A trip to the prehistoric days.

Good grief!  Where in the world is March going?!?!?  I sure didn’t intend to leave you all hanging so much this month.  Life has just been crazy busy at times.  And when it hasn’t been, I have enjoyed doing a little bit of absolutely nothing.  I will have to do a little catching up. 

The weather is BEAUTIFUL today!  Supposed to be awesome again tomorrow.  Boys and I are planning to go outside.  A lot!  Fresh air is great for the soul.  It refreshes and relaxes.  It wears boys out.  Helps them sleep.  Fresh air is so important after being cooped up for the winter.  Outdoor adventures are waiting.

Now let’s tackle first things first…  Our recent visit to prehistoric times.  We took a trip to the Cretaceous and the Jurassic time periods last weekend.  It was awesome!  The St. Louis Science Center has had a big temporary display—Dinosaurs Unearthed—that will be gone at the end of this month.  We had to go.  We invited our neighbor, Amy, along for the adventure.  Loaded up and headed north.

Riley was super, super, super excited.  Dinosaurs are his big thing right now!  He is all about learning whatever he can about them…  When time period they were from, what they ate, how they looked.  He is a sponge.  Right now he says he wants to be paleontologist so that he can figure out if troodons have feathers on their heads and discover some fossils of dinosaur skin.  He thought it was awesome to see a skeleton that had been discovered by a 12 year old girl about 150 years ago.  He has big ambitions.

Braden always loves whatever his big brother loves.  However he wasn’t so sure about this adventure.  Those dinosaurs just looked, sounded, and acted soooooo real!  He wasn’t convinced that they were just giant toys.  As long as he could cling to one of us, he was o.k. to get a little close, but not too close.  I was proud of him to just take it in stride, get us to protect him, and enjoy the dinosaurs from a distance.  He did like the “teeny tiny ones.”  (Picture a toddler bending over reaching to the floor with his pointer fingers almost touching as he quietly says “teeny tiny ones.”)  “Teeny tiny” is his favorite description right now.  Should we get a new dog?  “Yes, A teeny tiny one.”  Anyway, this little baby stegosaurus was Braden’s favorite.  He didn’t mind getting close to it as long as that momma stegosaurus right next to it did not move.

Ross told Riley to show his tough guy pose.  Every picture after that was tough guy Riley.  Gotta be tough in the land of dinosaurs.  This parasaurolophus was one of my favorites in the exhibit.  The dinosaurs were animated and had rubber-like skin with textures.  Looked really cool and realistic.  We could have stayed in there a long time, but knew we needed to go see the rest of the science center too.  Along the way Riley pointed out several dinos he knew.  I said something about “those big T-Rexes” and Riley said “Those are allosaurus mom.  They have three toes on their front legs.  T-Rexes only have two toes.”  Yeah, I knew that! 

It was a great time.  Riley is going to have a full month of Dinosaurs.  His birthday party is at the end of this month.  Theme?  Dinosaurs!!!!  A roaring good time will be had by all.

Old Days Adventure

You will never believe what we did today!!!!!  It was quite the adventure, that is for sure.  Grandma, Grandpa, and Great-grandma Pogue all came down for the weekend.  Mom and I did our usual trips to town to get some shopping time in.  When we left today, Grandpa said “I can watch the boys.”  O.k.  Sounds great, they will like that better than girly shopping time.  So off we went.  (No this was NOT the wild adventure.)  You would never guess what we saw when we pulled back in the driveway a couple of hours later!!!!! 

Way back in the trees we saw the crew.  We had to chuckle a great deal and say “Oh wow!”  Wanna see?

Everyone was back in the trees.  They had Great-grandma back there too!  83 years old and traipsing around our six acres.  Or at least being chauffeured around the property.  Ross had the tractor out today to get some mowing done after he and dad cleaned up some limbs that were still down from the ice storm last winter.  That led to taking they boys for rides up and down the driveway.  His brain is always spinning…  Full of ideas of all kinds…  Great-grandma always talks about how she would love to go walk back there to see those trees, but she is not able to do that.  So in the past he has taken her in our little S-10.  Today he saw the neighbor’s wagon and thought to do this.  It made her day!!!!!!  

The old days adventure comes from the fact that there were 4 generations being pulled in an old wooden wagon by an antique tractor.  How did they get Great-grandma in?  Hmm… Not really sure.  Haven’t asked at this point.  ;)  All we know is that she was loving the ride.  I saw her grinning from ear to ear. 

 

At this point I think I told her she was going to be famous.  “What???” she asked.  “I am putting this on the blog,” I replied.  =)

The boys were all having a great time too.  Riley and Braden love to do stuff like this.  They are always up for an adventure. 

