Caleb Rode the School Bus for the First Time

So, Caleb had 4 days left in school and Sarah was super surprised when he asked to ride the school bus home. She was thrilled and after a good 270 days trying to get him to ride the bus, she was thrilled as a Momma Chicken seeing her little Chickadee come off the bus. I think Caleb was equally thrilled.

Missouri Was Amazing

We just came back from Missouri this last Tuesday. It was a fabulous 6 days spending four with Sarah's dearest sweet grandparents, Jim and Jayne Creed and a day and a half with my oldest brother, Gary and his wife, Teri and their five great boys.

We loved the whole experience and came away with one big takeaway - Missouri is an Amazingly Beautiful Place with Great People. If we had more family permanently clustered there, we'd move in a heart beat.

Here were the highlights:

• First airplane ride for Levi and Ellie and first Caleb remembers.


• Caleb went fishing for his first time and caught 3 Blue Gill that we ate for supper.


• First time in a long time I've seen 2.3 inches of rain in a matter of hours - Reno had a healthy .5 inches in 5 days. Woohoo.


• First time I've seen so many natural ponds collecting run-off


• First time I've made the connection that all that green stuff is watered naturally and no one has lawn irrigation systems. Wow!


• I was reminded that I like humidity and we had lots of it.


• I was reminded how great it is to have a wife that doesn't get motion sick.


• I was reminded how much we love family.

Here is a long string of photos with a few headlines:



WINGS - Caleb was thrilled to sit in the cockpit of our plane.



MOVIE BUFF - Thank you to a Disney movie for entertaining Caleb - is that any surprise?


SHE CRASHED - Finally on the third and last flight, Ellie crashed and slept almost 2 hours like this. Cute girl



ARRIVAL - we finally got our rental car at 1:00 am and we were tired of lugging this big cart of luggage. Bless Sarah and the kids hearts - they were great troopers. We arrived in Columbia at 3:30 am and we were tired. ;-)


SUNSHINE STILL LIVES - Now, if you don't know Sarah's dear grandparents, let me tell you they espouse my theory of limiting consumption and Sunshine is one 40+ year-old example of that. Grandpa drives this most day to and from his errands and the University. Grandpa Creed even let us know it had ~184k miles on it. It was a lot of fun. We went from their house to the backwoods country store for candy. It was something else to see the warped floor boards and carefree patrons and employee behind the counter - it felt like I was in a different country.








ELLIE RELAXING - While Caleb was off somewhere, Ellie was quite content just lounging and smelling flowers and worrying where she left her purple lip gloss. I'm pretty sure she checked every inch of this grass she laid on to make sure there was NO Goose POOP!






FEEDING THE CATFISH - Grandma and Grandpa gave us food for the catfish and I couldn't believe how quickly they came to the water's edge and gobbled up these nibblets. They got so close Sarah petted the back of one and then she screeched when it instantly splashed away. Here Caleb is trying again to touch one of these ugly fish



GOD'S BEAUTY - I died watching the sunsets every evening we were there. This captures the beautiful lush growth, the calm waters and the peaceful evening. Most nights we were wandering in the yard, chasing Geese, watching birds or chatting on the deck.



NEW LIFE - This foal was less than 12-hours old and lived across the street from the Creeds.


POTATO BUG FITS - Caleb is a bug nut and he thought it was so funny to put the potato bug in his belly button and he laughed when it crawled out. Agghh we have a 150% boy in him.





Kansas City with 12 Kellers







SWIMMING - We were bummed when we arrived at our hotel to find the pool was broken so we whipped out the speedos and spent Memorial Day afternoon at the pool in chilly water.



COMMUNITY OF CHRIST TEMPLE - Strange place that only administers one prayer a day at 1 pm for World Peace. We went in but were not warmly welcomed and with 8 kids, headed right on out again.

FAREWELL PICS - Cousin pictures to capture the fun memories



FLIGHT HOME

Levi Eating Sand

This was a dejavu moment. We are always catching Levi eating sand but this was the best yet.

This was an amazingly nice day - 90 degrees or so and we went to Tahoe for the first time this Spring and while it was a blast just like always - we couldn't believe the fortuitous luck that we had the camera right at this moment to capture Levi - okay, who am I kidding. I pretty much have a camera holster with my camera right there for all of these small moments.

Sarah's laugh sure makes this even funnier and to see Levi do exactly what Caleb did at about this age - take 5 or so bites of sand (dirt in Caleb's case) one after another and then only after that, try and spit it out.

It was too much. We might just send this in to America's Funniest Home Videos along with Caleb's that we still need to send in.




