Suzanne McGrath Photography

Six on Sunday

Happy Sunday!  I hope you had a good week.  Let's get rolling, shall we?

 

1.  This week we did a little rearranging in our bedrooms.  In an attempt to make the Little's bedroom feel bigger, we traded out #4's desk and their bookshelf for the secretary we had in the master bedroom.  It worked great but now I need to sell a desk.  (Actually two desks since I bought one for #2 and need to sell her desk, too!)

So, if you are interested in either of these, give me a shout!

$120 for this one which has a fresh coat of white and is in great shape.  You could easily change the drawer colors because they are just latex paint.

 

This desk was always slated for a makeover but I just never got around to it.  Drawers work great and it is pretty from the front, too.  It's yours for $80 which is less than I paid for it.  But it does need to be painted.

 

I also managed to prep the highboy I bought last Sunday so it's now ready for it's beautification.  I will need to post pictures when it's done!

 

2.  #4 took tennis lessons this week with her BFF.  She loved it!  I will say, her coaches at Elite Tennis were fabulous with the kids.  I'm just pumped because she actually liked something!  

 

3.  I ran into Home Depot yesterday for something and found this:

That is the most gorgeous Fiddle Fig Leaf tree I think I have ever seen.  And the best part?  It was only $40!!!  I need to re-pot it into a bigger planter but I am thrilled with my find.  Now, if I can just keep it alive which is always rather elusive for me.  Any tips?

 

4.  We had our friends over for dinner last night and they brought their new puppy, Lewie.  I am so sad because I failed to get a picture of dogs together but they were hilarious!  They played so hard that Winston has been tired all day.  We took the kids to the pool and they had a blast.  This is not the best pic, but you get the idea:

We had so much fun hanging out with everyone.  I loved that the kids went to the pool because that way their son got in on the fun, too.  It's hard to be the only boy out of six kids!

 

5.  My garden has been so much fun this year!  I have tomatoes coming out my ears so I plan on making salsa tomorrow.  It will be my second batch and everyone loves it.  Bonus!  And today I made zucchini soup.  It called for 8 cups of zucchini and I had ONE zucchini that was so big it was actually more like 10 cups in total!

Next year we are going to add another bed.  Honestly, I have zucchini, watermelon, and cucumbers in there and it's too much.  The zucchini should have half the bed to itself!  And also, my tomato cages are too small.  I think I should build my own that are higher and stronger.  But it's a good problem to have, right?!   

 

 

6.  I've written about our friends that are moving to Ohio before, so it's not new news.  

Anyway, we've been spending as much time with them as possible this past week.  (They leave next Friday, the 5th.)  #2 left for my mom's in Arkansas today so this was the last time she got to see her friend, Kate.  It was really hard for her.  She cried and cried right before she got in the car to head south.  Man, it brought back memories of when her BFF left for Texas when she was in third grade.  Growing up is ROUGH, yo!

Our little girls have had three sleepovers in eight days, I think.  They are (smartly, brilliantly) milking this for everything it's worth.  And Lia and I had a delightful, grown-up dinner where we got to wear dresses last week.  So I'd be remiss to say I am not milking this for everything, too.  I'll miss them more than I can possibly write here.  There will be a hole left in our family but I know they will thrive once they get back home.  Because Ohio is truly their home.  (And also, there are such things as airplanes.  I know this.  But still...)

 

And there you have it.  My six for you this Sunday.  Have a great week!


 

 

Six on Sunday

I hope you had a good week and managed through this heat!  My office is so hot I call it a sweat lodge during the summer.  Therefore, I'm going to get started and not waste any more time!

1.  With the Littles gone most of last week, it was a bit quiet around here.  (Um, actually, that was a huge understatement!  It was like a ghost town.)  Anyway, we did a few fun things with the Big girls while the Littles were away...

• We watched several movies:  The Sixth Sense, Top Gun, Say Anything, and Pretty Woman.  They enjoyed the Sixth Sense but thought Top Gun was majorly stupid.  I almost disowned them.  Almost.

• I took #3 shopping for new shoes and a few Hawaii items because Old Navy was having such a big sale.

• We treated ourselves to Twister's one night and McDonald's blizzards another night.  And then I put on shorts yesterday and they were almost too tight.  Not good.

