Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

 We celebrated Natalee's birthday right after we got home from our cross country trip.  Natalee was disappointed that she did not have a big birthday party.  I tried to explain to her that between our vacation and ladies weekend, we did not have any weekends around her birthday available to have a party.  I'm not sure she really understood.  We had already made the cake before we left on our vacation (and put it in the freezer). I just invited a few local family members and her friend from next door.  We ate our dinner of hotdogs, mac-n-cheese, and fries- her choice- in the gazebo.  The only problem?? Natalee wanted to be out back playing!  So, we moved the cake, ice cream, and presents out back. Happy 5th birthday to our beautiful daughter, Natalee! You've been a blessing to watch grow up and observe your kind heart in action.  Your love for your family is evident on a daily basis as you think about others and put others firs...

There are simply too many photos, so I made this slideshow.  I still didn't include all of the pictures, but these are the best ones. You can click on the slideshow to make it bigger. Then, you will be able to see my commentary about each picture. Did you know how hard it is to find a hotel room in or near North Dakota???  And, it isn't because there are not hotel rooms!  There aren't many, but what is there is booked.  You will see lakes, a waterfall, rivers, our hotel, a place we drove through that was named one of our names, North Dakota, and more!

Walks in the park down the street.... Swimming in the Spokane River....   Waiting for the 4th of July fireworks to start in Coeur d'Alene.... Amie screaming while waiting for fireworks because she wanted to go to bed.... What I saw of the fireworks I thought were beautiful.  It was quite a task to calm Amie down.  Natalee had come back to our car to watch the fireworks.  It ended up that Natalee and Jesse viewed them from the grass in front of our car.  Brady should have, but he didn't. He was sitting in the truck for too long!!! Playing in Grandma and Grandpa's dirt pile.... Being cute...   Swimming at the Coeur d'Alene beach with second cousins...  and, having a grand time!

This evening the kids were extremely tired after not taking a nap during the aunts and cousins visit.  To distract them, we took the short walk to Post Falls. Amie loved walking in the Moby Wrap front ways! Post Falls Natalee and Grandma.  She wanted me to send this picture to her Gram, but I didn't take my phone along!  Natalee has been so good about sending pictures to her Gram during this trip, just like she promised. Then we returned to the house for the best things ever:  Smores! We didn't have a good place for a campfire, so we made them over the grill.  It took longer, and they didn't really brown at all, but they were still tasty! I'm not sure why Brady decided to stick his tongue out?!?  He wouldn't smile for me. Amie and Grandma Shadow was keeping his eye on Natalee's marshmallow!!!

I gave the kids the camera during the Aunts and Cousins visit.  Sometimes I like to do that because I get funny and interesting pictures.  I discovered that the kids never thought about the fact that their dad has aunts, uncles and cousins, too.  They found it fascinating to meet more family and other second cousins that they never realized they had! Amie, Carol, and Shane Amie felt right at home laughing with Aunt Carol. Brady, Desiree, and Carson Me. Aunt Shirley Amie has been fighting sleep a lot lately.  But, Shirley must have done something right because Amie fell right asleep in her arms! Brady.  He wasn't sure what to think of Carson throwing the Lincoln Logs and wrecking his Mega Blok tower.  I obviously had a small battle ahead when he realizes that Amie will do that too!     Hmmm. I got quite a few pictures of Mega Bloks, the end table, and knees. It was really nice to see everyone who could co...

 We had the privilege of meeting up at a park with our "old" friends, Kenny and Sarah, as well as their two kids, Kaylie and Isaac.  They are visiting Idaho, too.  Of course Kenny and Jesse played disc golf (what else would they do?) and Sarah and I took the kids to the park to let them play at the playground and eat a picnic dinner. The kids discovered all of the dirt hills on the dirt bike path.  They had a lot of fun running up and down together.  Unfortunately I only had my little camera at this point, so I could not zoom in.  I retrieved my "good" camera from the car and of course they were done with their crazy running by then! This was a great climbing tree.  Too bad Brady was still running over on the other side of the dirt bike path. Brady came over to the tree later. The kids thought it was hilarious that Kenny climbed up the slide and then went back down.  Notice both of my kids are biting their fingers.....

We left  the Black Hills by driving on hwy 16 to Newcastle, Wyoming.  We knew there was a wildfire around because of the smoke in Keystone and Mount Rushmore.  On the other side of Newcastle we came upon a sign that said:  "Proceed at your own risk.  Wildfire ahead. Absolutely no stopping for any reason." (as we are passing the sign) Brady: "I  HAVE TO PEE!" And he is dancing in his seat and unable to finish his pudding, so we knew we had to stop really soon.  A wet seat in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming, would not have been pleasant.  I felt bad for the residents of Newcastle because this cloud of smoke went right into the town.  It was so thick at places that it was hard to see. We passed where it looked like a fire line had been burned along the highway.  Then, we stopped when it looked like we were past most of the fire and smoke. Although, I think we still stopped before we were supposed to. Because we stopped,...

Once I reminded the kids that they had money to spend, they were clamoring to spend it.  We stopped at Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota.  (It's South Dakota's version of South of the Border or Little America-- advertised for 500 miles).  They were picking up EVERYTHING and wanting to buy it.  We stopped to stretch a bit on our way across the state. Here's one thing that Natalee wanted to buy.  It is a deck of cards.  You need to click on the picture to make it bigger and read what it says.  I said no.  They finally decided on Wall Drug store coin banks. Continuing with her odd attitude that we've been dealing with at home, Natalee has been quite grumpy a lot on our trip.  She refused a to eat the "famous donuts" at Wall Drug because they didn't have any icing.  Weird because they tasted exactly the same as the Pikes Peak donuts we had last year that she still talks about. Grumpy Natalee and Happy Brady show off their coin ban...