Kisses

So Paige is normally pretty mushy, doling out kisses to anyone who asks. Earlier on this week her Dad tried to give her one and she cried out "No". He then tried again and she just smiled and held her hand over her mouth, trying unsuccessfully to grin when she realized it stopped him from kissing her. I tried to kiss her later and she stopped me with "Kisses get me wet." Apparently she's sick of being slobbered on by her parents!

Happy Labor Day

Its been a busy week for us catching up on some things and enjoying the long weekend. As it concludes I thought I had better jot down a few things I have learned this week.

1. There are imaginary horses taking over my house. I was in a different room from Paige the other day and I heard her talking to something. She was saying "Come here, come here" over and over. I closed my eyes and thought, please don't be a mouse. I saw here bending over talking clearly to something only she could see. I watched for a few minutes and then asked her what she was talking to. "Horses." I asked her how many. "Two." They are brown if you want to know that too. They also eat a lot and don't move where they are supposed to.

2. There might be a monkey in the herd. She was upset with something and I heard the phrase "No! The monkey will eat it." I just walked away and am hoping this is all just a very creative two year old.

3. Two year olds will clap when people are done singing. . .at funerals. Cowboy's uncle passed away and we were at the service. Paige was behaving very well and then the hymn was over and she started to clap--thank goodness it wasn't loud and I caught her hands on the first clap. She did it later as well.

4. She knows her name very well. We were all eating supper and I said, "I'm starving." She announces right back, "I Paige."

Lipgloss

I know I have a girl. I have known this for quite some time; but at times I just laugh at how 'girly' she really is. She likes pink, her babies, helping Mommy do anything, playing with my makeup brushes, etc. She dislikes being really dirty and hates bugs.

We were in the car coming home and she was jabbering and she felt 'really sick.' Don't be alarmed by this since she says she's sick at least daily. Plus, everything is 'really'--really icky, really good, etc. She then said she wanted some lipgloss (Chapstick) so I handed it to her in the backseat. She puts in on and then just beams and announces, "I feel better." The healing power it apparently has!

Cowboy vacation

I realized that all of the posts were about the fun Paige and I had; so we had to show the 'fun' our Cowboy had on his week of 'vacation.' Here are Cowboy and Paige filling up the creep feeder last Sunday. Note the shovel in his hands, not mine!

Here is our Cowboy unstacking load 8 of hay during a freak little rain storm that lasted just long enough to ruin my pictures. He hauled 27 bales with each load and did 11 loads. You do the math.

He is one of the friendly bulls we discussed earlier. I thought he deserved a photo since he caused such comotion. Plus, Paige likes to look at pictures of cows. She calls everything a cow--so do I--and it frustrates the Cowboy.

Barking Cows

So the last part of our week off was spent as a family at Camp Keith. I christened the ranch in MT that when we built the shop. It's sort of like a dude ranch in that none of us live there full time but we go and have fun, and then have to go home. Plus, there are lots of fun toys to play with and things to do. It was just the three of us and Cowboy was up at the crack of dawn and gone and then Paige and I got to relax. Its not really roughing it when you can hang out in the central air and watch Direct TV. We cleaned, cooked, and practiced being ranch women. Paige wore her boots for 5 days non stop. She even discovered why you need to wear socks with them--she has a blister to prove it. When Cowboy would come back with a load of hay; she would get to ride to the hay yard with him and thought it was great fun to be in 'Daddy's big truck.' We also made friends with the bulls, cows, and kitten that decided to befriend us the first day we were there. It sensed a sucker when it saw me. It got good food and lots of attention. But no, it didn't come home with us. We named him 'Snowball' and will see how he is the next time we are there.

Cowboy moved all the bulls out from the pasture and put them in the corrals--which freaked out Paige. She saw these bulls being pushed up the fenceline by her Dad on the four-wheeler and almost climbed through the window of the house. She wasn't in harms way but I let her stare from inside. Then when everyone was sorted out and behind fences, she came back outside. We sat on the steps and watched them for over an hour create the heirarchy for their new living quarters. They had to make a ton of noise and snort and butt heads--all that male macho stuff. Its interesting how a huge animal like that acts like a confined toddler. There were fits being thrown and attitude galore. Their noise and atics went on for hours. My highlight was Paige standing on the steps of the house and yelling across the road, "COWS--STOP BARKING".

