Belated Dude Ranch Highlights

Things have been as crazy as usual. But I am finally getting around to giving some of the highlights from the Girl Scout Trip to the Dude Ranch. There aren't that many pictures due to other girls being in the pictures and we have to keep everyone safe.

Two of the vehicles arrived at the ranch 3 1/2 hours after we left. Our vehicle did not. We arrived 5 1/2 after we left. We traveled quite a bit in the country by accident. We had the GPS and Mapquest. The problem was that I was trying to read Mapquest while driving. I skipped a direction. So I was looking for the wrong highway. After we missed that highway, we got off at the next exit. Tried to follow the GPS and get back on, but the next two exits were closed for construction. When we did find an open exit, it was for the next highway. We got on even thought the GPS said to go south, we went north because that is waht the Mapquest said to do. What we didn't know is that we were already too far north. Yes, you read that right. Then we ended up in the middle of nowhere going through two toll booths that are unmanned. Finally we get to one that has a toll attendant and find out what way to take. This include backtracking 15 miles in sitting still traffic and going through the country on a one lane road. But we did make it and had lots of fun talking, singing, and laughing. We sat in a lot of traffic, saw two horrific accidents, and made it safely. We had late dinner, it was saved for us. Then we went to a horsemanship class, a hayride, and hanging out in the dorm until lights out at 11:00.

 

This is Melodye with one of her best friends, Caitie before bed. The two of them are so much alike it is scary. They know exactly what the other one is thinking without one word being said.

The next morning we were up early, but not by choice. A couple of teenage girls set their alarms for five o'clock in the morning. They didn't get up and take a shower. No they spent the net two hours hogging the only sink and mirror doing their hair and make up. At that point they crawled back in bed. Let me tell you there were some unhappy campers at this point. We went down to see the horses being brought down to be fed. The horses were really beautiful.

 

Some helped each other scratch their itches.

  

The girls were obsessed with the steaming poop from the horses, especially the girls from my van. they had talked about farting and poop the whole 5 1/2 hours. You would think it was a bunch of boys in the van instead of girls. (When I told the girls I had made copies of the pictures for each of the girls, the first thing they asked was if the steaming poop was on there.)

 

This was the sight all weekend of Caitie and Melodye walking together ahead of me. Most times they were holding hands. It was just too cute!!

 

The girls then had a class on fossil hunting in the quarry. They were all sad that they didn't find anything.

 

We posed the girls for some shots together, but I think my favorite is this one with all of their feet. Of course, Melodye just thinks I am crazy for taking it.

The girls took some more classes that I didn't get pictures of. They learned about Illinois plants and animals, completed a scavenger hunt, fed animals, went on a horseback ride, went on a hike, played fun active games with their parents, ate dinner, learned line dancing, went on a hayride, played bingo, played air hockey, and stayed up late again.

The next morning we went on a hike before brunch. It ended up raining while on our hour long hike.We had brunch and the girls played some more air hockey. We weren't able to take any more classes because of how our last horseback ride was scheduled. I took a nap during this time. I was up most of the night because a girl from another troop was up coughing most of the night. I ended up going to find out where the girl was to see if she needed water. the mom was there but hadn't taken her to the bathroom. After I went over there, they went to the bathroom because the girl had thrown up all over herself in her sleep. This had gone on for over three hours. So I slept good during my nap. I needed that nap so I could drive home. We then went on our horseback ride and it rained during the ride. So we were all scrambling to pull what ever we could pull out of our suitcases in the van, whether that was dirty jeans or pajama pants.

 

Then we went home and made it in record time, especially when you compare our original time. I slept good Sunday night. The weekend was so much fun, but tiring. I would definitely go again if we have the chance again. There were eight girls and seven moms that went. Every girl had their mom their which made it easy on all of us. Plus it was a really fun bunch of girls and moms.

Driving Me Crazy

I tell you computers can really drive a person CRAZY!!!!!! I thought they were supposed to make our lives easier. Our desktop computer crashed. It had an external hard drive that was set up to automatically back up files. But it hasn't made a back up since September!!!!!! Which means all of our Itunes information is GONE! Messing around with Itunes, I discover that we have two accounts. How in the world did we end up with two accounts? So I am trying to recover what I can, but it is killing me. I do not want this headache or responsibility. I have emailed Apple. I am waiting for the emailed response, but I am leaving tomorrow afternoon to go to a dude ranch with Melodye and the Girl Scouts. So I may still be resolving this issue next week, Frustrating I tell you.

The computer problems means that I did not take the pictures I planned. Hopefully I will remember to take the pictures and post them in between packing for our trip tomorrow.

Cumberland Falls Part 3

This is the last part of our vacation from Easter Sunday. The pictures with us by the falls didn't turn out. The lighting didn't work out for us to show up in the photos, but the rainbow came out awesome. I really do need to learn the controls of my camera and how to use Photoshop Elements so that I can make my pictures pop. But I think these turned out pretty good.

It really was amazing seeing such a beautiful rainbow up close. The girls were asking where the pot of gold was since they could see where the rainbow started and finished. I still wish we could have seen the moonbow, but this was a nice replacement. And on the plus side I actually could get photos that turned out showing the rainbow!!