 

• We went to the Royals game on one of the hottest days of the year.  Seriously, I think the heat index was 109* in the stadium.  We lasted five innings or two hours.  At $60 for our tickets, I figured that was only $0.50 per minute so we were good.

(It was too hot to wear my Royals T-shirt.  I had to stick with the tank top that wasn't even blue.  Oh well.)

 

• We went out to brunch at The Big Biscuit.  I love brunch and hadn't been there yet so that was a real treat for me!

 

• We all went out to lunch at Planet Sub because we had two BOGO coupons.  Man, I love their creamy crab sub!

 

2.  The Littles had a blast in Arkansas with my mom and their cousin, Grant.  They went to the children's museum in Bentonville.  They spent FOUR HOURS there one afternoon!  They went to a movie, The Secret Lives of Pets, went fishing, went boating and tubing, out to dinner, shopping for new outfits at Academy, rode go-karts and played lazer tag.  My mom deserves an award for all that!  They absolutely loved their time away and I'm so happy they were able to get spoiled.

 

3.  I forgot to show you Darby's new haircut a couple weeks ago.  She got her summer 'do and looks awesome.

Can you tell she's modeling?  It's her,"look away from the camera so as to appear aloof" look.

 

Meanwhile, Winston is still growing.  Last time I took him to the vet he was four pounds seven ounces - almost double when we brought him home!

He's hilarious.  He's catching on to the potty training thing but has accidents if we are not fast enough when he goes to the door.  He loves to bite and we are trying super hard to stop that!  Basically, when he's awake someone has to be watching him at all times.  It's tiring.

 

4.  Today I bought a $40 chest of drawers from Craigslist:

It's in pretty bad shape and the hardware is hideous.  But I'm going to paint it and it will look fabulous!  It's going in our master bedroom because we are moving our secretary to the little girls's room so they can get rid of #4's desk and their bookshelf.  Basically, their room is crowded and we are trying to alleviate some of that.  I'll take pictures when it's all said and done.

The best thing about the chest of drawers?  It's the same brand as our dresser (Dixie) so the styles will match once she's all painted.  Love that!  

 

5.  The girls got out their Brick a Blocks this weekend and have been building forts like crazy!  I love it when they dig a toy out of the basement.  It makes me feel like the purchase was actually worth it!

 

6.  I'm hoping to do at least one fun this coming week but I'm not sure if it'll happen.  #4 has tennis camp every day and #3 has art camp every day.  Once you throw in the other stuff - music lessons, eye dr. appointments, swim meets, the week is already practically full!  

There you have it!  Have a great week!

 
 

 

 

 

 

Our Epic Road Trip: Black Hills, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons

Here it is!  The first post in a series about our epic road trip.  Yes, I call 2,500+ miles epic because that is a LOT of time in the car!  But totally worth it so it's all good.

I've edited over 60 pictures so I'm going to break down our trip into separate posts:

1. Overall trip and where we stayed plus a few littles things
2. Black Hills in-depth
3. Yellowstone in-depth
4. Grand Tetons in-depth

I hope this itinerary will help you get started planning.  Obviously there are a ton of ways to do this trip and this is just how we did it.  In a nutshell, we went from Kansas City to Sioux Falls, SD.  Then to the Black Hills for three nights.  From there we went to Yellowstone for another three nights - all in different locations.  And finally we hit the Grand Tetons for three nights.  We stopped for one night in Denver on the way home to break up the drive.  All told, we were gone for 11 nights!  

LEG ONE - SOUTH DAKOTA:

We started out from Kansas City.  I'm from South Dakota so I've been out to the Black Hills more times than I count on one (two?) hands, but my kids have only been out there once in the winter so we wanted to include SD in our trip.  And it's sort-of on the way, so we figured, why not?!  But, it is 12 hours in the car from KC to the Black Hills.  Thankfully I've got a great friend in Sioux Falls which is exactly in the middle of the 12 hours and we were able to split up the drive and stay with Rachel.  It made the trip out so much more enjoyable!

If you are not as lucky as I am, there are definitely some great, kind-friendly hotels in Sioux Falls.  And I would definitely recommend visiting Falls Park if you stop over for the night.  It's really a great place to visit and the kids will love climbing around on the rocks!

