Closing Up Our TIme In Missouri With Christmas At Grandma's

This was the "Christmas Room".  My grandma decorated the
walls with lights, set up the tree, and put all the presents
in here.

Christmas time! What are the first two colors that come to mind? Red and Green. What’s the first song that comes to mind? Twelve Days of Christmas. What’s the first food that comes to mind? Spritz cookies!


Yes, Christmas brings lots of unique joys that only come once a year. This Christmas has been unique for us in that it’s the first one spent with our family in Missouri in the last three years. My grandma, Juli, and grandpa, Tom, let us park our 42’ “house” in their driveway for the couple weeks we were there. It was definitely a fast-paced two weeks!



Here's Hanna and Adam playing a fierce game of tennis,
while Jackie and Cole watch from behind.

 Some friends of ours from Arkansas happened to be staying about 10 minutes from us at their uncle’s house for Christmas, so we were able to get together with them a couple times, which was great! We brought our cousin, Cole, to their house and had a huge Wii tennis tournament one afternoon; ending with my friend, Adam, beating us all relentlessly. He somehow was still able to win, even while his brother, Brian, was throwing stuff at him! Adam also shared some of his “delicious” authentic Mexican candy with us, which tasted like chili powder and had the consistency of half dried glue. Their sister, Jackie, decided to skip out on the Wii tournament, and instead sat watching from the back. So, I guess we’ll never know who the real champion is since not everyone competed! Sorry, Adam…



Here's Cole taking Naomi, Tytus, Ella, Josephine, and Gabriel
for a joy ride around the driveway.  With him behind the
wheel, it's not "EZ-GO" at all! 

 We had a blast at my grandma and grandpa’s visiting, sitting out by the bonfire, and doing Christmas activities. Oh, and driving the golf cart! This little golf cart has probably had 500 miles put on it by us and our cousins Cole and Ella. Cole and I have done some of the coolest stunts probably ever attempted on a golf cart! (ha ha) For some reason, though, I always end up as the driver while Cole does some crazy stunt; which, to tell ya the truth, is just fine with me!

On Christmas Eve Grami said everyone could open all the presents from her and grandpa Tom, and then on Christmas morning we opened all the ones from Mom and Dad. I always stand by the side with a garbage bag and practically grab the wrapping paper as the kids tear it off. Between fourteen people all exchanging presents (my aunt and uncle were there, too), there was a lot of wrapping paper! Soon, my job changed from “garbage man” to “present opener”. The rest of the day was spent slowly opening different presents and having fun talking and joking and then eating Christmas dinner that evening.



Naomi and Grami loved playing problem solving games
on the computer together.

 We did a lot of work in the camper while we were there, too. Our camper hadn't left the southern Missouri area for about eight months. There was a lot of reorganizing, packing up, sorting, and cleaning to do! It was great to get it all done, though, and we knew our time in Missouri was coming to a close.

We had an incredible time staying at my grandma and grandpa’s twice that year, working at Camp Eagle Rock, going to two church camps and putting on one ourselves, spending some much needed time in Wisconsin, and getting to spend time with lots of friends and family from Missouri that we hadn’t gotten to see much for about two years; among lots of other fun things that are too many for me to mention. We even, surprisingly, made new friends while we were there that I keep in contact with now.



Grami with all her Smith grandkids the morning we left.

 It was really sad saying “good bye” to my grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, and cousins (who are more like a brother and sister rather than cousins). I can’t wait to see you all again! We’ll be back soon…

Now, on the road to Texas and our friend, Mike Lee’s, ranch. Keep up to date, I have a feeling there could be some more exciting adventures coming soon!

Thanksgiving In Wisconsin and the New Sport of Baby Curling

This is a life-size model of the biggest muskie ever caught
on a rod and reel.  The trees kind of give you an idea of it's
size...

This Winter has been different from the last two we’ve had traveling full-time, because we actually had a regular Winter season! The past two years, when the cold started coming we took off running from it and stayed somewhere down south where we wouldn’t have to worry about any snow, ice, or freezing temperatures. Not this time. This time we went right to the heart of America’s Winter weather; Wisconsin. Mom and Dad wisely decided to leave our under-insulated camper behind in Missouri during our planned 10 day stay.

It was a beautiful drive up there, and we took our time which made it all the more enjoyable. We stopped by an orchard in Iowa and got some fresh apples, apple cider, apple juice sticks, and decorative gourds. I saw more John Deere tractors on our drive through Iowa than I’ve seen in my whole life put together! I started to think maybe there was some kind of unspoken agreement in Iowa to only use Deere tractors. (ha ha)

This is Aunt Sheri and Josephine sitting next to all the snow
that fell in Eau Claire near the end of December.

Our first stop, once we reached Wisconsin, was my Uncle Mark and Aunt Sheri’s house in Eau Claire. We had fun eating dinner with them and talking for several hours, before Mom and Dad took the younger kids to a hotel down the road. Hanna and I stayed at their house and visited with them and our cousin, Eric, for a while. The next morning Mom and Dad came back and Uncle Mark showed us the remodeling he was doing in the basement.

We got back on the road, and a few hours later, arrived at our final destination: Hayward. My Aunt Barb and Uncle Steve were making another one of their multi-yearly trips to Ireland, and we were going to stay in their house for the week and a half they’d be gone. Most of my mom’s side of the family lives in or around Hayward, and it’d been six years since we went up there, so we knew that we had a lot of visiting ahead of us! Something nice about Hayward is that the town is small enough that from my aunt and uncle’s house, Hanna and I could ride bikes to almost any of our relative’s houses and all the stores in town within about 15 minutes at the most.

