Remember the 80's!!!!!!!!! Dave, Bill and Lisa Millar and I went to see Rick Springfield at the Corn Palace. The concert was awesome - he is quite the entertainer!! He made the concert alot of fun - standing and walking on chairs in the audience while "old" women tried to take off his shirt and pinch his ___!! He made us feel really old when he announced his birthday was the next day and he would be 59!! Yikes he doesn't look or act like he is 59!!

KC trip

Our weekend trip to KC went way too fast. We took in a good ballgame Friday night, even though the Royals lost 4-3. It ended with the tying run being tagged at the plate in the 9th inning -- bummer. But the fireworks that followed made up for it (for Kade, anyway).

Oceans of Fun was a blast. There was hardly anybody there for the first couple hours cause it rained earlier and was cloudy, so we had no waiting to try some of the rides that were not kiddie oriented. Though, we did have to coax Kade hard to leave the kiddie area for awhile.

We hung out at Crown Center downtown before coming back. As we sat there sipping coffee and munching rolls, we entertained ourselves by running through the fountains trying to stay dry (and not spill coffee as I so demonstrate). Yeah, we know how to have fun, don't we ;)

The praying mantis pic I had to throw in. We ran into him at Crown Center. It's the biggest one I've ever seen. Thought he was pretty cool. Not sure what he thought of us as we were running through the fountains.

End of an awesome vacation

Sorry I have been so slow about sitting down to write-- seems like all week has been a rush to catch up. I'd like to say I have accomplished that, but actually that hasn't happened yet.

As I am sure you have all figured out we really had a great time over the past 2 1/2 weeks playing at being pioneers. We learned several things on this trip 1) we can both sit in the saddle for 15-20 miles of horseback riding and survive, day after day; 2) we have pretty good horses, lots of folks had lots of problems with their rides; 3) there are a lot of nice people out there who like to drive wagons or ride horses from all over the country.

Was not the usual lay back and relax type of vacation. The days started about 5:30 AM with feeding and saddling horses, packing the noon lunch, grabbing a couple of slices of toast ( all we had time for for breakfast) and breaking down camp. All the vehicles and trailer, etc, were moved to the next nights stop at 7AM- a process that took from 2-3 hours. Dad usually moved the trailer and set up the pens and I stayed behind to babysit the horses during the move. Usually they were delighted to graze while we waited, but tended to wander or get in other horses areas. Was a good opportunity to visit with other souls also watching their horses. Nothing like a couple of hours to pass like that to find out the life history (and maybe more than you wanted to know) about your fellow travelers! Several buses brought the guys back-- your dad of course, always was on the very last bus!!

We usually started riding about 9:30AM and traveled through prairie, gravel roads, rivers, creeks, and hills both rolling and steep. Was a big contrast to travel from flat prairie at Ft. Pierre to the steep trails of the Black Hills. The weather also, went from 100+ the 1st two days to 60 the last two. We rode in tank tops and got totally sunburned, to bundled up in 3 layers of shirts plus sweatshirt and slicker for the rain.

Was quite a little confusion the first few days while wagon drivers, teams, riders, and mounts got used to traveling together. Was a runaway the first couple of days, resulting in a horse breaking it's leg and needing to be put down; one wagon driver didn't condition his team well, and after driving 3 days in the hottest weather lost on horse to heat stroke; and of course the stage coach wreck crossing the Cheyenne river (I have pictures). A number of people got bucked off- one who also got stepped on and later died! There were a few broken bones- one guy got air ambulanced off the banks of the Cheyenne ( he tried to stop the stagecoach team and got ran over). Our friends from Yankton wrecked their buggy on a steep Black Hills trail- no one hurt only kindling out of the buggy. We, luckily, survived nicely.

Susan Holter (you may remember her as Susan Porter) rode and camped with us as well. She roughed it a lot more as she slept in her horse trailer on a blowup mattress and used a water bucket as her sink to wash her hair. She's my new hero!

In the evenings after supper ( most evening stops had a local groups like 4-H, or Cattleman's Assoc, that sold a supper- we ate a lot of pork and beans) there was always a history given on the area we had ridden over that day. Lots of older folks from these areas shared stories of growing up and ranching or riding the trails we were following. These were always interesting , even though we all tended to nod off after a while. Some of the young bucks might have stayed up and enjoyed a little extra beer, but most of us hit the old sack about the same time the sun set.

Have lots of pictures, but will share them with you when we see you again. Was good to get home but hard to return to the real world. Would go again in a minute. As for the horses- we turned them out to the pasture and they have't shown up in the yard by the barn since. Can't say as I blame them much!!

Am frantically weeding and cleaning the yard as there is supposed to be a garden class here next Saturday. I am definately not planning on a weed free yard by that time!

Thanks for all the updates and postings. We always check for something new. (Your dad may check several times daily). Love you all Mom

PS: a sidenote for the Schwans employed- on the second day of wagon train, in 100+ temps at midafternoon, we pulled out of a pasture onto a gravel road just as the Schwans truck came to the intersection. He stopped, looked at the procession and kept right on truckin'. Do you know what a sales opportunity he missed? Man, we'd have paid $5 per bar for anything cold-- he could have emptied the truck. (Maybe we looked scarier than we realized!)

