In Summary...

We have finally finished unpacking from our vacation to the Ranch (Aaron's parents' house). Now to unpack our fun!

The first couple of days were cool and perfect for being lazy. After that, the kids were bored, having explored the house thoroughly and investigated any potential toys, including Grandpa's collection of semi trucks. Ben was permitted to play with ONE of them.

Here are some other things we did, in no particular order:

*Aaron took the kids to the driving range. Leah came back telling us that she was "really good" at golf. But not so much the putting part, according to Aaron.

*Speaking of golf, Aaron played a total of 45 holes. And then another 9 on Sunday after we got back.

*The kids went swimming 4 afternoons - 3 at the Wild West Water Park in Watford City and once at our hotel pool in Dickinson, where we stayed before...

*The Medora Musical. Kids made it through all right (even Adam stayed awake for 3/4 of the show!), but it nearly killed the adults the next day. We didn't get to bed until 12:30 our time, and the kids were up by 7 the next morning. Ouch.

*Had lunch with Aaron's cousins the L's. They have two kids, son D (almost 8) and daughter B (almost 7). Luckily we had the side of the restaurant to ourselves.

* Picnicked one evening in the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which is a mere 15 or so miles from the Ranch. We traveled there in the family motorhome, all 6 adults and 3 kids. Many laws were broken, but we won't go into on the Internet.

*Hung out with JJ & EJ, who came out on Tuesday evening with little princess MVJ. Six months old and 16 pounds...

...and looks soo much like my super-sized 2 month old.

*Sweated it out in one of our few tastes of 90 degree temperatures...without air conditioning.
It was THIS hot. Since we usually visit the Ranch in August, it always seems to be the hottest week of the year. In almost all my photos of Ben during our visit when he was this age, he's only wearing a diaper. And we all envied him.

*Climbed Battleship Butte. Well, Aaron, JJ, Leah and Ben did. That was the same day we went to the Musical, with swimming in between. I'm shocked still that the kids didn't fall right over.

* EJ and I got in some quality scrapbooking time, our tradition at the Ranch, thanks to lots of space and big tables.

*Oh, and Aaron and I spent a LOT of time on Facebook. Kind of an embarrassing amount, really.

On Thursday we headed back, staying overnight in Dickinson after our annual trip to Medora and the Musical (which included ice cream and watching taffy-making!). Friday we visited Grandpa Henry on the home turf of Hebron. He finally got to hold his namesake great-grandchild!

I love this photo of them. It was so cute to see Grandpa, all 88 years of him, cooing and making faces to baby Adam Henry.

Bismarck was our final destination for the day. We had dinner with our sister-in-law T and niece C (who is 2 months younger than Leah and shares my birthday!) The kids had fun running off some energy before we headed to ANOTHER visit.

Every supermodel has her moments.


Friends the K's hosted us at their hobby farm for the evening. Along with goats, Irish cattle, a large white Pyrenees dog, and lots of veggies, they are raising 4 adorable boys, ages 6,5, 3 and 10 months. The kids reminded me slightly of Wendy and the Lost Boys, especially once the boys started jumping out the windows of the house and climbing up the door jambs. That night we had one of the best night's sleep in a long time. Cause here's a synopsis of one night I had at the Ranch...

After scrapbooking and visiting with cousin Beth (which wound me up quite a bit anyway)...

- found a text from my cousin K that she was going to have her baby soon!

- texted her back congrats!

- got another text that there was no baby yet!

- remembered I needed to call Grandpa and warn him that we were going to visit the next day...and then while still on the phone realized that I had jumped ahead a day...

- Just as I was dozing off, a moth hit the bug zapper not far from our open window, nearly giving me heart palpitations

- and then as I was dozing off AGAIN, my phone rang. It was my dad, calling to tell me there was a meteor shower going on. I was less than receptive.

- Before finally falling asleep, I also planned what Christmas presents I would make for the kids this year.

Aaron of course attributes my restlessness to the soda I had too late in the evening. Whatever.

Anyway. Saturday we finally made it home after...ANOTHER stop in Jamestown for lunch and a visit to the Buffalo. Which would have been much more relaxing had it not been for the karaoke (!!!!). Our general opinion is that some of the "singers" were trying to imitate a buffalo, possibly a dying one.

All in all, we had a great time, got to do lots of fun stuff, relaxed, and were glad to see our own home again. Which means we had the PERFECT vacation.