A few random pictures......

When we were stranded with car problems at Six Flags, two of my nieces waited for the tow truck with me.  On our midnight tow truck ride, we had a conversation in the cab of the tow truck about the center stripes on the road.  Anyone know how long they are?  Well, one niece guessed a few inches!  They were shocked when I told them closer to 12 feet.  So, coming back from South Dakota, we were on a 2 lane country road.  We made a quick pit stop and the boys did not believe me about how long they really were, so Jacob volunteered to go lay down.  (Don't worry, there were no cars around)

Given that he is probably 3 1/2 feet tall, close to 12 feet!

One thing that became a tradition last summer and seems to be continuing this summer~

49 cent ice cream cones!

Since no ice cream cone is made the same size, to alleviate fighting over who gets what cone, we decide before we get to the window who will get the first, second and third cone.  It is amazing how well it works.  No one ever complains over the size of their cone.

Contemplating a quick camping trip soon.  The boys can't decide where they want to go, so might have to go twice!  I will be keeping an eye on the weather and see if we can sneak a way for a night or two.  (Our only commitments are Sun-Tues, so we have lots of free time, now that are traveling is over)

A recent fishing outing close to our house, actually, probably close enough to bike to.

Here was Benjamin trying to talk someone into baiting his hook with a worm.  I don't know if anyone ever did it for him or not :-)

As the sun was getting lower, I was playing a lot with the camera.  Really like the reflection on this on.

It was cool to be able to pick up some of the clouds in the water.  There was a quarter moon out and I was able to see the reflection, but not really get it in the picture.  A great place to go for another sunset or full  moon photos.

Nobody caught anything.  We found out after we left that there was a fishing ban in place for that part of the river.  I guess when it gets hot and the water levels drop, they don't allow fishing after 2pm because it can stress the fish out.  It was a beautiful evening and fun time.

A pretty quiet week.  Just our usual appointments.  The neighbor kids are gone, so trying to line up some other play dates so I don't hear "there is nothing to do", at which I reply, I will go get the toilet brush.  They definitely scatter and find something to do.

We have been having some awesome mid afternoon thunderstorms...which is typical. The kids have been gathering supplies and building a shelter with the neighbor kids. Then they wait to see how well their structure works. They get an E for effort but it seems like every time the idea falls apart and they never get it completed. At least they have fun playing in the rain.

Jacob and the neighbor boy Ryder enjoy fishing. Twice this past week they went fishing at a local pond for several hours. They love getting dropped off and having to fend for themselves for an afternoon. (There are tons of people always around, plus it is smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood). I am totally impressed that as an 8 year old, Jacob knows what he needs to go fishing. He is also not afraid to bait hooks or pull fish off. One day they caught 6 and the next day they caught 14. The fish have to be so big if you keep them. They have yet to catch one big enough to keep. Loved this shot of them walking off for their afternoon of fishing, complete with a huge cooler full of water and snacks.

I cut Joseph's hair the other day and he insisted on spraying it red. We have some red coloring left over from Halloween a few years ago. Benjamin sprayed it and I had to laugh at the end product....very patchy and all over his arms, face and clothes. But he sure wore it proudly.

Shortly after they finished, everyone in the neighborhood hopped on bikes and headed to the dollar store to buy some more paint. They told me it was $2.25 but they only had $2. I guess they sweet talked the clerk to give it to them for $2!! They came back with blue.

Just love their imaginations.....

Tomorrow our high is suppose to be 59, so anyone in Texas wanting to escape the heat, you are welcome to join us!!!

A very long post, with lots and lots of pictures....

Friday morning before the concerts started we went to an aerial park near Mt. Rushmore.  There were 7 different courses, ranked yellow, green, blue and then one black.

This was the base, where everyone started.  Benjamin is in the red shirt at the bottom of the ladder and Jacob is just above him in the blue shorts and red shirt.  I was very concerned that the boys could forget to clip in and fall off an element.  However, they have a really cool, fool proof system that you will see later on.  (Side note, as I am still learning my camera, lighting, etc it is amazing to me to see the color variation in these pictures since my settings were the same most of the time.)

They both, wisely, started off on a yellow course.  It took a few tries to get use to the clip on system.  I was so proud, particularly of Benjamin for jumping in.  Sometimes situations like this can overwhelm him and he gets scared.  He did awesome.  Jacob of course blew through everything.

Lots and lots of different elements....I liked them all and did not want to not exclude any.

The highest they probably ever went was 20 feet.

Every course had 8-10 elements and at the end of the course, there was a short zip line at the end.

