Summer 2010 Update #1

I can't believe that it's been nearly a month since I've posted! I've been keeping so busy that I haven't been on the computer as much as I thought I'd be. Hopefully I'll get by to visit each of your blogs soon! :-) I've been able to some of the things that I was hoping to do this summer. I cleaned out both cattle pens. Just finished them yesterday while it was cool out and I can hardly move today! Good workout though ;-) I figured while I was having a hard time moving I'd catch you up on what we've been up to:

I've been watching my garden grow....

...and of course watering, weeding and cultivating with this thing that I got from my grandparents' house. (Sure beats hoeing the whole thing!)

Rich took up playing waterball with the fire department. First time playing and they took 1st place!

The kids went on their first boat ride at a friend of my mom's and loved it!

Rich got our hay off. (Morgan is riding with him here.)

I just love this sequence of pictures. Blake just couldn't wait until he could ride the tractor!!

We rode in the aerial in the Annual Michigan Firefighter Associations Conference parade. (Our county hosted it this year.) I took these of the kids while we were waiting.

After the parade, Rich and some fellow firefighter raised the flag on the ladder.

Then they had some fun and played more waterball :-)

The kids are loving climbing and playing in the freshly baled hay.

And just enjoying the sunny weather.

• I've been mowing lawn every week. I think Rich is missing it, but he's just way too busy. I have more respect for Rich taking the time to do it for all these years. It takes over 3 hours just to mow and trimming is a whole lot more!


• The kids and I have been helping with chores at night too. Morgan and Blake love it!! They especially love feeding the cat (which we have to wait until the chickens are roosting otherwise they'll scare the cat away and eat her food) and checking for eggs. (We somehow lost 1 more chicken and are now down to 3!)


• The kids also went to our town's fair with their grandparents and got to ride some rides, which was a first for them. (I'd share pics but they're on their grandma's phone.) Rich and I were collecting hay bales from the field, since we didn't have a wagon to stack on and missed going, but they brought us an elephant ear! Yum! ;-)


• I made it to visit a friend that I hadn't seen in over a year. (Yes-I'm loving having the truck!)


• Rich and I also made it to the drive-in and saw Shrek 4 and Ironman 2. Always love going to the drive-in!


• The kids, my parents and I went to our towns' pizza cook-off. Four businesses competed to be the best pizza in town. I of course quickly picked out the place we always go to and voted for them ;-) They also had games for the kids and it was a great time. And we made the paper:

• We went to the first music in the park for the season in the neighboring town and enjoyed some live music down by the lake. Always a nice time, though probably would have been better if the kids weren't tired and grouchy (long summer days lately!)

That's what's been going on here. Busy and loving it! I hope you are all enjoying your summer as well!! :-)

Blake's Kind of Lesson!

Rich and Blake like to sit in the chair and look at farming magazines together and it turns out Blake is catching on to some things:

Narrated by Morgan

The Tractor Ride

Rich had the opportunity to work in the field yesterday. (When I say 'had the opportunity', I mean that he hasn't worked ground in nearly 2 years and the excitement he had was comparable to Morgan on her birthday!) He spent the morning working for his brother's landscaping business, then went straight to working ground for his grandpa's farm. (For having Fridays off, he has been really quite busy!)

The kids and I spent the day babysitting again. After the little guy left, I got dinner together and the kids and I ate without Rich, who was still in the field. He had invited us to come out to ride in the tractor with him, but Blake had a short nap and was whiny and grouchy all afternoon, so I wasn't sure that we would make it. We finished up dinner and the kids got their baths and into their pajamas. Blake continued his grouchiness, so I decided that maybe going for a ride in both the car and the tractor might actually be a good idea. (It was either that or he was going to drive me nuts! LOL!)

I put the kids in their coats and shoes and loaded them into the car (still in their pj's) and we took off for the field Rich was in. When we got there Rich drove over to pick us up and I snapped a few pictures. (It was the first time the kids got to ride in the tractor, so I had to bring the camera!)
It turned out that there was plenty of room for all four of us to ride, so I hopped in and we took off. Here are a couple highlights of the ride:

• Both Morgan and I ended up having to use the outdoor facilities. I haven't had to do that probably since I was five! It was definitely Morgan's first time and you'll understand how it went if I just say that I wouldn't let her ride on my lap afterwards and we changed her clothes as soon as we got home! LOL!
  
• We saw a few deer and a wild turkey up close, which was fun for the kids. We saw one very small fawn a little too close, though. Luckily Rich was watching behind him at the time and stopped quickly (along with saying a few choice words). The fawn had been laying in the weeds and almost got run over with the discs. As far as we could tell, he ran off unharmed.
• After seeing the size of some of the stones in the field, we decided that next year the kids would be old enough to help pick up rocks. We think they would have fun, since it is something that Rich and I enjoyed doing when we were younger.

We all ended up having a great time! I wished we could have stayed longer, but both kids were tired and needed to get home and in bed. Rich stayed out working the field as long as he could, while he had the 'opportunity'. :-)