Thrilling Thursday

Thursday started out as a wonderful day and ended the same way!

The day started at 630 am.  I got up and got ready for the day.  The kids finally woke up and then it was breakfast time.  After breakfast it was time to clean.  I was like a tornado, cleaning everything I could find.  Then my husband called and asked if I could help get some equipment to a field, a good way away from the homestead.  He stopped by the house on the tractor and picked up the kids.  They love to ride in the tractor.  I then waited for our friend to call the house to tell me he was loaded with fertilizer and headed to the field.  When the call came I jumped into the car and headed out to the field.  It was so quiet and so pretty out.  It was the most relaxing drive ever.  I was about to cross the river bridge when I came upon this....

Yep you have it right.  A real life cattle drive.  This made me want to go visit our friend near Manhattan who is a rancher.  I love going there to ride horses and check cattle.  It is a great stress reliever!

So after the cattle were off the river bridge it was time to get to the field.  Once there I put the kids in the car and picked up our friend to head back to the farm to get another truck.  I was then to follow that truck back to the field and then bring our friend back to the farm so he could get to work.  On this second trip to the field we had a stow away in the vehicle.

She is not one to load herself into the car...so I loaded her.  She was pretty good entertainment for the kiddos while I drove to the field.

After everyone was in place to get work done then it was time to come home and get to work.  We had lunch, naps and more cleaning until Daddy came home.  When he got home we all bundled up in our cold weather gear and went to the last Andale High School Football game of the year.

It was a great game.  The kids did a great job.  After the third quarter we decided that Andale was going to win (and they did) and the kids were getting restless, so it was time to head home.

So all in all it was a Thrilling Thursday at the Winter household!

Friday Farming

I know it has been awhile since I have written but it has been pretty crazy busy around this place.  It seems like I am either busy with kids, house work or even baby sitting and then on the weekends we have something else to do that takes our time.

But today was a great day to do a little Farming!  We have a neighbor that is raising some sheep.  We have driven past their house several times on Sunday mornings going to church and I have noticed some little bitty baby sheep on the lot.  I keep telling my husband that we need to stop by there and see them.  And as you can probably guess we stopped by there today.

There were a couple of orphans that they have to bottle feed.  This little one knew exactly what to do!  He came running out just as soon as he heard our voices.  They are just too cute at that age.

After we saw the sheep then it was time to take my son to ride the tractor with Daddy!  We met up with my husband's father as he was dropping off the seed truck.  We were going to take him back to the farm but before we could do that all three boys had to check to see just how deep the wheat seeds were being planted They were also checking to see if there was enough moisture in the ground to give the wheat seeds a good chance at growing.  We need the rain badly.  It is still really dry out here.  So if you get the chance or even think about it through the day...please say prayers for some rain soon!

The boys checking on the wheat seeds just planted.

The boys on their way back to the tractor.

So that concludes our Friday Farming story.  Hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend!

Life is full of CHOICES...

Life is full of CHOICES....

What does that statement mean to you? 

To me it meant either simple choices like where to go to eat or really hard choices like staying with a company or trying out a new one.  It wasn't until yesterday, when talking to a really good friend, did I realize that choices happen every day whether we realize it or not.

I made a choice a few months ago to quit my job.  And I have found that lately I haven't regretted that decision but I feel like something is missing.  In all reality I have been pretty down on myself.  I wasn't feeling fulfilled, I wasn't feeling happy and I didn't feel like I was being the best parent I could be.  When I talked to my good friend she told me about how she was really busy with work, but she chose to stop that work to talk to me.  It hit me like a ton of bricks.

I had the choice to be fulfilled, happy and the best parent I could be.  It also meant that I could choose to do housework or not.  It also meant that if I chose something then I couldn't be down later about it because I had made that choice too.  It all finally made sense.

I know that probably all sounds pretty crazy but I think sometimes as adults we forget the simple things such as being able to choose.

In the farming world, my husband also has choices.  He could have taken the easy way out this summer and not irrigated our crops.  Then he could of made the choice to turn it all over to the crop insurance adjuster.  Then he would have been out of choices once the crop insurance adjusters came back to him with a payment or not.

Let's just say that I am really glad he chose to run the irrigation.  He gave us the best possible crops at those fields that run irriagtion.

Don't let others choose for you...choose for yourself!

If no one was watching you what would you choose?

Branson or Bust - Day 6

So I know it has been several weeks since we got back from vacation but this is the last post from vacation.  I think I have dragged this out for so long because I really didn't want to let the thougth of vacation go.  The last day of vacation was picking up last minute gifts for us and others and then it was time to hit the road.  This post is mainly going to be of pictures that I took on the way home.  I love these pictures a lot.  I hope you enjoy them just as much as I do.

This was the fog that came over the lake the early evening before we left.  It was beautiful!

This was the fog that we woke up to the morning that we left.

How pretty is this!  Love the fog on the lake.

This barn caught my eye on the way to Branson.  I think it is so neat!

Love the green ivy growing on the side of the barn.

And last but not least my most favorite pictures are those of my family!

