Sioux Falls, SD

After a very long day and a lot of corn fields later we finally arrived in Sioux Falls,SD. I took this picture last night after I posted.

I am sooo tired and you would think it was from looking at 8 hours of corn fields{ not lying either} but it's not. This is what it looked like at 5 AM this morning in St Louis. OK people it is NOT daylight at MY house that early. This 1 hour time change has my body messed up. So I have been up since 5 am!

This was at a rest area in Missouri and I guess it really was their resting area!

I have got to tell this story. We are driving in Iowa and see a sign for a Soda Fountain Shop so I decide to to get off on that exit in Hamburg. This town was so little they did not even have a red light.It was a 4 way and there was no one coming either way..lol. Well needless to say we didn't stop because the 2 people in town were giving us the eye. They didn't look to friendly either. This town reminded me of this old horror movie "Children of the Corn".The town was empty and we were surrounded by corn.So I turned my car around and headed back to the interstate as fast as I could.Before some kids started bringing out their pitch forks...lol.

We had another great room!

I had been reading that this little diner was a great place to eat. Well of course it was.Kain ordered Iced Tea well we forgot that they do not have it sweet!

My roast beef sand which and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy...Yummy!

We didn't have time to do much but we did go see Falls Park. It is beautiful!

Tomorrow we have a 5 1/2 hour drive but I am looking forward to every bit of it. we will arrive at our final destination Custer State Park. So I'm not sure when I will be blogging again!

Saint Louis

We FINALLY arrived in Saint Louis and it was HOT! We ran into a lot of road work on our way but we made it. We went straight to the zoo because it was too early to check in to our hotel.Plus we want to see most of the zoo. The Saint Louis Zoo is free for everyone. There are some things you can pay for like the carousel,train ride and sea lion show. Well since we are a member of our zoo we got half off the price of the wristbands. We were not in the zoo 10 minutes and Zoe said "I don't feel very good." Then I heard the noise the one when you're about to throw up. Sure enough she gets sick. I think it was from the heat because it was over 100 degrees! After she got some drink she was feeling better. You know it's not a Cotheran vacation without a little sickness!

This is what my car said when we got out of it.

I thought cats didn't like the water? Well it was hot enough for these kitties.

Oh yeah this feels so good!

Waiting on the sea lion show to start.

All aboard!!! Anything to keep from walking..lol.

Aww Zoe found a friend:)

This is the view from our room! Our hotel is awesome! We are on the 10Th floor room 1000!

Well we {Kain and I} talked about it and decided we didn't want to go up in the Arch. That thing is TOO talk for me or my eldest child:)

We did get brave enough to at least go inside the building.Come to find out there is a museum and it's FREE! The boys have learned a lot about Lewis and Clark in school so they really enjoyed it.

Now if we had have been brave enough this is what all 5 of us would have crammed into.

The guy at the hotel recommend Joey B's if we wanted the best pizza around. Well he wasn't kidding. I usually don't like thin crust but this was awesome. The cheese was so creamy and the pizza was square. I saw where Rachael Ray had it on her Tasty Travels show.

After dinner we went back and got in the pool that was located on the 5Th floor with another gorgeous view. Now all the kids are sleeping and that is where I am about to head. We have another 10 hour drive tomorrow heading to Sioux Falls,SD. The kids were so good in the car but I wonder if tomorrow will be the same.

If you haven't got in on the giveaway yet click here!

SD here we come Plus a GIVEAWAY!!!

So it is really early and I mean really early like 3 am early. And we are on our way!!! 10 hours until our first stop in St Louis. We are all sooo excited to go on this road trip. I'm so excited that I'm gonna do a little give way:) I'll tell you more about that in a sec. I will not be able to blog a lot. They do not have internet in Custer State park. But I will be checking in when we stop at our hotels. I made sure they offered free Internet.I didn't feel like paying $10 a day like I did at Disney. So now on to the rules of this give away!

What am I giving away? Thought you would never ask! You will win a $25 gift card to ONE of these places( your choice) plus I am gonna find a little something from our trip.

How do you win?

1. leave a comment for 1 entry

2. leave another comment saying you follow me for 1 more entry

3. Blog about the give away for 2 extra entries posting a link to my page:)

This give away will be over on July 2! Winner will be announced on July 5(when I get back)!

Shipwreck Cove

Our SS always tries to have a social every month. Well a new water park opened and we tried it out on Saturday. It has only been opened a week or so.The kids enjoyed it but mama was needing some shade and that was no where to be found. I'm sure it will get better after they get things worked out. If you would like to see more pictures and get some great tips visit my friend Rhonda's blog.

