A Smattering of Duehrings

This little dress was also worn by Maggie all the time. I even have pictures of her playing in the sand box wearing it. Molly has the same love of the dress and wears it all the time. She would wear it every day if I let her.

That is right. Half of the pictures I have of this girl right now she is in this dress.

Yesterday morning this is what Molly heaved up onto my belly to wake me up. Then she let me know that she needed me to make her food and she wanted macaronis!!!

Eli is so good at getting the mail for me every day. I especially like how he throws it inside the door for me.

This past weekend I rode the Flint Hills Death Ride. It’s a quaint little trip through part of the Flint Hills region in central Kansas. Think no trees, hot sun, low-maintenance “roads,” and lots and lots of hills. 81 miles worth. There was over 5000 feet of elevation gain after all of the climbs were done.

The cows kept me company.

Some of the roads were your standard gravel, some were little more than rocky paths through grassland. Yeah, 81 miles worth.

It was, by far, the most difficult bike ride I’ve ever done. My bike broke twice and I have some parts to replace, but I will definitely do it again!

Me, my bike, and the road.

The pictures I took don’t do any sort of justice to the actual event. How do you photograph the pile of rocks you are careening down while trying to stay upright? How do you accurately capture the grade of the hill you are climbing? How do you manage to snap that shot encapsulating the pain and exhaustion? Maybe next year I’ll have June ride a 4-wheeler next to me and shoot a documentary. Or maybe not…

The road goes ever on.

We are still in the middle of room decor changes. If the boys ever want their orange and blue room they must work. Out with the pink flowery stuff. They are having so much fun with the destruction of wallpaper. This is a great boy activity.

The way Eli’s mind works and the things that come out of  that boy’s mouth always crack me up.

Eli was sitting at lunch today eating with bicycle gloves on that were covered with ranch and ketchup. I asked him what in the world he was doing and he said his chicken nuggets were hot. (only Eli would think of putting bike gloves on to hold his hot food?) I told him to take them off and then he went to get a fan to cool off his nuggets.

This afternoon I needed to take him to get his glasses fixed. As always his shirt was on not only backwards but also inside out. I told him he needed to change it before we left. He looked at me serious as can be and asked me “is it a sin to wear my shirt like this?” I said no.  “Is it against the law to wear my shirt like this?”  No, Eli. “Then why can’t I wear it like this?”

We had another successful year at Camp Gramma. It was extremely hot this year so the adults were really exhausted. The kids just kept on going like it didn’t bother them.We had a pretty full schedule and my parents had to be exhausted. I was exhausted and I wasn’t even out sleeping in the tents with the kids. They kept up with everything and even had delicious meals for us at meal time.

This is how our schedule went this year.

Monday we ate pizza for dinner, had a meeting, did lots of playing outside.

Tuesday we went to the Wichita Zoo, CiCi’s Pizza, and the Discovery Place.

Wednesday it was fishing at Dillon Park, swimming, annual walk over the bridge, program at church, and the bonfire.

Thursday afternoon we headed for home.

Here are some snapshots of the week.

After playing in the sand and dirt we had to clean up the kids for church. This was how we did it. Seriously. This is real campin.

The kids put on a little program at my dad’s church on Wed night. I video taped it and I am so glad I did because we had some little hams on stage.

The campfire on the last night is one of the kids favorites. It cooled down and the weather was perfect for it.

Molly and Ethan have become good little buddies. It brings back memories of when their older brother and sister (Trey and Maggie) were best buddies at that age.

The kids love this time that they can see their cousins and grampa and gramma all at the same time. It is something they really look foward to each year. I know this will be something they will have memories of for a lifetime.

Thank you mommy and daddy for doing this for them.