The Elk Is Back

Nimrod picked my elk up today from the taxidermist. I had forgotten just how big elk are. Now he takes over our entrance way and pretty much fills up the room. He definitely adds color to our vanilla walls (sigh....someday I will paint them a color other than white...)

So now when you walk into our house, this is what greets you. Very welcoming, don't you think?

This is a view from the other side (the small side of the elk). See the mismatched horns? My bull is a little unbalanced, just like me :)

Here is my elk with my deer I killed several years ago. Check off another thing from my To-D0 List.

*Kill deer-check

*Kill elk-check

*Paint color in my house...hmmmm no check-I think my priorities need to be changed.

Meet Sally

Meet Sally. One day Punky Girl had to take Sally to the dr. because Sally wasn't feeling well. Sally came back looking like this.





The dr. told her mom that she needed glasses, that is why she wasn't feeling well. Being the great mom that Punky Girl is, she went right out and got Sally some glasses. Now Sally feels better. So much better that her mom took her to the library to check out some books (now that she can see them).

After picking out a few books, Sally and her mom sat down and did some reading together.

The End

The ULTIMATE Hunt Is On

Some of you remember my elk hunt from last year and what an experience that was. Well, our family is experiencing something ever bigger than that. Nimrod drew a strip tag--no, it has NOTHING to do with Vegas. The strip is a hunting area that is the most sought after mule deer hunting area in the United States because of the record book deer that come out of it-no exaggeration. He hasn't been drawn for mule deer in 12 years because he has been putting in for this highly sought after tag. So, here we are 12 years later. I am so excited for him to be able to experience this.

Nimrod was in shock the first few days and now he wants the whole world to know he gets to go hunting on the strip. He said to me the other day, "If I am distracted, forget things you tell me or seem out of it for the next 3 months, I apologize now." I just looked at him with a confused look, wondering where the conversation was going. Then he smiles and says, "I got a strip tag. I can't think straight!" I smiled and told him that as long as he didn't neglect me or the kids I could live with him for the next few months being distracted. But, you know what? He wasn't kidding. He has been forgetting lots of things which means he really isn't listening to me that well. What can I do? He has a strip tag!

The only down side is that he will be gone most of November. The kids and I will survive but it will be a challenge. Nimrod is already freaking out about being gone from us that long. Hopefully he will kill the record book deer on the first day and it will cut the hunt short by two weeks. If you feel like praying for that, I am good with it :).

I will post some pics once the big one is killed in a few months.

First Day of School

My baby Punky Girl started kindergarten this week. I always thought I would be okay with it because she has always been independent and into doing her own thing. However, over the last 6 months she and I have grown much closer and she has been the sweetest little girl in the whole wide world. Each day as school grew closer my heart has breaking little by little as I knew I was going to have to part with her and miss out having her around with me all the time. I tried to talk her out of going, but as I said she is a little independent, so she wasn't going to have any of that conversation.

So, I did my best, sucked it up and got my baby ready for her first day of school. She is the cutest Kindergarten girl I have seen in my entire life.

Buckaroo told me all summer that he didn't want to go back to school this year. This from the kid who LOVES school. I guess we made summer too much fun for him and school held no appeal. I will have to change that next summer! Anyway, come the first day of school he was ready 25 minutes before we had to leave. He admitted he was excited to go to school. Whew! I feel better.

We couldn't get out the door without a silly pose.

Punky Girl found her seat right away and quietly sat down waiting to find out what she was supposed to do. She then decided to read a book. That warms an English teacher/mother's heart.

This was taken right before the teacher read a story to the class and her mother broke down into tears. I really did try to hold it together but couldn't make it all the way. Nimrod said we should have stood closer to the door and then I could have made it out before she saw me crying. Unfortunately, she saw me crying and teared up herself. That really made me cry. I was a disaster!

At the end of the day the tears were gone and the first day of school was a smashing hit for us!

Disneyland

Back in March I mentioned that I was working two part-time jobs. One is my regular part-time job of being an online instructor for our local high school and the other one was a tutoring job sponsored by our state. I decided that if the state actually paid me we would take the kids to Disneyland. I didn't expect the state to follow through considering our current economy but the check came in the mail 3 days before we left to CA. I was so excited knowing what was going to happen.

We waited to tell the kids until the day before we left so that they didn't bombard us with the question, "When do we go to Disneyland?" 50 thousand times. They only did it 50 times :)

We drove to the hotel to check in before we headed to the park. When I got to the front desk to check in, the reservations clerk told me I didn't have reservations. I about freaked out. My kids and hubby are in the car waiting for me to come out with a key and he tells me we have no room. I remembered I brought my confirmation sheet I printed out and showed it to him. He then does whatever they do on their computers and said to me, "This is for July 8, 2010. You made the reservation's for next year." I thought I was going to hyperventilate and die. There was no way I could walk out there and tell them we had no room. Then he told me to wait and disappears into his office for at least 5 minutes. I begin praying. I know God is not a genie and doesn't POOF! make it all better but I really was hoping for some divine intervention. He finally comes out and tells me that they do have a room we can have and they honored the price I had paid for already. God is better than a genie! That begins the little miracles that occurred the whole time we were there. Disneyland is a magical place but with God it is even more special. We checked in and headed to the park.

The first thing we see next to town hall is....the fire station. Punky Girl is thrilled! We checked out all the cool fire station things they have to see.

