our last few days in the black hills.

okay, guys.  i know that endlessly rehashing vacation is really only fun for the people who went, and eventually a never ending string of photo-filled blog posts is essentially the same as a really boring night with a slide projector and someone's trillion-and-one photos of the eiffel tower.  so i'll wrap this up.  unless y'all start screaming ENCORE at me and i have to come back out and post some more and take a bow and post some more.  but until that happens, this is the last post, mkay?  mkay.

we took the kids on the 1880 steam engine, which was fun for most involved.  finneas and laurelai were antsy, which meant todd and i were antsy, but the big kids LOVED it.  i mean, like, seriously loved it.  then we asked a stranger to take a picture of the six of us, since we don't get many pictures with all of us in them, and this happened:

it was the best we could get.  oh well.  we got a few of each of us individually with the kids.

the next day, we laid low at home, letting the kids run around, and drive the gator, and swim in the pool.

here, they're playing 'the princess bride.'  this melts my heart.

well, laur clearly loved it.  (after she was out of the pool, and dried off, and playing with grandma, she was a much happier camper.)

it was super hot, so finneas found himself shirtless and 'helping' papa tony polish off his smoothie.

the next day, we headed for home.  at our first rest stop in south dakota we parked next to a family from huxley (small world!) and got overrun by grasshoppers.  my mind kept pulling images from the bible and from the little house on the prairie book (whichever one it was) where there were just swarms of locusts.  it was pretty sick, and i could see why god would use them to plague people.  (if you look closely, you may be able to see the clouds of grasshoppers flying up as the boys run through them, though even then the photos don't do the crunchy, buzzy grossness of it much justice.)

and these photos sum up our trip home:

sitting on the cooler, bottle-feeding laurelai as we drive so we don't have to pull over.  yes, todd is taking a photo when he should be driving.  so sue him.  but don't really.

eating dinner at a mosquito-infested rest stop.  we were soooo ready to be home at this point.  but the kids held up well!

and that was our trip to the black hills!  

whut. up.

two bits of pertinent news this week:

1.  finneas fell and cut his head.  i was sitting three feet from him, and i heard a bonk and a scream, and simply by the time i looked up, his face was covered in blood.  i yelled to penelope to go to her room, since the sight of blood causes her to pass out.  by the time i got finneas to the kitchen from the living room, his glasses lenses were full. up. with blood.  with atticus' help, i got everything cleaned up and a band-aid on finn's head and he was right as rain.  

so i went in to get penelope and to tell her 'good job' for obeying me immediately and not asking 'why.'  at the mere sight of finn's band-aid, she passed out.  luckily, she was already laying on her bed.  after she came to, she was crying uncontrollably and said she just wanted to go to sleep, so she went to bed without eating lunch and slept for four hours.

however, when it came time to eat dinner, she was so distressed by the sight of finneas' band-aid, she couldn't stand to even sit at the table with him.  so she laid on her bed until he was done eating, and then came to the table to eat.  even still, she had to eat with her security blanket wrapped around her.

i have no idea where this blood thing came from.  anyone else's kids do this?

finally feeling better at dinner, and giving a 'pinkies-up' when todd told her to give a thumbs-up.  still her same old penelope  self!

2.  old oaky's not dead, he's surely alive!  we had called our friend stan, who had just flipped a house, to see if he could help us install a new dishwasher.  it turns out he had a working one on hand from the flip, so he brought it over for us so that we didn't have to buy a new one.  luckily we hadn't bought a new one, since once he got here he and todd discovered that there was simply some switch under the sink that had gotten flipped, turning off the power to old oaky.  once they flipped it back, old oaky was back to his ancient old dish-scrubbing self!

kind of a stupid mistake, but easily fixed, and i have a working dishwasher again without having to shell out any money for it, so i'm happy as a clam.

what happened at your house this week?

day five of our trip to the black hills.