Medora

The exciting vacation continues in the exotic locale of . . .Medora. Gramma Shelly hadn't been there in years and it was on the way back to the ranch--so we spent Wednesday playing tourist. I find several things interesting in Medora. First--there is so much crap for sale that is western, but made in China. I don't get it. Second--not everyone is supposed to dress like a cowboy. Especially if you normally wear penny loafers or are wearing a fanny pack. I guess my Cowboy is rubbing off on me for this to bug me. Gramma tried really hard to find a cowboy hat for Paige; but she didn't want one. I was secretly rejoicing at this--my deepest fear is that she is going to be some cowgirl and when she's a teenager I am going to get stuck sitting at rodeos and having to haul some dumb horse to them so she can run around some barrels. But that's another story. So the compromise for the hat was a teddy bear with a cowboy outfit on. There is a place to make your own bear--so we have pink teddy bear with a cowboy outfit and a cheerleader outfit. It works. We didn't do the musical so it was an early afternoon for us and we left Gramma and headed to the ranch to go find Cowboy and make sure he was still hauling hay. We got there and Paige was excited to see her Dad and he was happy to see us since we had cooked for him. Poor guy had a long week.

Vacation

So we had a busy week last week at our house. Cowboy and I each had a week off--but we aren't the classic American family and went on a vacation to some far off exotic place. Instead Cowboy and I parted ways for a few days and then ended up back at the ranch--which I am thinking of calling our vacation home. Everyone else seems to have one, but theirs are by lakes and such. I'd feel better if I could reference one too!

So part one is Paige and I going to the ranch last Saturday to help Cowboy get the semi so he could haul hay. That is what he spend the majority of the week doing--not something that is very fun. We left him on Sunday so he could work and we could spend his money. We headed home and packed for our trip with Gramma Shelly. We picked her up on Monday to head to Bismarck for a few days. The Clausen crew were going to be there from Illinois so thought we'd visit. We arrived to do some shopping with Aunt Wanda and Kira--and then all met as a group to do a ride on the riverboat. We had fun and no one did anything dumb like try to jump off of the top deck. We were smart and hung out in the air conditioned main level where the bugs couldn't get us. Plus, that is where the bar was.

After the boat ride, we went back to the hotel to play in the pool. If you ask Paige, swimming was all that she did all week, since it was her favorite part. The Seven Seas in Mandan has a great pool. They have a separate pool with slides, sprayers, etc for the small ones; and a larger slide and larger toys for us big kids. They have these lily pad things that every teenage boy thought he could just run across like they were super Mario or something. Not so much. Anyway, we all played in the little pool until Tara and I were brave and conquered the three story slide. After screaming and learning to shut my mouth when I hit the water; I decided it was fun. I even decided it was safe for Paige and that was a huge mistake. She loved it and my legs hurt the next day after climbing those 36 stairs a million times carrying her up to the top. But us big kids tired out more quickly than Paige and she was the last to leave the pool area.

The next morning we headed to the zoo. We all were tired from swimming and playing the night before so we took this pretty slow. We took lots of family and group pictures and had fun looking at the animals. I think the prairie dogs were one of the highlights--not for me--I hear Cowboy in my head calling them names and saying how worthless they are. But the big cat exhibit had just opend and we saw a few of them. After the zoo, we parted ways and did a quick trip to Target and headed back west. Its amazing how much stuff will fit in the truck of my new old lady car! Paige got a new suitcase at Target--image a 2 foot tall person wheeling a 2 foot pink suitcase around for an hour--it was entertainment at its finest. She didn't even take anyone out in the aisles. But our Bismarck adventure was a fun filled time and thank you to Aunt Wanda and Uncle Joe for hanging out with us. We miss you and it was great to see you.