Geology Trip in Western Kansas

Well, I know you all will be pleased to hear we survived our big cross country geology trip this weekend. No major catastrophies occurred so that was a blessing!! We had fun. We traveled approximately 520 miles from start to finish this weekend. We started out Friday mid afternoon and headed for Dodge City to set up our tents before we went to Spearville for the evening events. We ended up NOT setting up our tents because no one else was there, and we didn't want to come back to get them if plans had been changed. The classes were cool.

We watched a neat one about flourescence of rocks. The speaker was from western Marion County and it seemed he had been doing this a long time. He demonstrated what happens when you take a black light to the rocks. Some really ordinary rocks turned fabulous shades of orange and yellow and green. Unbelievable. We also learned some new information about fossils and heard a presentation on minerals and rocks. The picture to the right is of several wind turbines found right outside of Spearville at the wind energy plant. Very neat up close, and unbelievably huge!

We always get our itenerary Friday night. We discovered that we were starting out about 10 miles from Taffi's mom's place. So at the last minute we were calling her to ask about camping in her yard. We ended up camping out in her basement, and managed to get all 12 of us accomadated there! It was late when we got to bed and everyone was up by 6:30 or so.

Saturday found us starting out at Belevideire in the Champion Draw. We found several minerals that we hadn't collected before, and did some fossil collecting too. We had to laugh out loud when we read that we would be having lunch at Lake Coldwater!! Jeremy and Cami, as well as Taffi's husband Matt joined us for our picnic lunch.

John and Jarek

Next we headed over to Clark County for our next four stops. We found some fossil bones, fossilized turtle shell, and opals (not the precious stone kinds, but very pretty anyway). The wildflowers were incredible. We generally don't get the kind of rain we have been enjoying lately, so the flowers are usually not such a spectacular show!! Think I need a wildflower reference book to take next time!

Tristan at the Champion draw

Sarah usually had a line of our crew right behind her, Taffi and I dubbed her mother hen!! She has great luck and really knows a lot about rocks.

We headed back to Spearville for our supper and an identification work time, with leaders available for consulting. I am amazed at the things they recognize and know! I was pleased to find that on this trip (which was our 3rd like it) I was able to recognize a number of different specimens, and able to help newer folks a few times! I remember that incredible feeling being totally overwhelmed that first year--not knowing anything from anything else.

Friday night we headed back over to Dodge to pitch our tents. As we were finishing, it was really lightening (by the way, we were under a big covered arena, so we were safe from the lightening and rain). We decided to run up to get gas in the vehicles and hit Sonic for some ice cream! By the time we were finishing at sonic, it was pouring rain. We drove back and were able to park under the arena too. So we got everyone settled. Tristan, Grant and Jarek wanted to sleep in the suburban, so we let them. We split the rest of us up into 2 bigger tents and 2 tents made for midgets. And it rained, and it poured!! Some big flap of tin crashed up against the pipes making a horrible racket. I'm sure it was after 12:30 or 1:00 before we big people got to sleep, right before the race cars started back up to finish racing!! There is a dirt racing track just south of the fairgrounds and they had started a race earlier in the evening. We assumed when the rain hit, it was over! NOPE. By then, I was so exhausted that I merely heard it, thought "what the H--- was that??" and slipped back into a coma--that is until around 4 am, when another storm came through. And it rained, and it poured! Someone else's alarm sounded at 6, so we were up! We looked as good as we felt, and I'm not sure about any one else, but I spent my Sunday morning praying that I wouldn't kill any of the 8 children that we were escorting. The Lord provides, and we brought them all home, free of any noticeable bruising!

Grant's hunting and Devin is in the background, also hunting-- for horny toads!! He caught several!!