Aunt Sheri came up for a couple days and took us to see where her and my grandma grew up, where their old grocery store was, and where my great great great grandparents lived when they came over from Norway. We also got to see how much the towns that they grew up in have changed. It was a lot of fun and we learned a ton about our family history.

We went ice skating at the rink in Hayward a couple times.
Dad invented a new sport while we were there: baby curling!

After my aunt and uncle got back from Ireland, Mom and Dad decided to go ahead and rent a cabin for a month near Hayward somewhere. Shortly after, they found a pretty two story cabin with a huge loft on the banks of Round Lake. It was on the same peninsula that some of my relatives used to live on when they were my age. Not long after getting settled in the cabin, Winter hit full force! A blizzard lasted for about a day and a half, and the lake froze over by the end of the week. Dad and I went out every couple hours to shovel off the driveway so we could get out in our 2WD van If we needed to.

It was great having a woodstove in the cabin. With it we stayed nice and toasty even when the temperatures started dipping down into the negatives at night. Aunt Sheri came up again, this time with my Aunt Jean. It was so cold that we just stayed at the cabin and visited. She brought skis and snowshoes with her, so we went out on the frozen lake for a few hours and learned how! That day I got to do three things I’ve never done before: walk on a frozen lake, ski, and snowshoe. It was a blast, and when she left that evening she let us keep the skis and snowshoes with us ‘til we left Wisconsin.

This is Gabriel, Josephine, and Naomi standing on the bank
of Lake Superior.  It was amazing getting to see it for real
finally!  The lake is so massive that it actually creates it's
own weather and has some of the same effects on the
atmosphere and environment that an ocean does. 

Since we had plenty of room in the cabin, I had my cousins, Brennin and Darby, over to spend the night a couple times. Hanna, Naomi, and I had a lot of fun with them playing games and having big snow ball fights. For Thanksgiving we went to my Uncle Kelly and Aunt Wendy’s house. It was a fun afternoon and we had so much food left over that we went to their house again the next night for dinner to finish it off.
It was hunting season while we were there, so I went with Uncle Kelly and Brennin one afternoon hunting. I didn’t get a hunting license because it would’ve been up around $150 for one, if I remember right. After hiking around for a while, we sat down in a brush pile. I was staring intently at the trail coming towards us, ‘cause this was somewhere that deer crossed frequently, when all of a sudden I heard Uncle Kelly start laughing under his breath. I looked over, and slumped between us was Brennin; sleeping! I couldn’t help but start laughing, too, because he’d been known to do this before and I finally got to see it for myself. (ha ha)

This hill's a lot steeper than it looks!

While we were there Hanna and I went to the youth group every Wednesday at the Wesleyan church in Hayward. It was an awesome church, and we also got to see our cousin Chloe there almost every time which was great, too. The pastor and his family were really nice, and we ended up becoming good friends with their two sons, Wes and Luke, and their daughter Hannah. Wes and Luke let Hanna and I play music for the youth group a few times also, which was a lot of fun! We went sledding with them one afternoon on the big hill outside of town. Hanna had the best sledding wreck I’ve ever seen! She went down the biggest part of the hill and hit a hump at the bottom, flew about six feet through the air, nose planted the sled, and flew about another eight feet before finally stopping face down in the snow. We measured these distances after, so I’m not exaggerating! The local Christian book store was also so nice as to let us host a church youth group game night in their lounge area the next week. It was a lot of fun, and we played music for a while as well as a mean game of Ticket To Ride.

We all know how to have fun, that's for sure!

One Saturday afternoon, Mom hosted an impromptu family reunion at the Hayward VFW center. It was great getting to see some family that we hadn’t seen yet, playing a long game of Spoons with the “spoon-master”, Aunt Karen. Some of the family hadn’t even seen each other for a while, so it worked out good for everybody.

During our entire stay in Wisconsin we saw my Grandma Alberta almost every day. We had her out to the cabin for dinner, and went over to her apartment a lot to visit and watch movies.  Our stay in Wisconsin wouldn't have been complete without her reading the There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly book!  She even has the other less famous version: There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Salmon.



Here's Dad and Naomi skiing on the frozen Round Lake.
There were about two inches of snow on top of the ice as well.



It was sad to say goodbye to everyone after almost eight weeks total of being there. On the way back we stopped by Aunt Sheri and Uncle Mark’s again to return their skis and snowshoes, and say bye to them and my cousin Eric. The rest of the drive went by really quick, and the next day we got to the camper back in Missouri. It was an awesome trip, and I’m really glad we went when we did. I respect everyone up there for handling the cold so well, but I don’t think it’s for me! I’m thinking Missouri is as for north as I ever want to live. I’ll definitely be back to Wisconsin to visit, though; hopefully soon!

(Note To WI Family: If you weren’t mentioned in this post, it’s because I just don’t have enough room! There’s a lot more I could tell about, but because of length I had to keep it no longer than this. Sorry!)

A Summer of ATVing, Camping, Volunteering, and Firefighting



This is my cousin, Cole, standing next to a very pretty 15
foot waterfall on the camp.  This picture was taken during
really horrible drought; normally water gushes down where
he is standing.

