Seahawks vs. Chiefs!

The Seahawks came to Kansas City and we were able to get tickets to the game!  We spent the weekend with our friends up in Kansas City and went to the game together!

I colored the only part of my hair that might be showing at the game, blue.  :)

 It was so cold, I had handwarmers in every pocket of my jeans, inside my gloves, and any other place I could get them to stay!  For Willow, the girl child who prefers to wear as few clothes as possible (sock and shoes and coats come off immediately when she gets in a car or home), being all bundled up and me shoving handwarmers in every available place was a bit of torture.  :)

The girls made it through the first freezing quarter and were rewarded with cotton candy!

And then it was right back to being bundled up.

 

Yes, I have two hats on!

 The outcome was sad for us Seattle fans, but it was really fun to get to be at the game!

TWG :: vol 29 :: All the Way Back to Kansas

I'm just rolling all of our drive back home into one post!  :)

Chapter 1 : Leaving Kelso
On Wednesday, Aug 6th, we got up early said our goodbyes, and headed towards our Kansas home.  We had just a little ways to go.  :)

 We drove past one of the wildfires the PNW is fighting right outside of The Dalles, OR.  It's so sad to see all those beautiful trees on fire.  :(   I was really thankful they hadn't shut down the road!  :)

We drove for about 11 hours the first day and stopped in a KOA right off the freeway in Twin Falls, ID.  It was a brutal first day, but I felt like it was going to be ok because we thought we only had about 8 hours the next day and then we'd stop for 2 nights.  Wrong.

Chapter 2 : The Longest Drive EVER
Turns out day 2 of driving was more like 12 hours.  12!  Who did these driving time calculations?? They should be fired???  Oh wait.  It was me.  Major. Fail.   I am all about an 8 hour day being the longest.  I figure it's like working.  Even if you don't like your job, you can still survive for 8 hours and then be glad when the day is over, enjoy a little time off doing something you do love, and then be able to get up the next day and do it all over again.  But 12 hours?  No way.  That's like a life sucker.  You better really love your job if you have to work 12 hours!  :)

We did have a major malfunction.  Flat Tire.  Oy!  Why does it always have to happen on the freeway side of the trailer???

The kids and I sat inside the trailer, prayed for Royal's safety, and I fixed everybody lunch.  When the tire was successfully changed and Royal had not been flattened alongside the road, we said a huge prayer of thanksgiving, stopped a couple miles down the road to put a little more air in our spare tire, eat some ice cream in celebration that we were all still alive, and then got back to the driving at hand.

And 4 hours later than we thought it would take us, we drove into Estes Park, CO.  We actually saw a little black bear and a couple Big Horn Sheep alongside the road, but my camera was not in the truck, so I have no proof.  :)

Chapter 3 : Elk Meadow RV Park, Estes Park, CO
This campground leaves a little something to be desired.  I didn't even take a picture of it, if you can believe that.  It is a more expensive camp, but it's also 1 mile from the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, so I get why.  But it was a dusty, dirty, campground all on a hill.  They had a pool and clean bathrooms, but I would probably chose a different place if we ever go back to that area.

Chapter 4 : Rocky Mountain National Park
Hello Beautiful National Park!  This park was great, the roads are a bit scary to drive on, but the views are so beautiful!

The elk here are like the buffalo in Yellowstone National Park.  They. Are. Everywhere.  Both Royal and Jayden were drooling and dreaming about finding one of these guys in WA during elk season.

 Marmot!

Pika!

We did a few hikes and I was wiped!  The altitude totally had me huffing and puffing and I'm sure sitting the car for the last 2 days probably didn't help my dehydration problem (you just can't drink 180oz of water while driving with Royal.  He won't stop every 30mins so you can go to the bathroom :) )

At first we thought this was a bear, but after slamming on the brakes in the middle of the road, flipping the truck around (so my camera was on the animal side of the vehicle), we discovered it was a moose!!!  Just as cool!  Plus we'd already seen a bear, even if I don't have a picture to show you. :)

Chapter 5 : Fishing at Lily Lake
We did one more outdoor activity in the evening.  We walked around Lily Lake while Jayden tried to catch himself another fish.

Jayden almost had one!  You can't use barbed hooks in this lake and Jayden lost it right at the shore.

Found a beaver!

Chapter 6 : The Long Haul to Wichita
We left Estes Park around 8:30 and drove an hour to Loveland, CO where we met up with some of Royal's family that lives there.  We stayed for a few hours and had lunch before we climbed back in the truck around 12:30 for the 8 hour drive back to our house, which really took us 9 because people need to eat and go to the bathroom.
As we crossed into Western Kansas, my phone starts freaking out beeping.  We had a severe weather warning for where we were driving.  And we pretty much drove right into it.

