Lightening McQueen at Hiway 92

Kalli & Mia
Lars, Eden & Seth
with Lightening McQueen!

Lightning McQueen came to the race track on Friday night! Once again, I forgot my camera. It's been a long, stressful and crazy week, so that's my excuse. At any rate, one of our newly devoted fans brought hers along and shared this one with us. All the kids in front of Lightening McQueen. We hope he returns to the track for a future race so I can get a photo of the car, too!

In other news this week, Elia has another tooth coming in on the top, making a grand total of 3 coming at once. We were up all night Thursday night nursing it through. All I can do is hold her, love her and smother her with kisses. But it makes for an awful long day following!

Since our sprinklers don't work, I'm back to watering the grass and wasting gallons of water on dry spots that never quite turn out right when I'm done with them. I'm going to rake and re-seed this fall, I've decided, in hopes of turning what Eden and Lars call, "the picky stuff" back into the lawn we once enjoyed. But it still has to live until fall.

I am also starting to think I'd better pull out a suitcase for our trip to Michigan and start putting some thing in it. Eden tells me we have 8 days left. Being as we'll be on the train for over 24 hours with three children, it's a bit more of a strategically organized event with several back up plans in the wings than it is the simple task of packing a couple bags. My philosophy is one of this: if I forget to pack it, Meijer has it to purchase. And Meijer has frozen cokes, so several trips is not out of the question. However, that doesn't help me on the train. Which, need-less-to-say, does NOT have a Meijer on it.

My sister, Meegan, and I have been scheming activities to do while at home. McKenzie Marie (my niece) called to tell me the carnival and county fair will be going on the week we will be home and would we like to go. Also got an invite to go tubing on the Rifle River, which I'd love to do without children. Would like to get up to Auburn and show the kids where their Daddy comes from and walk around his childhood house. Eden was a baby when we were last there. Maybe have a dinner party with some of his old friends. The possibilities are endless, I suppose. But, in six days, hard to know what will be crammed in and what will wait for the next trip. I do hope I remember that we're going home for my 15 year high school reunion. Now that I think of it, I haven't seen any tickets....

On top of that, I need to find a caretaker for the gardens (I'm not losing my tomatoes at this point in the game), and somebody to feed & water the dog in this 100 degree heat every day. I did make a list of things to do, but I'm not real motivated. I think the extended heat is zapping life from my very being. Not to mention motherhood.


Allen & I decided this week that we needed a date. So, on Wednesday, we got a sitter & headed to Scottsbluff for a steak dinner at Whiskey Creek (I love the free peanuts you can crack and throw shells on the floor), followed by a night at the theater. Theater West presented the musical, All Shook Up, and the whole crew did a wonderful job! It was a musical based on the recordings of Elvis and the plot was based on love and everybody in the cast was chasing everybody else, looking in all the "wrong" people for true love. In the end, everybody got with the "right" person and lived happily ever after. It was fun to forget the real world for a bit, fun to see a happy ending. It was fun to laugh. It was fun to be back in the theater. It was fun to be with Allen and just Allen, even in a crowded room. I'm pretty sure I heard Lars, however, calling for Mommy, somewhere in the rows and rows of people.

Tonight we await Daddy's arrival from work so we can enjoy some homemade pizza & drinks, Oreo cookie dessert and a bike ride with all the kids. We also eagerly await a 20 degree drop in temperature!