 The past several months have been great! We’ve been at the incredibly amazing Camp Eagle Rock, in southwest Missouri. This place is one of my favorites in the entire nation because of its beauty, seclusion, and history. There are about 35 buildings on the camp, which includes cabins, lodges, bathhouses, barns, etc. All of these buildings are on only about 300 acres of the entire 1500 acres the camp spans. So, obviously there is a lot of empty wilderness there; something I love! My whole family is part of an organization called MAPS (Mission America Placement System), that has set up a system with most Assembly of God churches and camps across the country for volunteers who want to work at them. We’ve been volunteering at Camp Eagle Rock since 2004 and enjoy it every time.


Mr. Roger and Mrs. Barbara, the camp managers, are both very nice and Mr. Roger always teaches me new things every time I go there. He’s also always ready with a funny comeback or saying for everything. For example: one day Mr. Roger and I were on our way to a different part of the camp and saw my mom talking to Mrs. Barbara. After stopping and talking to them both for a few minutes, Mom said something like, “Those kids have been so wild lately; I’m going crazy!” Mr. Roger, with a sly smile, replied, “Well, it’ll be a short trip.” I tell you what, if Mr. Roger hadn’t have sped off as quick as he did, I’m sure Mom would’ve gave him a earful!

This is my... I mean, the camp's Kubota that I brush hogged
with.  It could be 95 degrees outside, while I sat in the 70
degree air-conditioned cab.

Just some of the things I worked on while we were there are: brush hogging, installing air conditioning units, mowing, splitting and stacking wood, fixing toilets, installing windows, making wood trim, various woodworking projects, machine maintenance, painting, cleaning cabins, and much more! I spent most of my volunteer time brush hogging; using a 75hp Kubota with a heated/air-conditioned cab. It was great and I put a TON of hours on that tractor. The next thing I did the most was probably mowing. The camp’s zero-turn mower is like a small tractor itself; a 21hp diesel Kubota with a six foot deck on it.

There are lots of four-wheeler trails on the camp, and lots more in the national forest around it. I probably rode my Honda 250EX more than most people while we were there! I figured between riding for fun and getting around for work, I rode somewhere up around 10 miles per day. There are some amazing old homesteads to visit by ATV and a couple really pretty waterfalls that we went to several time during our stay.

Hanna and I made this Chippewa kitchen
from scratch.  We cut down the trees,
scraped some of the bark off, cut them to
length, lashed it in sections, then lashed
the entire thing together.  It made a great
place to put kitchen supplies and gave us
some "counter space" to keep our food
off the ground.

After Mom came up with the awesome idea, Hanna and I went camping for four days together on the camp property. It was a blast and we both learned a lot about each other and got to practice working together! We weren’t suffering too bad, ‘cause we had a huge 21x11 foot tent separated into three rooms. We also had lots of really good food and had fun cooking almost every meal over our campfire that I lit every time with flint and steel. Building and using our latrine was a very interesting experience, but we soon got it figured out. (ha ha) Several nights deer and coyotes came VERY close to our tent, and one night we think the coyotes got into our food bucket. When the four days were up we were both disappointed, but glad to be back with the rest of the family.

Not long afterwards, it was time for my birthday and I decided to have a weekend campout with a few friends. We chose a ridge above Table Rock Lake, which borders the camp, to set up our tents. We did lots of riding and hiking that weekend, and saw some really cool stuff! My cousin, Cole, found an eight-point deer skull that we stashed in an almost dry creek bed to return for later. As with Hanna and I, lots of deer and coyotes walked right by and even through our camp at night. After dark we spent hours sitting around the campfire laughing and telling stories. We also did some archery at the camp’s range, and swam a few times in two giant outdoor swimming pools. It was an awesome weekend and we all regretted having to pack up camp and head home.

Another adventure that we had, but that was a little more unexpected, came one hot dry day.  There was a brush pile burning in a field behind our camper, but very quickly it caught the dry grass in the field on fire and soon about five acres were burning.  My dad and I used two shovels to start putting it out while Mom went and got help from some people that were renting the camp.  The woods began to catch fire, but with the Lord's help we were able to keep a forest fire from starting and potentially burning down the camp.  After the help arrived we finished putting out the last of the flames around the field and Mr. Roger built a dirt berm around the brush pile to keep any more fire from spreading.  It was an intense few hours, and a day I'll never forget, that's for sure!



My cousin, Cole, found this falling rock ledge during a hike
on the camp and thought he could save it.  I kept telling him
it was a lost cause... but he gets an "A" for effort, I guess.

 I love Camp Eagle Rock, and it’s definitely somewhere I hope to continue going back to often; in the future taking my own kids to enjoy it as well! If you’ve never been, I would HIGHLY recommend going there as soon as possible. Try to go in the Spring or late Fall to avoid the stifling heat and bitter cold that can sometime come in the other months.

The camp hosts meetings, clubs, churches, individuals, and anyone really, in its wide range of facilities. Check out their website at: http://www.eaglerockcampground.com/.

In the words of Mr. Roger, “I’ll see ya ‘round if you don’t turn square!”

Uncle Max's Hospitality

Grandma's house. That statement probably makes you think of apple pie, right? Sure, apple pies are good, but that's not all my grandma makes! We stayed at my Grami and Grandpa Tom's for seven weeks this summer at their house south of Springfield, MO. I joked that she probably made me gain 5 pounds while we were there. She made us all kinds of big breakfasts, lunches, and dinners all the time. One of my favorite breakfasts that is a classic at her house now, is homemade monkey bread.

