately, I believe the van won.  The kids were wired, they stayed up a little longer. I awoke late last night with Anna, and lightning illuminating the entire house.  It was beautiful.  Today is a quiet day, we aren't doing much but some baking and prepping for the weekend.  Tomorrow everyone will start to arrive.  We can't wait!









The first half of our week on Oklahoma...


We are relaxing into life on the Ranch...a few things we have done

Squirt in Frankie's hand, Anna found this baby turtle in the mud puddle she was splashing in.  We gave him a new home in Grandma's Flower Garden

Evening Walks down the road, two nights ago we began seeing fireflies

Goofing off on the couch, watching a movie or two

Swingset fun while the storms roll in




Gianni practices his gymnastics

Slip and Slide

Watch the Sun Set


My new Favorite Photo of Anna Banana


Gianni sustained a rock skipping injury, proving he has inherited his mother's talent for getting injured in unique ways



Used our towels as capes

Here are the things I didn't have photos for...

  • Cousins came north to visit us! 
  • Went to Church, we nearly doubled the Primary
  • Dug a drainage ditch in Cap's pen (the horse)
  • Mucked Cap's stall
  • Filled in some big potholes in the driveway in preparation for the coming harvest (actually the Hensons did most of this work, we just did the best we could to get in the way)
  • Loaded fill dirt from the fields to bring back to the house to fill these holes
  • Frankie tried his hand at being a lawn dart by jumping off the swing set, it didn't work out but luckily he was only bruised
  • Watched several storms roll in (delaying the harvest)
  • Did the morning chores
  • Played with the pullets (teenage chickens)
  • Planted pumpkins and watermelons
  • Haircuts from Grandma 

    Half the Cattle Herd, watched Grandpa work the cows

    Playing with Cousins
    Excavating Dirt to fill in potholes in driveway


    Dragging Dirt back to the House

    Baby Grasshoppers

    ATV Rides

    Giant Spoons and other card games


    Braum's Yogurt

    Everyone Helped to Get Dirt

    These are the holes we are trying to fill in...


Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Oklahoma Adventures, Deer Creek Weekend

Things begin to slow down for us.  We spent the weekend at my parent's home.  It rained a lot of the weekend and we had fun wandering about looking at all the things that had changed since we had been there last. The new calf, the lack of water due to the drought.  The little turtles. Anna discovered mud and it ripped the sole off her pink boots, tragic.  To be here is just lovely.  
Putting on mud boots

Hay "Barrels" as the kids call them.  They were so excited to see them still here! 

Splashing in mud puddles while doing chores

These clothes recovered, the boots did not

Dancing in the Rain

Seeing the Cows


New Calf

Sitting on the Tailgate

Two years ago, this was completely full of water.  Feet deep. It created an island out of the land in the center. The drought is bad here.