Because both the hubby and I have seen it (and he didn't want to stop), we skipped the Corn Palace in Mitchell but if this is your only trip through South Dakota, you should probably stop for this tourist trap - I mean attraction:)

About two hours outside of Sioux Falls is a town named Chamberlain, SD.  We always stop at Al's Oasis for lunch.  I'm not sure why but it's just tradition.  

 

Another two hours past Chamberlain is the exit for the Badlands.  TAKE THE EXIT!  (Exit 131)  The Badlands is just so cool; indescribable, really.  I found this map really helpful.  

There are numerous overlooks and some hiking trails.  We stopped at the first overlook (first picture above) and the views were just magnificent!  We also did a small hike and loved it.  

After finishing in the Badlands, we drove straight up to I-90 again and stopped at Wall Drug.  There are countless (truly - you will lose track) signs for Wall Drug along I-90 in SD.  It's a huge tourist trap so of course we stopped and got ice cream.  It's pretty much a must-see.

 

The drive from Wall Drug to Custer State Park was about two hours.  I just noted this little fact because I always feel like once I hit Wall I'm there.  But not really.    

**TIP**:  Stop in Rapid City and buy any groceries that will be needed in the future.  There are not a lot of grocery store options in the Black Hills, and particularly in Custer State Park where we stayed.  We did manage to buy a few things but I'm sure they were over-priced.

 

The Black Hills is actually a National Forest.  This map is very detailed and helpful.  It's a large park and we only hit the southern part of it and stayed in Custer State Park. Here is a map of Custer State Park which I found very useful.  I'll do a detailed overview of our stay in Custer in a later post.  We stayed three nights at Sylvan Lake Lodge.  My parents actually honeymooned there so it was fun for my family to stay in the same location years later!  The room was fine.  It was clean and it slept all six of us but it was definitely out-dated.  (That sentence just pretty much describes every place we stayed on this trip!)

LEG TWO - YELLOWSTONE:

Since we were staying in the southern portion of the Black Hills, we opted not to stop at Devil's Tower. However, if you have never seen it before it is really cool!  It's basically just north of the top of the Black Hills.  Also, did you know it was featured in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind?

We did have to drive over the Big Horn Mountains (I think that's what they were called) and let me tell you - there was one pass through there that scared the pants off me!  It was a little two-lane road where the road simply fell off the side of the earth on the outside lane.  Totally freaky!  If you are thinking of pulling a camper I'd double-think this route.

(That view is totally not the scariest part because I had my eyes closed while I was leaning in to prevent the car from falling off the road on that part!)

Let me preface this section by telling you a couple things I learned:

1. Book your cabins at least a year in advance.  Yes, I said a year.  When I called a year in advance I didn't get any of the places I had picked out.  Rather, I got what was available!
2. Yellowstone is HUGE - nearly 3,500 square miles! This is a good map.  It's really impossible to stay in one location and make day trips to see everything.  As much as it is a pain to unpack and pack up every day, I would still recommend doing it that way.  And honestly, we got really good and fast at it.  

To get to Yellowstone we drove through Cody, WY.  The drive to Cody was about 8 hours I think.  And then it was another hour or so once we got into Yellowstone via the East Entrance to get to Lake Lodge on Yellowstone Lake.

**TIP**:  If you need to do laundry (we definitely did!), Lake Lodge was great.  The Lodge is huge and beautiful but most of all, there was a fabulous bar in the lobby.  So the hubby and I had drinks while we played Memory with the kids all the while the laundry was going.  Also, if I were to do it again, I would have brought my own roll of quarters rather than mess with the change machines in the laundromats.  I swear they were always broken!

We stayed in a Western Cabin which was nice.  It only had two queen beds so we had to set up two twin blow-up air mattresses.  (Actually, we had to do this all three nights we stayed in Yellowstone!)  However, we had a bathroom in the cabin which was a luxury compared to the next two nights.  Bringing the air mattresses wasn't a huge deal but it did mean setting up and taking down each night while in Yellowstone.  We also had to bring our own bedding for the air mattresses.  Thank goodness we own a topper for our Suburban so we had room for everything.

