More Vacation

Well we had a blast and now we are home.  It seems like the last two weeks flew by.  This vacation was a big one because as I have already shared we went to different places on the Eastern side of the states. We did D.C. and saw a few museums and walked a lot.  I have no idea how I did all that walking but I did it.  Of course, I was dead at the end of the day but I did it.  In DC I got to see Julia Childs kitchen, it was at one of the museums.  The boys and I also saw a tree we have never seen before.  We commented how it looked like it was peeling from sunburn.  

I also mentioned that we were in Brooklyn and took some tours.  Well a friend that lives there took us to the top of her building.  It was late at night and I was able to take a nice night time picture of the city.  It looks so beautiful at night.     


Then after a few other tours we went on up further north.  All the way to see Niagara Falls.  I think I took at least 100 pictures there alone.  It was so awesome.  The thunder of the water crashing on the rocks below.  Now I am only showing one picture but there were so many that I had to choose just one.  It was an incredible day.

I promised my Canadian friend that I would go to Tim Hortons and have that breakfast sandwich.  So I did.  I'm very obedient. hehe  It was good.  I miss Tim Hortons living down here in Texas.  


After that we started our journey down, down, down south.  We stopped in Alabama and then West Virgina after all we had to sleep to continue our journey home.  Before we got home though, we stopped at a friends home in Louisiana.  We spent two nights there.  The kids had an awesome time and us two moms went on a little trip to Borders.  Yippeeee!  What homeschool mom doesn't like to go there? hehehe  On our way home hubby slowed down so that I could take this picture of the morning.  Can you see the spider webs?  It was rainy, misty and there were lots of webs on the fields and fences.  

We left Texas for the beginning of our trip with temperatures in the 90's and it dropped to the 40's at Niagara Falls then started our way home and we were in the 80's in Louisiana and now that we are home it's in the mid to upper 80's.  That is just not fair!  Oh and we came home to tall grass since it has been raining the whole time we were gone and with rain comes mosquitoes.  Big ones!  Huge ones!  We need some good cold air to get rid of them.  Maybe if my Canadian friends start blowing that cold air down here, please!


That about sums up our trip.  It was a blast and this is something the boys will remember for a long time.  I loved seeing the excitement when they learned something new.  I am tired now but so glad we did this trip.   

Our field trip

We have been on vacation and at the time I am writing this we still are.  This was a great learning experience for all of us.  As our schooling progresses we learn a lot about different places and different parts of the world.  We had planned on this vacation/field trip for a long time and it has finally arrived. 

We got to tour a facility in New York where Bibles and other literature are made.  The boys appreciate how much work goes into each magazine, book, pamplet and bible and how much work goes into packaging everything for delivery.  We got some special tours because we know some friends that work there so it was even more special to see old friends and see what they do. 

The leaves were also changing.  We don't get to see the changing of the leaves much down in Texas so it was wonderful to see it in person.  My youngest commented how wonderful GOD was to have made the leaves in such beautiful colors.  He was picking them up and now we have a big stash in our improvised leaf press which is our road atlas.  Good thing I have such a big book in the van with us. 

We also got a tour of a guitar building factory.  It was the Martin Guitar factory.  They have a small museum and then they give you a free tour of the place.  Hubby is building guitars and is on his third guitar so this was his hands on part of the trip.  This tour was also a review for us since we see the progress of his work and learn what each part of wood is called.  

Of course, there was so much more to our hands on and eyes on learning.  By the time we get home we will have put around 5000 miles on my van.  We did mostly nature viewing with some tours to our learning these past two weeks.

It is so wonderful to learn something in books but it always helps to see it in person.  We got to do it this year in a big way.  We also got to see it rain leaves.  As soon as I get home I will try to post more pictures and highlights of our learning experience. 

First Post on Vacation

So have any of you wondered where I am?  Here are some pictures to show you what we have done so far.  Some things I was not able to take pictures of because we were going 70mph on the highway and by the time I saw things we zoomed by.  So here is what we have done so far. 

We have done the Smoky Mountains and went to the top of one area for pictures.  That was a hard climb for me.  One of the boys stayed with me while the other two climbed to the top with hubby.  Then there was the drive further up the states.  My boys laughed at this sign even though it's blurry you can tell what it says.  They wondered if there were airplanes with missles aiming at you.  hehehe  

Then we drove to DC.  Yep that is where we are now.  But not for long.  We will be hitting the road for some further excitement.  Stay tuned for more.......  