I almost forgot to mention my Uncle Max. He still lives with my grandma and grandpa, and doesn't like to do anything but eat and sleep. He's kind of plump, and has a little bald spot. Oh, did I mention he's a dog! Yeah, maybe I should've mentioned that first. Well, anyways, we decided that Max was our uncle a few years ago when we noticed that my grandma was treating him like a son. (ha ha) He was sleeping on the end of their bed, eating left-over pancakes and sausage, and going to Wal-Mart with her. So, my Mom said he was being treated like a son, thus her brother, and our uncle.

I had a few knife orders that I needed to complete while we were there, and I had all the tools that I'd gotten in Arizona at Christmas. Tom was nice enough to let me use one of his three work benches to set my tools up on and make the knives. He does stone work, and makes fire places, fountains, benches, arches, entrances, etc. out of marble or limestone. After getting the blades softened by my knifemaking teacher, Tom McGinnis, I was able to get all the orders completed in time.

We went kayaking on Flat Creek a few times with Tom and his fishing buddies, while we were there, too. We cooked out and stopped at some awesome swimming holes. It was a lot of fun every time and we saw a lot of really cool stuff and had a great time. We also went kayaking and swimming on Table Rock Lake a few times with my cousins Cole and Ella. It was so hot while we were there that it was nice having the lake and river close by.

My other cousins Juli and Sean came down a couple times while we were there. Sean, my uncle, Cole, Dad, and me threw tomahawks for a few hours one day. Sean ended up being pretty good, even though he'd never done it before. He tried throwing under handed, then double, then under handed double, and he got them all.

My grandma has a golf cart that she got for hauling stuff around the garden and house. It's got flame stickers painted on it and a little bed on the back of it for carrying bags, boxes, or plants. She lets us ride it all around their property. We even made some trails back in the woods for it, so she could get to the big blackberry bushes. My cousin, Cole, and I made a kind of "rally" race course that we'd ride around over and over again 'til we had it down to every bump and curve.

I really enjoyed our time at my grandma, grandpa, and Uncle Max's house. I can't wait to go back really soon!

Santa Fe, Cochiti Lake, Los Alamos Nuclear Site, and Tent Rocks State Park

Did you know that Santa Fe, NM is the highest capitol in the US? Yeah, it sits at about 7100 ft above sea level, making it the "mile and a half high capitol". (ha ha) We actually didn't stay in Santa Fe, but about 30 minutes away at Cochiti Lake Rec Area, a Corp of Engineers managed lake and campground. The lake is very pretty, but not good for swimming. Even if you wanted to, there are signs posted against swimming in any part of the lake. The reason being is that the Rio Grande dumps into the lake, bringing all the logs and debris it's picked up into the lake. The "camp hosts" when we were there were really friendly and helpful, and they enjoyed
hearing about the owl, and our kayaking adventures (read below).


The kayaking is great! We kayaked from the Rec Area and around into a little cove that was lined by incredible quartz and other chunks of pretty rocks. We didn't even get out of the kayaks and just looked at the rock from in our kayaks. I saw a particularely interesting looking bank that I thought had the potential to hold some fossils. I pulled my kayak onto shore and climbed up the steep, slippery slope 20 or 30 feet until I got to the bank. Suddenly something big flew out of a crevice right at my feet! I soon realized it was an owl after it landed on a knarled pine tree across the cove. Out of instinct I looked into the crevice and saw something I've wanted to see for years but haven't, a baby owl. It pretty much looked like a ball of feathers with two little eyes on the front. The only way to tell that this bowling ball sized baby was alive was because it was heaving out and in like a ball inflating and deflating every few seconds. Laying right in front of it was the product of it's mother's hard work and honed hunting skills, a large rabbit. By now the mother owl was hooting at me every 10 or 15 seconds, obviously irritated. I didn't want to scare her off so I slipped (literally) back down the slope and into my kayak again.

Another day we also kayaked across the lake to Tetilla Peak campround straight across from where we were. The wind started blowing hard on the way back. The front of my kayak scooped up the water, as I went through the waves, like a shovel. Once we finally got back to our side of the lake we faced another challenge, climb up a really steep gravel bank for 40 or 50 feet to get to the road at the top. Dad and I each grabbed the front of our kayak and drug them behind us. I didn't really want to slip because of the large rocks and logs at the bottom of the bank, but unfortunately I was wearing sandals so it was hard to keep my footing. At long last we made it to the top and looked back down the slope and waves we had just conquered. We had fun... and it gave me a great story to tell ya'll.

Santa Fe is awesome! We went there four times, I think, and every time we'd find something else cool.
There are some amazing churches, some that look like cathedrals, and others that look like spanish missions. Somewhere I'd definitely recommend going is the Palace of the Governors. The Palace of the Govorners is the oldest government headquarters in the US. It was actually the seat of Hispanic govornment since the 1600's until it came into the hands of the US. All the doorways are very short to help keep heat from transfering from one room to the next and for defensive purposes. Someone coming through the door would have to duck down when walking through, giving the person inside the room an advantage if there were ever an attack. The "palace" covered several blocks, most of which was a large courtyard in the center, so that the entire city's population could stay inside during a raid on the town outside. There is also a very nice city park which the kids really enjoyed. It has some very unique "toys" that the kids played on. Next to it is a really long walkway with a wooden arch over it. When we were there, vines were just starting to grow around the edges of it. It should be really pretty once it's covered over completely.