The second night in Yellowstone we stayed up in Tower Roosevelt in a Rough Rider cabin.  The name is an apt description.  They are rough.  The cabin was basically a sleeper cabin.  It contained one double bed, a desk, and a wood burning stove that we had no idea how to use.  We ended up with two of these cabins.  The hubby and I each took a turn on the air mattresses that night and FROZE!  Seriously - so cold.  

I think we could have stayed over at Mammoth Hot Springs that night since both locations are on the north end of the park.  But since we did a Chuckwagon Ride that night right in Tower Roosevelt, staying right there was definitely the easiest way to go.    

The last night in Yellowstone we stayed at Old Faithful Inn.  I have to say - this is a must!  The Inn was just amazing!  The history was fascinating to me and they even do several walking tours a day to showcase the Inn.  

Thankfully, the accommodations in the Inn were much nicer (i.e. warmer) than the Rough Rider cabin.  We had two Old House Rooms without a bath.  While we had a sink in each room, the shower and toilets were down the hall.  Let me tell you something, though.  The bathrooms down the hall were BEAUTIFUL!  Seriously, they were the prettiest bathrooms on the whole trip.  And I didn't feel inconvenienced at all.  I'd stay there again in a heartbeat!

LEG THREE - GRAND TETONS:

Since Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons practically touch each other, there is no time wasted driving between the two.  That was really nice because we had a full day in Yellowstone before we headed to the Tetons. Here is a great map of the Tetons.

We stayed in a cabin at Colter Bay Village.  We actually had a two room double cabin.  What that meant was everyone had a bed!  And we had our own bathroom.  Heaven!  We stayed there for three nights.  Our cabin didn't have a view but I didn't mind.  The hubby thought it may have been nice to check out Jackson Lake Lodge.  So I'll throw that out to you.  The two locations are only about 15 minutes apart and both are on Jackson Lake.  Judging by the pictures online, I'm guessing Jackson Lake Lodge would be quite a bit more pricey but I'm not totally sure?

Another possibility - and something the hubby would have loved - would be to stay in Jackson, WY.  The town is simply adorable - just as you'd expect of a ski town.

It might have been nice to stay in the Grand Tetons for two nights and move to Jackson for the last night.  The hotels are in the middle of town with little tiny swimming pools and they look super cute!  Plus, there are a ton of restaurants and fun shopping, too.

To get home would have been about 16 hours if we would have driven straight through from the Grand Tetons back to KC.  Um, no thank you!  So we stopped and stayed with good friends in Denver.  It was perfect because Denver is exactly in the middle and each day was only 8 hours which we've found to be very do-able.  

I was dreading the car ride, but I have to say, it really wasn't that bad.  For any of us, really.  We watched (or listened to) 13 movies in 2,500 miles.  We have a screen that comes down from the ceiling so all four kids can watch a movie at the same time which is a life-saver!  In case you're wondering, our tastes in movies is rather eclectic:

• Princess Diary
• Princess Diary 2
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1
• Frozen
• Clueless
• The Sandlot
• The Pacifier
• Inside Out
• The Parent Trap
• Enchanted
• Lemony Snicket's - A Series of Unfortunate Events
• The Incredibles
• The Karate Kid

We also got a ton of use out of Adult Coloring books and colored pencils (don't forget the sharpener!).  And the biggest surprise hit of the trip?  Silly Putty.  Yep - the old classic.  I should have bought more than two of them.  The girls kept their things organized by something I found on Amazon.  They used the cupholders to hold pencils, markers, scissors, etc.  It was great.  

We also like to eat meals in the car because it takes up time.  Often, we'll leave very early in the morning and just pack bagels and cream cheese along with some fruit.  Presto magic - breakfast!  Of other times we'll stop and pick up subs and eat them in the car for lunch.  I'd rather eat in the car than in the restaurant as that only seems to make the trip last longer.  

Phew!  That was long.  If you stuck around this long - thank you.  I hope this information is helpful to at least one person because I know planning a trip like this can be daunting.  I'll be back later with a detailed post for each of the three locations.  If you questions - just let me know!

Edited to add:  Detailed posts can be found here:

1. Black Hills in-depth
2. Yellowstone in-depth
3. Grand Tetons in-depth

 

 

 
 

 

 

Six on Sunday is BACK!

It's Sunday night and I'm blogging.  YES!  But I need to get this done so the big girls can watch The Sixth Sense with the hubby and me.  So here goes...