Vacation...Our Reads

We will be leaving Wednesday at 1pm.  That is the plan anyway.  I started preparing by downloading some audio books, magazines and music.  What the problem is now is that I have more than enough for our trip.  We have a 16hr drive on the first day and although we could listen to a lot we do require quiet times just to keep our sanity.  

We have downloaded and added to my ipod the following books...
Time Machine
Gulliver's Travels
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Learn From the Great Teacher
My Book of Bible Stories
several magazines and songs

We have movies but I prefer audio books because you can still look out the windows and see the views of places we are going by.  

Anyone have any other ideas for books?       

Preparation for Vacation

9:00am  Started the washer again.  Have all washed clothes laying out ready to fold and pack in suitcases.  Pulled out the luggage.  Cleaned up breakfast dishes.  

10:30 Reloaded the washer.  Got kids to strip beds.  We are coming home to clean beds.  Start folding clothes.  

11:30  Hear, "I'm hungry, what's for lunch."  Start looking at my dress clothes and figuring out what I will take.  Make lunch, all leftovers.  We are not leaving anything in the fridge to spoil.  

1pm  Get ready to go into town.  Returning shoes that looked good and fit good but in the evening my feet were swollen and those will not work. Paid some bills and went to bank.  Stopped for 1/2 price slushes at Sonic. Boys got happy about that.  We love their strawberry limeade slushes.  Quick stop to return shoes at Academy.  WalMart next.  Boys need pants, weather will be cooler than we are used to.  Got a few more things and saw my mom there. 

4:00pm  Home and reloading washer and dryer.  Internet time, check emails.  Feet hurting and swollen.  

5:00  Boys do chores.  Finish up math.  Wondering why men have to put leaky pens in their dress shirt pockets and then forget to mention it.  Sheets for one bed ready and give to son to get it done.  Start wondering if I will ever be packed by Wed.

6:00  Forgot the time in my rush with washer and dryer and folding and packing.  Hubby walks in and I get to making dinner.  


7:30 Cleaning up kitchen.  Boys help put things away.  Hubby kindly offers to wash dishes. *smiling*  I'm off to get that packing taken care of.  


10:00  Two bags packed.  Tomorrow I will pack dress clothes.  Kitchen clean.  Reloaded washer with little clothes we have left and spot treated some to rewash.  


Still have at least two more loads of towels and a few sheets.  Showers.  Mentally going over the packed bags several times to make sure I have what we need.  We are having to take detergent because we are definitely going to need to do a load or two before coming home.  

Morning: taking the van for a recall part to be installed and an oil change.  Then wash and vacuum and gas it up. 


Lunch with mom in town.   Getting cold cuts and bread for the trip. Then heading home to start packing up the van.


Afternoon: Start loading up van.  Rush, rush, rush......

School Break

We are taking a little break.  Boys had to get to lesson 30 and then a break.  So guess what?  They are happy to get to lesson 30.  So am I.  Middle son is doing Teaching Textbook and my baby is using Rod and Staff.  They are both on lesson 30.  Yippeeee!  They did it.

We have lots to do before vacation.  I'm finishing up with laundry then packing.  I have the cooler ready for ice.  Van needs to get the recall part put on and an oil change.  Clean and vacuum the van.  Gas and pack up the van. 


Deadline: Wednesday 1pm.   


Let's see, where shall we go?  East or West?  North?  Can't go much more South than we are without leaving the country. So 3 options. 

Excitement is building....... 

How does my garden grown?

Driving back home we had to do a little stop. Can you see why? I've seen some bluebonnets in my day but this was incredible. We stopped on the side of the road and I could not believe the smell. It was such a sweet smell. Like I said we have seen some but not in this amount and not that you could smell just by standing there.


It was truly amazing to see and smell this. The bluebonnet is the Texas flower and I think it is a beautiful flower. If you drive along the highways of Texas, down south anyway, you will see lots of wildflowers including the bluebonnet. This makes the drive a pleasant one.

Now that we are home after two weeks being gone we came home to an amazing garden. Our garden has grown so much. We have corn, yellow squash, lettuce, bell pepper plants and green beans in one box. The corn was small when we left but now it is big.

We also have carrots. Can you see them in the picture? There is also some spinach. We will be making some good salads. Yum, can't wait.

We did two 4x4 squares this time around but we might get 2 more ready for our late season planting. Living down south we don't have much winter time so it will be great to have plenty of fresh veggies.

What do you think of my garden? This is the first time we have had a garden that it has gotten so big and has been so easy to do. We are having fun but it will be nicer when we start eating our labor.

