South Dakota!

July 5th Kayda, Carson and I started our drive to South Dakota.  The drive went really smoothly. I drove 12-13 hours then stopped to stay the night at a hotel.  I couldn't sleep so I got the kids up at 5 and we got on the road.  I could've driven farther the night before and was more tired the following morning than I was then.  So that was a bummer.   

Since we left so early, we got to Grandma and Papa G's before lunch (when I thought we'd be there).  We were very careful coming up their driveway knowing that Dillon may be squirrel hunting. He was.  So once I was sure he saw us we came up.  Almost immediately Carson and Kayda are shooting at targets.  I'm always excited to go to their house, but I was extra excited this time since Dillon went home with them in June.  I missed my kid!

Since we needed to do ALL the things on the first day.  We ended up going out in the side by sides.  I rode with Dillon, he drives a little too crazy for Papa.  Kayda drove everyone else down the road.  Later Carson was given the chance to drive but we had to get to the atv trails first.

We came over for a work trip this time around.  Since their contractor fell through we wanted to help wrap up some projects.  We all worked hard and managed to get a decent chunk done.  Not as much as I wanted since people ended up sick.  

Grandma and Dillon told us about an overlook you can go to but it was a little steeper than they wanted to go at the time.  This intrigued me of course.  So Kayda, Papa and I headed out to find it.  We were hoping to get there in time for sunset but we just missed it.  The hills were steep, but they were fun.  I drove the razor so I could drive.  Papa rode in "Terry" with Kayda.  She drove up and down on her own, I thought she might switch and have Papa drive but she didn't. 

Another evening we decided to go do the wildlife loop.  We started by the airport then met traffic.  That you could see stretch all the way up the hill and around the corner.  We talked about turning back because it wasn't moving.  We're so glad we didn't.  We ended up driving through a bison herd again.  They were moving in the same direction as us so they'd weave around and between us.  Unfortunately for me the traffic jam was uphill.  The jeep is stick shift.  My leg got SO tired.  

We're driving along watching the bison walk beside us and we come to a stop again.  I feel a bump and turn to look just in time to see a bison licking the Jeep. It's head ended up right at Kayda's door for a minute.  Then it moved on and found the truck... They LOVED the truck.  They followed it for a few minutes, chasing after it when it started moving.  The calf thought about trying out a different car, then returned to the truck.  Eventually the mama gave up and got a little mad at the calf to get it to leave.  

The truck really enjoyed it's tongue bath.

We found the burros.  Unfortunately, when Daddy bought carrots he got a little bag so each kiddo only had two carrots.  Which disappeared quickly with the burros. 

We went to work and work we did.  We did siding and deck railing.  We got a couple REALLY good days in before everyone started getting sick.  Then it slowed to a crawl.  We'd get a little done but people just weren't feeling well enough to keep pace.  Papa and Grandma have more pictures.  I didn't take pictures working because I was otherwise occupied.  The kids were pretty low key this trip too.  They didn't want to go do ANYTHING.  I had to drag them out the door for the lake and the loop.  It was actually kind of frustrating.  

We knew there was a storm coming but didn't think it was going to be nearby.  So Kayda, Daddy and Carson took off to the overlook.  Trying to catch the sunset again.  They got there and they could see the storm.  They quickly realized that the storm was coming toward them.  Then it was a race home, driving through rain, hail and lightning.  The wind was blowing hard enough the they had to hold the doors shut.  Good thing they were in Terry so there were windows!

Dillon REALLY wanted to go golfing with Daddy so they took off one afternoon to make that happen.  It was only a 9 hole golf course so that was nice.  

Sunday Daddy was down for the count and Grandma and Papa were tired.  So the kids and I headed to Sylvan lake.  We lucked out with a parking spot but it was nowhere near the good swim area (by the rocks).  We were able to get a good spot to launch the kayaks and they had a great time paddling around.  Unfortunately, the kayaks were a blessing and a curse.  The kids and I had fun on them, but we didn't have a way to lock them down and go swim.  Our trip to the lake didn't last long.   Later that evening the kids and I went to try to find the burros.  It was a long, unsuccessful drive.  We saw ONE bison, prairie dogs, some deer and we saw prong-horns closer than we've ever seen them.  None of the really fun stuff though. 

The night before I planned to leave we took off in search of the burros.  Kayda, Carson, Grandma and I.  We drove past where we usually see them, then came upon the bison herd.  We weren't there for the bison though so we turned around.  Down one of the dirt roads we saw the burros!  So we took off with our giant bag of carrots to go visit.  

I held the bag of carrots for the kids and got swarmed.  They'd sneak up behind me and bump me wanting me to give them a carrot.  They'd try to sneak their head in between a kid and the little baby burros to steal the carrot.  We saw someone there with a bag of baby carrots.  She didn't get swarmed but still had a good treat for them.  We'll try that next time.  It was a fun last evening for sure. 

For the way home I decided that I wanted to drive straight through. I hate hotels...and I just wanted to see if I could do it.  It was a bummer because with that long of a drive you should be able to shave off a couple of hours just by going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit on the freeway...but we kept hitting construction and traffic jams from the construction.  I think we managed to take 30 minutes off the 17 hour 10 minute drive.  We made it...and I will NEVER do it again.  I was feeling pretty weird by the time we got home.  Getting out of the car I had the worst vertigo I've ever had. It was like getting off a treadmill but SO much worse.  I was spinning and felt like I was never holding still.  It was making me nauseous. It took me 3 hours to get settled enough to sleep and it turned me into a slug the entire next day.  

