Our week at the pond

Getting ready to go to the creek! You might be a redneck...

He HAD to have a mask and snorkle and didn't use them one bit.

Bryson

Jackson

Addison

Addison had fun playing in the "Fun Island."

Jackson at his "road."

Addison at her "road."

My grandparents rode one of the four-wheelers down to the creek one afternoon to watch us swim for a little while. They used to swim in the same creek when they were younger.

My cousins' daughter, Caitlin, and Addison. Caitlin was so good with her.

Bryson, Damon, Emily, Caitlin and Jackson walking/swimming in the creek.

Our bucket of crawdads. We had such a fun time finding them and catching them with nets.

My two country boys.

Addison on the four-wheeler. Her absolute most favorite thing to do is ride the four-wheeler.

I even caught a bass at the pond!

We just got back from visiting my grandparents in Oklahoma. I have said before, and I'll say it again, that this is my favorite place on this earth to be. I feel at home there and have so much fun visiting. I am so glad that my kids get to experience some of the things I did when I was there age. They even cry like we used to when it's time to leave. I hope they will always remember their time at "the pond" like I do. I have so many fond memories of fishing, playing games, climbing the "avalanche" and swimming in the creek. We spent so much time up there when I was growing up that it feels like home to me. I love that I can just go up there and be myself. I don't have to put on make-up, fix my hair or dress nicely. If I want to take a nap, go jogging, read a book, go fishing, I don't have to explain myself to anyone. Up there we are free to do whatever we want to do. There are no expectations. It is relaxing and refreshing. Drew loves it there, as well, and I am thankful to my grandparents for helping him feel just as at home as I do. I have so many more thoughts and feelings about "the pond," but I will have to save them for later. I don't want to dig that deeply into my feelings right now, so I will keep this post short and sweet! Hopefully, we will be able to make one more trip up there before school starts.

Wordless Wednesday

My granddad has named all the trails after his great-grandkids. Someone, I think some of my cousins, have made signs and put them up near each kids' trail. This is Bryson's. I am going to take Jackson's and Addison's picture by their sign when we go back up there later on this week.

We noticed one day that there were still some wild blackberries around. Bryson wanted to pick some to make a dessert. (He is always thinking of ways to eat something!) We spent about an hour one morning driving around on the four-wheeler looking for blackberries. After we dropped some of them I think we came away with a grand total of a 1/2 cup. My grandmother, being from the generation that can make something out of nothing, made some thickened blackberry juice for us to pour over biscuits. It was very good and Bryson kept saying, "This is the best thing I have ever tasted!"

The blackberries were deep in the thicket, so I would drive the four-wheeler in as far as I could. He would climb out onto the front of the four-wheeler to reach the berries.

Bryson got my camera out one day and started taking some pictures of himself!

My grandparents have/had two trailers on their property. This one burned down a couple of months ago. One of my cousins, Stacy, was up there recently and started trying to clean up the debris. We went down there a couple of day to clean it up, as well. Bryson is very good at destroying things, so this was right up his alley. He would tear something down and we would throw it in a pile. There is still so much to clear away, but we did make a small dent in it.

This is a view of the road leading to their house. I love to go running on the country roads. I ran a couple of days while we were there. It is so peaceful to get out and run and not have to worry about cars passing. It would have been even better if the temperature was not 100 degrees or more when I was running, though!

This is a view of their pond. The water is down. They could really use some rain.

This is the creek. We fish and swim in this creek. (The "swimming hole" is a little way up the creek and is about 6-8 feet deep.) When we were there in March, we could barely see the rocks. It is down that much. I hope they get some rain soon.

The last night we were there, Bryson and I went for one last ride on the four-wheeler. It was right at dusk and we could see so many fireflies.

This is Bryson's look of terror right after I pulled his tooth. He kept messing with it and would ask me to pull it only to change his mind before I even touched it. I finally got tired of hearing him talk about it, so I sat on him and ripped it out! He was mad at me for a little while, but quickly forgot about it when he realized the Tooth Fairy would be coming later on.





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Last week, Bryson and I ventured up to Oklahoma to check on my granddad and spend some time together~ just me and him. We decided to leave about 15 minutes before we actually walked out the door. We (by we, I mean Drew!) loaded up the car and left about 6:30 Wednesday evening. We (by we, I mean Drew, again!) put a cooler in the back of the car so we could stop and buy some groceries. We stopped in Bonham, TX at their Wal-Mart. This was around 8:15 or so. We had made a list of things we needed/wanted so we were prepared when we got there. We spent about 45 minutes and $180 in Wal-Mart! We loaded up the groceries and were on our way, again.