Oz Land

After leaving Colorado we spent a few days at my brothers house in Kansas. While there we went to a place called Old Cowtown. It's an old town and you get to see what people lived like way back in the old days.

Hubby had to take this next picture. We visited the funeral parlor. What do you think? Would you have gotten in there for a picture?

The funeral parlor was very elegant. Lots of wood work and beautiful wallpaper on the walls.

There was even a place for bowling outside. That was fun. We got to play. If you notice one of the rails has two boards in a V shape and one end was higher than the other end. The person at the end of the pins would roll the ball back on that.

Hubby now wants to do one of these in the back. hehehe It would be fun. It would also make for a great learning experience for the boys. I'm starting to like that idea.

This was the boys first and last experience at a saloon. hehehe

It was fun although the day turned out a little hot. Imagine that....we were in snow a few days before that and then it was hot. Crazy!!!

Leaving Beauty Behind

We left from Colorado and took a picture of the mountains in the background. It is so awesome to see Pikes Peak with all that snow. All the snow was almost all melted that we enjoyed and had some good snowball fights in.

On our way to Kansas we saw some interesting signs. I should have taken more pictures of all those signs but didn't think about it till too late. I did get a few pictures and thought I would share.

We even passed by the Garden of Eden. I tried to get hubby to take a detour to see it but he wouldn't. Now why wouldn't you want to go to see the Garden of Eden? hhhmmmmmmm I have no idea.

We ate at this wonderful steak place called Whiskey Creek. Oh, yum is all I can say about it.

As we got closer to Kansas we saw different things on the way. I saw these lumps from far away and couldn't tell what they were till I zoomed in. Don't forget to click on the pictures to make them larger.


We are done with vacationing for a little while. Now it's back to regular school. We love being able to learn even on vacation. We had lots of fun. Hope you enjoyed seeing our fun. I still have a few more posts to do before I am all done with our vacation though so be prepared for a few more.

Colorado Snow

We are in Colorado and were hit with a big snow storm. Some places got over 2 feet of snow. This was heavy wet snow. Perfect for snow ball fighting and for kicking. The little one had fun kicking it. We went up to the mountains and saw so much snow. I took plenty of pictures to last for a while.


Of course we don't have clothes for this type of weather but we still had our fun in it. The last picture is of my post is the Colorado Amphitheater. It's a place they have concerts in the middle of red rocks. The benches were actually made of red rocks but are now being replaced because of time and deterioration. It is so cool.

That is just a little taste of our fun. Hope you enjoyed seeing it. I wonder what I will post about tomorrow????

Another New Bird

This is the first time I have seen this bird in person. It also made such a cute sound. If you go to that site and click on the second bird sound then you will hear what I heard. It would go down the tree head first. It was neat to see and hear.

It's a white breasted nuthatch. How cool is that. There are several birds that I would love to see in person and seeing this one was great.

I'm keeping my eyes open and hope to see more birds.

Snow Day

We didn't just stay in our room and call it a snow day but it was a snow day. I just wanted to show you some of these pictures. The boys were so happy and excited to play in snow. For those of you that have snow this is not exciting but for us this is a treat. The driving was crazy. The snowflakes were huge. We are in the room now and will stay here tomorrow for sure. Snow is expected all night and this is the biggest snow storm this season and we are here to enjoy it.

This is the first time that I have been in a snow storm that there was thunder. I'm used to thunder with rain but not snow.


I'll post again soon. I have a ton of things to show you all of what we are doing and what we have done. For now this will have to do. I'll take more snow pictures in the morning and see how much snow we got.



For now enjoy these pictures.

Buffalo Bill Day

We went to the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave today. Have you figured out where we are now? So let me tell you the thing I found the most interesting. It was what riders for the Pony Express were issued and had to carry with them. A gun, a knife and the bible. Isn't that funny? I would have never thought of those three things going together.

There were several pictures of
his indian friends. There were also different clothes that were worn by the indians and in the Wild West shows. It was very interesting. I didn't think it was going to be that good but I was surprised.

This visit will go great with our lapbook on A Historical Look at American Indians from HOAC. I have some pictures that I would like to make copies of and have the boys put them in their lapbooks. For this lapbook, first came the field trip then comes the actual lapbook part. This was a very hands on type of day.

I'll try to post more but this is it for now. I am so tired today.

By the way....we are under a winter storm warning. There is supposed to be a dumping of snow over here. The boys are doing the happy dance. hehehe I'll keep you informed if we get snow.