Ryanne The Great Turns 8!

Ryanne today you turned 8! Today like all the other days you made us laugh out loud. Today like all the other days you made us cross our eyes and ask,"huh?" Today like all the other days you gave out free hugs and kisses and "I Love you's!" Today like all the other days you ran in the house yelling,"MOM! I caught a grasshopper!" Except today it jumped down in your red cowboy boots and made you scream. Today like all the other days you wrestled and played with your Great Dane who is 3 times your size. Today like all the other days you jumped and ran and played till your little body could go no more and then you asked to go to bed. (what kid does that?) Ha! Today like all the other days we celebrate you Ryanne and who God made you. You are special and unique and dearly loved. This past week they handed out awards at swim camp and you came home confused at why they gave you most entertaining. Oh my sweet Ryanne you have no idea do you? *sigh* You are a laugh a minute kid. We love you and can't wait to celebrate with you some more at your party tomorrow which I would like to add that you requested a Frog party. Ha! Yup' that's my sweet Ry!

Today....

I would like to announce that for today and today only my bathrooms are clean enough to eat from. If you are reading this tomorrow it's to late you now have to eat at the table. If your reading this and have children you too can understand why having clean bathrooms for only 24 hours is so darn frustrating. If you are reading this tomorrow, have children and love life you will understand why I don't sweat having messy bathrooms 6 out of 7 days; I wanna enjoy summer and play with my kids! :) So to all you with messy bathroom, HO-RAH! (It's a Marines thing) No I was never a Marine; my dad was so it counts. To all of you with 7 day a week immaculate bathrooms.......sigh...when I grow up I want to be just like you. Have a great week!

The Great American Road Trip......

 WARNING! WARNING! REALLY LONG POST AHEAD! LOTS OF PHOTOS!!

 4 people

5 Bikes

15 days

7 States

2,300 miles

We went on a 15 days road trip and just got back. Man did we see lots! Capitals.....

Water in the shape of rivers, lakes and water falls.....

We also saw lots and lots of highway......It freaked me out when we wouldn't see anyone for hours upon hours.

We rented a house just a mile from Lake Coeur D' Alene in Northern Idaho. This house sat on the golf course. Let me count the ways in which I learned on this trip why I will NEVER live on a golf course; reason #1: The 5am wake up calls as they announce from the club house who is up to the tee. reason #2: The hazard of all the golf balls flying at you in the backyard. reason#3: stepping out of the shower and forgetting to close the bathroom window; enough said. reason#4: the profanity that comes from men as they miss the ball. tck! tck! tck!

Whenever we travel I always try to find something that is local to the area for us to try. I found this great stain glass making place so the girls and I took a class and LOVED it! I seriously would use this as my therapy if there was a studio near us.

I designed the heart, Ryanne made the circle and Morgan the dog bone. She might have been missing Macy!

The girls entered an Iron Kids run.....

We found lots of amazing places to try out the local food........

This Italian place was sooooo good. All organic and fresh from local gardens and such.

We got caught in more than one summer down pour.....It's OK cause we met this nice kid at the worship service in the park just before the storm hit. He's smiling because due to the humidity I am almost certain I had a fro.

We might have found a few pools on our trip and possibly even a really cool water park.

Oh and did I mention this trip all lead up to my husband doing his second full Iron Man? Ahhh..... yes some find a 3am wake up call, 52 degree air temperature and 56 degree water enjoyable; me not so much.

This is the freezing tundra at 4am right before the swim....

This is how we attempted to not freeze in the rain and cold while watching said insane father swim......

This is the lake as 2,400 athletes plunged in at the same time. Did I mention how much Dan likes his personal space?

His is the blue and white bag.......

Team Daddy......

Team I've been here for 11 hours and want to go home......

We found some furry friends along the way cause we missed our Macy back home.

Once again my husband not only survived his 14 hour straight work out he also shaved 20 minutes off his last time. So proud of you honey. I think your nuts still but oh so proud. And hey he looks pretty good for swimming 2.4 miles, riding 112 miles uphill in wind and running a marathon.

Our friends went and Frank did the race too! He also beat his time. So see there is more than one insane person in the world.

The day after the race it was Dan's mission to stop in every coffee house and drink, drink, drink his way through Idaho. He had been fasting from caffeine for the race so the coffee houses saw us coming and went "CHA-CHING!" Ha!

A few days later Dan proceeded to get back on a bike (seriously?) and take us on a 15 mile ride called The Trail of The Hiawatha.

There were lots of long dark tunnels....this one was 1.6 miles. You had to put a light on your bike which personally I thought was a joke. It only shown about 3 ft. in front of you if that so it was like,"Here's enough light to see the earth in front of you so you don't crash but not enough to see the bear charging at you ahead in the tunnel." Uh-huh that's what I thought too!

Did I mention all the long dark tunnels?Much to my families surprise I often sang through them to keep my mind off the wild life that could be in there.

See that bridge below? We rode down to it and crossed it. Uh huh yup' 240 ft. off the ground. Morgan is afraid of heights so she hit the bridge going about 35mph and never looked back.

Is that my child jumping in the picture to moon us? Sigh............

We then proceeded to Yellowstone where we rented a cabin for a few days.

The geysers there are amazing.....the water is unbelievable.  My photos do them no justice.

An oldie but a goodie. Dan and I tent camped and hiked around Yellowstone and the Tetons 15 years ago when we first got married so we thought it would be fun to take the girls back. Notice please that this time I did not sleep on the ground and had to take multiple doses of Aleeve after hikes. Ahhhh yes.......40 is coming like a freight train. LOL!

I kept waiting to stop someone who looked like they spoke English so they could take our picture. This really sweet couple walked up and I said,"Oh good you speak English can you take our picture?" Bless her heart she was from the South and started talking a mile a minute. I looked at Dan after they left and said,"I have NO idea what she just said!" Ha!

My pre-teen............

A buffalo terrorizing the town....see a connection? Shhh...don't tell her. I'm kidding!!

Dan taught the girls how to fly fish.

The play loft in the cabin became the girls fort.

Hello sweet pea......

Went to Cody Wyoming to attend our first rodeo. This was the view of the stadium from our hotel room.

I tried to fit in promise. It's just I don't own cowboy boots or wranglers. I thought the hat was kinda "country" or "farmy." Is that a word? Anyways, I stood out but what can I say...

You can take the girl out of California but you can't take the California out of the girl.

If your ever at a rodeo and don't feel like a true blue blooded American there is something wrong with you....

Then it started and I closed my eyes.....

peeked and then.......

closed my eyes again........

8 seconds becomes a life time when you are just wanting these full grown boys I mean men to stay on the gosh for saken bull!

I may have become a little obsessed with the whole rodeo life style. I may have asked Dan to buy me tickets to the Rodeo Championships in Vegas in October. OK I asked for tickets for two nights but that's it. Whaaaattt I didn't ask for all five nights.

Sadly after 15 days on the open road it all had to come to an end.......we missed our family and friends. Our home and pets and plus we were out of clean clothes.

Unfortunately we drove home through mounds of smoke and fires burning. So sad all the homes that were lost the last few weeks. :(

Until our next adventure Iron Man Dan, we love you and are oh so proud to have been your cheering section and travel companions. Next stop: The Caribbean! Yahooo! THE END!