five

Happy Birthday Joseph! Today you are five!

Your love of knowledge and creativity in constructing "inventions" knows no bounds. You are often at "work" cutting paper, taping cardboard and adding whatever else you can get your hands on from the recycling bin. For someone who just drew his first person at the start of the school year, you have become quite the artist. You have your dad's artistic ability (and perfectionist tendencies). You are a good worker, but you definitely show management potential. You prefer to direct and suggest "Will you do such and such while I'm asleep," if your plans for the day have not yet been completed. You love to be read to and listen to books on tape, it is the main thing the halts your otherwise perpetual motion! You are a good friend to kids your own age, but you also really like to talk to adults. You always want to help host Bible study and sometimes seem more interested in chatting with the nearest coach than getting the ball at t-ball. Dinosaurs, ocean animals, deadly creatures, pirates and the wild west all fascinate you. You love maps. You are a kind big brother who can get Leo laughing like no one else. We celebrated this evening with a dinner of your favorite: macaroni and cheese.

Dad brought home cupcakes from the bakery with an African animal theme picks.

 

We celebrated with a bottle of sparkling cider for you and champagne for the adults-today is the day the Newman Center signed the purchase documents and now owns the land needed for the expansion-quite a day for your Dad too!

prairieland dairy days

Our first outing to this Firth festival was lots of fun!  The boys especially liked digging in the corn box, climbing on the hay bale structure, all the animals and of course, ice cream!

rainbow dis-connection

As I pulled out our vegetarian quiche for dinner tonight, Leo lamented, "I don't like green food!"  Ironic, as broccoli (aka trees) are his favorite vegetable, with asparagus a close second!

discovery!

The mid-morning sun through our front window casts the shadow of a T-Rex skull!

tastes like...

After devouring his drumstick, Leo moved on to a fried chicken wing.  I thought there were a few too many bones for him to navigate and started picking the meat off.  He protested, "I want to eat my meat on the cob!"

wildcat

from Tennessee, Mr. Edwards that is!

dill as table decoration

"It will make the house smell sweet Mom!" said Joseph as brought in a bundle of dill.  A little on the minimalist side, but I like it!

one of these things is not like the others

Joseph: I am going to the wild, wild west, New Jersey, Africa and Mexico.

yes master

 

As we were vacuuming out the car, Joseph concocted this "machine." I'm not sure how he convinced Leo to pull it, but he certainly got the better end of the bargain!

hard labor

After spilling shredded cheese while Jude was to on the phone, Joseph was instructed to get a broom.
In response he sighed and said, "I know what to do with it."

crucifix

 

t-ball

Ready for his first game!

Batter up!

First baseman

Good game!

The micro t-ball games are set up so there is a 30-minute practice and then a two inning game. The boys did great and there is a fabulously high coach to kid ratio. The funniest moment of the game came when Joseph was on his way from third base home. The ball had been hit down the base-line in front of him and there was already a three or four player pile-up. He started to dive into the fray himself before being diverted around by a coach! Too funny!

wild west vacation-day 8

Today was the long drive back, made more entertaining by listening to Little House On the Prairie. I wasn't sure if the boys would like it or not, but they loved Pa, Mr. Edwards and Jack. The covered wagon, prairie, Indians and wildlife interwove well with our trip. We stopped for lunch at Ole's.

Then dinner at Runza, a trip through the car wash and ice cream upon our arrival home!  It is always the little things that bring such delight!

wild west vacation-day 7

Joseph did not catch a fish the night before, so we tried our luck again in the morning.

Just as we were about to give up, he caught this trout! 

Thank you St. Peter!

Happily the dirt roads were clear enough after the rains for us to trek out to Toadstool Geologic Park.

The sandstone formations were beautiful!

Click here for the full photo album, I am my father's daughter and find rocks fascinating!

We spotted over 40 pronghorn, the fastest land animal in North America.

We met this geologist working at the Hudson-Meng Bison Bonebed.

He found this rodent bone.

Inside an archeologist gave us a tour of the largest Paleoindian-age bison kill site ever discovered.

While we were there the geologist found this specimen, perhaps a Cody knife, which was exciting!

We sampled one of each of the homemade pies at the High Plains Homestead's Drifter Cookshack: Blueberry Cream, Coconut Cream, Banana Cream and Apple Walnut.  Yum!

We visited the old cowtown...

...and got ourselves thrown into the pokey!

We were freed just in time to head back to Ft. Robinson for the 2011 Intertribal Pow-Wow, an unexpected addition to our trip, we saw the advertisements when first visited the park.  In the spirit of the evening, Jude and I had Indian tacos for dinner (above).

We watched several dances.

The outfits were amazing!

 

The most memorable though was a little boy whose traditionally cut outfit was made with a Cars print!

At the Game and Parks craft table Leo surprised us by drawing his first person!

Completely upside down no less!

wild west vacation-day 6

We visited the Trailside Museum at Ft. Robinson, where you can "view the skeletal remains of two huge mammoths lying as they have since the Ice Age - tragically locked together in combat!"  Here is the artistic rendering:

and the actual bones:

We love Morrill Hall, so this was a fun museum!  They even had an "Archie":

 Leo liked the bison so much,

that he pretended to be one!

Accordingly, he opted over the buffalo burger or bison sandwich at the Fort restaurant and ordered chicken fingers instead!

After lunch we went on a stagecoach ride.

The boys had their first pony rides.

Snowball was a very nice pony!

At the gas station in Crawford, Joseph asked this cowboy if we could take his picture.

As he was posing, his daughter came out of the convenience store and asked, "Is it take a picture of a cowboy day again Dad?"  :)

We stopped to visit the Newman Center at Chadron State College.

Then ended the day with a little fishing.

Leo's first ever catch was a carp!