Kelby is getting too cool for his four year old britches. Andi had him in the checkout line at Target, when a little girl about his age also in line started sing-songing "I love my Mommy!" over and over. Andi noticed Kelb had a look of disdain on his face, so she asked him what was wrong. No answer, just another look. As they were leaving, Andi asked him again. Kelby, nodding towards the girl, says "That's so lame." Later he told me he didn't like "lamers". I'm not sure I'll be able to live with him when he turns five.


We have another mystery in our family. Someone cut a big chunk out of Kyler's bangs. It must have been the invisible man, because no one knows what happened. Now one would think that if a big chunk of hair was cut from two inches above your eyes, you may catch a glimpse of the culprit... But alas. We are stumped. We are also missing a pair of scissors.

Here is a story on how not to buy cats.

First of all, do not buy cats (kittens but they will be cats soon enough) that are free. Oh, it seems like a good deal but free is only an illusion. Grey kitty (no names yet) was a "free" cat. Andi really wanted a cat, not so much a kitten but more so a cat that lays around the house instead of tearing up the house. So she got a "free" kitten that she found advertised in the paper. Without so much as shutting off the engine, she dropped the kitten off at the house and proceeded to go out and buy $150 worth of kitten supplies. You know, a litter box, a scratching post/cat pedestal, kitty litter, kitty food, kitty litter liners, and a collar with a bell so we can hear him moving around. "Free" cat aka "grey kitty" has now ran up a bill of $150.

So Andi calls me upstairs to help pick out a name for grey kitty as she is googling kitty names on her computer. A half an hour or so later I go downstairs to see the kitchen door wide open to the garage, the garage door open and no grey kitty to be seen. Kelby has never seen a door that looks better closed than open. A mad dash around the house nets nothing. Searching more carefully still comes up short. We send our 8 year old and 5 year old around both blocks on bikes to search as it is now about a half hour from darkness as we more carefully search the house. I take Coco, our lab, through the house thinking she will sniff him out. Nothing on both accounts. I go around the block and ask a neighbor on the other side if she has seen a grey kitty. "You are the third person to ask" I'm told, so the kids are doing their job. Desperation sets in as it begins to get dark, a kitty that has only been in our house about two hours total and is six weeks old has gone AWL. Soon it is dark, time for bed for the kids and no grey kitty. The kids go to bed crying and praying for the grey kitty. I'm thinking I hope it never has to catch his own food with that bell around his neck. Good luck sneaking up on prey with that.

Andi then makes a decision. She decides that she is going to have a kitten regardless, and that another kitten will make the kids (and herself) feel better about loosing the first one. I warn her that it may be prudent to wait over night to see if grey kitty comes back, but I'm out voted 1 to 1. She brings back a nice 7 week old black kitty from the pet store, currently named "black kitty", that cost $40. $40 nets a kitty that has his first vaccinations. But a half hour later she says that getting black kitty really didn't make her feel better like she thought it would. She goes to bed, and I'm up working on the computer with new replacement kitty in the office. I hear a bell jingle behind us, and out from under a printer stand comes grey kitty stretching his legs like he just took the best cap nap ever.

Running total... 2 cats... $190. Vet day to get a checkup on grey kitty. Grey kitty has ear mites, gave them to black kitty and now we have to also treat the dog. A check for some feline virus, worming and vaccinations results in a $270 vet bill. "Free" kitty(s) now have ran up a bill of $460. We still have vaccinations for black kitty, and then another $360 for neutering and declawing which should get us close to a thousand bucks by the time we are done, all for a "free kitty". So the kids are happy, Andi is happy and I'm a bit stunned. To top it off, one of them pooped in my Chicago Bears cap. If I can figure out which one it was, I may send a bill.

Kyler decided to sell Slushies near the street after he defied orders and bought a Sponge Bob slushie maker at a garage sale down the street. He snuck out of the house with his piggy bank after they had already bought army men. I should have confiscated it at that point, but I'm a softie.

Besides, selling slushies was a good idea and I didn't want to squash my budding entrepreneur. I think the bee's were the kids biggest customers and in about five minutes they had two trapped under glasses. Seeing furious bees in clear glasses trying to get out probably didn't help sales. I bought the first slushie, then I sent Kelby out with a quarter to buy the second one. I think we were his only customers. Then Kiefer came in so I offered a quarter to him to go buy a slushie. After all, we can' t have a five year old's first business crash and burn in two hours, can we? Kiefer says, "I already bought one." I said, "So you took a quarter and gave it to Kyler on your own?" thinking, wow, he is finally being unselfish and trying to help his brother out by giving up a quarter of his own. Kiefer says "yes Dad." So I tell him he did a good thing and he should be proud. "Thanks Dad" Kiefer says as he is running out the door. Just before the door slams I hear "Oh, I got the quarter from your truck!"

School days are here. Kiefer and Kelby are enjoying their time in school, being the social networking kids that they are. Kelby asks "Why did you pick me up so early?" at 3pm. So it would seem that school days are welcome in our home.

But, alas, things never seem to go so smoothly. Kyler asked "How many days of school are left, anyway?" on day three... OF KINDERGARDEN! About 3.2 million, kid. Andi sent me to school on the first day with a camera to get a picture of each boy with his teacher. I did happen to notice that I was the only parent toting a camera and getting pictures. Oh well, it was worth it. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Grandpa Ron and I took the kids fishing for walleye. I caught the first fish, which I released to the protests of all in the boat. I've adopted a new rule, if I catch it, I can release it. Here is a 4mb video of Kyler deciding almost before the poor fish gets into the boat. Kyler's video

This same kid also announced to us that he could mind read. Of course his eight year old brother jumped all over that. So Kyler said, "I know what you are thinking right now." Kiefer said "OH Yea?" "Yes, you are thinking that I can't read your mind" BAM! to which Kiefer has another fit. So Kyler announces again "I know what you are thinking now." Never one to learn the first time, Kiefer bites. "You are thinking that your brother is a jerk!" I think I'll call him Carnack.