I think tomorrow I will try to take some pictures of the doll quilt I sewed for Brooke and some of the February Lady Sweater I have been knitting forever.

Cumberland Falls Part 3

Boy did I take a lot of pictures on this trip. I have tried to narrow them pictures down and post in increment, but it will still be picture heavy. So be prepared.

 

We drove 41 miles to Cumberland Gap. There was an area that the kids could dress up as pioneer girls or boys. Melodye didn't want to do it, but Brooke did. Brooke decided to be a pioneer boy. Go figure. She was not happy at this point because another family had joined us at this point. But she still is cute.

Of course, I had to include a close up picture of such a cute girl.

 

We then drove up to the Pinnacle and hiked a couple of short trails. Melodye was so excited because we were in a cloud.

 

Everyone walked right on by and didn't realize that they had gone into another state. So I took a picture of my big feet standing in Kentucky and Virginia.

 

When we cam back through the girls had fun being in two states at the same time.

Then we were bad parents and left a girl in each state. Sorry I had to make that joke. It was either that or make the joke that they were grounded to different states.

 

I took a picture of Melodye and me, but it wasn't the greatest because we were cold from being in the cloud.

 

This is where we stayed at the Dupont Lodge. The lodge was very conveniently located to the falls. The staff there were amazingly friendly. I would definitely recommend staying there if you are going to Cumberland Falls. I don't know if I would call the Wi-fi high speed, but it worked for what we needed. Tommy says I am just spoiled and that I used to be happy with that speed.

 

We then went back to the falls and explored a little and took some pictures.

 

These are taken on some rocks before the falls. Let me tell you it was hard to get a good picture of Brooke.

 

While I took pictures Tommy skipped rocks and the girls watched.

 

We made Melodye take pictures of us. She wasn't happy to do that because she had better things to do. But she didn't do too bad.

 

Tommy and the girls at the falls again with Brooke being crazy.

 

Me with the girls. As you can tell Brooke still did not want any pictures taken of her.

 

We hiked further and found an area that the girls played in the sand and tried to make sand castles.

 

I kept trying for a cute sister picture, but this was the closest I go. Although I should be happy with it because it does show their personalities.

 

I then wrote our name and 2009 in the sand. My family thought I was crazy when I told them to put their feet in the shot, but I like how it turned out.

 

We tried to see the moonbow, but gave up at about 11:45pm. The girls were tired and it was COLD. We did see the start of the arch, but there wasn't any color to the arch yet. The moon hadn't risen high enough yet. Plus I don't know if I would even have gotten any pictures since I don't know the controls on my camera. I really should learn that someday.

So this was Saturday and we still have Sunday to show. I forgot after we left Cumberland Gap, we went for a drive and ended up in Tennessee and Virginia. The landscape was just gorgeous in Virginia, so green. I wish we could have stopped to take pictures, but not a safe thing to do on the side of a highway or byway as I saw a sign say. Maybe some other time.

Cumberland Falls Part 2 and Three book Reviews

2Tonight we should be able to see the moonbow, but we have to wait until 11:15pm for the best time. The girls are resting right now while we wait.

I have read two books so far while on our trip and one before our trip. So here are my reviews.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
This was a hard one to get into and also a hard book to stay interested in. Don't get me wrong, there were sections that I did not want to put down, but then there were more that I couldn't wait for them to be over. I continued reading this because I really enjoyed the musical and I wanted to see what similarities there were. My real problem with Wicked was the sheer enormity of characters. There were characters that were introduced out of nowhere and then not mentioned again or until much later. These characters seemed like I should have known them, but there really wasn't a reason to know the. All in all, I would not be recommending this to anyone.


View all my reviews.

Show No Fear: A Nina Reilly Novel by Perri O'Shaughnessy

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this Nina Reilly book. My problem was that I know things from the previous books and I kept skipping ahead trying to figure out when things were going to happen. But if you are a fan of the Nina Reilly books this is a must read. Although now that I think about it, there can still be more prequels besides this one. We do not know how Nina ends up in Tahoe or how Paul becomes a private investigator and so forth. Interesting to see if there will be more prequels to come.


View all my reviews.

The Associate by John Grisham

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am so glad that John Grisham has returned to what he does best. I read all of his earlier books, but when he started moving away from his earlier style of writing, I stopped reading them. The Associate is definitely a return to the style of writing that I enjoyed so much in the past. The character, Kyle is a real likeable character. I was rooting for him all along. I was wishing for someway of knowing what happens to Kyle in the future. If John Grisham continues to write in this style I will continue reading. I would recommend this to anyone who likes John Grisham's earlier books.


View all my reviews.

Cumberland Falls Part 1

We left this morning at 6am and drove for seven hours. We have made it to Corbin, Kentucky where Cumberland Falls are located. Every time there is a full moon there is a phenomenon called a moonbow that occurs. Unfortunately it was rainy and cloudy so we could not see it tonight. We are holding out hope for tomorrow night.

We did go see the falls inbetween rainstorms. The girls couldn't believe the waterfalls that we saw on the stairs.

Brooke obviously did not want her picture taken. Actually she was mad because we told her we wanted a nice picture not a crazy one.

Here is the whole family.

Here are a couple of the falls.