We headed out for Gove County this morning to hunt in the chalk beds. This site is actually leased by a professional fossil collector. We were instructed that if we found anything we thought was going to be a big deal, that we leave it be and get a leader so they could mark it for future uncovering. We actually spent several hours there and had a good time. We found lots of fish scales and pieces of huge clams. Sarah and Tristan both found shark teeth, Tristan's is to the right. Very fun find. It was pretty hard on Grant though, because he was wanting to find one pretty bad. We saw a kid who had found one twice the size of Tristan's in "museum quality" condition. It had dark colored enamel on the tooth part still. Very cool to see!!

I was pretty excited to find granite. I haven't been able to figure out what that looked like until today, so that was a highlight for my hunting. We also found some very pretty minerals, which are my favorite.

My best find?? Here he is! Dana, I had my camera ready this time! Some kid hollered, "There's a snake." So I wandered over to see if I could tell what kind. It started to move a bit and rattled. Initially, I thought the noise came from his mouth, but it was quickly evident that his tail was wiggling. I snapped a picture and we left him to sun. On our way back to the car, some other kid was remarking about him, and he was still coiled in the same spot. The kid scared him and he started moving away, Finely displaying all 6 of the buttons on his rattle! ICK!!

It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive home, and most of the kids napped at least briefly! J and C were sure glad to see us in time for supper! Laundry's going, packing has been done again, boys are in bed, and we will all be ready to head to Scott City tomorrow for camp. Never found my binoculars, but I packed my bird book and some magazines for my "leisure" time between boo-boo kissing. Wish us luck!!

Last Day of School

Well, we have lots of stuff to tell about! And plenty of pictures from the weekend that I would like to share with everyone. So will probably spend the week blogging about our fun Memorial Day weekend. It was certainly a great break for all of us--and we did lot of cool things.

Friday was the last day of school around these parts. So I guess, technically, today is the first REAL day of summer vacation. The weather was beautiful for play day, which is a day full of games and competitions--complete with a picnic lunch in the shade. The boys had a great time. T got to help manage an event as part of the middle school crew. This was D's first year and G's last year. Oh, so many more play days to come for their parents!! Guess it is a good thing we like to go.

D's pouring it on in the 50 yard dash

G in the football throw

Even C enjoyed playday, we ran into her very good friend Miley. (who up until the last month or so, really didn't like C--she thought she was too "huggy, kissy!") Now they get along great, and Miley even shares C's hugs for a short moment!

We headed for mom and dad's after play day was over. C and D napped which is always nice (a little quiet). We got to eat supper at IHOP, which is always a treat for us. Then enjoyed the visiting with most of the family. We had a very busy day on Saturday and I have several more pictures of our different activities so I will post those later today or tomorrow. Today we have some cooking meetings with the 4-H cookers. I think I have about 10 (5th grade and younger) coming this morning (we are making some awesome, moist banana bread and my favorite no bake Special K cookies). Then if I survive the morning session, we only have 2 that can make the afternoon class (it sure is hard to get kids together if they are older than 6th graders!!) We are making our own pie crusts and then a cream filling to go in them--YUM!! Be sure to check back often this week--there are some photos that you WON'T want to miss!! And I finished a new hand pump water feature yesterday that I can't wait to share!! Have a great day!

Boys and Their Toys

Well, J has become the internet shopper of the decade! He shops for lots of stuff. Mostly "guy" stuff--you know, tools, guns, cars, boats--and on and on. We bought an old boat when T was almost 1 (12 years ago). He has been working on it ever since. He has upgraded motors (traded out motors) re-upholstered it himself (the wide variety of skills he has never ceases to amaze me really!), put a radio in it too. For the last 2-3 years he has wanted to get a newer model. For the last several months he has browsed all kinds of places looking for "THE ONE!" He finally found a place in Plainville that had several he was interested in. The other catch was trying to find a place that would trade for his older model as well. Since the wind was supposed to be blowing (still) at 100 mph he decided to forego the races and he and G headed for Plainville. He hated the one he had gone to look at, and couldn't bring himself to purchase the more expensive one, so he finally decided on the boat between the two. He is such a funny shopper! Also, G thought this was the one they needed anyway--so if you ask him, HE picked out this boat. So they brought it home and then spent the next couple hours cleaning it up. It is a beautiful boat--and we are already excited to try it out, if the weather ever warms up!

