Too Much Time on Our Hands...

What do you do when you have two moms sitting around the house with nothing to do except housework (and let's be honest...who wants to do that???) and seven kids driving you both crazy? Drive over an hour to the Wichita Mountains (and I use that term loosely), of course! We load up all seven kids (ages 11, 10, three are 8, and two are 7) in the Suburban after scarfing down a gourmet lunch of ham sandwiches and chips and head to Lawton, Oklahoma. Honestly, we get no more than 5 minutes down the road before we get the first, "How long til we get there?" We arrive at our destination a little over an hour and six more "Are we there yets?" later.

After much discussion on whether or not to park at the bottom of the mountain (because if we get tired, it would be much easier to make our way down) or at the top (which when we got tired, we'd have to hike back uphill with my "a little larger than college days" self). Somehow parking at the top won. We snaked up the mountain with my friend Mauri putting her hand up to her face to keep from seeing anything to her right - especially the steep drop off on the right side. Did I mention she was the one driving??? We eventually make it to the top, and the kids go crazy. People are staring at us...have you ever seen those little cars where 50 clowns get out and you wonder where they were all sitting? That's kinda what we looked like. Two moms, seven kids, orange juice, water, coats, cameras, etc.

The kids take off running down the side. We are screaming at them, sprinting after them (again I use that term loosely), and trying not to drop everything in our arms. We finally get them to wait on us. For some reason it took our kids about two seconds to scale the rocks while the two of us took about five minutes just finding the path of least resistance. Then it took us another ten just to get over the rock. Needless to say our children were growing very impatient. We convinced them to all get together for a photo op....

We then told them they could play on the rocks around us while we sat on a rock (posing like Lane Giant models). We let the kids play for about an hour, but by that time my friend and I had worked up an appetite. So we loaded up the kids and headed to Beverly -- I mean Meers for their world famous burgers. Once again...the looks we got as we walked in with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven...count them, seven children! The food was wonderful! We got our $127 check and headed back home. Can't wait to see what sort of adventure we can find next!

Not Our Usual Thanksgiving

This year was not our usual Thanksgiving holiday. We are usually trekking to Hedley, Tulia, or Tahoka for a traditional family Thanksgiving with Shane's aunts on his Daddy's side -- although last year's trip was the mother of all trips. For those of you who never heard the tale of our 2007 Thanksgiving trip, please allow me to retell the tale.

It was a Wednesday before Thanksgiving, like all other Wednesdays before Thanksgiving. My loving husband thought it would be a great idea to surprise his aunts with our arrival. Yes, you heard me correctly. I said SURPRISE his aunts with our family of five's arrival to their Thanksgiving feast. I tried to get him to call but to no avail. So I loaded up desserts that would keep for a day so that we didn't show up empty-handed. We headed to Clarendon, TX, to spend the night at the Best Western and let our kids enjoy the indoor pool and hot tub. We had a wonderful night -- lots of fun family time. We woke up Thursday morning, ate breakfast, and headed into Hedley to Aunt Betty Jo's house for lunch. As we pulled on to Betty Jo's street, I noticed there weren't very many cars in front of her house; in fact, there weren't ANY cars in front of her house. So I calmly asked my husband, "Are you sure Thanksgiving is at Betty Jo's this year?" I only asked because they rotate each year between the three sisters' homes. Shane assured me that it was to be held in Hedley. So we go to the front door and knock. No answer. We knock again. No answer.

Shane thinks maybe they moved it to Rhonda's (Betty Jo's daughter) home. So even though Shane hasn't "technically" been to her house since 1994ish, he is sure that he can find it in a town with no street signs. We go down a dirt road, take a right, wind around for a while, and stop in front of Rhonda's house....he thinks. Shane, a litle apprehensively, makes his way to the front door. Now mind you this is in the country in Texas....not really sure if a shotgun weilding person might be answering the door or not. Shane knocks. No answer. He knocks again. No answer. He gets back in the car and we find the (one and only) gas station. Thankfully, it's open. Shane goes in to get Betty Jo's number because, of course, it would've made too much sense to bring it with us just in case we needed it. Shane calls -- no answer. He gets Rhonda's number no answer. The lady running the store just happened to know Rhonda's mother-in-law's number. Maybe they're there. Shane calls and gets Rhonda's husband. He proceeds to tell Shane that Betty Jo and Rhonda decided to drive to Amarillo to eat Thanksgiving dinner at the Cracker Barrel. What to do now?

Shane calls his mom to see if she happens to have Aunt Betty Jo's cell number. She does. We call and find out that she and Rhonda decided to eat in Amarillo because the other sisters, Peggy and Irma Jean, were having Thanksgiving in Tulia, Texas. Peggy's grandson was in the hospital, and she didn't want to be away from home. Shane then calls Peggy, and of course, they insist that we come to Tulia. Well, it's only another hour-and-a-half away. We get back in the car, and I'm cracking up by this point. Amazingly enough, our three kids have been almost angelic.

We begin the trek to Tulia. About 45 minutes into the drive, we arrive upon Caprock Canyon. Shane begins to tell me how he used to stop there and shout into the canyon. I suggested we stop and let the kids experience this too! We get out and it truly was a beautiful experience. The kids were amazed and had lots of fun shouting out and hearing their echos. Before we left I suggested that we take some pics. I got some great shots. We get back in the car and head to Tulia.

About 25 minutes down the road, I notice my husband frantically searching for something. I asked him what he left -- sunglasses. Now I'm not talking about the Wal-Mart kind. I'm talking some expensive sunglasses. So what's a family to do? We turn around to go get them of course. 25 miles later we find them on the picnic table where he left them. So we're off to Tulia again!

We finally arive in Tulia (an hour later than expected)! From there the day went great! We had a great late lunch, went back to Hedley for a brief visit with Betty Jo and Rhonda, and then headed back home.

So fast forward to Thanksgiving 2008...there would definitely be no "surprises" this year. Due to Shane's basketball schedule, we were unable to travel anywhere so we had Thanksgiving lunch with my family, headed home to put up lights and the tree, then headed back to my family's for dinner. Then it was off to bed for my 4:00 am shopping excursion...but that's another story altogether!

I've attached some pics of the boys on the roof helping Dad put up lights, the kids decorating the tree, and of course, the famous Caprock Canyon picture.

Just Another Day at the Soccer Fields

Well, we headed to Granbury the weekend of November 21st for a soccer tournament. Kaegyn's team did really well. They won their first game 3 - 0; they won their second 5 - 0 and tied their third 1-1. This put them in first place going into the championship game on Sunday. Shane had a basketball game in Fort Worth so he met the kids and me on Saturday evening. Linda, my I couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law and Nana for my children, was kind enough to drive him out there. Shane's sister and brother-in-law also came out Saturday evening for a team dinner at the Cotten Patch. After dinner we had a little R & R in the hot tub and pool.

So Sunday was the day for the big championship showdown. It was a great game! The score ended up being 1 - 1 at the end of regulation which meant the "Big O" -- overtime. The score was 2 - 2 at the end of overtime so now we were off to a shootout. Our girls ended up losing the game by one penalty kick. Second Place, Baby! Not bad for a team that's only been playing together for a few months. I've posted several picks from the big weekend.