Caleb and I also went on a Father and Son's campout 15 minutes away from our house. Yep you read that right - it was a-mazing to have such a cool place so close. Wow, what a place we live in.

Ellie likes long hair

The other day I was buckling Ellie into her carseat and she started to play with my hair. I asked her if she liked long hair and she said, "Yea, I like your hair and Ashlyn's hair (her good friend) and Jesus' hair". I thought it was so cute that she noticed Jesus' hair and thought it was nice enough to mention. More funny comments to come, I am sure.

Oh, let me count the ways I love thee

So, Happy Mother's day to all you women out there that make this world go around. Thank you to my own Mother, my mother-in-law, my Grandmother's and so forth.



Today, I want to pay special tribute to my wonderful wife and mother to my children with a special 11 Reasons I Love You (In no specific order)

1. You care so deeply for your four awesome kids (Caleb, Ellie, Levi and . . . Me you sillies)


2. You try so hard to follow the rules in life.


3. You are gorgeous intellectually, mentally and physically


4. You care about giving back to the world and doing good around you


5. You are a great cook and keep us eating healthy


6. You work hard to keep yourself healthy and in good shape


7. You make me laugh


8. You are a very hard worker (as long as Biggest Loser, American Idol or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire aren't on) ;-)
   
9. You like to travel


10. You indulge me and you go to the local craft fairs with me in spite of all the rift raft that comes out to join us.


11. You have a really awesome family

If that wasn't enough, I got the kids on camera telling Sarah why they love her.

Ellie was very sincere. Levi was clueless and uh, well, Caleb's was 90% plain silly.



Any way you say it, we love you very much Sarah whether you are our friend, Mom, Wife, Daughter, Sister, Grand daughter, Cousin or Aunt

And here you are in your natural beauty to accept our humble singing

LEVI IS STANDING!

Caleb is growing up!

Last night Chris put Caleb to bed and told him, "Caleb, you are growing up so fast, aren't you?" Caleb got a big grin on his face and said, "Yea, it's because now I can wipe myself, run fast and ride a bike!" I laughed so hard at the wiping myself part. So great that he considers that "growing up". I have been trying to get him to wipe himself for almost a year! I told him that I can't come wipe him in first grade at school! One less thing for mom to have to take care of.

I also spent some time with Caleb teaching him how to ride his bike without training wheels this weekend. He did great! He is a pro. It took him a while to want to practice. We went to the park on Saturday and he spent the entire two hours riding on the trail. I laughed a few times as he worked so hard just to get going. He will be six soon...how time flies.

Levi also stands in the middle of the room for over a minute at a time. Whoo hoo! He will be a walker soon! He also loves animals and books. He will scream until I get a book that he is pointing to and read it to him. Oh, the screaming has started!

Ellie and Caleb are doing ballet/gymnastics, respectively. They are both loving it. Caleb is thrilled to be able to do flips legally (because I wouldn't let him do them on our tramp at home) and Ellie is thrilled to be dancing in a ballerina outfit and acting like a princess. Fun times!

Will my Rental Business Fly?

I need Five minutes of your time to take a survey for me, please.

I am developing a business idea that is like eBay for Renters of Recreational Vehicles.

I would facilitate the transaction and provide all the middle services to make the transaction happen just like eBay does for items sold.

If you know me, I've been madly in love with all fast recreational vehicles and I'm really hoping this idea works out but I really need honest survey takers to tell me what they really think, so please spend 5 minutes and take this survey and then pass the link along to anyone who likes recreational vehicles which includes anything from Motorhomes to motorcycles and includes all water, snow and land vehicles that average Joes like us might own.

Click Here to take survey

Thanks so much!

Chris

Donner State Park and Lake

We went to Donner Memorial State Park on Saturday for a little excursion. We spent an hour at the Ranger Station and then an hour at the Lake.

Here is the monument memorializing the Pioneers who were in the Donner party in 1845. What a crazy October. They had 23 feet of snow, which is equivalent to the top of the shaft just below the statues. Wow, that is a lot of snow.



Here are the statues zoomed in



Here is the plaque on the back of the monument telling the story



Here is the rock that made up the North Wall of the cabin that one of the pioneers stayed in the first winter for months by himself. It is also the cabin under which many of the bodies of those that didn't make it was buried.



We then went to the beach and the kids had a ball. Here, you can see it in Levi's face



And the look after he ate a handful of sand.



And Caleb and Ellie dashing from the just melted slab of ice



And Ellie - our adorable



Sarah gave us all a run-down on the state of the lake and our crazy kids



And you can see the effects of cold water and sand on poor little Levi's legs



She was super surprised how much cold Levi could bare.