Hey Everyone

Hi Everyone!
I hope all is doing well. Sorry it has taken me so long to hop on and chat. My days have kind of been blurs these past few weeks. Before I get started I would just like to say a few things.

1) Happy Birthday Mom, Vegas Dave and Zach. (Zach and VD your cards still sits on my table. I promise I will mail them before August ends.)
2) Happy Ann. Jill and David. Doesn't the time fly. (Your card also lies on my table. If I hold out I could just mail all the cards for Jills birthday. haha!)
3) A BIG THANK YOU to the Kriz Family for tending to our children while we went out and I caught up with some old classmates. It was great to see Rachel wearing a tiera and waiving so elegantly at the parade. You guys really do rock!
4)Mom and Dad congrats on making it across a good chunk of the state without needing to seek out any medical attention. I bet the ride was amazing.

Okay, I hope I didn't miss anything. Well, things are pretty busy here. We are kind of like robots every night. Pick up the kids after work, make supper, try to get everyone to sit at the table while we eat supper (surprisingly Jason is the hardest one to get there), feed the babies food in between, bath, babies to bed, take Bella outside until sundown and then give her a bath. Finally about the time the news is on I am alone at last. It is kind of a weird feeling when you sit down in total silence, but it doesn't last long and I am out. I never really imagined how exhausting this would be. However, I wouldn't change it for the world.

The girls have finally learned how to sit up and boy has life changed. If you turn your back for two seconds Alexandra has managed to steal a toy right out from underneath Adelyn. I think she has figured out that if Adelyn spends to much time with one toy she gets frustrated and starts screaming at it. So she makes life easy and just steals it from her before she gets the chance. Then there is Bella. She held a tea party for me and the twins yesterday. It was great until she started getting upset because her sisters were "drinking" the tea before she said they could. Wow, has the fun just begun!

I guess, I have babbled on quite a bit. It was great to see what everyone has been up to lately, or is going to be up to lately. I am extremely jealous of all the fun trips everyone is taking. Have fun!

Hope to see everyone soon!

It's boys time at the house

Hi everybody. Been awhile since I've been on here! Just put Kade to bed so I had a couple minutes. Bobbie flew off to Idaho for a conference for work. She'll get back on Saturday. In the meantime, Kade and I have been holding down the fort.

Frozen pizzas in front of the TV were the gourmet dinner tonight. I'd like to say the fine dining will kick in tomorrow night, but I doubt that will happen. Things kind of get casual when the other half is gone -- and I think Kade is well aware of it. I don't know how many times he's hit me up for a snack or a treat. I do have my limits, but I think its safe to say, I'm a lot more lenient when she's gone.

Kade's got a birthday party to go to Saturday, so I'll be taking him to that. We have to go b-day shopping tomorrow night. THAT should be interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if the B-day boy ended up getting a wrapped up bag of Doritos!

Not much new around here, other than Bobbie's trip. We've been watching a lot of the Olympics. It's about the only thing on TV that isn't offensive for little kids!

Everybody take care.

Happy Birthday VD!

Now she is a Princess!! Yes, Princess Rachael was crowned last night at the annual Geddes Fur Traders Queen and Princess Contest. She competed against 4 other girls for the princess title. She was very excited and said it was alot of fun!!!!

Any Latest Updates On Those Trail Riders?!!!

Tee Hee...Ter went to the local rodeo tonight at the Lyon County Fair with my son Dustin, Dust had tickets from work for the VIP section, Ter thought about wearing the famous Kriz Family Cowboy hat that has been circulating at the Kriz Family Christmas White Elephant but he backed out at the last minute and said he left it behind on purpose! What do you Kriz's think of that?! Pretty bad huh?! I personally think it would have been a hoot...but I have a warped sense of humor! Miss you all.

Here she is - the BIG 4-H winner!! Rachael received a purple on her Sunflower Seed cookies, pillowcase, beaded serving spoon, her goat "Oddy" and her goat showmanship!!! (The red ribbon was for photography - last minute project - we'll have to work on that catagory!!)

Happy Anniversary VD and Jilly!!

The riders are doing well

The last I heard mom and dad are having the time of their lives. They start the morning by moving the trailer to the next destination and then ride usually 15 to 20 miles. In the evening they have some sort of event, stories and history of the area they are staying at that night. I heard on the radio that they will be seeing old wagon tracks and tombstones of people that were buried along the trail. Sound interesting.
Its been a while since I have been on so when I seen all the pictures from the Kriz weekend it made me think of how lucky we are to have such a close and strong family even as we are spread out geographically. I thank God every day for my family.
Things around here has been busy. Zach ended his baseball season. The state tourney didn't go so well. They lost both games to get 7th or 8th. But they had a great season and we had fun watching him play ball. Rach is preping her goat for the 4H event next week. I was told we have to give it a hair cut today. That could be interesting. Jacob has been busy riding combine and trucks over harvest. He has been putting together scenario's for the future on who will be running what machine when he gets older. In each scenario Jacob always runs the semi.
Thanks to everyone for making the trip to the farm. We just have a blast when ever you guys come. And look forward to seeing you again.
Dave