Father's Day and Movies in the Park

Happy Father's Day Honey!!!

I still wonder how I got such a wonderful husband and my kids got such an awesome dad! But then I remember that even though I had no idea what was going on.God had this wonderful plan for us.

Oh my I have been having computer issues! Well not really my laptop but the Internet provider! Thank goodness it is fixed now.But of course I am behind on all things in the blog world. This past Saturday night I went with 2 ( Kain has a really bad ear ache so Corey stayed home with him) of my kids and some of my wonderful friends to the free movies at the park. The kids really loved it. They got free drinks,popcorn and peanuts so they were full and happy. I was fine too until it was time to go. Zoe has misplaced (lost) her flip flops and of course there is no light because it is dark! So thank goodness my great friend crawled around in the dark grass feeling for the shoes and found them. If they had been cheap shoes I would have been fine just leaving but they were Rainbows.At this point I am a little bit flustered...lol. I think I forgot to tell my friends bye as I was walking very quickly outta there:) I may go again but I will be taking a flashlight.

Wordless Wednesday~ Mother/ Daughter Haircuts

For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

Yummy breakfast!

Corey is the one who wanted that Magic Bullet thing but I'm the one getting the most use out of it. Noah and Zoe loved it but Kain wasn't so sure about the liquid breakfast...lol. I put bananas,strawberries,raspberries and black berries with a splash of juice and some ice.

i heart faces

i heart faces is a photography blog that has weekly photo contest of faces. The theme this week is "sepia". If you would like to enter click here.

Another picture of Zoe in NYC. It never gets cold enough here in SC to wear a hat and scarfs!

We're back!

We are back from our weekend at the beach. It was so nice the only thing missing was daddy! We really missed him and wished he could have came. The kids stayed in the water for 2 days. So here is what our weekend looked like:)

We got to the beach in 3 and1/2 hours:) Soon as we got there we changed and jumped on the golf cart.

Zoe got flipped by a wave too!

The kids playing with Pop{Corey's dad}

So if you have ever been to Myrtle Beach you know that you do NOT find these kind of sea shells. Well Pop went and bought shells and buried them in the sand before the kids got there. They loved it!!! So please keep quite it's our little secret.

Of course we had to go to our favorite pizza place Godfather's. We even brought daddy back some of it:)

Well that was our weekend. Now I have to start getting things ready for our road trip.We leave in 10 days!!! Oh my I have so much to get done:) So did you have a great weekend?

Beach bound

My children and I are heading to the beach for a weekend.My in-laws are down there and we are gonna bust in on them:) Oh don't worry I am only going to be gone the weekend. My poor hubby isn't able to go and I can't be away from him too long! VBS finished tonight but I'm too tired to post pictures. But here is what our night looked like.

Wordless Wednesday

For more WW click here.

Pool Time

If you need me on any Monday during the summer this is where you will find me!

Boomerang Express

Tonight we started VBS!!! Wow we had a lot and I mean a lot of kids. I am helping in the preschool crafts and Corey is helping with the 4Th grade boys. It's a crazy week but I love it. I loved VBS when I was little and tried to go to every one that was near my house. Zoe moved upstairs with the big kids:( I can't wait to see what happens the rest of the week.

Awww the Sheriff's with their matching shirts:)

Ms.Joy and Ms.Julie teaching us the songs with the movements. I was asked(well threatened...lol)not to put this on here. But I am so thankful that these 2 ladies are helping with the music!

This is our Pastor from down under:)

One great thing about our church is that we have dinner every night of VBS. I really enjoy not having to cook for a week!

Kain is helping hold the flag this week.

After we got home Corey made all of us milkshakes...yummy!!!

We had orange cream and peanut butter! Not together but separately...lol.

A little vanilla

then some creamy peanut butter

Corey wanted this Magic Bullet thing for Christmas so he got one. Have you saw the infomercial for it?

Kain thinks his is very yummy!

The rest of us wanted peanut butter and it was better than Brewster's! Thank you honey !!!

It's fun to be a kid!

We spent our Saturday acting like we were kids again.Boy was it fun! We were celebrating Zachary's birthday at the Harrison's. Kain and Corey were at a different birthday party but joined us later for a cookout.Thanks Brad for cooking some delicious wings.We{the kids} stayed in the almost 6 hours...lol. Us adults decided we were gonna get in and have a good ole time too!

I never thought I would put a picture on here with me in a bathing suit.But I just thought this picture was too cute!

Then our hubbies tried to jump in at the same time.

