We kicked of our 4th of July with a trip to the lake the day before.
I think the #1 thing we will miss about Springfield is the gorgeous landscape. Travis is seriously lamenting leaving his favorite trout streams. Before we got to the lake, we toured the fish hatchery just below the dam, where all of Travis's catches are raised.
Anyway, Table Rock Lake has a quaint little beach for swimming and picnicking.
As we left the lake, I could see a cloud of mist rising up from the trees below the dam. Travis said it was one of his favorite fishing spots, on the Taneycomo River. I asked if we could please stop and see it, and he looked at me like I'd just asked Brooklyn if she wanted some candy. HA!
I can't do it justice with my camera phone, but this place was breathtaking. Of course Travis ran into one of his fellow fisherman buddies - an old fisherman named Duffy who has fished this river every day for the last 20 years. They sat and chatted... for a very long time...
Pretty sure that Duffy is telling one of his classic fish tales in this photo.
We all know there is no way that fish was that big!
We spent the morning of the 4th of July at the parade in the old town center. I have pictures of that... which will come later!
We all know there is no way that fish was that big!
We spent the morning of the 4th of July at the parade in the old town center. I have pictures of that... which will come later!
That night we had a barbecue with our friends the Bradys at their new house a little outside of town. The kids had a blast! It helped that they had the cutest little baby bunnies in their backyard!
Then came The Garage Sale. I've spent the last couple months cleaning and purging so we would have less to move (and, hopefully, fill our brand new house with less junk!) This necessitated a garage sale. WOW are those things a whole lot of work. There are some really intense garage sale aficionados out there! However, they are very generous to little girls with lemonade stands!
We had a little mini economics lesson prior to the sale, where I explained profit margin and business expenses and calculating net cost compared to gross receipts. The girls were riveted. HA! Just kidding. They were, unsurprisingly, not interested. But the short story is I calculated exactly how much each ice cream bar and glass of lemonade would cost them, and then I let them set their own prices. Then at the end of the sale, they had to pay me back for the cost of supplies. It's a start, anyway!
We had SO. MUCH. STUFF.
This is towards the end of the sale.
The END. How did we have so many little girls' shoes? This was AFTER we had sold a lot... We probably started with easily over 50 pairs of shoes. I don't think I've owned that many shoes in my lifetime!
Catching fireflies... (They do this pretty much every night.)
And Kate turned 9!
Okay so... I don't really have any photos of Kate's birthday! We had her party the week before, on her cousin Cami's (7th) birthday. Erika and her kids drove from Utah to help us pack and move, and they arrived on Cami's birthday. So she and Kate got to celebrate their birthdays at a joint party!
Kate is one of those girls who has just a few very close friends, rather than a large group of acquaintance-type friends. So I told her we could take four of her friends to White Water (water park) in Branson for a birthday party. I didn't really take pictures there. We had a total of 11 kids there and three adults, so we were busy trying not to lose anyone or let the babies drown! We sure had a blast, though! I mostly hung out with the five 9-yr-olds, while Erika took the 7-yr-old girls, and Travis wrangled all the little boys. You can guess who had the hardest job! I had a great time with those big girls! We rode slides that scared the pants off me, and a tube slide that could fit all of us in one tube! It was so different than my usual toddler-friendly outings!
After the party, it was crunch time. We packed and played. Some of us more playing than packing.
Sometimes we caught amphibians and brought them in the house...
After we were pretty much packed, we took a day off and went to Silver Dollar City!
Pretty much my favorite place on earth, if I haven't said that before. Kate invited a friend, so we had 8 kids this time. Still three adults. It was tough, but we didn't lose anyone! We stayed ALL day long.
(You might want to mute my shrill voice on this one. Sorry, I was hoarse from screaming on all the rides!)
And then, we moved.
I don't have any pictures of the move. It was crazy. But it went smoothly and really fast!
I credit my sister. She is a packing fiend! She has moved 4 or 5 times in the past, oh, about as many years! I think she likes it. One of those moves was done entirely by her and her husband only. Furniture and all! With all that practice, she is like the Mary Poppins of packing. She walks into a room, snaps her fingers, and the whole room is packed! Amazing! Meanwhile I'm like... "Well I did pack this box of books over here... Whew I think I need a snack." Packing is just not a particular skill of mine. I'm so grateful she was here! I don't think I would have survived this move without her.
Unloading was easy - Travis just called a few of our old friends here, and around 8-10 guys showed up Saturday morning and unloaded everything in about half an hour! They came straight over after packing up our friends' house, who moved away from us the same day we came! Oh the irony! They were shipping off to Oklahoma City. So heartbreaking to tear these little friends apart!
I actually missed most of the unloading because I left to run an errand! Convenient timing, eh? Luckily my sister was there. As Travis said, she is one tough little girl! She and Travis unloaded our big freezer - just the two of them! I would have stopped that if I was there. Let's not smash my little sister with heavy appliances! Unfortunately Nolan rendered me pretty useless through the whole process, as he had to be glued to my hip at all times. We even strapped him onto my back at one point during the packing process, just to buy us an hour or two of hands-free productivity!
After the big move-in, we said good-bye to Erika and her kids, and then we all headed back to Springfield so Travis could finish his last week of work at Mercy Hospital, and I could clean the house! We were getting tired of the constant road tripping back and forth (nearly a 3-hour drive each way), but the kids kept things lively for us. The highlight was when we suddenly heard accordion music from the backseat. Yep, don't worry about the road-trip doldrums. Brooklyn thoughtfully packed an accordion.
Lots of floor-camping, cleaning, more cleaning, and ice-cream-eating ensued.
Pretty sure I went about three days without a shower at one point.
And then we came HOME for good! Travis joined us just yesterday. Meanwhile the house is still in chaos and we all went a little crazy at times...
This is my kitchen on day 3 of our permanent arrival. I know, I have no excuse. I will say that NOW at least the kitchen is unpacked and all the boxes are gone. From the kitchen. That is all.
P.S. Stay tuned for definitely MORE updates! And more frequent ones!
My dear parents are now in Liberia, where my dad is serving as a mission president for our church for the next two years.
They are hard at work, and it is indeed hard work! In an effort to help them feel less isolated and less like they are missing time away from home, I'm committing to keeping my blog updated so at least they'll have a glimpse at our little family, and it will be like they never left! Almost.
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