Once we were past this, my phone freaks out again stating that where we were had a Tornado Warning and to "seek shelter now".  Uhhhhhhhhh.  Welcome home???  After looking at radar and out my windows I could see the storm to the SW of us and we decided to just try and outrun it.  The storm was moving at 20mph and we were going 80 and really what else were we going to do?  There aren't many places to hide along the freeway.  :)  But we made it home safe and sound, with no more storms, around 10:30 at night.  It was a hard 3 days of driving, but it's over, and next time we go to Washington we'll be flying.  :)

The Wandering Goose :: vol 24 :: Hide-a-way Campground

Hide-a-way Campground, Rogers, AK (Beaver Lake)

Chapter 1 : Out of Storage!
We pulled our trailer out of a secure storage facility to discover the poor Goose had been broken into.  Luckily, whoever did it didn't destroy the inside of the trailer and while they threw cushions around and opened every cupboard, they didn't damage anything other than the door.

Thankfully, we could have the door fixed and we didn't have to replace it which would of cost at least $1500.  $1500 for a door??? A door that's filled with styrofoam for goodness sakes, it should be filled with treasures!  But fixed it was and then parked safely next to our house, where we will now get letters from our HOA informing us how we are breaking the rules.  Whatever.

Chapter 2 : The Drive and Campground
We got a couple extra passengers for our first camp of 2014.  Royal's parents were in town, so the truck got a little crowded for the drive.  Sam got booted to the back of the truck (he was not so happy about that), Grandpa sat in between the wild things in the backseat, and Grandma and I switched off riding in the front middle seat.  Not the most comfy, but it was just a 4 hour drive down to Beaver Lake.

The campground was pretty nice.  The sites were grassy and had lots of big trees for shade and since we were there the weekend before Memorial Weekend it was pretty much empty!  I had no idea Arkansas had so many trees!

They also had a pool (which wasn't open yet) and a playground with some old school equipment in it.  Merri-go-rounds, horse shoes, big metal slide...you just don't see that stuff anymore.

I dominated the kids at tether ball.  Sometimes I just don't think they realize how cool I really am.  :)

We spent a lot of time sitting around and relaxing.  It was so nice!

Jayden has outgrown his camp chair.  I love this chair!  Aunt Nancy (his Great Aunt Marshmallow) got him this red camp chair for his 2nd birthday.  Darn kids, stop growing!!!!
Jayden's face is funny in these pictures, but Willow's progression of faces cracks me up!

I said, "Make a face for if I told you, 'You can have as many s'mores as you want!'"

The view of the lake from edge of the campground.

Chapter 3 : Campfires and S'mores
Royal showed off his LOOLB's (Loyal Order of Log Botherer) skills and started a raging fire with pretty wet wood and the kids devoured so many s'mores we had to get another bag of marshmallows. Ok fine, I had a couple too.  :)

Jayden showed interest in his future membership into my dad's club of the LOOLBs by constantly looking around for firewood, finding perfect sticks for poking the fire with, and constantly grumbling under his breath about "Where's my chainsaw?? If these people are just going to leave all this perfect firewood lying around, I'm going to need to do something about it!"

Willow showed only interest in the fire if she was getting to roast another marshmallow.

I was on this trip too!  Royal took a picture of me to make sure my presence was documented.  :)

Chapter 4 : Fishing
Royal planned this camping trip back in January and at the same time booked a fishing trip with a guide to learn the lake and catch as many fish as possible.  The boys got up early (like 4:30am) and hit the lake while us girls just puttered around the campside.  Okay, really Willow watched a movie at 6:30 while I kept sleeping.  :)  And then we went to pick them up at the marina later.
Willow looking for the boys' fishing boat.

I guess they caught like 20 fish or something.  I'm still waiting for Royal to download the pictures onto the computer...otherwise I'd show you!
Jayden and Royal did a little more fishing off the dock at our campsite.

Chapter 5 : The Lake and Swimming
It was a short walk down a big graveling road to get to the lake's edge.  We walked down there a couple times each day to fish or throw rocks or swim (crazy kids).

Both kids went swimming, while it was 55 degrees outside, and the water was sitting at a balmy 65 degrees.  Crazy, I tell you!

Chapter 6 : Sight Seeing
We also did a little sight seeing while we were there.  We checked out the Roger's Farmers Market, found a really great fabric and yarn store, and then went to see the War Eagle Flour Mill.  It was a really cool old mill that still was powered by a water wheel.

People were fishing off this bridge, so the boys had to go check it out and find out the scoop.

Then we went on a cave tour at the War Eagle Cavern

The view of part of Beaver Lake while walking down to the cave.

A cave where a family lived for 8 years during the depression.  This was their window in the main living area.

And a cave where the bats were so low and numerous, you had to duck your head to keep from snagging one and taking it home with you.