My Aunt Mary and Uncle Dave came down and stayed at an inn near the big town square. We went to some of the churches with them and a interesting market being held next to one. At the market there was a man selling fossils from the area. I got talking to him and found out really how many fossils are around the Santa Fe region, a lot! I was really interested, becuase I enjoy fossils and fossil hunting. He gave me some tips and gave the kids each a shark tooth, then we moved on. There are a couple fossil shops in town, each of which is definitely somewhere I'd stop if you like that kind of stuff. The one was more like a store, and the other more like a museum. We also ate at an authentic New Mexican style resturant that was really good, although I'm sure the "authentic New Mexicans" didn't eat like that every day... (ha ha)

We also went to the Los Alamos museum on the history of nuclear research and atomic bombs.  It was incredible!  There was so much stuff to read and look at that we didn't even get to see it all!  I learned some things on some of the displays and short-films that I had never even heard of before or thought was possible.  Something I particularly enjoyed was a little screen with a small wheel in front of it.  First you select which type of atomic bomb test you'd like to watch, then start spinning the wheel.  The faster or slower you spin it controls the speed that the clips of the nuclear warheads exploding plays!  I slowed it down a couple times until it was frame-by-frame so that I could see how certain things (like water, or a house) reacted when it exploded.  It was amazing!

Another cool place we went was Tent Rocks near Cochiti Lake.  It is almost like an alien landscape,
with it's wierd pointed dirt domes, and narrow canyons.  We went out there a few times, and each time we noticed new things.  The wierd "tents" were formed by steam vents from underground lava tubes.  Wherever there's a "tent" is where a steam vent was, although some smaller ones have been formed by erosion.  One of the times we went, we hiked up a slot canyon trail.  It was awesome!  The canyon narrowed until it was no more than a couple feet wide and 50 or 60 feet tall.  It kept opening up into little ampitheatre type areas that had really wierd formations.  Once we got up on top of the ridge, the view was incredible.  We could see Cochiti Lake and everything else for mile and miles around.  We also found lots of Apache Tears up on top of the canyon.  Apache Tears are formed when Obsidian starts to melt into another rock.  They are about pea sized and jet black.  They are also illegal to take, but they're amazing to look at.  Tent Rocks is a must see, I'd say, if you're ever in the area.

We did a lot of stuff and had a lot of fun at Santa Fe and Cochiti Lake. I really look forward to going back!

My New Netbook!

The past few months we've really been working hard on "advertising" our family.  Between all of us we've got eight blogs, three websites, four Facebooks, one Twitter and numerous other projects we're working on all the time.  All this stuff is a great way to get our family and what we're doing out there, but we've had a problem.  All of us had to share one laptop. 

Mom told Hanna and I recently she thought we should really consider getting our own laptops so we won't keep her from working on her laptop.  I had enough money so I started looking into it.  I quickly realized how expensive laptops are.  The cheapest one I could find was about $330 but it didn't have a battery to power it once it was unplugged.  The average laptop I could find ran about $450.  Then I found something I'd never even heard of before, netbooks.  Netbooks are small, portable laptops that are designed for internet use.  They don't have disk drives, which is something I don't need.

I researched netbooks and found the Asus Eee line.  Asus has been a computer parts manufacturer for years, but recently they decided to combine all their great parts into computers of their own.  Asus is now known for their top-of-the-line computers and netbooks.  Asus actually came up with the idea of a netbook and was the first company to make one.


After looking up the specifications of all the different Eee netbooks and comparing prices, reliability, functionality, and performance I decided the Asus Eee PC 1005PEB looked like the best one for me.  It was $330 at Best Buy.  Wal-Mart had the same computer, but with the old Intel Atom N270 processor, for $280.  I then compared the N270 against the N450 processor in the the new one at Best Buy.

I finally decided to go with the one at Best Buy because of the N450 processor.  There were some complaints with the N270 being slow.  I also found I wanted 250 GB of hard drive instead of the 160 GB.  The 1005PEB at Best Buy had that, too

I was still open to a different computer, if there was a better one.  So we went to Best Buy and I messed around with a couple different ones and talked to a guy for a while about how the different netbooks would handle the things I wanted to do with them.

I left Best Buy last Friday with my new Asus Eee PC 1005PEB.  After letting it charge over night like recommended, I fired it up.  From the moment I turned it on I liked it! It is very similar to my Mom's larger Asus laptop so it was easy to learn how to use.

It has Windows 7 Starter which is just a simplified version of Windows 7.  Don't listen to some of the rumors I heard and read online about the Starter version not being able to "multi-task".  I personally have had email, and two blog managers open while doing Windows and Trend Micro downloads.  The computer works very fast while online or running a program.  It also has good graphics and a nice webcam.


Another great feature is the battery.  With the screen on full brightness and while working on it all day, with the engine on "super performance" mode (see below), the battery powered the computer for over seven hours!  I then tried it with the engine on "power save" mode, and the screen on low brightness, although while still working on it all day, and clocked the battery in at about 10 hours!  The engine that I mentioned above is technically called the Super Hybrid Engine.  It has three modes: power save, high performance, and super performance.  Power save mode makes the computer run as efficiantly as possible, high performance runs about average, and super performance makes it run as quickly as possible even though it uses a lot more power.  When I'm plugged in I always keep it on "super performance".

