The Amazing Adventures of Rand and Ella!: August 2009

But it was fun!

Aliens

Rand gets the words "aliens" and "ambulances" mixed up. He also thinks that the hierarchy of healing powers goes doctors -- Jesus -- ambulances. We are working on both of these things.

This morning he requested that I tell him a story about a boy who got burned by a volcano (a 3rd thing to work on....). When I asked what would happen to that poor little boy, Rand said that he went to the doctor but the doctor couldn't make him better. And Jesus couldn't make him better! But the aliens came and took him away and they made him better.

Hrm.

Trust

Rand asked me to build a train track for him yesterday morning. I said sure, and asked what kind of track he wanted. He said, "I will show you" and used his finger to draw a line through the air. It was a very elaborate line. I said I wasn't sure if I could do it exactly right, but I would try. Rand said, "It's okay, Mom. I will help you. Do you trust me?"

Rand is very much into hearing stories about when Werner and I were naughty children. He loves hearing about what we did wrong and how we would get a spanking. He also has come up with an imaginary kid named Spike, and likes to hear stories about how Spike is mean to him and then how we resolve the situation. It is quite hilarious to hear him recount these tales.

Ella can give big sloppy kisses and also knows how to blow a kiss. She says "hi" and "bye" and "boo." If you pretend roar at her, she roars right back and sounds like a little kitty cat. She and Rand are starting to play together more and more, which is cute to watch.

Heading Home....

After a wonderful week in Iowa, it was time to begin our journey back home. We stopped in Mount Ayr to return our sleeping bags and say goodbye to Aunt Cinndy (and the pig! and the chickens!) and then drove way too many miles to get to Pratt, Kansas. Werner took the kids swimming and I returned eight zillion phone calls and enjoyed the internet (we had neither internet or cell phone service at our campground). At midnight, Ella and I took a trip to the local ER because she had a high fever and a very fast heartbeat. She was diagnosed with an ear infection. To add to the sleeplessness, we shared a hotel floor with a million Little Leaguers who kept waking us up -- it was not a very restful night!

On Saturday, we left at the super-early hour of 11am. We arrived in Tucumcari, New Mexico, and watched TV and goofed off all evening. Rand took a two-hour bath to make up for a week of no baths.

We drove through New Mexico on Sunday. Along the way, we stopped and saw an ice cave and a volcano (at least, where it exploded). Rand got to mine for gold. At least, he would've, but his parents were too stingy to buy a bag of sand that had little gold flecks in it. Rand didn't know the difference and had a great time playing in the water.

Rand helped us find the ice cave. It was about a half-mile hike.

Down, down, down....

It was cold down there! It never gets above 32 degrees.

Off to the volcano! This was about 1.5 miles. We had a tired little boy when we were done.

On Monday, we stopped in northeast Arizona at the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. We took a little hike through the desert and enjoyed the gorgeous view. We also took a 26-mile drive through the Petrified Forest (the kids slept the whole time). Hopefully sometime we will go back and explore it a little more, but even just driving through it was fun and beautiful.

We hit the worst weather of our trip in Flagstaff. It started raining, and then that turned into hail. We pulled off under a freeway overpass so our poor car didn't get knocked around too much.

We made it home safe and sound -- drove a little over 3500 miles altogether. It was a great vacation and we will definitely do a road trip again.

Strawberries at the beach

Ice Cream

One day in Iowa, Werner, Ella, and I went shopping with The Aunts. It was a very fun morning at the thrift store, where we scored some great bargains, and then off to a little hamburger shop for lunch. The owner of the shop gave Ella a teeny little baby ice cream cone. It was the first ice cream she'd ever had, and she thought it was delicious and a little cold.

Honest, Aunt Cinndy was just trying to stop it from dripping. It was so good that we brought everybody back for dessert. Fishers took over the shop!

Hammock

My cousin Marc brought along a hammock....I think he brought it for himself, but Rand and John took it over pretty quickly.

At the dock

Rand and I had a lot of fun down at the dock. He loved walking to the end and bouncing up and down. We found a lily pad and watched how the water beaded on it. We found teeny tiny worms and miniature snails. We looked at leeches and dragonflies and spiders.

Afterwards, we headed up for dinner (haystacks, courtesy of Uncle Greg's family) and had delicious s'mores and cherry pies for dessert. We watched a slideshow and shared memories of Grandpa and Grandma -- it was so fun hearing the stories and learning new things about our family.

More vacation pictures!

On Monday, we took a little trip to a nearby Iowa beach for some fun in the sun. Or not, as it rained the whole time. But no matter, we still had a great time swimming in the lake and going tubing on the back of Uncle Guy's boat.

On Tuesday, we hiked! Well, some of us did. The path was very, very muddy from the previous day's rain. Werner took one look and turned back. Rand said he wanted to come hiking with me -- in hindsight, this was a terrible idea as he cried almost the whole way about his feet getting muddy. Here he is surveying the path: