Kansas Vacation Part 2

This is Becca this time. I'm totally going to drag this out as much as possible and do at least one more post after this. So this one is about my family. I'm really terrible about taking pictures while I'm with my family because getting out the camera makes everyone self conscious and tends to ruin the conversation. I did manage to get at least one picture of almost everyone, though not quite.

I had a really really really really great time visiting with my family. I feel so comfortable with them it's almost easy to forget that we don't hang out all the time. I made sure I got one on one time with everyone which is always worth juggling schedules for.

We went home at the height of the gardening season there so I spent a lot of good quality time with my Mom putting up corn and green beans. The tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini were all just starting to really hit their season. We also picked up a box of apricots Mom ordered so she could freeze them.


Here is my Mom on what we thought was the last night(more on that later). I suddenly realized I had hardly taken any pictures at all so I took a few. This one is a little dark but it's the only one I got of Mom.

For my one on one time with my Dad, we went to my favorite local mexican restaurant. Then we drove to Wichita and reserved tickets for my whole family to go see the new Harry Potter movie together. When we got home he took me out to one of his fields near our house to show me the pond he put in. It's really beautiful. I didn't get to swim in it but it even has a beach. Dad took a couple buckets of sand out so you can walk in without the mud squishing in between your toes. It was great and I'm really happy Dad could get away for a whole afternoon even though he was in the middle of baling and getting ready to sell some hogs. I didn't manage to get a picture of Dad except one which goes with a different story so I guess you'll have to wait for that.

My favorite sister had me over to her house for lunch. We made a really amazing pasta dish with a bunch of fresh herbs and vegetables from her garden and we will probably never be able to duplicate it since we were making it up as we went along. It was great though. We also went with my Mom to visit my Great Grandmother and later we walked downtown to do a few errands.


Here is my sister. Why does she have that silly grin you might ask? It's because she's going to be a Mommy. That's right. I'm going to be Aunt Becca sometime around my next birthday. We're all really excited. So far as I've heard, the only two things that have made her nauseous are the two things that are most abundant in her garden right now. Tomatoes and squash. Luckily she hasn't had much trouble at all though.


And here is the proud father-to-be, relaxing while he still can. Greg has been keeping busy working in construction and consuming Harry Potter in both movie and book forms. Not to mention several home improvement projects in their new house.

My brother Ben and his lovely wife Andrea had Joseph and I over for lunch and as is our habit, we stayed all afternoon. While we were there Andrea was able to find some really great bargains at an auction next door and my Grandparents stopped by to fix the air conditioning and give away extra green beans from their garden. For the most part though, we sat around and relaxed together, drinking terere and eating some Fla-Vor-Ice (which we are addicted to now).


Here they are at my folks' house. Aren't they adorable? Someday guys, someday we won't live so far apart.

Ok, now it's Tim time. First off, Tim is super tall. He is fourteen and he is already 5' 10" tall. I'm 5' 3" so, yeah.


Here we are the first night we were there. See how tall he is? I can't get over it. He's not supposed to grow up while I'm gone.

Secondly, he found out shortly before we got there that he is allergic to wasps. Here's how.


He got stung. His hand looked like a balloon or a cartoon or something.

He was going to camp on our second-to-last day there so since it's a good ninety minute drive, we decided that I would take him to camp so we could hang out. It ended up being a bit of a fiasco. He is such a good sport though and I was just happy to have a little extra time with him so we viewed it an adventure and had fun.

We got going a little late to start out with and then we had to stop and get gas. Then we stopped at Sonic to get some limeades. So things are going pretty well, we're a little on the late side but we figure that just means we won't have to wait so long in the line to check in. Besides, we're drinking our limeades and listening to Sufjan Stevens and it's a beautiful day.


Here he is, things are going well.

Then, because of a small misunderstanding about the directions, we miss a turn. Ten miles later we are both 100% sure nothing looks familiar so we pull over and figure out where we were supposed to turn. So we head back, find the turn. We're laughing about things though. Now that we're on the right road, we're good to go.


