July 4th fun

 I decided that we needed to do something fun for the fourth, but I wanted to have a garage sale out at our 'new' house to get rid of some of the contents that had been left behind.  So, the logical conclusion was to camp out at the new house and begin building memories out there.

We had never done any type of camping with the kids before.  So, our first stint just twelve miles from our current house seemed pretty safe.  Plus, we were at a house...we would just be staying outside.  Mom and Dad graciously agreed to pull out the pop-up trailer from the barn for us to stay in.  It all seemed like a good plan.

It was a lot of fun, but I am glad that we only 'camped' for 2 nights.  We were all extremely exhausted by the end and were very glad to return to our 'real' house.  But, we had lots of fun and made many new memories...and that was the goal...so it was a successful venture.  Plus, we sold lots of stuff and made a bit of money.  So, that was good too.

One of the things E is excited about for moving is the 'monkey' tree.  It is a tree that had a rough beginning but is a great climbing tree now.  A cow started by eating the top of it...and then the old dairy barn fell on it.  I remember G'ma saying that it should just be chopped down.  But, it is the perfect climbing tree now.  E loves it.  She spends lots of time hanging out in it when we are out there.

C just enjoys being outside and running off all his energy.  He's playing with a glowstick sword from the night.  He had a great time camping...as long as he wasn't going to sleep.  Sleeping wasn't his favorite thing in the camper.

Mom and Dad made the comment the night before the garage sale, "We should put a 'for sale' sign in the trailer and see if anyone buys it."  So, there was a 'for sale' sign in the house.  In the morning, I put it in the trailer.  Little did we expect anyone to show any interest in the trailer...but less than 2 hours into the sale, Mom had an offer to buy it and she sold it.  We were all shocked that anyone would want the little trailer that we had hauled all over the west...the glorified tent on wheels.  I still worry that Mom and Dad weren't really serious about selling the trailer when they mentioned it...and I sold it for them.  Oops.  Guess the moral of the story is that only mention selling something to me if you are truly serious.

The kids were pretty sad to see it go.  The lady that bought it allowed us to use it for the remainder of the weekend.  They loved the 'camping trailer' and wanted to use it again.  But, we won't use that one again.  It is off to another loving home.  I hope they'll have as many fun adventures in it as we did.  :)

To keep the kids entertained, we brought along our inflatable pool.  That was fun for an hour until all the water came out because it has a few holes in it.  The kids had fun playing in the freezing water while it lasted, however.

One of the nicest things about our sale and weekend at the house was that my mom's sister and brother-in-law were up from KY.  They brought my g'pa over and hung out with us for the two days during the sale.  That was fun.  We don't often get to spend extended time with them...they have short visits and two sides of the family to see.  But, we got to visit with them for two whole days...it was really nice.  It was a little strange making memories with the other side of the family at G'pa and G'ma's house but very special too.  We are going to love living there!!

Side note about garage sales:  I am not a garage saler nor have I ever hosted a garage sale before.  That is an interesting culture.  We had a ton of men come through, which surprised me.  We had numerous people stop because they knew G'ma and G'pa and were curious.  A few of them shared some very special stories.  That was neat.  We had our prices so low that people didn't even want change (even for $5 or $10 bills)...that was funny too.  It was an interesting experience.