Every harness had 2 carabiners.  One was always locked and one was always unlocked.  The red thing was called a tweezle.  You would push/click one carabiner onto the tweezle and if it was locked, it would then become unlocked and the other carabiner would automatically lock.  So, when you had to move to another element, you would take the unlocked carabiner and lock it onto the wire.  Then the locked one would become unlocked for you to move it off the wire and onto another wire.  Made this Momma much happier when I realized that.

Another zipline

As you can see on the tree, along every route, there was always an 'escape' if someone had to stop short.

I think this was probably the hardest element, that required the most strength, since both lines moved.

Benjamin is on the far left.  Another great shot of just the layout.  I never could have constructed this.  It goes way beyond my little mind.

As I mentioned, this kid was too young and short for the ropes course.  So he and I hung out.  I told him that we could do the alpine slide.  He played in the dirt and waited patiently.

We finally broke free and rode up on the chair lift to the top of the alpine slide.

The view back towards Keystone.

Great photo ops up top, except for the bright sun.

I was feeling somewhat un-American because we did not have a Rushmore stop on the agenda.  I had told the boys that I would not mind going, but we had seen it during the day and if we were going to see it that trip, it would have been at sunrise or at nighttime when it was lit up.  I was excited when we got to the top of the chairlift and caught a glimpse.

We rode the slide twice.  The first time we were a little brake heavy, just not knowing the course, etc.  The second time we rode it (pictured here), Joseph hit the 'gas' hard and we were flying.  The bad thing, the gal behind us was going. very. slow.  We were not even half way down when we had to almost stop completely because we were coming up on her.  You can see the others behind us...things were really stacked up.  It was a lot of fun though and would definitely go again.

We caught more of their last few elements.

They also had an 800 foot zipline.  I felt bad for Joseph because he was holding out for the zipline.  Turns out he was 3 pounds shy of the required 50 pounds.  He was so bummed and so was I.  (We just might have to plan a 7th bday trip next summer over there so he can do the high ropes and the zip line)

Not sure when this was taken, but Jacob obviously had my camera.  Not sure why, but I love this picture

We then headed to the concert.  I did not anticipate how many people there would be!  We saw We are Leo, Veridia, Tenth Avenue North, For King and Country, Rend Collective, Danny Gokay, Brandon Heath and Mercy Me.  We ended up off to the side a bit, so very thankful they had a huge screen we could watch.  They estimated they had 25,000 people over the course of the weekend.  I have never seen so many port-a-potties.  One spot had 60 of them lined up.  The weather was great.  No rain, Saturday was mid 70s and Sunday was warm with low 90s.  For every concert Benjamin was front and center.  He stood up at the front and clapped, jumped and sang his way through every song.  He kept telling us how much fun we were missing out on.  I told him I would join him at some point and he told me it would be for the last band Sunday night, Mercy Me, and that I needed to stay for 5 songs.

They also had a children's area on the park grounds.  My boys (mainly the younger 2) were back and forth between the kid area and the concert area.  On  Sunday afternoon, they spent from 4-8pm there.  Playing in the inflatables, making friends, just having fun.  Benjamin headed up front for Mercy Me early so he could get a prime standing spot.  I followed shortly thereafter.  By the time I got up there, people were already 10-12 deep.  I managed to get to within about 6 'rows' of Benjamin.  I hated to edge my way up to the very front because that would displace others who had been waiting longer.  So, I stayed back and enjoyed the first 5 songs.  I was getting ready to head back to our seats, where it was much quieter, when I saw a flash of gray.  I looked again and there was Joseph walking in a sea of legs.  Everyone was so close together, there is no way he saw faces, but just looking for legs and shorts.  I knew he was looking for Benjamin.  I reached out to grab him and missed.  I pushed someone else out of the way, who was oblivious to his presence and then another before someone caught on and grabbed him for me.  I was cracking up.  My short little kid, who by the way was barefoot because he swore to me his shoes were in the car when we left the house and then realized he was wrong when we parked the car, was just pushing his way through legs and no one even knew it.  I picked him up and he was shocked to see me.  He had tears in his eyes because he was mad at Jacob.  When I inquired further, he began crying.  A high school age girl behind us took notice and quickly began poking at him.  His tears quickly dried and he was loving the attention.  Fortunately, he was tired and was ready to head back to our seats too.

This was Brandon Heath....I like this shot, fist bumping a fan.

The most loved inflatable...a dodge ball 'cage'.  My boys played all afternoon.

Sunday afternoon there was a span of 2.5 hours where we did not really know the artists, so we headed out to the Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth AFB. Very fascinating and the boys loved it.  Lots of static things to look at.

The B1 Bomber

and the B52, which was replaced by the B1 Bomber

The concerts wrapped up Sunday night and we pulled out Monday morning. We rented a house through Airbnb. Another great experience using Airbnb.