We got COVID!!!

Information from post-illness (August)

We went to Kayda's tournament in Las Vegas got home Wednesday and Friday (the 2nd) Kayda started to feel sick.  She had a headache and a little bit of a cough. I was watching her going hmmm. So I contacted Grandma and Papa G since we were supposed to be headed their way in a few days.  Grandma said they didn't care and just asked if Kayda was feeling better when we were headed their way.  Kayda was feeling better, the headache and tiny cough only lasted a few days.  Carson had one evening where his nose felt stuffed up.  I started getting stuffed up and have cold like symptoms on my way to South Dakota (we got there the 6th).  I was able to work right through it on the projects there.  Daddy had gotten there the day after us (the 7th).  Grandma started showing cold symptoms shortly after we got there. Saturday night (10th) Daddy was knocked out with feeling super tired and feverish.  Dillon started to feel sick the 11th and officially had a fever the 12th.  Meanwhile Papa G started to feel cold like symptoms.  Daddy was extremely tired for about 2 days (sleeping 36 hours straight) though it wiped him out for some time after that.  He didn't have an appetite either.  Dillon's fever lasted about 3 days and he bounced back pretty quickly after that.  Papa G's throat got sore, he thought he had a low grade fever and he had a bit of a cough.  

Daddy lost his sense of taste and smell about 6 days later.  Papa G lost his later too.  We headed home the 16th.  Since everyone was sick we weren't getting anything done really at Grandma and Papa's house and I was kind of anxious to get home.  When we returned, I convinced Daddy to go get tested and sure enough it came out positive.  About then I realized that I couldn't smell anything, and thinking back, I hadn't been able to smell anything for quite some time.  This is ridiculous, and TMI, but I'm pretty self conscious about body odor.  Since we were working outside in the heat I kept sniffing my armpits but they didn't stink.  I remember thinking it was weird and that they should stink, so I'd wash them and put on more deodorant regularly.  I also remembered that Grandma made cookies a few times...and I never smelled them.  I didn't lose my sense of taste but here I am, a month later and I still can't smell.  I didn't smell the bacon or sausage I cooked while camping, or the fajitas people ordered when we went out. I went and got tested but waited too long and it came out negative.  I am 99% sure that COVID went through all seven of us.  Considering we all experienced symptoms, Daddy was positive and we were all living and working in close quarters.  

Guess what.  It wasn't a big deal for most of us.  Now we all have natural immunity for a while.  Though the fear monger-ers are working hard to convince people natural immunity isn't a thing and we should still get the vaccine.  

Daddy let work know that he was sick.  They required he couldn't come back without a negative test.  Which is funny because when he was contacted by the state, because he had a positive test, the CDC, the Department of health, AND the state worker that contacted him said he absolutely should not test again and that he was safe to return to work 10 days after symptoms began.  He tested a couple more times before it came back negative.  We were lucky since it can take up to 3 MONTHS to get a negative test.  He and I had a good laugh about that. 

Grandma and Papa G's working visit

Grandma and Papa G came here memorial day weekend to help us build a big patio cover.  The first weekend we cut the concrete for the footings and set the brackets. Since we had to wait for the concrete to set we didn't really get to work on it anymore that weekend.

We bought chalk to lay out the footings... Kayda and Carson had a fantastic time with it.  Carson made my heart happy when he did this...

Kayda made some art

Then they made a driveway length hop scotch that got too hard to finish. 

While we waited we did some geocaching.  It was a nice trail with a great view of the mountain.  Everyone was having a great time with the long grass.  Grandma started it!

Daddy decided to teach the kids leg wrestling.  Carson and Grandma decided to try to give Kayda an advantage... It didn't work.

We are fortunate to have really great neighbors that we love.  We only really interact with two houses but they're amazing.  I'm super grateful to Eric (the "cool uncle") and his "graduated in Kentucky" mentality.  He let us borrow his tractor during most of the project AND he was able to use a bracket he'd previously made to place ALL the king horizontal beams.  They were all 6x6's. There were three 16ft and two 18ft... 4 went up 10' and the last 14'.  SO glad we didn't have to try to lift them by hand!

What you don't see behind the scenes is the incredible amount of sanding and staining that was done.  Grandma did a TON of it with Kayda.  Dillon and Carson helped us with measuring and cutting a lot.

We were even able to use the tractor as a kind of scaffolding.  Life. Saver.

I wanted to move the tractor out for Papa's pose ... He disagreed

Papa made me VERY nervous by using a ladder on our "scaffolding".

Papa prepared dinner

Bird spike assembly party.  We have SO many birds around our house and we don't want our patio to house nests or perches.

Finished!

This project took three weeks to finish.  Between work, school, sports, and weather it was a very slow process.  A lot of it was actually done by Papa, Grandma and the kids (especially Dillon) while we were at work.  I'm so grateful they came to help.  It was something I desperately wanted to build... But it was also intimidating.  It's AMAZING and we'll spend a ton of time in it.  

Of course, we bought some patio heaters since I won't use it if I'm too cold lol.

When they left they took Dillon with them as a "hey it's sucks your trip keeps getting delayed" consolation visit.