We're in the south (ok, center) again!

We made it home last night around 11:00 pm. We're EXHAUSTED! We had lots of fun, took lots of pictures, and had lots of fun (did I say that twice?? :o))

To answer one question from the comments in the last post, yes, there is Internet UP there in the NORTH country, and my brother-in-law actually has high-speed now, last year it was dial-up (I DO NOT have the patience for dial-up!)...but we were too busy chasing the 6 kiddos, shopping with my sis-in-law (LOTS of good clearance deals!) and just hanging out and having a good time to sit on my computer all day. I'll try to get the pictures off the camera and post them soon. I'm going to be a bit busy this week getting ready for VBS which starts on Sunday, but hopefully I'll have time to do the pictures this evening!

The trip home was much less eventful in the area of wild life (are bulls wild??), but it got interesting toward the end when my dear hubby started feeling sick. My niece had a bit of a tummy bug for a few days during our trip, but we all thought she was eating too much fruit (little fruit monster!) and teething...but apparently not. I ended up driving the ENTIRE way from North Dakota to Kansas! I have bragging rights now! Hubby hasn't ventured much out of the bedroom today, so back from a trip and he's already taking sick days! Poor guy!

Hello from the NORTH country.

We drove (meaning I drove) through the night to arrive at my brother-in-law and sis-in-law's home early this afternoon. I'd have to say the most interesting part of the drive involved a very steep gravel road, a bull, and a me driving...yes, we got a bit lost. We were heading up our normal route, when we saw signs that told us that a bridge was closed and we should take an alternate route. Ok, no problem...go east for a bit, and then head back north. Except that the road we had to take east didn't go east, it went SOUTHeast and we started loosing miles. We decided to take a not so major road north figuring it would intersect with a more major road quickly....wrong. It went from a not so major road to a gravel road, to a field road very quickly. We knew we were in for it when we crossed a cattle guard, but the road was too narrow to turn around, too steep and curvy to back down (not to mention the steep drop off on one side, yes, I was driving and I was getting very worried). When I came around a curve and saw a bull standing in the middle of our "PATH" I just stopped and looked at hubby...."Now what?" I was DONE driving! Hubby refused to get out and trade me places with a bull standing about 20 feet away staring us down. So, I put the van in reverse and backed up a ways so that we were on the other side of the curve and the bull could no longer see us. We quickly did a driver swap and Hubby backed to where there was a "Y" in the road and he could turn around. We ended up loosing probably close to an hour from the time of the detour until we were back to where we were supposed to be, but it was beautiful country...as long as I was not driving! :o) I drove from about 10:45 last night until the bull incident at around 6:00 this morning. About 5 minutes after Hubby started driving and was back on a major road, I was ASLEEP not to waken for nearly 2 hours. We stopped for breakfast and then got back in the car for the last leg of the trip and I again fell asleep quickly.

We are here. We are safe, and no bull horns impaled the van! The kids had a fabulous time playing with their cousins all afternoon/evening. Plans are being made for some fun times this week. I am about ready to fall over here while I'm trying to type, so good night all from the North Country!

The long awaited ND pictures

Here are just a few of the MANY pictures I took in ND. Ok...not just a "few", but not nearly all of them!

Bethany and Maddox driving around.

Fun in the pool.

Hunter (the oldest cousin at 11) and his baby sister, Addison (the youngest cousin at 3 months).

Here comes the parade!!! (4th of July Parade)Uncle Nick is in the Army (going to Iraq in the fall)...he's carrying the American flag (he's wearing camo)

We took the kiddos to Chuck-E-Cheese...I'm not sure who had more fun, daddy or the kids!

Uncle Brad works for the county maintaining roads and such, he stopped by for lunch one day with the road grader, the kids had fun checking it out!

"Baby Addison is SOO Cute!!!!" Bethany could be heard saying this at least 100 times a day.

And here is the ultimate in "Red Neck"... Brad brought a TV outside, and hooked up the cable so that he could sit in his pool, drink a beer, and watch Nascar! What a redneck! :-)

Here is Addison and her mommy, Aunt Jenny.Andrew and his favorite cousin, Braden.

And here's the entire clan! We haven't done an entire family picture since Nick and Lindsay got married (the first time...long story) about 5 years ago! Lots of newcomers since then!

Here's the list of who is who...The first family on the left is Brad and Jenny (Warren's #2 brother). Their kiddos are Hunter (11), Braden (6), and Addison (3 mo). Then is us (Warren is the oldest of the brothers). Our kids are Abbigail (7), Andrew (5), and Bethany (3). Grandma is sitting in the chair. Justin is in the blue shirt (he's the youngest brother and single). Nick and Lindsay are the last family on the right (Nick is the #3 brother, and the one in the Army). Bailey (9) and Maddox (4) are their kids.

We're HOME!!!

Visiting family is fun, tiring, and so wonderful...but it is so good to be home. I'll try to post an update about our trip soon, but VBS is next week and I don't even know where to begin. So....please be patient! :-) I'll try to upload some pix of the family.

Blessings to all...I've missed you! I have SOO much blogging to get caught up on, I can't believe you all went on with your lives while I was gone! :-)

Andie

Farmers won't stop harvest!!!

You'd think that they would be kind and courteous. You'd think they could hold off for just a few days. I know their entire yearly earnings are sitting in those fields...but come on! (That's sarcasm if you aren't quite sure!! :-)) I have talked to a few farm families and they say that the harvest is incredibly good this year. YIPPEE!!

Ok...the asthma finally got the best of me. At 4:00 this morning I was sitting in my bed crying. I couldn't lay down or I couldn't breath...I couldn't sleep sitting up...plus, I had taken a nebulizer treatment which made me a shaky, on edge mess! Warren woke up and told me that I WAS calling the doc and going in TODAY!!! So, like a good wife, I obeyed! Why didn't I just do this on Monday?? I have 4 new meds to take, and I feel GREAT!!! Plus...here's my favorite part...two of them are "trial samples"!!!! Yes, that means FREE!!! THANK YOU GOD! Hopefully by the time we return to town the harvest will be done.

So...I will probably be offline for a few days trying to finish up getting things ready to go, then going...I'm not sure I'll be able to get online at my in-laws...they are on DIAL-UP!! Didn't know they still had that! :o) Just kidding Brad & Jenny....I'm sure we'll be too busy playing with the kiddos to sit on the puter all day. I'll miss all you blogger buddies...and it will take me a few weeks to catch up once I get back! Blessings to you all!

Andie