 

But we are not done yet!  There is more.  For anyone who has not been to our place, The Trees is a 3 acre area at the back of our property.  You have to go through an old pasture, past the old barn and barn lot, and into the little “woods.”  Those of you who know my mom, also know that she is not all that keen to experience too much nature up too close and personal.  She has come a long way over the years, but still prefers the civilized mowed yard space over more wild spaces.  Yes, we even got my mom in the wagon to take a lap around the tree trails.  And, of course TanMan has to get in on the action.  I snapped a couple pictures and climbed up in the back of the wagon.  Off we went through the tall, green pines.

Uh, Oh!!!!!!  We are experiencing a little setback.  We had to stop in the very back corner.  As far away from the barn or house as you can get, we stopped.  The tractor stopped, as in quit going.  Putt, Putt, Putt, sputter, sputter, nothing!  “OOPS!!!” says our driver.  “I’ll be right back.  I know what that means.”  And he walks off.  As he passed me I heard some muttering and mumbling.  Something about “this always happens way back here as far from the barn as I can be.”  Hmmm…  Experience.  Everyone sits in the wagon patiently waiting for his return.  Great-grandma is laughing.  Braden could take no more.  We lost him many yards back.  Poor tuckered guy.  Riley is just patiently waiting.  He has seen this before.  Even happened to him on his little 4-wheeler.  TanMan is just loving being with everyone and taking a ride, even if the wagon is not moving now.  Check out that wild hair!  Remember, the wagon is not moving right now!

Ross returns…  Gas can in hand!  It is full.  Now our minor malfunction will be fixed and we will be ready to roll again.  Look at that grin.  He takes these times in stride.  He told me this evening this must have happened a half dozen times before.  You would think he would learn his lesson.  =)  He did check the fuel level before he fired up the old Case again.  Everyone was perched in the wagon patiently waiting.  Not like anyone was in any hurry to walk all the way back to the house.

We did make it back after the refueling stop.  On the way back, we had rearranged seating a little.  Great-grandma told me, “This has been so much fun!  But I don’t know how I am going to get down from here.”  I just replied, “The reverse of how you got in.  You climb down.”  Now mind you, I still didn’t know how they got her in.  Just so you know, we documented the dismount from the wagon.  Truck ramps cannot only be used to load and unload ATV’s, they can be a ramp for 80+ year old adventurous ladies to climb in old wagons.  Great-grandma was not harmed in the making of this adventure.  She came out in one piece.  I imagine she might talk about her adventure for a day or two.  We all had a good time.

Moving Days…

What a beautiful weekend!  Sunshine, temp was right around 50 degrees all weekend, and everyone is feeling better.  Yeah!  We spent the whole weekend around the house and got a lot done.  Moving was our theme…  (No, we are not moving to another house!!!)  Just moving stuff around here.

The boys spent a good portion of Saturday hanging out in the front yard while their dad worked on trimming up some trees.  Still recovering the yard from the ice storm last winter.  Riley and Braden were pretty engrossed in “the dirt hole”.  They hadn’t been able to play out there much all winter.  The dirt hole is our version of a sandbox.  When you live where there is sandy soil, who needs to build an actual sandbox, the whole yard is our sandbox.  This just happens to be a permanent location that is disturbed often enough to keep any grass from growing back.  First on the moving list… Branches.  Trimmed up our last lone Bradford Pear tree.  We spared it from being toppled another year to see if it fills back in a little.

Next on the list…  Picnic table.  Ross’ dad built the boys a little picnic table while he was here a few weeks ago.  We have a plastic picnic table, but it lives in the living room.  About 5 years ago we got it and intended to put it outside.  It is just too great of a spot for the boys inside though.  So we talked grandpa into building a wooden one to put outside.  I think it will be a hot spot this summer.  =)  Don’t mind the fact that the boys look less than thrilled…  They were just tired of their mom making them sit there to get a picture of both of them looking at the camera.  It is moments like these that I wish I had a pause button for each of them.

Move number 3…  I am soooooooooo happy about this one.  The swingset has a new home!  I was kind of surprised when Ross started in on this move today.  It is now in the front yard!!!!!  YEAH!!!!!  It used to live on the concrete next to our screen room.  I tried to prod politely for a long time that it needed to move.  I guess good things do come to those who wait.  At least that is what Ross tells me all the time.  I just don’t like to have to  wait too long.  =)

We finished off the weekend with a fire.  Riley worked hard Saturday to load up his wagon with sticks and firewood so that we could cook hotdogs.  He even cooked for me.  Makes us want to go camping.  Time to start getting the gear gathered and put back in the little trailer.  Nicer days are just around the calendar.  More and more time to be spent outside!  We are ready, are you?

Blah!

That sums up the general feeling around our house lately!!!!

BLAH!

We all battled a stomach virus over the weekend...

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It was a beautiful day Sunday, but we had no energy. Still recovering then.

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Everyone back to normal Monday, until we discovered Riley was getting strep.

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Tuesday took Riley to the doctor to confirm that he has strep.

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Wednesday Riley had to miss his kindergarten field trip because he has strep.

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Yet we are still smiling anyway. Here is looking to brighter days ahead!!!!!!!