Here he is again. Now we're cruising.

Then we hit a detour. Not a huge one but a few miles out of our way. By this point we're both a little giggly.

Then the accelerator stopped working. I pressed on the gas, nothing. I floored it, nothing. I pulled over as it starts to shake. We pop the hood but neither of us knows what we're looking for and nothing is smoking so we get back in and start it up again. The accelerator works a tiny bit but then it starts shaking more, making strange noises and the "service engine soon" light comes on. We pull over again and start walking towards the nearest farmhouse about a half a mile away. Halfway there a farmer pulls over and asks if we need help and offers to let me borrow his cell phone. While I'm on the phone with my parents, another farmer pulls up behind him. It turns out the second farmer owns the house we were walking to and he offers to let us sit in the air conditioning there while we wait for my parents to come and get us since they are at least an hour away. He was very friendly and we made awkward conversation and sat on his couch for a while. The doorbell rang and we thought it was my Dad but it was actually some friends of my parents. I guess they had been dropping their son off at camp too and my Mom had managed to get them on their cell phone so they picked us up and took us to the camp. We were even in time for Tim to swim.


Here he is right before I had to say goodbye.

So I sat around for a bit and then my Dad showed up with the pick up. The plan was to take back roads and if the van wouldn't drive it, he would tow it with the truck.



Here is the van, gathering it's strength for the return trip.


Here is my Dad, figuring out the best route to take home.

The van seemed to be driving alright when my Dad got there so my Dad decided to drive the van while I followed in the truck. The truck is kinda fun to drive simply because it's huge. It doesn't however have any air conditioner.


Here I am preparing to drive the huge hot pickup back home.

It ended up not being bad at all. The van drove perfectly fine. That is of course, until we were about 10 minutes from home. It pulled the same routine. This time though, there was a big parking lot to park it in, and a truck to take us the rest of the way home.

So that was my adventure with Tim.

I got to spend some good time with Wes in the afternoon when he was home and we also visited him once but I failed to get a picture of him. He is also being disobedient and growing up while I'm gone though.

The next day my parents took us to the airport and we found out that our flight home actually no longer operates so we'd have to go home the next day instead. This ended up working out alright and gave us the chance to say goodbye to a few people we would have missed if we left as scheduled. It also meant I was able to help load some hogs.

A year or so ago my Dad switched over to selling his hogs to Neiman Ranch. I hope I'm spelling that right. Anyway, they are raised outdoors without any growth hormones or antibiotics. Also, a semi comes and picks up our hogs instead of us hauling them ourselves. This has been something Dad has been working to make easier and while it's still somewhat challenging, he has a pretty good system. My brother Ben works for my Dad so he was there to help. Also my sister-in-law Andrea rode her bike out to help because she's just that nice.


Here we are, all suited up and ready to go.

Turns out we are a pretty good team and things went pretty smoothly. It might also have had something to do with the fact that we were loading all the hogs on to the lowest level of the semi trailer but I don't know about that.

Ok, this is probably my longest post ever and I still have more to post about. I'll quit for now though. Obviously I had a really good visit.

Kansas Vacation Part 1

Here are some of the photos I took while we were away in our hometown.


Adam plays the drums.


So does Josh. He also takes pictures of people taking pictures.


All of our hands lined up. Which hand belongs to which brother?


The family dog, James (Jamie) Brown.


Hi Kathleen.


Hey Khanh.


While Kathleen drove me and Bec and Khanh around we saw a van with this sign on the side of it. Which was really convenient because I was looking for some wireless service and Kathleen was looking for some fragrance products. It really worked out perfectly.


Josh thinned my hair a bit. Afterwards I trimmed his and we both felt refreshed and light headed.


Right before I took this picture (we were at a drive-thru restaurant), a kid rode by on his bike and called out to his friends, "Let's ride around and look for change! I just found a penny!"


