Franching: Last week before school starts

My friend and I chuckled as our girls were asking us what all we had at our wedding the other night.  We were attending the wedding of a high school friend who conservatively waited to get married.  The main reason we were laughing at that we had no money for a huge party when we were young and just starting out.  She told her daughter – we just had cake and punch in the church basement, no meal, not dance.  They have been married twenty years, so having a dance didn’t make or break the success of the marriage.
Addie managed to make it through band camp this week.  She plays the trumpet.  It’s quite a change going from just sitting and playing to the marching and dancing for the band.  Plus there is a lot of new music to learn. 
Allie enjoyed the week in Colorado with my parents.  Well, maybe I shouldn’t say she enjoyed the week since she got sick one day.  Thankfully they really didn’t have a tight schedule planned, so they just were able to hang out and play at their cabin part of the time.  On their way the stopped at some sand dunes.  The girls ran around and played for a while until their feet got hot walking on the sand.  The main part of the trip was riding the train through the mountains at Durango.  Most evenings they enjoyed swimming and playing around.  Finally, they came home on Friday and survived the long trip home. 
Weston got to enjoy some boy cousin time.  Levi came over and spent the night.  They went to church together on Wednesday night and played the next day.  They went over to the shop and played in the big pile of sand.  Weston then went over cousin Grants house and did some backyard swimming, bicycle riding and just some boy time.  They played for several hours and seemed to have a good time together.
Saturday I finally did the dreaded school supply shopping.  I think I have everything but who knows, I can get more things later if they need it.
Luke had a flat tire on the baler but was not able to get it fixed before more rain started coming down.  Will he get it dried to start baling again before the next little shower, who knows? 

Summer nearly over

What happened to the summer???  That is what I have been wondering this last week.  We entered the first week of August and the kids are already enrolled in school.  I now have kids in all three buildings.  Elementary, middle and high school.  I guess I had better get to know a few more secretaries.  However, I have been warned by other parents that the high school expects the students to manage their problems and schedule.
This week Addie has band camp, Allie has gone on a girl grandchild trip with my parents and Weston is stuck at home.  However, I think he is going to do a boy cousin sleep over later this week.
The Pratt county fair.  First, we need to go back and revisit the county fair.  It was very nice to attend most of the shows and not break a sweat.  The fair had some very nice temperatures for the end of July. The girls started off with the style review.  Then on Monday they did foods judging followed by the horse show performance classes.  Tuesday brought quilt, photography and crafts judging then we went back home and loaded horses for the speed events.  Wednesday, we brought all the animals to the fairgrounds.  Thursday, we show swine in the morning and sheep in the afternoon.  Friday the girls showed their cow-calf pairs, and Addie qualified for Round Robin.  On Saturday they did the livestock judging contest and then the premium auction.  Now we just need to do record books and write thank you notes.
After putting the paper together last week I finally got enough laundry done for us to pack up and leave for a few days.  After enrolling the kids, we took off for Branson a few days.  Our first stop was the Dixie Stampede.  We went 4 years ago, and the show had changed a little bit.  The girls still enjoyed it.  Weston didn’t really remember it the first time, so he really enjoyed it.  Allie said she still wants to be a Dixie Stampede girl. I think Addie liked the competition parts. 
The next morning, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and eat some hotel breakfast. Weston must have wanted some type of responsibility because he grabbed the hotel room key and kept a hold of it.  He kept it in his pocket the whole time while we were at Silver Dollar City.  He insisted that he get to hold it.  Finally, we got loaded in the car and headed to the park.  We got a parking spot and then walked to the park.  At first, they were experiencing an electrical problem, but then they got it fixed.  I was a little concerned.  After all what were the girls going to do?  Finally, they got he roller coasters going.  We spent the whole day there and enjoyed all the food.  On the way home, we stopped at the factory outlets to do some school shopping, then headed to Springfield to walk through the Bass Pro Shop.   We saw one family from Pratt we knew, our old pastors from nearly twenty years ago, and a guy that was in Luke’s class spotted him at SDC.  It was fun to run into them and just say hi.
Saturday, we jetted up to Moundridge for our nephew Lane’s sixth birthday celebration.  I think he had a pretty good day.   Since we have no DQ in Pratt we had to slip into the one Hutch for a dip cone, or chocolate malt.