The computer also has three USB ports, an MMC-SD port, and a port so the computer can be plugged into a larger screen or a projector.

All in all, I would strongly recommend the Asus Eee PC 1005PEB to anyone who wants a small, affordable computer that will do just about anything you want it to.  I've really enjoyed this one so far and I know you will too.

The Amazon link on the left will take you to the exact computer I bought, red and all. 


 

Valley of Fires

Before we came into north/central New Mexico I'd never even thought about there being volcanos and lava rock.  I think different now. We stayed at the Valley of Fires Rec Area just north of Carrizozo, NM for about a week. It sits right in the middle of a 44 mile long lava bed. The lava came from two vents which covered that part of the valley up to 150 feet deep! The campground is on an island surrounded by the lava flow.


When we first picked out a camp site it was on such a hill that Mom said she didn't know if we could even leval the camper, I was doubtful too. We got it though! The front of the camper was almost touching the ground. :)  The sites are very nice.  Each one has it's own ramada and picnic table along with amazing views of the surrounding lava field, valley, and mountains.

One of the first days we were there we went to Lincoln. Lincoln is where the famous "Lincoln War" took place. Billy the Kid and the Regulators fought their ruthless battle in and around town, ending in a daring jail break by Billy the Kid who dissapeared afterwards.  In the picture on the right I'm standing by the bullet hole in the courthouse wall made by Billy the Kid shooting his guard as he escaped.  After Billy the Kid got away, it is said he either was shot by the sheriff or escaped into Mexico where he lived the rest of his life. Lincoln is one of our favorite old west towns because it's secluded, rarely busy, and has such an interesting history. (Below is a picture of us sitting on the old hotel's front porch)

We also had fun hiking the Valley of Fires nature trail and exploring the lava. There's lots of little caves and "sinkholes" in the lava. The lava rock is razor sharp in some places, I had to watch my steps so I didn't fall.

The kids had fun at the Carrizozo city park (very top left). We went there a couple times. That park is whereTytus figured out how much fun a slide can be. :)

One day we decided to go for a drive up in the nearby mountains and have a picnic. We had a great time hiking around and having our picnic (picture on left) on top of a mountain. Then we went into Nogal Canyon to see what was up there. We found a great grassy spot alongside a pretty little stream (picture on right). I think we spent about three hours hiking around and playing in the little patch of snow that was still there. We had a long snowball fight which ended in Mom stuffing snow down the back of Hanna's shirt. :D It was a lot of fun. A few days later we went back and spent almost five hours at our little mountain paradise. The snow was gone but we found other things to do. Josephine was scared to walk down the steep bank to the stream so Hanna and I built her stairs. We dug into the bank and placed stones her step distance apart, and made a little landing at the bottom. To finish it off we used little rocks to write "Josie's Steps". :) The kids loved sending their little boats down stream. The boats included a gatorade can, a basketball, and a small jelly jar. One of us would wait down stream with a long wooden dowel to stop the boats from getting away. Dad and I also drove up the mountain a ways until we got to a place where the stream flowed across the road.  We could see Nogal Peak not too far above us. There must be a mountain lion up where we were, because first we found a cave with a turkey ripped apart inside, then some cat pee on a tree, then an elk leg, and then what looked like mountain lion tracks going up a hill. Dad kept his .45 close.

We also went to the almost ghost town of White Oaks. It's way off in a valley at the base of some mountains. We walked around the old two story school house and drove up to a large victorian looking house on a hill. There is also a big safe which was blown open by dynamite in the 1920's and robbed. I wouldn't have wanted to have my life savings in there. :)

One day we went down to Ruidoso and checked out the Hubbard Museum of the American West. We'd been to the museum about eight years ago and stayed in the condo right next to it with our grandmother. Quite a bit had changed. The virtual horse racing game was gone but in it's place they put a big kids area. Naomi, Gabriel, Josephine, and even Tytus loved the adobe house, chuck wagon, camp fire, life-size horse, and library. Naomi was in the adobe house (picture on left) almost the whole time pretending she was Josephina (an American Girl doll), Gabriel was on the horse almost the whole time roping the pretend steer, Josephine loved the campfire with it's pots and fake food to cook, Tytus crawled everywhere including around and under the wagons in the next door exhibit. :D  All the kids loved the old mechanical chuckwagon and bronco.  They sure aren't like the ones in Wal-Mart now.  These jerked back and forth so hard you'd think it would give a kid whiplash (picture above right)! We spent about five hours there looking around at the many different old-west exhibits and playing with the kids in between.

Valley of Fires Rec Area is definitly a cool place to stop if you're ever in the area. Carrizozo, the mountains, the lava field, the Hubbard museum and Lincoln are amazing places to go and the lava field is a good place to see it all from.

Check back in soon.  At the next place I'm going to be writing about (where we are now) Dad and I kayak across a very windy lake, I find a baby owl, and we get to see the bomb that ended WWII. :-)

Deming, Tombstone, Mexico, and the Tornado!

Once we left the Tucson area we went over to Quail Ridge RV Park north of Huachuca City, AZ.  It's a nice campground with big sites and pretty views.  Our main reason for going there was to be close to Tombstone.  If good pizza comes to mind before Wyatt Earp, then you've got problems. : )  We went there for almost a full day.  Gabriel locked Mom, Hanna, and Tytus in the Tombstone jail (pic on left).  It's a great place to go, but Tombstone has become a tourist trap.  They won't even let you see the OK Corral without paying an entrance fee.  We had a fun day, though.  One of the most interesting things there is the big courthouse museum.  We really enjoyed that.