As I was driving, Bryson started asking a lot of questions. He asked what I was like as a little girl. Where I grew up. He asked about my sister, Jamie and about my mom. He asked me to tell him the story of each of their deaths. I answered the best I could and he accepted my answers. He enjoyed having me all to himself without interruptions. I enjoyed telling him about my past and wonder which things he will remember. There was a beautiful full moon that night and we talked about the moon, heaven, God and death.

He was a great driving companion and would check my speedometer each time we passed a speed limit sign. He made sure I went the speed limit. I think he and Drew must have talked about this at some point. I do speed more than Drew does, he is just the one who always gets caught!

We stopped in Broken Bow, OK and got some ice cream at Sonic. He was getting sleepy, I was hungry since I ate very little at dinner and I was trying to keep both of us awake. We pulled up at my grandparent's house a little after 11:30. I was so glad to be there safely and even more glad that we had a great time together.

We spent the week doing all kinds of things. We rode the four-wheeler, went fishing, walked and talked. We played games and played on the computer. Anything he wanted to do, we did. We left Sunday morning. It would have been fun to stay longer, but I really missed Drew, Addison and Jackson.

As soon as we got in the car to come home, the questions started all over again! He wanted me to tell him all the same stories, again. I changed the subject and diverted his attention to the sights around us. I just didn't want to talk about the same things. I tried to aske him what he remembers so far in his life and he said he couldn't remember anything. We quit talking for a little and he fell asleep for a couple of hours. During the silence, I sang along to The Eagles and had a great time by myself driving and looking at the country side.

When we got to McKinney, I missed the turn off for 380 and we ended up going about 30 miles out of our way. I won't tell you the details, it's too embarassing! Anyway, we made it home about 45 minutes later than I expected us to. We were greeted by Addison and Jackson running to us yelling and clapping because we were finally home! It is a great feeling to know we were missed so much!

Wordless Wednesday

Photo Shoot

Addie and I had a fun, relaxing morning this morning. I decided to skip the gym this morning instead of waking the kids up. (A rarity for me.) Addison slept late (until 9:00!), ate breakfast then we took a long, relaxing bath. Afterward, I blow-dried her hair and had a little photo shoot. I am not the best photographer, (I think I need a better camera~ hint, hint, Drew!) but her personality really shows through. Yes, even the ones where she has her finger in her nose! If you know Addison, you know she likes to perform the shocking, but funny, trick of sticking her finger in her nose and then in her mouth! Lovely, I know! She will have many boyfriends one day if she keeps it up! There are a lot of pictures, but I just couldn't leave any out!

"Look I made!"

Addison LOVES to play with her brothers and LOVES to play Legos. When she fits some together she will run to us and say, "Look I made!" She is always so proud of her creations! For her birthday I got her a wagon with Duplo blocks. It only came with 20 pieces, so I bought a pack with 80 pieces with some of her birthday money. Well, she LOVES them. I knew she would. When the boys were gone the other day she and I played blocks for a while. She kept wanting to make guns (Can you tell she has two older brothers?). I talked her into making houses with flower trees. She liked this, too.

Here is one of our creations. Not bad for two girls, huh?!

When the boys got home they had to get in on the action. Even boys like to play with big, chunky, pretty blocks!

Today I decided to finally paint our bedroom. I have been talking about painting it for a couple of weeks, but something has come up each time I wanted to paint. I woke up this morning and decided that today would definitely be the day once and for all. I started about 10:30 this morning and finished about 7:30 this evening. I only stopped once to eat lunch. (Well, lunch was around 4:00 for me!) I didn't even stop to eat the yummy hamburgers Drew made for dinner. I will have a left-over one tomorrow, though! I need to get some things to go on the walls, but I am pleased with the color. It is the same color that is in about 1/2 of the rest of the house. We over-bought paint back in the fall when we started painting the house and I decided to use the rest of it to paint our bedroom. It is just a neutral goldish color, so I thought it would be fine. I think it looks good. Now I just need someone to help me decorate it!

When I was painting Addison came in and said, "Oh, Mommy, look you made!" I think she liked it, too.

This is our bathroom. I painted it a couple of weeks ago. Again, I used some paint I had left over from painting the kitchen. This color is called Mission Tile. It is kind of a rusty red. I like it. I need some decorations in here, too!

All I have left to paint is Bryson's room and the kids' bathroom. I plan on painting those two rooms some time before we go back to work. Then, our house will be completely painted on the inside. (Except for the utility room. Let's not get crazy!) Right now, I am going to go take a nice, warm, relaxing bath! I am beat!