We cruised all over the park just letting the kids taking it all in. Unfortunately, so did 50,000 other people. It was crowded! And, most of them are from another country so they walk on the wrong side of the street/sidewalk. It was challenging to avoid getting run over. But, it IS Disneyland so we sucked it up :)

The first ride we went on as a family was the Matterhorn. I wasn't sure how Punky Girl would do but she laughed and laughed through the whole ride. I couldn't stop laughing listening to her laugh. I have decided that is my special moment of the whole experience. The four of us had a blast on that ride.

Here she is with her daddy on It's a Small World right after the Matterhorn. You can tell she is having a blast.

Buckaroo and I went on the teacups, not Nimrod's cup of tea! Do you know how hard it is to take a picture when you are spinning?

Buckaroo loved the Buzz Lightyear ride. Mostly because he got to shoot things and beat his dad the first time. We rode this ride the most because it was fast to get on and the kids loved it.

The whole afternoon and evening we kept trying to get on the Nemo ride because Punky Girl LOVES Nemo and we heard the ride was awesome but the wait was 2 hours and the kids did not want to wait that long on the first day there. We agreed that it would be the first ride we would go on the next day, assuming the line would not be as long. After a spectacular fireworks show we headed back to the hotel anticipating another day of fun at Disneyland.

The next we headed to the park and as Nimrod and Punky Girl headed over to Nemo, Buckaroo and I went to go get fast passes for Space Mountain, my favorite ride. When we got to Nemo, they were waiting for us to get in line. As we stepped in line we noticed the line was a 45 minute wait but we had told Punky Girl we would go on it first so we got in line. The lady working the line leaned down to Punky Girl and said, "Princess, this is what we call a magical moment and you and your family are going to the front of the line. We all looked at each other shocked! So, off to the front of the line we went. NO 45 minute wait for us. (miracle 2)

Here is Punky Girl at the front of the line totally excited. *Sidenote-the ride is worth a 45 minute wait...it is awesome!*

After Nemo, we split up. Nimrod and Buckaroo took off to climb a tree and do something manly. Punky Girl decided she wanted her face painted. Now, for those of you that have been to Disneyland you have seen the little girls with the glitter princess masks and the dresses and the tiaras and the princess walk you know that is all totally opposite of Punky Girl. So when she said she wanted her face painted I about fainted. I was all over that. We were directed to the Bibbity-Bobbity Boutique for this experience. It is a Princess salon for little girls. Punky spent 3 seconds watching these girls get pampered and she bolted. But, she still wanted her face painted. So, off we went to find a stand that did just face painting. About this time, Buckaroo and my fast passes were up for Space Mtn so Nimrod and I switched kids. Dad was in charge of the face painting escapade. Buckaroo was totally into it as we went into the ride. It was a rocket ship and had all the sound affects. He was into it until it got pitch black. I grabbed his hand during the ride and he was totally still. When we viewed our picture after the ride, his eyes were closed. I asked him if he had his eyes closed the whole time and he said yeah, the ride was too fast and closing his eyes helped it go slower. Needless to say, He did NOT like Space Mountain. I ruined him for the rest of the trip. He was not interested in anymore roller coaster rides. After the color returned to his face, we went off to find Nimrod and Punky Girl. This is what I found:

She didn't get a Princess mask, she picked out a flaming football! I knew it was too good to be true. Nimrod swears he didn't coerce her into picking this and it was all her doing. Knowing her, I am sure that is the truth. I am just shocked they even offer that as a face painting. So, we had the ONLY girl in all of Disneyland with a flaming football on her face. I think it was new one for the park.

We wandered the park and got a fast pass for Splash Mtn. We had two hours to wait so we got some lunch and went to Frontier land. Guess what we found? A shooting game! My son liked the things he could do in his own backyard. Go figure...

After this, we headed to Toon Town. This was our favorite place. Why? They have a firetruck, of course.

After Toon Town we decided to take the park train back over to Splash Mtn. As we were waiting in line, the kids told us that they were tired and didn't really want to go on Splash Mtn. (I told you I ruined Buckaroo). They just wanted to go to CA Adventureland and see Crush and then go back to the beach house. We asked them a dozen times to make sure they really were done and they were. While we were having the conversation the people next to us were telling their boys that they didn't know if they would have time to go to Splash Mtn. because they didn't get fast passes. The boys were willing to wait the 3 hours in line to ride it. Nimrod took our fastpasses and gave them to the family. At first they wouldn't take them. We told them our kids were done and we were definitely not going to use the passes. The mom asked when they were for and we said 2:40-3:40. It was 2:40 on the nose (miracle 3) They were so excited and it was one of the boys' birthday. I said to Nimrod, This is our pay-it-forward moment from the Nemo ride.

Off they went to Splash Mtn. and off we went to see Crush. This was for Punky Girl and her fixation with Nemo. Truth be told, it is one of my favorite movies too. Anyway, we get there right before the show starts, no waiting. We go in and the kids sit on the floor and the parents are in the theater seats. Out comes Crush to talk through screen (if you have never been it is hard to explain) and greets us. Then he tells his assistant on our side of the glass that there is someone in the crowd he wants to chat with. Crush the describes Punky Girl. Of all the kids to pick to talk to, he picks her(miracle 4). Nimrod leaned over and asked me if I paid someone to have him talk to her. No way, this is all new to me I replied. After talking with Punky Girl he wanted to talk with her parental unit. We had to raise our hands as the assistant came over to us with the mic. Then Nimrod had a conversation with Crush, it was quite comical. Totally out of his comfort zone, but he did it. Nimrod and I laughed on the way out because we had nothing else to give away or pay-it-forward for anyone else.

That ended our first trip to Disneyland. Actually, the Mickey Mouse ice creams bars on the way out ended our trip. It truly was magical for our kids.