After leaving Huachuca City we finally left Arizona and got into Deming, NM.  We stayed at the Low-Hi RV Ranch south of town.  It's the headquarters for the LoW (Loners on Wheels) singles club, but they welcome anyone.  The "Ranch" is great, with a labyrinth (pic on right) , gameroom, library, and little "landmarks" such as the famous Log Henge.  The kids really liked running through the labyrinth (which is 1/3 mile long).

One day we went to Rock Hound State Park.  They actually allow you to take out up to 15 lbs of the many amazing rocks in the park.  Hanna and I went on the hiking trail and found some really cool chunks of Jasper.  We only took a pound or so.  We also went to the Luna Mimbres Museum in town.  The museum is amazing.  It doesn't look that big from the outside, but looks can be deceiving!  Inside is an Indian exhibit, rocks and geodes exhibit, ranching exhibit (pic on left), early 1900's walk-through "town", military exhibit, and a lot more!  We actually went there twice because the first time we got there right before they closed.

We also went to Columbus and the Pancho Villa/ Columbus Raid museums at the historic Camp Furlong (pic on right).  The two museums there are great and the people were real friendly.  The story is very interesting but with a lot of questions left unanswered.  This was one of the first places armored vehicles (pic below) and airplanes were used in battle.

While down there we went to the Mexico border (pic below).  We drove until we got the the sign that said "Last Turn Around Before Border Checkpoint", or something like that.  On our way back we stopped at a really nice playground a couple miles from the border.

While we were in Deming I also saw the most amazing "weather thing" I've ever seen, a real tornado.  It was a clear sunny day, but the wind was gusting up to 35 mph.  We were out by the labyrinth when suddenly Mom said "Is that a tornado?!?!?".  I looked up and sure enough, it was a real dust tornado.  Now I'm not talking about one of those little dust devils that can get up to 50 feet tall or so.  This thing was probably 400+ feet tall and even had a cloud of dust and garbage around the bottom of it like I've always seen on Twister or Storm Chasers.  It was headed our way, but before I got to see what it's like to be in a real dust tornado it broke apart (I've been in a small dust devil before, it's like being in a sand storm).  There was so much dust in that tornado that it took about five minutes for all of it to settle to the ground.  I'm still excited just writing about it!! It was cool. 

The Sonoran Desert Museum and Getting Cut in Half!

The past week has been a blast! We stayed at the Gilbert Ray County Campground which is only about a mile from the Sonoran Desert Museum. We went ahead and bought year passes because we went to it four times this week and will probably be able to use it next winter too. The museum is incredible! It's unlike any museum you've ever been to. There are dozens of animal exhibits, a walk-through aviary, numerous shows throughout the day and a huge manmade cave to explore! I really enjoyed the Raptor Free Flight show in which they let four Harris' hawks loose for about half an hour. We even got to see them catch a wild wood rat! The kids liked the Running Wild show where you get to see some native animals run in front of and even fly over you. What makes the animal exhibits so amazing is that instead of conforming the cage so people can see better, they conform the people to the animals! At the beaver and otter exhibits you actually go down a ramp "under water" and get to see their dens and them swimming right in front of you. At the Life on the Rocks exhibit, which features snakes and lizards, the kids got to climb through a passage that lets them see what it'd be like to be a "rock dweller". I could go on for hours. : ) Check out the link above and go!

The Gilbert Ray campground is great. It has amazing views, nice camp hosts, and great sites. Hanna and I took advantage of our big site and had a 30 minute sword fight. I'm not sure who won. If it had been real she would've lost her left leg, but I would've taken a sure fatal blow to the gut when I slipped! So that's what I get I guess. I teach Hanna everything I know about sword fighting and she cuts me in half! I've never been beat before. I guess it's a good thing though, she is on my side after all. I want someone at least as good as me to watch my back. : )

Superstition Mountain and the Lost Dutchman's Gold!

The last week and a half have been great.  We went to Apache Junction, AZ and stayed at the Lost Dutchman State Park.  The park is at the base of the incredible collapsed volcano, Superstition Mountain.  There is a lot of history surrounding the mountain, most of which I don't have time to tell about. : )

The most famous story is about the lost dutchman, Jacob Waltz.  He traveled up into the mountains and returned with GOLD!  It is said that he stashed the gold in different hiding places on the mountain and had a secret gold mine that he kept secret forever...or did he.  On his death bed it is said that he told two people where to find his stashes of gold and the mine.  After Jacob's death those two people searched two years for the gold but denied ever finding anything.  (mysterious music begins to play)  Years later three huge gold mines were found around the mountain that made over $2,000,000 in profit!  Keep in mind what that would be in today's dollars.  The mines drew in about 4,000 people and the town of Goldfield was started.  Even up in the 1990's people still lived in caves on the mountain searching for gold.  Many of them found it, lots of it.  One man found a saddle bag in the 80's that contained over  $500,000 worth of gold (that's about half the price he could get for the gold now)!

