We Survived Training!!!

Last Tuesday Chris took his final test for training and passed with flying colors.  His reward, get the heck out of dodge and see his family.  Best reward ever.  

He ended up getting home a little earlier than planned so I kept it a secret from the girls.  Imagine their surprise when they wandered in to get a drink and have dad waiting at the door for them.  Seeing my girlies with their daddy is the best thing ever.

 

Since Chris had been going crazy seeing nothing but plains we spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in the mountains.  I've been lame and haven't ventured out much so we all enjoyed a weekend in heaven while the weather was still warm.  It was beautiful and being together as a family made it ever better.

It's always nice when Grandpa comes to town

History happened this weekend.  

For the fist time since Huntley was born it finally worked out for Grandpa to come to town.  Nini comes to visit us lots but having grandpa come was a different story and the girls loved it.  How could you not when he builds fires and watches Croods over and over with you.

 Unfortunately the main part of Grandpa's visit was to help on the house.  Particularly to get rid of the ugly floor that three years ago I said was the first thing that needed to be done.  Next time we buy a house I'm not saying anything about the thing I hate the most in case it takes forever to go away too.

Since Grandpa worked the girls figured they better learn how to be handy around the house too.  If you ever need a light switch cover installed by a princess, Huntley is your girl!

By the end of the weekend our floor went from the nastiness above to this beautiful creation.  I am in love!

And since we're kind of cheap around here we paid grandpa in cookies.  Pais may or may not have dumped several teaspoonfulls of salt in the dough while I was taking this picture but Grandpa was nice and ate them anyways.

Aint No Sunshine When Your Gone

I've realized I can only handle two weeks of being by myself.  I do great and can function pretty close to normal but after the two week period I just get emotional.  I'm glad we only have two weeks more to go until training is over.  But since I'm just a little down waiting for that time to go by I haven't felt like we've really done anything so I haven't blogged.  I don't even really take pictures and then when I do I get on instagram and turn them all to grayscale.  No one really wants to hear about me being down so I don't post.  Until Chris lets me know it's been awhile.  So here's the update from the last week.  It started out with Hunt and I taking turns in the following position.

Not fun. At least Pais didn't get it and spent the day trying to take care of us by bringing us things in her shopping cart.  She's a good little nurse.

Luckily it passed quickly and we recovered in time for the best semi-annual meal of the year, conference Sunday dinner.  I think I must be weird since I'm the only one of my siblings who faithfully shows up to this, but seriously, it's better than Thanksgiving.

Later on that week we attempted the movies much to the dismay of the poor man who got stuck sitting next to Paisley.  She loved him.  Unfortunately he didn't return her love and spent the entire time avoiding eye contact with her even though she spent the entire time trying to climb in his lap.  But we did make it through the entire movie without having to take her out.  Victory!!!! 

Another highlight of the week was my cousin Jandy got married.  The only picture I took of this event was Huntley licking her plate clean at the reception.  Yes, the food was good.

Saturday was potato digging day.   Paisley slept through it and Huntley conveniently decided to go on an adventure with Scott but Russell and Della sure had fun finding potatoes.

That night I got bored around 8:30 and decided the kitchen needed to be painted.  The girls did a fine job of driving the Home Depot racer in their jammies.

That crazy idea also ended up being genius because the girls practically painted the kitchen themselves.  Church the next morning was rough and we had to sit in the back so the girls could eat breakfast during sacrament meeting.  Next time I'll put them to bed in their dresses so we get an extra five minutes of sleep.

Yee Haw at Hee Haw

Friday we were able to tag along on a field trip to Hee Haw Farms with our neighbors.  It was freezing cold and I really wasn't prepared for that but the girls seemed to have a fun time anyways.

 Hunt's favorite part was riding the big gunny sack slide. 

 Pais didn't dare ride that slide but had lots of fun climbing up the rollers of the giant straw bale tower.

On the other hand, Paisley was extremely brave in the petting zoo and had fun giving all of the animals loves.

Hunt on the other hand gave this little goat a tenative pat but as soon as he turned and looked at her the tears started flying.

 

Last but not least we got to go on a hay ride, where we were instructed to shout "Yee Haw" as loud as we could.   I should have filmed Paisley's squeaky little voice doing this since it was so funny but since I didn't here's a nice shot of the girls and their friends, B and Kaycee, riding the wagon.

Clowning Around

This post really isn't that interesting.  Our regular daily life isn't much to write about but when you aren't with your family I guess being able to read about the mundane things is better than nothing.  So here is a little glimpse of yesterday.

