Happy 3rd Birthday to Esmie!
We love you to pieces and glad God gave you to us!
We enjoy watching you discover new things each day. You are a silly girl with a big personality. Can't believe that you are 3 years old already. It feels like you were just born.
Hugs and kisses to you!

We took a trip East this past week. We drove through the night so that the kids would sleep most of the way, which they did. We got in the next morning around 10 so we ended up taking naps when we got there. That is exhausting! Phil was only there for the weekend so we had a whole bunch of visiting jammed into a short weekend but it was fun! By the way, if your wondering why I'm doing this as a seperate post, it's because I can't figure out this whole new layout thingy on blogspot and some parts of it is really slow, or not working at all. While Phil was there, we had a birthday party for our kids and their cousin, Kaelyn. The kids really enjoyed the pinata filled with candy. I knew that my kids would enjoy playing with their counsins. But I didn't know just how much fun they would have until Esmie told Papa, "Papa, I love all my cousins, I just love them so much." Both of my married sisters and their hubbies plus kids were able to make it that weekend. And my Grandma and Grandpa made the trip for a night as well! We were happy to see and visit with everyone. Thank you for coming everyone! Phil flew home on Sunday. I stayed all week long. My sisters went out for coffee and left the kids with my Dad and brother-in-law. I think they handled it well! :) It was nice to get out with them and have some aching bellies from laughing so hard, I had a few things planned each day, the kids got their pictures taken, I went to my old work for a visit and my old boss bought me lunch, I won a free session with Becki Hill, who is a personal trainer, and she kicked me butt!! It was a haaard workout for sure! The next day, every single muscle in my body was sore, which was a good sign obviously! I think the only words I said that day was "ow,ow,ow,ow" every time I moved. ;) There was a ladies potluck that was put together so that was nice visiting with them! Always a few good laughs. That was cut short due to Esmie's Tantrum, ah well. Can't have happy kids all the time! By the middle of the week my kids started getting sick and Chance was having seperation issues. Everytime I went to the van to get something, went to the bathroom, etc...he would cry for me. We thought maybe because Phil had left for the whole week but now that we are back, he's still like that. I'm hoping this stage doesn't last too long, it wears on me. Esmie lost her voice, and all three kids were/are coughing. We decided to take out time going home. We drove for a few hours on Saturday evening and then stayed overnight in a hotel that had a HUGE black spider crawling on the wall. From the time I saw that until I fell asleep, that's all I could think about. We had to check the pillows, blankets,corners,etc to make sure there weren't any other creatures hangin around. We all slept great that night, all 5 of us on a king size bed. Lol. I was thinking of padding down the drawers for Tenley but after I saw that spider? Um, no thanks! We headed on in the morning and stopped at Mall of America for a couple hours. We spent most of our time in the SeaLife Aquarium, which the kids LOVED. Jellyfish, sharks, stingrays, Esmie got to touch some starfish, turtles, paranas, eals, seahorses, caiman crocs, and more. MOA will have to be another weekend by itself because there's so much that the kids wanted to do that didn't fit into our time schedule. We made it home safely, seeing the lights of our town in the distance was so comforting knowing that we finally made it home, safe and sound. Well, that was out trip in a nutshell. Can't wait to go back!

A Week and a half packed full of fun

DAY 18: Water

This was on our way out of Theodore Rooselvelt National Park. I liked how you could see the River winding it's way through the badlands. (And I'm drawing a blank what river this is)
I am a little early with this one but I will be taking a short break from my blog. I will return soon!

DAY 17: Reflection

DAY 16: Fence

A peek at what Phil does in the oil field.

Driving home from Medora, you can see this work-over rig on side of the highway.

This is what kind of rig Phil works on.

He is a derrick-hand which means he is 50-80 feet off the ground on a "diving board" size platform. He works on both of the platforms you see photographed, depending on what job he's doing. There is still about 20 feet of rig below the black tanks you see but the hill is blocking the view. I will try and get a picture of a rig with tubing in the derrick so I can better explain what he does.