J had his air buffer out to put the shine back on

T got to armor-all the seats and interior

Who's ready for skiing?

Survived Parent Teacher Conferences

WHEW!! Am I glad those are over with. I'm usually excited about them and dread them at the same time. I really don't like critique and I always feel like my children are being critiqued--trust me, I live with them--I have their faults pretty much down! I know they are supposed to be helpful, and generally they are. It has always been a struggle to listen to T's simply because of the problems we have with his attention problems. A dear friend of mine has a daughter in the grade ahead of T. Last year when she was in 6th grade, Jen always said, "she is so stressed out and she is such an organized kid--what in the world happens to the boys??" Well, I can tell her as far as T goes--He just doesn't give a rip. Yeah, I'll do it later, Yeah, I'm not sure where the paper is, Yeah, I might have a test tomorrow, or was it yesterday?? EEEK. I am highly organized too, so listening to the teachers tell me that he isn't very organized and can't find his homework, or didn't remember to do his homework or whatever, is very stressful for me. So the day they got out of school for spring break he says "Um, I think I have a D in science" and kept on walking thru the room on the way to his room. My response wasn't not able to be repeated here. I was so proud of him when I got to his conferences today. No D's on his report card--not even a C. A's and B's and hardly even an assignment not handed in (almost none). He has finished the standard goal for reading (a whole 9 weeks early) and earned himself a place on the mystery trip they take the kids on in the spring. He really doesn't get into reading much, so this was a big deal--also considering that we spent the first semester constantly hounding him on getting his books read. And his teachers seem to enjoy him--so that is even nicer. His music teacher would sure like him to take a solo to contest, which he told me was too late to do. HAHAHA--He was wishin I didn't know that. So hopefully he will agree to that.
G's conferences are usually good. He is a good student, tho he likes to rush thru his work so he can be done. It always a cringing moment for me too as I listen to them tell me about the mild OCD/anal-ness/black and white issues that he deals with--It reminds me of the things in myself that I don't always like!! I think he and I are a lot alike and wonder if my mom listened to the same things that I hear about him. He also had A's and B's.
D's conferences were better this time around. The first time I heard that he was a bit of a chauvanist pig and didn't really like the girls, except for one. He has grown out of that and the girls are no longer scared of him. He still likes things to happen the way he thinks they should (OCD/anal/black and white-I see a pattern!!) Overall, things are going well for him too. Hard to believe that summer will be here before we know it!! Hope everyone has a great week! We're hoping for one here--a little rain would sure help!! M

Day of the speeches

Well, we survived 4-H club day. The boys have really been working pretty hard on their stuff for club day. T did a demonstration on making peanut banana muffins (in the cookbook girls). He did a good job and really had most of it memorized. He got a little obsessive on filling in the muffin cups with the mixture and talked himself right on thru the end before he realized that he was supposed to stop and show his real muffins. He was so much better than last year! Got a blue ribbon. He was also in a small ensemble of 6th graders (all girls) and they played a couple of pieces. They got top blue and so get to perform at Regional 4-H day in March. He was pumped! G did a talk on the top 10 reasons to eat more fruits and vegetables. He was visibly more nervous than T and i had to tell him later that when he messed up he shouldn't say "oh wait a minute" he should recompose and go on. He also spent a lot of finger energy messing with his little sticker things for his poster. He also had a lot memorized and got a blue ribbon. His ensemble of 3 5th graders got a blue ribbon also. They were well pleased. Tonight I went over to Jen's sorority and gave a little talk on fast food restaurant choices. They were a fun group and very interactive, which is always easier for me to speak to, instead of just lecturing. After the presentation we indulged in chocolate cake, and didn't feel a bit guilty! YUM! Well, am looking forward to my whole day off tomorrow with NOTHING to do. Might make cookies, might not. Need to clean some stuff up, we'll see. Hope everyone has a great day. M