Wichita Falls, TX

     Eldon started a job in Wichita Falls October 14. Heading to a city over with over 100,000 people is certainly not on our fun list but all signs pointed this way so here we are! The redeeming point is a state park 20 minutes from the city. Texas State Parks are typically gorgeous and staffed with very friendly Rangers. Lake Arrowhead has not disappointed!

Our first campsite.

      With lots of nice biking trails/roads here, a bigger bike for Ethan was at the top of our list. Eldon found one at Sport's Academy with a broken chain guard and the manager knocked $30 off for us! His old bike still had some life in it so we gifted it to another family with 4 little boys that camped next to us one weekend.

Thumbs up!

Lake sunsets are so pretty.

     So, in Montana we got this kitten with full intentions of it not traveling with us and certainly not being a house cat but..........meet Cupid, our part-time house cat. He loves the outdoors and spends any nice day outside.

Curled up by the campfire.

     The fishing is rumored to be really good here so we've tried several times but no luck. We did get to watch someone pull in a Gar that was 2-3 feet long so that was fun!

Ethan was worried about sharks jumping up and getting him.

Learning patience :)

One of the trails here. We've been disappointed by the lack of wildlife though.

Cupid is not supposed to be on the couch but.....who can resist this?!

     Many state parks have a 14 day limit then require you to be out of the park for 24 hours. Much to our delight, we can stay as long as we want here, but have to change sites every 14 days. Today we moved one site over and even left our slides out 😁. It was so easy to just carry our camp chairs, outdoor carpet, grill, and bikes over instead of loading it all up!

That handy-dandy thing on the back is my washline that Eldon rigged up for me.

Hiking near the dam.

Michael and Emily enjoying the fall weather.

A wild plum tree with an intriguing trunk.

Arrowhead Lake. I'd love to see it when all the Lily Pads are blooming.

     The next picture is a beautiful thing that Eldon and I have been waiting on for a long time. For 10 years one or both of us has had to carry a child and/or backpack whenever we go hiking or walking. Since Ethan is 4, we don't even bring a carrier with us. And....the children carry ALL the backpacks with water and snacks. Lest you think we're cruel, we're not. If it's a long hike, the 3 oldest all take one with 2 water bottles and a snack. If it's a short hike, we just take one and they take turns. I guess there are some perks to getting old!

The exchange of the backpack! 

     The next posts will be about some of the other fun things we've enjoyed doing since we're here!

Texas..........

     We had a 20 hour trip from Montana to Texas and 2 days to do it. The kids did fantastic, considering everything. We dodged storms through most of Kansas and Oklahoma but only encountered a few rainstorms. Not surprisingly, we opted for the country way which added more time to our route, but less mileage and less populated areas. We had smooth sailing the entire way until we hit Fort Worth. On Friday night. At 5:00. What should have taken us only 1 hour took 2.5. In the future, we will continue to avoid cities whenever possible!

     Pulling into my parents at dark felt SO good. They had left early that morning for their flight to Rome and a 2 week cruise in the Mediterranean. But my dear mother had a casserole made for us and fresh peach pie to boot! We stayed in the house with my little sisters while they were gone and she had lovely beds all ready for us.

     It was a good experience to stay in a full-size house again but I do have a few comments to make about it :). Eldon and I LOVED that we didn't hear whenever someone got up to use the bathroom or get a drink. It was so easy for one person to take a nap while others continued on with their day. Also, our recliner lives in their house now and it was fantastic to renew our relationship with it. However, I forget how long it takes to do things in a big house. My mom has a newly remodeled kitchen that is wonderful but I felt like I walked 2 miles cooking each meal (ok, so I'm used to standing in 1 spot to cook). The counter space was so nice though, as well as the 2 huge ovens. Cleaning was a whole other story. My children got so annoyed at how long it took to sweep the floors, lol. So yes, it was really fun for 2 weeks but my feet ached so badly at the end of every day that I couldn't wait to get back to my tiny house!

I didn't arrange them in color order but this makes my OCD heart so happy!

     Their mother cat blessed them with EIGHT kittens. 1 already had a new home at the time of this photo and another was to shy. Ethan and Emily played with them for hours and hours.

They also loved this little table and spent many happy hours drawing.

This old computer is the best toy ever! Makayla loves to wildly type and be a business woman.

Emily's sidewalk chalk art.

Makayla did such a good job with this!

