Road Trip

 Wednesday morning DH and I loaded up and headed to Texas. We had a flat about 4 hours in, as we rolled through the little farming town of Tahoka, and pulled into an old school tire shop where they put a boot in the tire. DH has fixed hundreds of tires through the years, but this was awfully convenient and we like supporting these small businesses. 

Then we rolled on to spend a little time with his little brother. He and his wife recently moved and the boys spent some time going over some things.

Early onset Alzheimer's is a heartbreaking disease.

Then on Thursday, DH and I drove 2 hours to exchange our beehive. DH peeked in ours and could not see a queen and the place he bought it from, said they would exchange his for a new hive. Our original hive is thriving. 

Our girl met us there

 and took me back to OK for a few days. She recently took up crochet so I suggested we stop at a yarn shop in McKinney before heading back to her house

It was fun to treat her to an early birthday gift. The yarn shop is also a quilt shop, but I didn't need anything. We stopped and enjoyed a fabulous lunch 

here

And our shared love for books found us perusing pages here.

And then we drove another 90 minutes to get the best hug ever from this little charmer

Signing off for now. We're off on a bug hunt!

An Apple a Day

 'Tis mountain apple season here!

And last Saturday, the kids and I drove to a little mountain town to take advantage of the harvest. It's been a tradition for years

And it was especially sweet to pass it down to the next generation this year

Sneaking a snack because apple picking is hard work

Her daddy taught her what to look for 

And she eagerly picked

and picked

 filling buckets

We picked 80# of Jonathon apples and a few Golden Wonders

 

In our opinion, the Jonathon apples make the best apple pies, baked apples, and apple sauce. I made baked apples the next day and the first batch, of many, of our favorite dehydrated apples will soon be ready

It was the best way to spend the day together

And hopefully the start of a tradition

 for this little monkey

Celebrating 1

 10 days ago we took a road trip to celebrate a very special birthday 

We're all shaking our heads that he's already turning 1

What a fun age! 

                                       

And what a charmer!

We're completely smitten

I treasured the years raising our two chiddlers, but there's something extra special about watching your child, parent their child

It's such fun watching them navigate parenthood.

They are much smarter than we were -they have so much more information available these days. We just had to wing it, but they survived. They recently moved and have a quiet, private road with lots of space

I love our new place, but I'm really wishing it was in Oklahoma because we already miss this little treasure.

Birthday Blessings

Last week I hopped a plane to visit our boy and his family and to celebrate a special birthday!

This little nugget is just delightful!

Such a fun age!

Full of ideas and imagination and joy and adventure.

The best kitchen assistant ever!

We made gallons of lemonade for our picnics. LOL

Bath time is a family affair. LOL

Build-a-Bear adventure!

TLC was administered immediately

 We were getting ready to go to the wildlife zoo and mama put this cute outfit on her. Apparently she's grown and the top is now a crop top. Daddy commented: She just turned 3 today. I'm not sure I'm ready for that. LOL. Laughter ensued and outfit was changed.

Such a sweet day

Hip-Hip-Hooray!

I loved capturing those everyday special moments

And the Corn Quilt was a hit!

I savored every moment

There are only 2 daily flights into the nearest airport and one of them arrives at 11:40 p.m.. Flying over Lubbock at this point.

By the time I got home and took a shower it was after 1 a.m. and then it was back to town the next morning for work and up again at 2 a.m. on Tuesday because it's spring branding season and DH left at 3 a.m. to help the neighbors. Whoever said things would slow down when empty nest season arrived lied! OYE! This Gram is pooped! But her heart is full!

Catching Up

  It's been a while since I've popped in here. No excuses unless the excessive heat has rendered me useless. 109° again on Saturday. 😟 

Had a blowout a few weeks ago

That caused some body damage to our rig, but I'm grateful it wasn't worse and no one was hurt

So that, along with 4 new tires... sigh.

 But after a visit to the mechanic, the body shop, and the tire shop (that's too many trips to town) - we're back in business.

We've also got a newly hatched batch of baby guineas

I made a little 4 hour roadtrip.

I don't even have the words to describe how much joy this child has brought us

30 years of joy - Happy Birthday Sprout!

Since they live in a different state, I don't get to see them as often as I would like, so when I had the unexpected opportunity to spend a day with her, I jumped at the chance. A friend was driving to Amarillo on Thursday to pick up her sewing machine and had invited me along.

 On Wednesday I learned that our girl was going to be in Amarillo as well (her husband was taking 3 pigs to an invitational sale) so I shuffled things around a bit. I was still able to spend Thursday with my friend, but we took separate vehicles and I spent the night at the hotel where our girl was staying. Thursday was filled with fellowship and fabric with my ranch wife-quilting buddy - an old photo, but this pretty much conveys the trouble we got into - 😉

Doesn't everyone travel with a quilt? It just adds a little bit of home to a hotel room and I always sleep better under a quilt

We didn't have any agenda the next day, but bookstore visits are a family tradition and we spent 2 1/2 hours among the shelves browsing and discussing books. 

We ended up on the floor in the children's section 

A little girl walked up to our girl and after contemplating her for a minute, she piped up, "I'm a kid too"! it was as if she wasn't quite sure if our girl was a kid or not, but she was plopped on the floor, surrounded by children's books so a kid she must be. LOL. We got so tickled! 

We laughed until we cried over books - it was the perfect way to spend time together

And as you can tell, we didn't go home empty-handed. When we were discussing this trip, our girl said she didn't want to add anything else to my plate and I told her spending time with her wasn't adding anything to my plate, it was adding to my heart.