on our fifth day of vacation, we headed to old mcdonald's farm (a petting zoo/farm thing) and the kids LOVED it.  they got to ride ponies, feed the animals, and pretend to sword fight a chicken.

laur and finneas were the most fearless of all the kids when it came to touching (or, as you'll see below, dueling) the animals.

he looks like he's trying to 'avada kadavra' that chicken.  maybe for lunch purposes?

they got to watch a pig race, ride a train, bottle-feed some baby goats, and pet baby chicks.

they got to play in the sand and get mauled by a goat.

atticus' favorite part of the petting zoo was an excavator.  absolutely no surprise there.

laur's first time in a park swing.

that goat seems to think laur's paci looks mighty tasty.

and this is how we ended the morning:

the fun starts - and apparently stops - here.

after leaving old mcdonald's farm, we headed to regular mcdonald's restaurant.  by the time we got there, laurelai was passed clean out.

oh, also?  it hailed.  because that's just what the weather do in the black hills.

video vednesday: buddy, you've been gaining muscle mass. nice.

looks like someone took my advice to stop making dads look like idiots.  good on them.

days three and four of our trip to the black hills.

on sunday, i was totally pumped to take the kids on a hike.  it's beautiful up there and YOU GUYS, THE DIRT IS MADE OF GLITTER.  i'm not even kidding.  it's like everyone's driveway has been kissed by ke$ha.  plus, there are rocks that are made of this flaky mother-of-pearl-lookin' stuff.  it's gorgeous.  i was planning on gathering me up some pretties.  oh, and also, letting the kids enjoy nature.  that too.

this was the last happy photo snapped of me that morning.

because, like 10 minutes into our hike, i stepped off a rock (not one pictured above; it was about the height of a laying-down collie) and my weak ankle gave out and i fell and it killed and i SCREAMED  LIKE THE DICKENS.  and the dickens can scream, let me tell you.

seriously, though.  todd told me to stop screaming like that and i was all, I CAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNT!!!  (sometimes, even now, when i think back to the moment i fell, my stomach turns and i feel like throwing up.  just from the memory of how bad it hurt.)  and obviously, if i couldn't stop yelling about the pain, there was no way on earth i could walk back home on my own.  so he alternatingly had to play 'human crutch time!' and also carry me up the hill to get back home.  in between spurts of me trying to tough it out and crawl on all fours while bawling like a girl baby.  it was a pretty sight, i must say.

at least the kids had fun walking home.

needless to say, we laid low the rest of the day.  also, atticus got close enough to a bird that he could have gotten lice just by sharing its air.  i'm pretty sure he didn't, though.

the next day, we all went to mount rushmore, which was more of a rush than the hike.  HAHAHAHAHA.  haha.  no, really, though, i hate that joke and i hate myself a little for telling it.  oh well.

also, the kids were obviously beyond thrilled to see such a breathtaking tribute to our great leaders.

and, lastly, penelope sums up the day in the most succinct and adorable way possible.  you'll die.  i swear you will.

day two of our trip to the black hills.

the first full day at todd's parents' house, we just hung out at the house and really 'vacationed!'

the first thing atticus did was set up camp in the rock beds, setting up an elaborate 'construction site.'  no surprise there.

considering how much he loves his toy bobcat, it was almost surreal for him when he got to ride, and DRIVE, papa tony's real-life bobcat.  he even got to scoop rocks.

this looks like it should be an old-timey photo, taken when people were told to frown and  pose next to stuff.  todd says i should sepia-tone it.  thoughts?

then tony took the kids for rides on the ATV.

finneas was a total boss about riding this thing.  the other kids were a tiny bit nervous at first, but finneas was calm as a cucumber, and as tony took off down the driveway, he simply said, 'bye, dad.'

i even took a turn on the back of the ATV after the kids were done, and tony took me up into some of the national forest area, which was beautiful, and there was this deer in a clearing, just standing and watching us.  i felt like i was transported into some kind of thomas kinkade painting.  in a good way.

and then tony let the kids feed Joe the Horse some treats.