     This is the pit out by the chicken barn for the semi's to back in and pick up eggs. Ethan and Emily got really into playing here and had some very wild races on their scooters.

Water balloons on the trampoline was a good way to cool off.

I had Ethan laying on the recliner watching Paw Patrol and next time I look......😂 

I never know what I'll find!

The children were all so good at doing their work cheerfully, and I'm a believer in new books, so it was off to the library a few times. I love scenes like this!

Making good use of that big kitchen and making lots of pizza!

Wouldn't you love a cat scarf?!

The children got really into playing house and drug SO MUCH stuff around!

Eating popcorn and watching a movie (the wall 😁)

One day soon after dad's came back we helped make applesauce. 

I love canning so it was fun to dabble in it again. 

     Eldon spent a lot of time during chores. Makayla and Michael took turns walking through the barn with him 3 times a day to pick up floor eggs (around 1,400 each day). Makayla had to pack eggs a few days too when we were pressed for time.

     Our time flew by, as it always does when one is busy. There was Dr. appointments, dentists appointments, vehicle appointments, setting up savings accounts for the children, and all the stuff a full-timer has to do when they get to their home base. I helped my sister's with homework a few times and took advantage of moms kitchen to bake all kinds of things. Once my parents came home, we moved out to the camper and stayed for another week. It was good to spend time with them again. 

     We've now moved about 3 hours northwest to a city called Wichita Falls, TX. More about that another day!

Wrapping up Montana

     This will be the last post about Montana for now, since we've moved south for the winter. In case you couldn't tell, we loved our summer here and are so thankful God led us back to be reunited with friends. 

Emily with her friends.

Makayla and her friends frequently planned to have the same hairstyle. 

Michael and his friends - lots of noise here!

The dirt roads are so fun to drive on!

Ethan and his beloved cat.

The church picnic was at Medicine Rocks.

It's so fun to wander around these strange formations.

Scavenger hunts for the children are always a hit.

Fall is definitely here!

Our garden is dying. We've cleaned out a lot of it.

The sunflowers did well.

Emily Maria - Age 6, grade 1 and 2

Ethan Myles - Age 4, grade preschool and play

Makayla Monica - Age 10, grade 5 and 6

Michael Eli - Age 8, grade 3

Emily with her beloved horses.

Peppers for the freezer!

Our friends gifted all the children a Montana shirt.

     It was hard to leave but like we told the children - if it's not hard to leave then you haven't had a good enough time or formed real relationships. We are currently at my mom and dad's in Texas taking care of their 20,000 chickens and 2 teenage girls while they are on a cruise to Rome. Of course we have all the vehicle inspections, Dr. appointments, and other miscellaneous things we have to do when we are back in our home state. We'll be here until the 11th of October then Eldon starts his next job in Wichita Falls, TX. Hopefully we'll survive big city life 😐😁.

Fallon County Fair 2019

     It's no secret that we love community activities and our small town fair is one of our all-time favorites. I love that it feels perfectly safe to point one child in the general direction of the bathroom, while keeping an eye on another child from a distance, while striking up a conversation with someone I've never seen before. The atmosphere is both relaxing and festive at the same time. The fairgrounds are full of action over the weekend and we spent quite a bit of time there. 

Pippi the Clown mingled with the crowd and did a wonderful job of entertaining preschoolers. I never had to wonder where Ethan was as long as she was around!

There was wooden and bucket stilts laying around the lawn for anyone to use. Michael loved the bucket stilts.

      Unfortunately, the carnival backed out a few weeks ago but the fair board managed to pull in some other fun activities. It was certainly not as fun as rides but they were free to us and the children still had a great time!

It took Michael a few minutes to work up the courage to do the 20 foot jump.

And he did it! Makayla did this as well but I never got a picture.

Emily prefered to jump on this contraption instead of the high jump :).

Makayla racing her friend Mikayla to the top of the climbing wall.

     We were a bit surprised to see how fast Makayla took to climbing. This was her favorite activity and she spent most of her time here. Michael will tell you that he didn't make it to the top because it started raining and it was to slick. Emily made it 3/4th of the way up then looked down and freaked out. I wasn't there but Eldon managed to coax her down.

Repelling down.