I decided to keep up the blog for us as well as having quite a few requests not to drop it, so I thought this would be a good time to catch up on the first years with the kids.

Oh, Kiefer and Kelby had birthdays this month, so they are 8 and 4 while Kyler is 5 1/2. They were back at their grandparents this week. They met a cousin of theirs, Larry, who is a principal at the local school. Larry told them that if their grandmother gave them a hard time while they were up staying with her, they should just give him a call and he would "take care of it". Listening intently was Kyler who immediately asks "What's your number???"

We want to give a thanks to these people:
Derald for spending his afternoon with us.
Cal and Martha for being great hosts. We enjoyed our late night talks with Cal and were able to come and go as if we were at home.
Kerry for coming over to visit with us, and Kim and Sue for having us out to their house for a grill out.
Vernon and Donna for having us over for Dinner, and Donna for organizing a get together for us at Der Dutchman.
Sheila and her kids for coming and spending their evening visiting with us.
Eileen and Greg, and Anita and Wendy for having dinner with us.
Doug and Marilyn for hosting us, and another thank you goes to Marilyn for cooking us supper that we were not expecting.
and last but not least, Jerry and Nancy for letting us stay over and taking us out to a great Mexican restaurant. It was nice meeting them for the first time.

Travel Tips:
DVD Players for vehicles are worth their weight in gold. Ours was is a two screen with 4 audio jacks. The kids had $5 headphones that they plugged in so we could listen to music while they watched movies.
Most state visitor centers have travel coupons for up to $20 off certain hotels. We'd try to get them, then call ahead for availability and book the rooms even though most of the coupons said you couldn't call and reserve.
Verizon's native network is very good. We could dial into them for data and use mapquest.com or publish the blog. But outside of their network it was very spotty. The gulf states had very good coverage, as well as North Dakota. Large parts of Ky, TN, GA, OK, KS left us without data and sometimes without digital cell coverage at all.
Forget the 12v fridge. We usually all wanted something different to drink each time we stopped. If we didn't haul it into the hotel room, it would take most of the day to cool down the drinks. If we forgot to unplug it, it would drain the battery dead. and it took up valuable space.

Summary:
We traveled 5172 miles and used 235 gallons of gas for a 22.2 mpg rate. Our average speed was 45.3mph, but that included idling for maybe 4 hours while someone shopped, or used the bathroom while the A/C ran.


Thanks to Andi for putting up with me for 5,100 miles and the ribbing I gave her in the blog. Thanks Honey!

Did we ever find Mexiyellico? You be the judge.

It is the final day. I'm typing this up, Kelby is driving and Andi is taking a break. Oh, it's ok because he has a Power Wheels. I'd have the older boys drive, but Kelb is the only one who will fit between me and the steering wheel...

Last evening we finally seen temps in the 70's, actually 72. We had not seen that since KY.

We are all on edge and ready for this trip to be over with, except Kelby. Now he doesn't want to go back home.

Here are some things we learned...
Southern hospitality lives on... Andi was sent to the beginning of the checkout line at a convenience store because she is a woman.
Texans do not live in the south, they live in Texas.
In Florida, Sarasota anyway, they have summer daily rains which happen at about 4pm. It will rain for a little while, then stop. The air just gets too humid and it rains.
We seen two alligator carcasses on the highway. We didn't realize they had alligator roadkill.

After staying with friends in Madisonville, TX and enjoying their company, we headed out again to put the final two days in. This will be our longest day on the road so far, getting us from one hour north of Houston to Topeka, KS. It is refreshing to see prairie again. Another 700 miles of it should cure that.


A funny thing happened along here. We ate donuts for breakfast, and McDs for lunch. The next time Kiefer wanted Crispy Cream donuts for a snack. Well, we decided that we needed to draw a line somewhere, so we drew it right in front of the Crispy Cream shop. As we were leaving, Kiefer was complaining so I told him he should eat an orange instead. Kelby started sing-songing "I want an orange, I want an orange." I asked Kiefer to get him an orange out of a bag in the back of the van. After a half hearted try, he said it was too difficult. I asked him again, but it was just too much work. So I told him he could have any Crispy Cream donuts he could find. All of a sudden he had Herculean strength, and was moving the largest of bags with ease, and Kelby got his orange. It was kind of a dirty trick, but he had it coming, especially after pulling the same stunt the day before. I think we lost his vote for "Parents of the Year".

We may have lost Kelby's also. He said, "Is anyone ever going to buy me strawberries on this trip?"

Here is a pic from back at Disney with the fireworks.

Leaving New Orleans we found a place that the kids could hold a live alligator. It was a 2 1/2 year old gator, and of course the boys loved it.

We were too late to see much of NASA, so we found a hotel and stayed over. The we "swam" in the pool. Kiefer, after floating for 20 seconds in the gulf all by himself and making good progress in his goal to learn how to swim, managed to float almost a full second here. Kelby will pass them both if this continues.
The next morning at NASA we seen a Saturn V rocket, the old Mission Control, and the training building where the astronauts train on a full sized shuttle orbiter and full sized space station modules. They had a play center for the kids like at a McDonalds except it is about 10 times larger with multiple exits. Great for kids, a nightmare for parents trying to extract the kids.