The Talk...

A while back I was looking for books to help with giving "the talk". Oh yeah, you know what talk I'm talking about...lol. I really want to be open with my kids about everything. Now that Kain is a pre teen I thought I needed to hurry up before he hears things at school. I found a series of books by Carolyn Nystrom called God's Design for Sex. There are different books for each age group. I bought books 2,3 and 4. The books have tasteful pictures and proper wording for the body parts.

I started with book 2 even though it's for ages 5 to 8. Well I decided yesterday was as good as any day and I called all the kids to the living room. Well they were listening and paying attention until it started describing the boys anatomy. Kain and Noah was rolling on the ground laughing so hard.I did all I could not to laugh too. It was saying how boys will change into men and what will happen to their bodies. It took the boys 10 minutes to quit laughing...lol. We read the whole book and Noah said he was glad he didn't have to have babies. Zoe says she is not EVER gonna have a baby if it has to come out of there...lol! Kain was just ready to bolt out of the room.I asked if they had any questions about anything and they said no.

We {I} survived reading the book. I didn't think I could do it but I did. I really recommend this whole series.You can click here to read more about the books.

Did you get yours?

Today is National Doughnut Day and Krispy Kreme is giving you a free doughnut! These are our favorite doughnuts so we visited our local store. You better hurry and get yours! The kids got the sprinkle ones of course:)

d

Flashback Friday

My friend Alicia over at More Than Words is doing this great meme. If you are like me you have TONS of pictures that were taken before we had digital cameras. So start scanning and join in on the fun.

So if you have ever watched The Andy Griffith Show these will look familiar to you.We took a day trip {about 3 hour drive} to Mayberry { Sky Top,NC} to check out all the old looking things. We had a lot of fun that day. ( The pictures do look blurry. Don't know why but anyway here they are.)

These were taken in 2007.Yes I know they had digital cameras then but I still used my SLR film camera..lol. And since I still can't figure out my scanner. I used these that I had on a CD. So I cheated just a little...lol.

Movin on up!

It's official I now have a fifth grader! Boy he is getting old. Not sure how since I haven't aged any;) I remember the first day I walked his sweet self into that big old class room with all those other 5 year old.I really didn't think he could survive without me. But unfortunately he really didn't need me 24/7. He did more than survive he excelled and has grown into a really smart young man:) Fifth grade has been hard but he never gave up. He worked really hard and finished the year with an A/B average! His dad and I are so proud of all the things he has accomplished. We can't wait to see what else God has planned for him.

This is the last year at this school for 4th graders.So they were treated with cake and punch.

Kain and his wonderful teacher Mrs.Hardee

**********************************************

Kindergarten here I come!

You know how I said I thought Kain wouldn't survive in kindergarten? Well I have no worries about Zoe:) The only thing I have to worry about is her talking too much. She has loved going to big kid school this year. She has made many little sweet friends. She has even learned to write her phone number down and pass it out already. Oh yeah,she got a phone call the other day. She picked up that phone and acted like it was second nature. I mean my boys do not talk on the phone. I don't think they have ever even gotten a phone call.It is a little sad that all of babies are growing up so fast. But next year all 3 of my kids will be in school all day long!

Wordless Wednesday~ Daddy likes to play too!

For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

2nd Grade Honors Day

Today's Honor's day was held in the cafeteria and everyone got to see all of the children's accomplishments. Of course because of all of our sickness this year Noah did not get perfect attendance.But he was honored for his Art work:) They started calling out all the names for the A/B honor roll. I had my camera ready{he has made it all year} and kept waiting but they did NOT call his name. I looked back and Noah was looking at me like"I don't know why I wasn't called." Then they moved on to the Principal's Honor Roll and guess what? They called Noah's name!!! We are so proud of Noah and all the things he has accomplished in 2ND grade:)

Getting his Art award.

Straight A's!!!

Noah and his wonderful teacher Ms. Richeson

Yummy!!!

Now if you really know me you know that I have never ending relationship with chocolate. So when I saw that there was a giveaway that involved Askinosie chocolate over at Our Family Views I knew I had to tell you!!! So head over there and get signed up. I hope you {do not} win...lol. Because I want it all!!!

Field Day

Of course it would be one of the hottest days when we had field day. But what's a mama to do? You suck it up,apply sunscreen,grab your cooler and hit the field for the day! That is exactly what I did. Poor Zoe had to stay out in the heat with us too because her class doesn't start til 11am. I even played tug of war and my team won..Yippee!!! Sorry{not really} but no one got a picture of me:)

5