 

1.  We spent a lot of time at various bodies of water this week.  Our pool, friends' pools, Schlitterbahn.  It was all good!

 

 

2.  We tried to go to Schlitterbahn (a water park) on Wednesday but the weather didn't cooperate.  We made up for it by watching Eddie the Eagle.  Fabulous movie!  Seriously, it was such a great movie that all the girls enjoyed and that is hard to find!  But I digress...we managed to get to Schlitterbahn on Friday and it was truly the PERFECT day for it.  It was sunny and warm but not too hot.  #1 even managed to go down Verruckt, the tallest waterslide in the WORLD.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The tallest waterslide in the world:

It is taller than the Statue of Liberty and taller than Niagara Falls.  Loosely translated, Verruckt means insane in English.

Anyway, we had a wonderful day.  We loved the river rapids ride that wind through the whole park.  The lines for the water slides were a bit long considering the park wasn't even that busy so I would hate to go on a busy day or a Saturday.  The desire to make everything so safe actually means they won't let a rider down a slide until the first rider is completely done and has exited the slide at the bottom.  It's a bit much, in my opinion.  But whatever.

We also brought a picnic lunch and snacks.  That is such a money-saver.  Of course you can buy food out there but it's not exactly healthy.  So it was awesome to be able to bring our own food in to the park.  We stayed (relatively) healthy and saved some serious dollars.  Win-win!

 

3.  I decided the girls and I needed a little culture in our summer so Thursday was a museum day for us.  We visited the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the Nelson-Atkins museum.  Admission is free at both which was really great.  I think we all enjoyed our tours but of course we had to cut it a bit early than I would have wanted because #4 was pretty much DONE.  Oh well.  I'm still glad we ventured out of our 'hood.  I think it's great for kids to see other areas of the city.

 

Of course we celebrated our "culturization" with a stop for frozen yogurt in Brookside.  Foo's Custard was really fun!

 

5.  We had our friends over last night to grill out before they move back to Ohio.  We all had a blast!  The kids headed down to the pool after dinner and stayed quite awhile.  I think there is just something so fun about swimming in the dark.  I just love it.  (I think they do, too!)

 

And also?  I tried a new recipe and I will definitely be making it again.  Brat Burgers!  Who knew that was even a thing?  I hate bratwurst but loved these burgers - I even loved the carmelized onions on top.  If you are looking for an easy grill recipe, you should definitely try this one.  I think you'll like it.

 

6.  My sister picked up the little girls today and they are spending the week at my mom's house along with my nephew.  I know they have big plans while they are there and I can't wait to hear all about it!  That means we only have two kids this week and it feels so bizarre and today was only day one.  I'm sure I'll be ready for them to come home by the time I pick them on Friday.

Meanwhile, the big girls and I don't have a whole lot of plans yet besides the Royals baseball game on Wednesday.  (Where it will feel like it's 115* and we'll probably keel over - but whatever.  I already bought the tickets.  We are going.)  And you read in the first line of this post, we are going to watch The Sixth Sense tonight.  I love that movie and am excited to get their reaction.  I'm sure we'll come up with a few other things to keep us busy, too.

Anyway, that's all I've got for tonight.  Have a fabulous week!  (And let me know if you try the brat burgers and what you think!)

 

 

It's Been a MONTH!

Holy cow!  Can you believe it's been a month since I last posted?  Yeah, me neither!  But I just went to look at my last post and sure enough - it was June 12th.  In typical fashion, this post will be random.  Here goes...

1.  We had a birthday in the last month!  #2 finally became a teenager.  Can you believe it?!  I have TWO teenagers now.  That's just crazy.

 

At 13 years old, #2 is:

• sensitive.  She still wears her heart on her sleeve and I'm sure she always will.
• funny.  She has a great sense of humor and I love to hear her laugh.
• caring.  She takes great care of her sisters and our puppy and really does what is best for them.
• a chef.  She loves to cook and does such a fabulous job.  I need to utilize her more often!
• athletic.  She is such a great soccer player and so fun to watch.
• smart.  She does great in school with zero prodding from us.

I'm sure I could go on and on, but I'll stop there.  In short, she's fabulous and I just love her to pieces!

