Memorial Day Weekend

We had so much fun over the Memorial Day weekend. We left Friday for Ontario, Oregon to visit with my family. Dad was great. He had the four-wheelers ready to go for the boys as soon as they woke up on Saturday morning. OK, maybe not as soon as they woke up since I told them to go back to bed at 5:30 a.m. when they were already upstairs watching cartoons that "Grandpa said we could!" You have to love the excitement of kids. Going to the farm is like Christmas to them. Four-wheelers, cousins, Grandpa Larson, tractors, acres and acres to be explored. You get the idea.

They spent every moment outside on Saturday it seemed like. That night we had a BBQ at Oliver and Ashley's house and the kids played some more. Tom and Logan got their first taste of riding dirt bikes when they got on a Honda 50. They both did awesome! I was surprised at how easily it seemed to come to them. Tom was first and tipped it over once in some soft dirt but just picked the bike back up and continued on.

Logan went second and tipped it over in the same spot and, just like his brother, picked it up and continued. The difference between Tom and Logan was Tom waited to hear all of the instructions before taking off. Logan didn't. He knew how to go and go fast but not really anything else. It came back to get him when he was ba-ha-ing off through the brush and then practically jumping piles of grass clippings - none of which was intentional - and then he hit and hit hard. Thank goodness for helmets! It was one of those crashes that you immediately think about how long it will take you to get to the emergency room and who will take care of the other three kids and how will he play baseball with broken bones and.......you get the picture.

Much howling and wailing later, we realized nothing was broken and he only had a bit of a scratch on one leg and a slight bruise from the helmet on his forehead. He was done riding though. We tried to get him back on so he wouldn't be scared to do it later, but nothing doing. He preferred four-wheelers.

Ethan cracked me up all weekend. Saturday morning he inspected all the tractors he could find - I bet there were six or seven. For some reason, he liked the sprayer the best. I don't know if it was because it was much higher off the ground, or if it was the long arms that were folded in while it was parked, but that was "his" tractor. After a four-wheeler ride with Gary, he came back to see that someone had taken "his" tractor. Trying to get his mind off of the missing tractor, he went with Loney in another tractor to do some disking. It was all fine and dandy until he came back and saw that "his" tractor was still missing. So, being the wonder-mom I am, we went off in search of the sprayer and Oliver. Dad's farm is over 9,000 acres and I don't spend a lot of time there so when Oliver said he would be at the end of the farm, I just got in the car and went looking. Two phone calls for directions and one VERY VERY VERY LARGE mud puddle later, we found him. (I'll post more about the mud puddle another day.)

As soon as Ethan got in the sprayer, he let Oliver have it.

"You better not take my tractor again! This is my tractor!"

Oliver and I were both laughing pretty good.

Dylan spent the weekend either sleeping or standing up it seemed like. He wasn't really confident in standing without holding onto something before we went to Oregon but he seemed to stand longer and longer each day we were there. He'll be walking before we know it.

Sunday we hung out with Dad and enjoyed the beautiful weather in the morning. That night we went over to Loney and Rachelle's house and the kids played some more. Stetson even showed us how great he is walking using his walker. Keep it up Stets! The more you use your walker and crutches, the less you'll need that wheelchair!

The drive home was extra long with several stops and one extra passenger. We brought one of Dad's lab puppies home to Sunnie and Brandon's nephew. Since we didn't have a kennel and he was a bit larger than lap-size, it was quite the adventure. Tom and the puppy had a great time bonding in the back. He only chewed through one set of headphones and one cardboard box lid before he fell asleep!

Now we are all back into the groove at home and trying to recover from a fun road trip. I'm just glad it's the last week of school and we can start relaxing a bit more around here!