 

The state park is really nice.  It borders the Tonto National Forest which borders the Wilderness which covers the mountain.  Dad and I decided from the day we got there that we wanted to hike to the top of the mountain.  It's easier said than done.  The hike is six miles round trip and climbs about 3000 feet during the first half of the hike!  I actually should stop calling it a hike, it's more like bouldering.  The trail follows a gorge surrounded by thousand foot cliffs and is littered with boulders!  There are some places that are really tricky to get up.  We had a great time and the climb was definitely worth it.  The view was amazing!  The picture on the left is how the Pheonix valley looks from 4000 feet above it!

We also went to the Renaissance Festival while we were there.  Everyone got all dressed up, except me.  Hanna really enjoyed it because that's her favorite historical time period.  One of the coolest things was the jousting.  Gabriel was so excited!  We made him armor out of sheet metal and he was ready to take on any of those knights out there.  We ended up spending the whole day there.  There were a lot of neat things to look at, and listen to.  Some of the music was really cool.  The Renaissance Festival is definitely a mission field of it's own.  There were a lot of evil decorations and demonic looking people walking around.  If what we saw was how the middle ages really were, I wouldn't have wanted to live back then. 

We went to the Superstition Mountain Museum three times I think. : )  We never even actually went in the museum, they had so much to see outside.  The blacksmith there was really nice.  I talked to him all three times we went and he gave me some pointers on forging.  He showed me how to make little patch knives which can also be used as a paring knife or even a little skinning knife.  ( For those of you that don't shoot black powder guns.  A patch knife is a little knife used to cut away the extra cloth around a patch so that it can fit down the barrel between the powder and the ball.  For those of you that do shoot black powder.  I have a 50 caliber Hawken Rifle)

One afternoon Hanna and I decided to go for a hike.  We went the long and treacherous trail up to the Green Boulder. : )  It actually is green because of lichen, I think.  It was a fun hike.  We ended up going a different route than we first planned because we were moving along faster than we had planned!  We took Jacob's Crosscut across the valley and back to the campground instead of going back the way we came.

We also went to Goldfield which is now a living history type town.  We went through the museum and the reptile exhibit.  Gabriel loved the cactus shop because he said "I've never seen a cactus that close before"!

All in all, it was a great place to stay.  We got to do a lot of fun stuff while we were there and it's definitely somewhere I would like to go back! 

Gettin' Ready To Go, and a Hermit Crab!

Well, today and yesterday we've just been getting ready to go.  Yesterday we said goodbye to my aunt and uncle.  I'm going to miss them.  I've learned so much about wood working from my uncle while we've been here.  We also went around and said bye to most of the other MAPS volunteers.  They've started to feel more like aunts, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas instead of just friends.  The picture on the left is of all the MAPS guys here sitting in our break room, we've had some fun times during our half hour break.  I'm going to miss everyone here.  Hopefully we'll meet up with them again soon.  Today we thought we were going to leave by 1:30 pm.  Between Dad's work and Mom feeling uneasy about driving in bad traffic, they decided to stay.  We'll probably leave by 10 am tomorrow morning.  I'm excited to get back on the road, but sad to leave all these wonderful people here, if only you could get to know them.

On a happier note, yesterday I got a new hermit crab.  My last one died and the guy at Petco said even if it was past the 15 day limit I could still exchange it for a live one. So, I got a crazy, wild little crab that doesn't even like to stay in his shell.  He's not shy at all, if you put him on your hand he'll crawl right up your arm! : )

PBR Church!

This morning we went to the PBR church service, put on by Riding High Ministries.  It was great.  They played some great country worship songs first and then had one of the Brazilian bullriders preach.  He couldn't speak very much English, so he had a translater.  The service was held right by the gates and the bull pens!  Once it was done we went and talked to Mike Lee for over 30 minutes.  He's a great christian man.  He invited us to come stay at his bullriding school when we get over to Texas!  He said he could probably find something for us to help out with.  Sounds good to me!  

Pinewood Derby and PBR!

Today was great!  The Royal Rangers program at the church we're staying at had the Sectional Pinewood Derby this morning.  I thought we'd be gone by now and so I didn't worry about making a car to race with Gabriel.  Well, an hour and a half before the race was going to start I decided to make a car!  I used a couple tricks I picked up at James River AG in Springfield, MO.  Dad and Mom made a car for Gabriel and Naomi, also.  The race was a blast, there were over a hundred people there.  Surprisingly, I won second place in my division!Pretty good for 30 minutes of work.

Tonight was the event we've wanted to go to for a long time, the PBR (professional bullriding)!  This is where the the big dogs, such as Mike Lee and Kody Lostroh, ride.  When we went in, Mom signed us up for the PBR Fan Club which means for a year we now get the PBR magazine, we get to go into the arena before and after the event to talk to the riders, and Gabriel got a free t-shirt!  Before it started we got to go down and be on Versus TV while they interviewed one of the bullriders!  Then we went and sat down in our seats, five stories above the arena floor!  The stadium, Jobing.com, is huge.  The bullriding was great, we got to see some awesome rides and close calls.  Kody Lostroh ended up winning the event.  After it was over we made our way down to the arena to meet some of the cowboys.  With our fanclub pass we were able to get inside and walk around with the bullriders.  Then we saw the one we'd been looking for, MIKE LEE!  Gabriel was literaly jumping for joy.  Mike signed Gabriel's vest and hat and posed for some pictures with him.  We were the last ones to leave the arena, Gabriel didn't want to go.  God gave us so much favor tonight it was amazing.  I had a great time and can't wait to go to the next event!