 

2.  Our road trip truly was EPIC!  I'm serious.  We had so much fun and I'm thankful for that because the girls were not exactly pumped to hit the road.  But after more than 2,500 miles I can say it was totally worth it.  If you have not done that trip or parts of it (Black Hills, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons) you totally should.  For reals.

I'm not going to write much more than that and post a few pictures because I hope to write a detailed post or posts about it in the future.  My former boss gave me her family's itinerary and it was so helpful so I figure it might be good to write it all down for those of you who would like to do it in the future.  Because you totally should.

I will tell you our favorites, though:

#1 thought the entire day in Jackson was her favorite.  We started out whitewater rafting, went to lunch and shopped, and finished the day by taking the aerial tram to the top of Jackson Hole ski resort.  (It totally fits her personality that Jackson was her favorite.  I swear she'll move to the mountains some day.)

The aerial tram:

 

View from the top:

 

You must eat waffles at Corbets Cabin:

 

#2 loved whitewater rafting.  The end.  Her favorite.  (No pics because I didn't buy the digital negatives - I just ordered an 11 x 14.)

#3 had a tie between whitewater rafting and swimming in Firehole Canyon in Yellowstone.

Firehole canyon:

 

#4 loved our horseback trailside the most.  Now she insists she wants to take horseback riding lessons.  (I only see dollar signs but I'm torn because it is the first thing she has been interesting in pursuing since ever.)

Trailride at Blue Bell Stables in Custer State Park, SD:

 

The hubby's favorite activity was whitewater rafting.  

Mine was a tie between swimming in Firehole canyon and book-ending our trip with stays with friends.  Firehole canyon - there was just something that was so neat because it was "off the grid" and not many people knew about it.  So cool.  Major props to my former boss on that one.  (Thanks, Laurilyn!)  And spending time with some of our oldest and dearest friends and their family will always be a highlight for me!  We are so lucky to have such great friends that they will take us in - ALL SIX OF US - and still love us at the end of the day!

Friends in Sioux Falls, SD:

 

Friends in Denver, CO:

 

My college girlfriends and me (all sans make-up since it was a pool day):

 

3.  We got back from our epic road trip on Monday (the 27th) and turned around left for my mom's house that next Friday.  Yep, we only slept in our own beds for four nights before heading out again.  Of course it was worth it and we had a great time in Arkansas with my family.  We had decent (not perfect!) weather and lots of family time.  We were able to go boating, waterski and wakeboard, hit up the Farmer's Market, shop a little, eat too much, blow off fireworks, and watch fireworks get blown off.  I'd say that's a pretty great weekend if you ask me!

 

4.  We got back from our Arkansas weekend and then the hubby and I turned around and left for Lake Okoboji on Wednesday night.  Yep, only two nights in our own beds that time!  As in past years, we had a BLAST with our friends.  

Luckily, the hubby's parents were able to watch the kids for us and of course the kids got spoiled!  They went out to breakfast at t.Loft, went shopping and bowling, and had movie night every night.  I'd call that a success.   

As for us, we had so much fun.  We went for several runs by the lake, did some boating, went shopping, drank too many beers, ate at lots of fun places, sang karaoke (not me), played darts, and danced our asses off one night.  It's so fun to have friends that we have known forever.  One night we sat reminiscing over beers and I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.  Man, we have the best stories!  From stealing Iowa flags in the middle of the night to stealing golf carts, there's a story from every year.

 

5.  As for the kids and I, we are making the best of our summer.  We saw Finding Dory last week and loved it.  #2 - #4 have all gotten haircuts and #4 chopped hers.  (It's simply adorable.)  We've gone out to lunch a few times ranging from Freddy's to Costco.  We've spent major time at the pool with our numerous floaties - including our mammoth swan.  Today #4 got her ears pierced for the first time, #2 pierced her one ear that closed, and #3 pierced hers a second time so now she has two earrings.  #1 celebrated their ear piercings by getting a couple new pairs of jeans.  (Why do I feel the need to keep things even?!)  Sheesh!  

 

 

6.  There you go!  I'd say you're all caught up.  I hope you are having as great of a summer as we are having over here.  We have no crazy plans for the rest of the summer so I should be able to get back onto my regular Sunday night programming.  Also, I hope to get my epic road trip post or posts up soon - before I forget the good stuff.  Have a great week!