Woodson Royalty

CHIEF SETH

This old blue sarong is one that a co-worker brought back to me from Hawaii about 15 years ago that I would pull out and wear with my bathing suit occasionally. This summer I started using it as a light weight nursing blanket during all that record breaking heat.

The moment Seth laid eyes on it he proclaimed it as "MINE" and steals it every chance he gets.

He has this thing about wanting it wrapped around him just so, then parades around in his chieftain robe.

PRINCESS ELLIE

Ellie isn't quite as vocal in her claim, but assumes ownership based purely on the fact that she is the one being nursed.

It is always a toss-up as to who will come up triumphant as the owner, possessor, and wearer of this royal garb.

Life on the road

For those of you who don't know, Joel and I bought a 5th wheel trailer 2 years ago with the intention of traveling around the country while the children were young. But as occasionally happens, life changed our plans for a time, and we had to spend a little more time at home. Now we are finally off on a 3 month tour (not to be confused with a 3 hour tour :P ).

Let me give you a little tour of our home

Our living room with our daybed we put in when Sheridan was staying with us.

Our dining room and a swivel rocker that used to belong to Joel's mother.

We replaced the original T.V. with a flat screen (doubling as monitor) so that we could fit our computer tower behind it (the whole thing swivels) Later we bought a laptop (to reduce weight, of course)!

The kitchen in a slide out. The living room area is also a slide out which makes for very comfortable living in a trailer.

Our queen size bed, which fortunately the previous owners had upgraded to a 17 inch pillow top. Ellie sleeps in the "moses basket" on my night stand. The bedroom is also a slide out.

Seth sleeps in the closet next to the bed and has all of his bedtime books hanging in a rack there with him. (harrypotteresk, no?)

Bathroom vanity

Roomy shower with a little tub in the bottom just big enough to bathe the kids.

The head, enough said!

One of the things we liked most about this 5th wheel is that it came with an apartment size stack washer and dryer.

I love how big our place is when I am living in it, but I would love it to be a whole lot smaller when we hook it up and start towing it!

This is one of the chocks we use to secure the tires when parked and seth thought it was the best drag-behind toy ever.

But all fun and games aside, when it came time to actually leave great-grandma's and great-grandpa's he threw himself down as a human barrier in protest. He is really going to miss them, but he is also excited to see Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Lynn.

Finally time to hit the road!

We traveled a few hours down the road before pulling into a rest area to stretch our legs. Boy, does it look big compared to some of the other RV's.

Joel and Seth chased each other all over the grounds, before hugging a few trees. (Joel wants to stress; however that he's not a tree hugger)

Why stop the love with a mere hug, climb that puppy!

Ellie won't be left out of the fun.

Poor boy wore himself out.

We stopped in Spokane, WA to stay the night and see my brother Brent, his wife, Ann-Jeannette and their 6 kids. Unfortunately, we got into town too late and missed half of them, but we loved seeing the rest of them!!

Through Idaho's panhandle and into 'Big Sky' country

We stopped near Bozeman, MT and stopped to visit and be fed by one of my lifetime family friend Collette and her husband Lonnie. While we were there Lonnie took Seth out to "see" some of his antique tractors.

I look out the window and see he is actually letting Seth drive it around. He loved it!! Thanks Collette for the yummy food and Lonnie for the tractor rides.

Back on the road, which means meals on the road. Some good...

Some ok...

and some just plain typical :P

Janice and Matt caught up with us in Montana (they are going as far as Nauvoo to see the folks, then they have scurry back home and to work again)

So we decided we would let them do the towing for a while. lol

This one is for you, Sheridan

In South Dakota we dumped the trailer and took a little side trip...

to see dead people

It was so windy, but we had a great time.

We enjoyed seeing all kinds of country

in all kinds of weather. We saw some pretty good lightening storms and lots of wind and rain.

Once we hit Iowa, it seems all we saw was corn fields and construction cones, for miles....and miles....and miles!

Nauvoo!!! Grandma and Grandpa came running out to see those grand-babies! This was the first time they got to meet 4 month old Ellie.

Traveling is fun, but it sure is good to be parked again for a little while.

Joel says we should get a personal thank you from the state of Iowa for single handedly lowering their bug population!

Although in the underneath cargo hold we discovered that we had brought along one of our own as a stowaway. :)

Catch Up Time

I'm going to take a leaf out of Aunt Viv's book and throw everything in this one blog, things I have been putting aside thinking I would make individual blogs out of. So sit back, get comfy and enjoy a bit of this and a bit of that.

SHERIDAN

We needed to run down to Portland to grab some stuff from Joel's sisters this weekend so we detoured over to visit Sheridan who is attending Job Corps over by Yakima, WA

Sheridan reported to Job Corps on July 28th this year and is settling in nicely. This is the first chance we have been able to go and see her since she left. She is going into the Culinary Arts program and is just now starting that part of her education.

She and Seth joyfully took up right where they left off. I don't know who was more excited to see the other- I think we'll call it a draw.

I don't think that they have to worry about the students taking off too far, based on the country side surrounding the campus for miles and miles around!

hellooooo.......anyone?!

THE GARDEN

The garden has been ongoing fun and trial for the 4 gardeners at this house. Grandma and Grandpa's original boundaries were expanded to about twice its original size and

planned out(?,lol) by them, Uncle Dave, and Joel.

it has done pretty well despite all the help :)

A little impatient to see something growing, Joel started some corn in trays in the greenhouse and then transplanted them into the garden. The little buggers got a great start and went to town producing corn as fast as they could (go ahead and enlarge the picture so you can fully appreciate its efforts), do you see the ears of corn ready for harvest?

The problem is the whole stalk is shorter then my short 2 year old son! Maybe its the new "dwarf" variety. :P

Luckily they planted more corn later and it behaved properly. Check out these tomatoes- they are loaded.

Have you seen the commercials on TV for the "topsy turvy" tomato pots? Joel decided to make a homemade version out of some 5 gal. buckets. He painted the buckets green to help absorb heat into the soil, cut holes into the bottom, planted tomato plants into the holes, turned right side up and filled with soil to hold the tomato roots, then planted pepper plants into the tops of the buckets. they have done very well.

We now have home grown jalapenos!

LIFE WITH SETH (and Ellie)

hey, if he doesn't care....?!

snack time!

(sleep happens)

The other day we went to the lake to feed the handful of ducks that live there. As we were walking toward the water about a hundred canadian geese flew in and landed on the lake, fun to see and hear.

They say if you ever get lost in the woods to hug a tree; which of these do you think was lost?

Proof that opposites attract.

Mole harassment.

This wooded area is one of our favorite spots out at the lake. We love to run through and play hide and seek.

TIME WITH DAD

I'm sure this will be no shock to the mom's out there- he ate his ice cream on Joel's lap and got down to play without "dad" ever noticing a thing.

till next time... bye.