I Heart the Mid West

The van was all packed up and ready to go. The first day I was planning on driving 10 hours. I was headed to Arkansas. No trip would be complete with out my trusty navigator. mGood old Brodi dog. He looks less than thrilled to be the navigator. Back in the day, Brodi would take car rides on my lap. Now he is just too big for that and he has to sit in the seat next to me. He only tried once to get on my lap. Cowpokette was all set in her new forward facing car seat. She was so excited to be able to see what was going on. Then there are the Cowpokes. They were as wild and crazy as ever. They were both excited about going to a hotel. For some strange reason they think that hotels are so much fun. As we drove North, I began to notice great things. Corn! I miss corn. It was very green still. Which means that fall is a bit farther off. Cowpokette tried to watch the DVD player. The kids watched 8 movies on our entire trip. Let me tell you the DVD player was a life saver. We made it to our hotel at 9:45 pm. Just in time for the Cowpokes to get rowdy. I was

pooped but they were all geared up for the hotel. They had all had naps while I was driving. I turned the TV on and laid in bed. Then next day I started out early. I was so excited when I came to.....Oh the Mid West! I love it. The rolling hills and green trees. I miss it a lot. I was very excited to start seeing rocky passes. If that is what they are called. Little Cowpoke had never been this far north before. He was very excited. I was able to drive for about three hours and then the Cowpokes got hungry. With Brodi being with us we could not go into a restaurant. The car was way too hot for my dog. So, we would pull through the drive through and then we would find a shady spot for a picnic. This spot was nice, if you didn't mind the large red ants that kept trying to attack us. But what is a picnic with out ants? Brodi enjoyed the time out of the car. Then it was back on the road. I saw some fun things. I love the farms up north. The big white farm houses and the red barns. It's so pretty up against the green and blue. Then there are sites like this. That has to be the largest cross I have ever seen! Big Cowpoke said, "Look Mom!! That is where Jesus died!" Kids, they say the darnedest things. I then traveled on down the road and made it to Indiana.

Then by night fall I made it to OHIO!!!Hooray! I love Ohio. I know I am strange. But I have some great memories from living in Ohio. I love the farm life there. I arrived at my friend's house at about 9 or 10 pm. Her three kidos were waiting up for us. And I am such a dorky friend. I didn't take one picture of all six of our children together. Well a good one at least. It was so great to see my friend Karen. I got to see her new beautiful baby girl Evelyn. She is such a chunk. He is six months old and the same size as Cowpokette. They were so cute together. I just want to kiss those checks. She is such a wonderful baby. She is very easy going and laid back. You don't hear much out of her. That evening the boys hit the tub together. Karen put Mohawks in their hair. Very nice, boys!! The kids all played really well together. Well, until favorite dirt bikes and trucks were being confiscated by Little Cowpoke. Little Cowpoke was a little stinker. He is going through the terrible 3's. It's crazy how crazy he can be.

He borrowed the neighbor boy's tractor for an afternoon ride. The bigger boys were riding bikes and he wanted to ride something too. It's a really neat tractor. While the kids rode I took more pictures of the beautiful Evelyn. She has the most beautiful eyes. They are so blue with a really dark blue line around them. Here she is with her momma. Karen is a really good mom. She works really hard and takes great care of her three kidos. She is one tuff cookie. She does it all by herself. It makes me feel bad for ever complaining. Evelyn wouldn't smile for me. She was giving me a hard time. She would smile for her Dad. She would smile for her Mom. But she was not going to even think about smiling for the strange girl behind the camera.
Karen had some really pretty flowers on her front porch. I was trying out my zoom skills. We did a lot of catching up and hanging out the first day. Then we went to her sister in law's house. She trains Morgans. Then we went to see the mini horses. That was so fun. I will tell you all about that tomorrow.