When I got home I went to eat a bowl of cereal and was blown away by the super size of this freaking bag! By the way: 'Scooters' are small o's, similar to Cheerios.


My aunt and uncle recently (like a month ago) had this baby, Emma. Bec and I got to spend some time with it. She was amazing and adorable, and pretty quiet for a baby. She pooped in her pants when it was my turn to hold her. She was all red and squirmy, but she never cried, just stuck her tongue out and made faces.






Adam's band played at Borders while we were in town so we went to watch. They were pretty great, and surprisingly loud for a bookstore crowd, which was nice.


Tubbs keeping it steady.



Becca will post more pictures of the trip later.

Gardening

I keep almost posting about my garden but then it grows and I want to get more up-to-date pictures. So I just got back from taking the latest batch of pictures and I'm posting them now before the garden has time to grow again.



Here is the garden near the begining. I guess I don't have a more recent picture of the whole garden but it doesn't look quite so empty anymore.



Here is the baby corn just one week after it was planted and it had just sprouted. It was about as tall as my thumbnail.



Here it is just one week later. My family grew corn in our garden every year I was growing up but somehow I am still shocked at how fast it grows. Here it is almost as tall as my hand.



And here it is today, about two weeks after that last one. It's at least a foot or a foot and a half.



And now to break up the boring string of plant pictures, here is one of Joseph waiting for me to finish taking pictures of the garden so we could go get ice cream.



Here is one of our two sweet potato vines about a week after we transplanted it.



Here it is today. Look how happy it is, even though it lives in New England. Hopefully it's happy under the dirt too.



Here is Amanda Ann lovingly watering the marigold seeds she had just planted.



Here I am admiring the baby marigolds tonight.



So far, after we planted everything we haven't had much work to do so whenever I go over to garden, we drag it out as long as possible and sit around by the garden chatting. One day this pretty butterfly came to visit us and pose for the camera.



And here are some cool flowers growing down a cool stone wall.



Back to the garden. When we set out on this little adventure, we really had no idea what to plant where. We'd both helped our parents with their gardens for years but didn't know what to put next to what but after asking around and doing a little research on the internet we decided to try companion planting. One thing everyone seemed to agree on was that tomotoes and basil like each other. So we planted basil in between our tomatoes. Here they are.



Another thing we decided to try is called Three Sisters. You make a little hill, plant some corn in the middle and then a couple weeks later you plant climbing beans around the corn and a vining plant like squash, cucumbers or melons around the beans. The beans climb the corn and the vines keep pests out and everybody is happier. So here are the bean seeds about to be planted.



Here is a view of the hill from the top. We made three hills, two with crookneck yellow summer squash on them and one with cucumbers. So far the squash is coming up great but only one cucumber plant has come up. I think we are going to have way too much squash.



Here is a really cool flower Amanda Ann has in her house. It looks like it has to be fake. I love it.



Joseph and I both like a song called cherry bomb and have been listening to it a lot recently so it seemed fitting when we were picking out some hot peppers that we buy this one which is called a cherry bomb. We also got a habanero plant. So far the habanero only has a few buds but here is the cherry bomb with three babies. I believe they will turn red when they are ripe. Sorry the picture is blurry.



Last but not least, here are the carrots being adorable and taking their own sweet time to grow.



Here I am dreaming of all the fresh produce I will soon have for free.


In less than a week I get to go home for a little over a week and visit family and friends. I'm giddy with excitement. It's a good time to go home too. I get to celebrate both my Grandfathers' birthdays and meet Joseph's new cousin. I get to celebrate my parents' 30th wedding anniversary. Plus, I get to see the newest Harry Potter movie with my 14 year old brother Tim, as that is our tradition and good traditions shouldn't be broken. I might even get to watch him learn to drive a little or at least see his brand new learner's permit. It's going to be a very good week.