Summer 2013 Road Trip | Entry 3

Day 2 Iowa

We had a fantastic Day 2 on Monday. I slept for 9 hours before getting up. That's easily 50% more sleep than I get during the school year. Paul, aka "Pa" according to the boys, came up from Des Moines to visit too and the boys loved spending time with him. After lunch he took us for a truck drive over to the Cambridge farm sight where we saw more Red Angus and sat in a tractor!!!

(I'm breaking this post up as I just lost a bunch of it when I switched to a different app.)

Cows in the mist:

Marita holding up Aiden so he could see out:

A short organ concert. This organ belonged to Gene's mom, Arlette:

We took the boys outside so they could watch two calves be bottle-fed by one of the hired men. These two heifer calves each have a twin which stayed with the mama heifers. Nursing twins can be tough on a cow (you don't have to tell me!), so they bottle-fed the runt of each pair. This week they were being weaned and will join back up with the herd.

Shy guys at first:

Not exactly Christmas card worthy:

More milk, please!

We're free!

Walking down the lane with Marita to take mail to the mailbox:

Summer 2013 Road Trip | Entry 2

We arrived to Gene and Marita's farm (3R Ranch www.rouseredangus.com) a little before 10:30 Sunday night. We're lucky to have such a great place to stop on our way to Ohio. It would be a little bit shorter to drive through Kansas, St. Louis, etc. We took that route two summers ago on our way back from Ohio so we could visit my cousin Adam in St. Louis. That part was nice, but the drive through the rest of Missouri and Kansas was pretty miserable. I-70 could use some better traveling accommodations including updated rest stops with changing tables. Plus, I have painful memories of both boys screaming their heads off for a couple of house before they finally fell asleep in our hotel in Topeka.

The Rest of Day 1:

Rest stop before Kearney, NE:

It was quite windy which I prefer over hot and humid:

Sign for Fort Kearney:

Archway Monument- the best (only?) good thing about the Nebraska

Portion of I-80:

I've always been a fan of the York water tower which is painted like a hot air balloon. These were the first clouds we had seen all day:

McDonald's in Lincoln:

Welcome to Iowa! Woo-hoo!

Just after we crossed over into Iowa, the van reached 25,000 miles. I love my mini van:

Wind mills in western Iowa. I'm glad the U.S. is investing in more wind energy. When my mom and I were in Denmark 12 years ago, it was amazing how many wind mills we saw. As windy as Casper is, I think they should plant a few hundred wind mills there and the entire country would be powered.

100 miles to go according to the GPS:

Almost there:

The boys slept in a "big" bed together as they shared the hide-a-bed:

Summer 2013 Road Trip | Entry 1

CO-IA-OH

After a late night of packing, we left for our road trip around 8:15 this morning. We dropped Eric's Jeep off at the airport employee parking lot on our way out of town because he'll need to go back to work before the boys and I get back to CO. Luckily, my mom is flying out to join us in OH so I have some company on the trip home.

We had a picnic lunch in Julesburg, CO which hosts a Colorado Welcome Center because it is a couple of miles from the Nebraska border. The boys enjoyed running around. They've done a great job in the van so far. Two iPads and an in-car DVD player don't hurt. Aiden is now snoring behind me while Reid is multi-tasking watching Toys and playing sports games on my iPad. I told him it's ok if he wants to take a nap. His polite response: "No, Mom. I don't want to."

Back to my knitting and keeping Eric occupied with my witty conversation.

Aiden packing his "suitcase" (1st aid kit):

Reid helping me eat my breakfast. When I hesitated, he reminded me that "Daddy said to share."

Denver International Airport- lots of construction as they are adding a light rail line from the airport to downtown Denver: 

On the road again:

Aiden thought it sounded funny to talk with his fingers in his ears:

Knitting progress:

Life is good:

Picnic time in Julesburg:

Aiden likes watching bugs; this one was crawling on his stick:

Reid requested this picture:

Last of the running around:

Honk shoo:

No pictures!!!

Travel Map Update

Time to update one of our travel maps. Eric is over-nighting in Portland, Maine tonight which marks a new state for him! He now has five states left. As I mentioned in this July, 2011 post, we'd like to take the boys to all 50 states before they graduate from high school. We also want to visit all of the Major League Baseball parks. With Reid's love of baseball and Aiden's love of travel, this seems like a reasonable goal. (Every morning Aiden says "I want to go!" We ask where and he says "In the van!")

Eric's 45 states:
(Still needs Alaska, Delaware, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.)

Keri's 37 states:

Reid's and Aiden's 11 states:
(Anyone in a non-yellow state want us to come visit this summer? Bonus points if you are willing/able to potty train twins!)

If you haven't been to Portland, Maine, apparently this is what it looks like:

Speaking of travel, we have an Iowa/Ohio road trip in our future. I couldn't resist buying these t-shirts for the boys today at Target. $1.50 on clearance. Heck of a deal!

Oh my garden, oh my garden...

There is some space in our backyard that I've been considering for a little garden spot for quite some time. I pinned some homemade raised garden box ideas this spring, but liked the pre-fab kit my mom found at Home Depot. I bought two of them so I could stack one on top of the other. I finally had the chance to assemble it this morning. While I was putting in the heavy lifting (Oh, my back!), the boys were dancing around and singing "Oh, my garden. Oh, my garden." to the tune of "Oh, my darling Clementine." Just need to add plants, but I am very pleased with how it turned out.

A few details in case I make another- from bottom to top:
Pea pebbles x 2,
Steer manure x 2,
Top soil x 3,
Peat moss x 1,
Top soil x 3.
I still need to mix the dirt layers together better, but I intend to keep the pea pebbles at the bottom to shore it up and prevent erosion.