Branson or Bust - Day 4 & Day 5

Day 4 in Branson was going to be a relaxing day of walking around downtown and shopping.  Our first stop was Bass Pro.  This store even though it is geared towards men still intrigues me.  Looking at all the various equipment one can buy to do a sport such as fishing is unreal.  All the bait and poles and lures, and even the sonar device to look into the water to see how deep it is and if fish are down there just blows my mind.  Then there are all the clothes to go along with it.  Like I said I could spend hours in there.  But then the real fun happened....we got stopped to enter our names into a drawing for a new truck.  Little did we know that not only was this a chance to enter us into a drawing for a new truck but also it was a time share deal as well.  And because the gift was Bass Pro gift cards...you know who jumped in with both feet.  The time share deal ended up to be the worst experience ever and about two hours and ten minutes of our lives that we will never get back.  But on the bright side the power bait that we bought with the Bass Pro gift cards helped us catch lots of fish the very next day.

We did eat at an amazing mexican restaurant and had a nice time walking down by the water looking at all of the shops.

Then I am pretty sure you all know what we did on Day 5...that is right we used that power bait we bought at Bass Pro to catch lots of trout!  I haven't fished since I was a kid and all we caught were some cat fish.  I have never been good, or even really had to do anything with putting a hook on a line or even baiting a hook.  That was a boys job and this girl was not into it.  But with my husbands help and a no yucky worms to place on a hook I learned how to put a hook on my line and even bait my hook.  Now I think I am a pro!

We fished at Lilley's Landing.  It was a great little community, if I may call it that, with small groupings of fully furnished little apartments.  We were very close to the dock which is where we did most of our fishing.

The first day we tried to fish as a family and that last probably a whole thirty minutes.  They kids were to antsy to sit still for too long.  So my husband fished and I took the kids to play on the playground.  And wouldn't you know it that as soon as we left he caught a fish.

Well then it was game on for me.  I wanted to catch all my alloted fish before he did.  I think we eneded up in a tie but it was sure fun for me to catch my first fish.

And yes I was cheesing for this picture because I was so excited!

And here I am again trying to catch another fish.

Then both me and my sister in law caught three total in a matter of minutes.  It sure was a lot of fun!

Then the boys decided to try their luck out on the lake.

All in all we had a good day of fishing.  And I am sure I will go trout fishing again!

Here are some just pretty pictures from off the dock.  They were just too cool to pass up.

Branson or Bust - Day 3

Our third day consisted of Silver Dollar City.  I forgot just how hilly that park really can be, so at points it was a real workout to push the kiddos in the stroller up those hills.

Us at the entrance.

Then my daughter and I went to jail.

We then escaped jail and found my son who was waiting for us on the get away carousel.

We then rode as fast as we could to meet up with my husband to catch a train to get us far away out of town.

We thought we were in real trouble though when the train was stopped by some robbers.  Thank goodness the train conductor had a gun.  He kept us from getting robbed!

We then ran to a maize of slides, ladders and net bridges to make sure we weren't being followed.

And finally we met up with this old jailbird who helped us escape the City of Silver Dollar!

It was a day full of adventure!

Branson or Bust - Day 2

So day two we rode the ducks.  And I tell you I wanted to ride these things because of the show Undercover Boss.  It turned out to be the most fun thing of the day.

Quack that Quacker!

Lance driving the duck and Lacey supervising

Our duck driver was Captain Gramps!  He was an amazing guide.  He was funny and educational all at the same time. 

He took us to one of the dam's on Table Rock Lake.  It was pretty amazing to see just how big it was.  The other thing that was hard to get over was how high the water was on one side and how low it was on the other.

Gramps also showed us the hatchery.  I was skeptical when my husband said he wanted to go, but after we got there I was having just as much fun as the kids.  You could pay $0.25 to feed the fish.  Now this wasn't like at the zoo where you pay $0.25 and get maybe ten pieces of food.  It was a good size hand full.  The fish were jumping all over the place to get some food.

Each of these caged pits were full of fish.

The fish were all sizes but they were the same size in each pit and there were several hundred fish in each pit.

After the hatchery then it was time to do some shopping.  We went into a leather shop with a guard by the name of Branson Bob.  I thought my daughter would freak out by the sight of him but all she did was say hi.  It made me laugh so hard I almost cried!

And last but not least on the shopping tour, we stopped at Dixie Outfitters because General Lee and Rosco's Sheriff's car was parked outside.  We then made our way inside where I purchased a pink 01 General Lee baseball cap.

We ended the day with pizza.  It was a fun filled day but a very tiring one too!  It is so much fun being on vacation!

Branson or Bust - Day 1

We started the day at home doing some last minute packing.  We left the house at 8 am and stopped by the farm to get a family picture taken.  I think we were all very excited to get the vacation started.

Then it was time to hit the road.  When we got to Pittsburg, KS it was lunch time so we stopped at Lincoln Park to have a picnic.  After lunch it was time for playing on the play ground.

After playing we were  back in the car for a couple more hours.  We saw some farmers working hard picking corn.

We then did some shopping at an outlet mall.  After that we went to Indian Point and drove around Table Rock Lake.  It was really pretty out around the lake.

Then we drove back into town and went to the hotel to get some much needed rest.  We can't wait to see what day two holds for us.