     The Friday night rodeo was a combination of bull-riding and medieval jousting. We weren't sure what to expect but it was a fantastic show! The jousting announcer was hilarious so that made it even more fun. This sport is even more crazy then bull-riding and certainly requires skill. We watched a small lady knock a huge man right off his horse!
     This evening was especially fun since another full-time family that we met 3 years ago drove 1 1/2 hours to attend it with us. After the rodeo we roamed the livestock barns and chatted in the parking lot for awhile.

Knights preparing to charge.

Bull-riding!

      Saturday was drizzly and cool but we headed out anyhow. First on the agenda was the parade. The children didn't even notice the vehicles because they were so busy collecting candy. I've never been to a town that throws more candy than this!

Demolition Derby cars

I like pink :)

Back at the fairgrounds. the bubble tower was blowing out bubbles, much to the delight of many children.

The mural kept Ethan coloring for along time .

Talk about a cute little car!

The petting zoo! I dropped Ethan off here and he stayed for a good hour. They had hair brushes to use on the animals and he just loved it. 

      Saturday at 1:00 we enjoyed another rodeo. Michael and Emily were so excited to have made it on the list for mutton busting.

The clown act is always a favorite!

More bull riding. Ethan was fascinated with the bull fighters.

Emily, all geared up for mutton busting. She scored a 79 (plus a facefull of dirt)

Michael, preparing to climb on his sheep. He scored an 84 (for reference, the highest score was 93)

They both got a $2 bill for doing a good job!

     The petting zoo also held turkey races. Yes, it's as redneck and fun as it sounds. The owner has a remote control truck with a bowl of feed on the top and it's hilarious to watch the turkeys chase it around the track! Occasionally he would ask 4 kids to help, give them all a feather duster, and assign them a turkey to chase. He had us all roaring with laughter until it was over!

Michael helping with a turkey race

     Last year we dabbled with open class fair entries just a little bit and had so much fun that we went crazy this year. The children did a lot of hard work and it was fun to search for their entries in the exhibit hall. I've taken pictures of our things that placed so you can check them out too. Normally we get ribbons but they ran out of first place ribbons and opted not to give second and third too. So you'll see only a few ribbons but lots of stickers!

Ethan

     Ethan is still in the children's division and every entry gets first place for their effort. He as pleased with that!

He loves cutting and glueing so he did a mosaic, drew a hay bale, then painted stripes.

Lego's, clay, and other crafts. The turtle is my personal favorite.

The children all chose a garden item to enter as well. I was happy with how well it all did!

Emily
     This child worked hard and entered a lot of things. Some of hers went into the children's division but some was in classes with kids much older than her.

Our green beans got second premium!

Artwork......sorry it's sideways

More artwork

Crafts. She had a wildflower bouquet in the jar but we pitched it instead of bringing it home. The pillow was an embroidery project that she worked on long and hard and placed third (in a class for 17 and under!)

Emily's clay items.

Sugar cookies! I messed up and had her frost them so we took a plate of frosted and unfrosted in. They kindly entered her frosted ones under "decorated" and she won second premium for both!

 Michael
     Michael spent hours perfecting his legos, to have only one get judged because apparently we could only enter 1 item in each class. I don't know how I missed that, but he survived and still walked away with plenty of ribbons.

Lego's. The eagle was a kit and he was thrilled to get first place for it. 

His crafts. 

Michael's artwork.

He took a few photos so I printed and entered them as well. 

And another win for produce!

Makayla

     This child had lofty ideas of entering 100 items but thankfully she lost steam about 35 😂. She's been working since the last fair on some of these projects!

1st place cucumbers!

Her skirt won second premium and the purse first premium!

Photos....I was pleased with this outcome!

Her crafts. The prairie dog was a lego kit. She had flowers in the boot. The seashell windchime was pretty but such a pain to make!

Artwork

Her greatest accomplishment was the spice cake she baked. First place premium, best of division, and reserve grand champion!

Clay items

 Monica
     I decided to get in the spirit and enter a few things too :).

My photos that placed.

Hurray for good produce!

I was shocked to receive second premium for this dress. Apparently, I'm not to sloppy!

Excuse the half eating pie but.third on the blueberry crumb. The cappuccino muffins got first premium and best of division. I was tickled pink :)

 Eldon
     While going through pictures I found some drone pictures Eldon took and entered them. Two of them placed!

Eldon's photos

      Sunday evening we went in to collect all our items and attend the demolition derby. We had a great week but I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when it was over! I've added a few videos but I'm not sure it they'll work or not. Hopefully so!

Michael's ride

Emily's ride

A turkey race