Raise the Roof!

Over the past couple of weekends, Jake, with the help of some (very brave) friends, built our hay barn! It required much equipment and many long hours, but it is finally done!

Here it is after the posts set and the perlings and cross beams were welded. The first piece of tin is about to be put in place...



And then my (crazy) husband goes up to the roof in the cherry picker and bolts it onto the perlings. Mind you, it was a bit breezy this day and he kept commenting that everything was swaying....the barn and the cherry picker. No thank you!


And the process is repeated again.....

and again.....

until it's completely roofed!
And then there is time to take the girls up in the cherry picker to see the very top, up close and personal.....

Isn't it grand!?! :)

Enrichment

Wednesday was the first day of Enrichment classes for the girls. Lauren was so excited to go to school with all her friends....literally, almost all her friends are in her class! Lauren and Juliet waiting in line for class to start....

Some kids ride the bus to school.....ours ride a hay wagon pulled by a tractor! Love it! When it was time for them to board the wagon, Lauren freaked out a little. She is not the biggest fan of a) new things and b) leaving me. This is when I rejoiced in the fact that Juliet was there who enjoys both a) new things and b) leaving her mother. (haha....sorry, Kourtni! :)) Juliet put her arm around Lauren and said, "Let's go do this. I'll keep you safe!" and off they went....Phew, I think I owe Juliet a kid's meal or something! :)

Here they are on the aforementioned tractor after the pep talk. I'd kill to know what they're talking about here....or maybe it's best we don't know! Whatever it was, it worked. When I picked her up, Lauren informed me that she loves going to that school more than school at home, but she loves me more than the ladies who teach her there. Nice save, Lauren.

I feel sorta bad that I have no pictures of Emma once we got to the school. In fact, I didn't really see Emma again after we got there. She went off alone to find her line and that was that. (She's my Juliet. lol) I did find out afterward that she got into the wrong line and ended up in 8th grade Biology. I know. My mother of the year award is in the mail. Even worse is that when she was telling me this, I just kept thinking, "Thank goodness that didn't happen to Lauren! She would never come back!" And as is typical for Emma, she had made 3 brand new best friends by the end of the 3 hours and couldn't tell you a single thing about any of the classes that she took. I assure you I have no idea where she gets that from!

I have two girls who cannot wait for next Wednesday!

And did I mention that I strolled through Target alone for much of the 3 hours that they were there?

I would call the day a smashing success!

Glorious solitude.....

Last month my husband brought us here....
...to stay in the little cabin he has stayed in every year since he was 11 during deer hunting season. It was gorgeous, the weather was perfect and there was no internet, phone service or washing machine. Of course, there was no indoor toilet either. The girls were oh so thrilled to live like Mary and Laura for a few days. :)

One day as we were driving back to the cabin after taking a hike, there were several deer in the pasture right in front of us....

We climbed a lot of rocks, hiked up mountains, played in the south fork of the Kern River that runs through the meadow in front of the cabin (Lauren and Jake even caught a little trout one day, and we roasted marshmallows. But mostly, we sat and enjoyed the weather and the peace and the beauty of God's creation!

Unfortunately, the fire department was doing a controlled burn a few miles away and the smoke would start settling in the afternoons when the breeze died down....

It was the perfect vacation!