Wednesdays we go to reading time at the library.  We read all about clowns and then the girls got to make their very own clown hats.  Paisley covered hers in stickers but Huntley didn't want to cover up the "sparkles" on her hat. 

After the library we took Maze for a walk.  Poor Maze is used to hiking everyday with me but since the whole knee fiasco she hasn't gotten out much.  She doesn't do great being walked on a leash so we take her out west and let her roam while the girls pick up bullets and odd treasures to add to their collection.  Is it bad that I tell the girls I keep their collection in a special place but don't tell them that the special place is aka for the garbage can.  I figure at least their cleaning up the environment but I don't want it all stored in my garage.

Last but not least we picked all the pumpkins out of Hunt's pumpkin patch.  She planted and watered these beauties from a seed from her pumpkin last year.  The original plan was she wanted to sell them but now that it's come down to it, I think she likes having the porch covered with her hard work. 

In's and Out's of North Dakota

 Never in my mind would I have thought I would travel to North Dakota on vacation.  I thought one day I might go see the presidents in the mountain but wasn't dieing to do it anytime soon.  Now that we've started this new adventure I now know that the presidents on the mountain aren't even in North Dakota and that really there isn't really much at all in North Dakota.  I'm not even being rude to North Dakotan's by saying that because when I asked an actual North Dakotan what to do she told me the bowling ally had cosmic bowling on Saturday nights.  There's just not much there but the one thing that is there is Chris and so that makes North Dakota the best place ever for a vacation.

 North Dakota actually does have Theodore Roosevelt National Park and since it was a National Park we figured it had to be a good place to go.  In reality I felt like I was driving around Green River Utah but paying to do it.  The one good thing it had going for it was supposedly there is a wild (really just transplanted) herd of buffalo roaming around.  At first I was freaked out to walk around because of all the "Warning Buffalo Are Dangerous" signs posted but that wore off pretty quick.  We searched all over the whole 14 miles of the park and the only thing we ever found was leaves.

Until the very end we saw one lonely buffalo wandering around really far away.  He's right off the tip of Pais's finger.  Yeah, you probably can't see it but Paisley looks pretty cute pointing him out.

 Our supposed last day was spent while Chris had to work.  The girls and I found a park and even though there is hardly any children in the town they have pretty awesome parks.  We started out driving tractors and growing corn.

Then the girls found out where the real money was and started pumping oil.  This was the coolest teeter totter I've ever played on.

 Eventually Hunt ended up drenched in the splash pad even though it was only 55 degrees out.  Hey, you're only in North Dakota once, or twice, hopefully not again any time soon!

At the end of this day we got the great news Chris was going to have a few more days off so our quick two day trip to see him ended up being a week.  Unfortunately I didn't pack enough clothes so the girls and I got to hang out at the Williston Laundry Mat.  Fun times!

Park Number two had the tallest slide in the world.  I'm not going to lie, Hunt had to give me a pep talk to go down it.

 Another highlight of North Dakota is that the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers converge in this state.  We wandered around for an hour to try and figure out where that actually happened but never could really tell.  Instead we picked a lot of dandilions and caught grasshoppers. 

Last but not least I would like to thank Pinterest for awesome ideas that can work as a pseudo-babysitter.   The glowsticks in the tub entertained the girls long enough for Chris and I to have some quality alone time to watch Duck Dynasty and eat Oreos.  Classy date but when you're using dollar store entertainment as your babysitter you take what you can get.

North Dakota Here We Come

Today I met a milestone in my life. It changes our future and opens up all sorts of possibilities for us.  So what did I do?  I survived two days in the car with the girls by MYSELF.  I'm quite proud that we survived and now feel like a whole new world is open to me.  Not that I want to do it again anytime soon but knowing that I can is a good feeling.  Now here is my list of pros and cons for solo with children road trips.

Cons:

•Gas station and potty breaks are a lot more difficult and time consuming.

•I'm outnumbered 2 to 1 and ate McDonalds 4 times in a 48 hour time period.

•I'm paranoid and constantly worried about having a flat tire and not knowing how to change it.

•I actually had to drive.

Pros:

• I will never eat McDonald's again.

• Not caring if we make good time so when driving through Idaho Falls and Pais declared "me like 'em temple" we took a detour to check it out.

•Watching Hunt step up and be my helper and actually carry her own luggage

•No one makes fun of my singing skills so when Pais said Old McDonald had a mermaid on his farm we just went with it.