Target practice

It wasn't a beautiful day,

but it was warm enough

that it felt like a waste to just head home.

So we loaded up the 4-wheelers

and headed down to the water's edge

to go shooting.

There was a little bow and arrow practice

but mostly it was guns

There's a lot of gun safety talk in our house

and we were excited to put it to use

It had been a while since we

had some whole-family target practice!

Even Mema and Pappo joined in

While there is something really satisfying with

shattering glass bottles and jars,

there is also something awesome about

getting a fire going

with a little lighter and a lot of feeding

Guns and lighters--

every pediatrician's nightmare, right??

Well, it's poor Ranger's too!

Don't worry--

everyone, including Ranger, 

safely enjoyed the afternoon!

Birthday!

Know what's better than sheet cake for your birthday?

Sheet cake with candles that Cooper

helps you blow out.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Mandy!!!

Small town Saturday night

The weather is beautiful today!

Time for some hiking!

We've been doing some remodeling at home

which means our old stuff from home

becomes new stuff at the cabin.

We called Pappo's "fixer" Gary

to see if he wanted any of our

old stuff from the cabin.

He hopped in his tractor

and came right down to pick up

our old stove, BBQ grill and some chairs.

We were less interested in all the stuff

they were hauling out

and way more interested in the tractor!

Turns out,

Cooper is a tractor fan too!

He's kind of my little buddy when we get together.

After a lot of tromping around the cabin,

Pappo made a grand plan

to head to the end of the road

for some muddin' and chillin'

We were quite the parade

We made a huge fire out of drift wood

and did a lot of hanging out

It was awesome to have nothing to do

be be together

7 4-wheelers and 2 Rangers

makes for quite the crowd!

So does half of the Cabin Crew!

We helped Cooper throw some rocks

and huddled around the fire

It got rather cool as a storm rolled in

With lightning starting to

light up the sky,

we all hopped on our rides

and made one last loop

where the blacktop ends

It was all fun and games

until Uncle Kurt got his 4-wheeler stuck in the mud to the axels

and as Dad slowed to help him

got our Ranger stuck nearly over the tire.

A lot of rocking and pushing and pulling

got everyone freed up.

We made it back home just in time for the rain to start.

Add a family spaghetti dinner and craps to the agenda

and in the words of our great-great-uncle Vic,

"I had fun today."

Win Pappo's Money

It's DEFINITELY a highlight

of the night

especially when he looks like Mr. Peanut

even if our scratchers tickets never pay out...

 

100 Days Smarter

As per Kindergarten tradition,

we celebrated our 100th day of school today!

It was filled with counting games

and crafts

and a fashion show of my 100 dots.

Lookin' smarter, right?

Weekend in Wichita

Mom had a shift in the VC NICU this weekend...

and they surprised us with a family get-a-way to Wichita

to "join" her!

We set out right after school

and got the the cattle bazaar on 35

just as the sun was setting.

Mom said she stops here every time she makes this drive

to stretch and take in the scenery.

You can see why!

Wes and I joined in for a selfie

(the Littles said it was too cold)

and a Mammo and Daddo pic too.

We grabbed some Freddie's burgers

because "when in Rome"

and then hit the hotel pool

After we were all chlorinated,

we headed to the room

for some fun and games.

Tuck set to coloring

in his mini desk

while I tackled some math homework

and everyone else played,

what else,

Nerts!

We're a little obsessed with it these days.

The next morning,

we dropped off Mom at the hospital

and then got to the serious business

of relaxing.

We watched hours of cable TV.

Who knew what all we were missing??!?

We did some more swimming,

tried out the exercise equipment,

and then headed for a local park

for a snowball fight

After taking Mom some dinner,

we splurged on some ice cream

that should probably be illegal.

To top off the weekend,

we make a stop at our new favorite

The Donut Whole

where they have what seems like

100's of different flavors of donuts

to choose from.

We picked some goodies--

The Homer J was a favorite from last time.

The cinnamon chocolate

(it has a cooler name we can't remember)

may be the new favorite.

We worked them off

with a few more hours of swimming

before heading back home.

47.5 hours of vegging out

(with 26 hours of work for Mom)

made for a pretty awesome weekend.

Mom's going to have to ask

for more weekend shifts!

Channeling our creativity

February means

more cold weather (which we're never ready for)

and Valentine's Day

(which we're ALWAYS ready for!)

We had some different, simpler ideas this year

but we were determined to make them

all by ourselves

We think they turned out pretty good--

A PS4 vs Xbox for Wes,

a mandalorian for Tuck

and Nether Steve and Piglin for me 

We were delayed by snow for 6 days,

but we were excited to get them

to the party all the same!