and the kids played in the pool.  (have you started to see that the van voorsts vacation to make it count?)

if atticus only had a beer in his hand, he would appear to be the ultimate expert on Vacationing Like an American.  stars-and-bars tshirt and all.

laurelai won the hearts and affections of all, but is that a shocker?

and the kids ended the day with a sword fight and dirt-covered bottoms and pockets full of rocks.  i can't think of a better way to kick off vacation!  (for the kids.  for me, a better way to kick off vacation would involve a margarita, but this was a veryveryclose second.)

much love from the van voorst family!

whut up or shut up.

and y'all know i don't shut up, so let's whut up, shall we?

this week has been kind of a slap back to reality after getting home from vacation.  it's been wonderful to see everyone again, but wow - it's amazing how quickly i forget the pace of life we live here when i step back for even a short amount of time.  it's been a bit of a rough transition back, mentally.  (not to mention, our dishwasher is still nothing more than a giant worthless metal chunk of oak-paneled carcass, so this whole 'two to three sinkfuls by hand every day' thing is getting ollllllllllllld.)

well.  am i not just a sparkling ray of sunshine, spreading cheer across this wide and spacious land?  instead of complaining anymore, i'm going to steal an idea from my sister's blog and tell you what the tops were this week.

THE TOPS (in no particular order):

1. i got a dental cleaning.  my first in probably three years.  the last time i got my teeth cleaned, i only had two kids, both of whom were with me at the time.  atticus was working on potty training, and he peed his pants while i was all slack-jawed in the dentist chair and it was madness.  it's been harder and harder to find the time to go, so when i scheduled todd's appointment this time, i piggybacked my own onto it so that i knew he would have the afternoon off to watch the kids.

2.  i'm still cavity-free!  nary a spot of decay in this ol' mouth.  granted, my teeth used to be as crooked as lombard street, and the fourteen-year-old retainer that was falling to bits years ago is still the only thing standing between me and the return to fraggle-mouth, and the millions of braces i wore left me with a permanent plaque-catcher that was showing three years of accumulation success, but oh well.  cavity-free, right?!

3.  laurelai turned eleven months old!  HOLY. OH. MY. GOODNESS. BATMAN.  she is less than a month away from turning the big 0-1.  she's now clapping and dancing and eating T-bone steaks, and sooner than i'd like, i'll be clapping and dancing and eating T-bone steaks... at her wedding.  where did my baby goooooooooooooooo?  (maybe i'll be lucky and she'll finally be up to like 15 pounds by then, so i can still pretend she's a baby.  "world's tiniest of-age bride" will perhaps make up for how quickly i let her youth fly past me.  especially if the title comes with a sash and an accompanying TLC special.)

4.  i'm contemplating getting my hair trimmed.  this is big, you guys.  this is my once-a-year excursion into beauty treatments that i pay someone else to do.  i wasn't raised this way, and it still hurts to pay someone real dollars to do what my mom's bestie will do for a couple of beers.  but i have found that the real-dollars haircuts come out a little more presentable, especially since my mom's bestie liked to be paid in advance.  so around once a year, i bite the bullet and go in and then drool all over the stylist while she shampoos my head.  really, at this point, i don't even care about the haircut, if i'm being honest.  (what is it about tepid water and a stranger's acrylic nails scratching up my scalp?  there is something downright magical about that combination.  it's like eating bagels and locks for the first time, where you're all like, 'really?  because this sounds like a recipe for wanting to die.'  and then you're all like, 'OH.  OH MY.')  so anyway.  i will get an appointment set up if i can get around my utter hermitishness and actually make a phone call.  really, it's more than i can summon the courage for some days.

5.  i bought my first bottle of OPI nail polish and YOU. ALL.  i just can't.  i can't even.  i want to paint my walls with this stuff.

anyway, that's enough talkie-talkie, rambly-rambly from me this week.  what were your 'tops' this week?  love you all to bits and pieces!