Riding to & from School

 Rides to & from School

Our Dogs LOVE Car Rides. We didn't even know they enjoyed it so much before now. They never went on many rides in Utah, unless long road trips. Lacy somehow thinks shes a Parrot, until I tap on the breaks. haha. Benson think's hes a Person, often thinking he needs to sit in a chair. Ricco is usually found trying to look out the windows. It kind of feels likes a mini circus when going to & from School. :/

Benson being festive in his Christmas Bells.

Lacy Bear

Drive Home
Part I

We left KY this morning...
Naturally, I had to take some photos of some Clouds! ;)

Drive to KY

We Drove 2 Hours North, picked up Aunty Mallory, from the Madison Airport.
And Drove 9 1/2 Hours South to Richmond, Kentucky.
(Where My Dad Lives)

It's a fairly flat drive.

We took lots of pictures...
What else do you do on a Roadtrip?!

Our 1st Tornado Siren

Every Evening we have the same routine...
We check the weather.
Our clothing is laid out.
Shoes are placed by the basement steps.
Our laptop Case packed with our external hard drives and chargers.
And the dog leashes on top of the kennels.

We do all of this in case Tornado Sirens go off in the middle of the night.

So with all of that said. It was no different last night.

Last night before bed, I checked the weather. I saw a Big Storm way up north on the Minnesota/Canada border. Normally, the storm, would proceed east thru Northern Wisconsin and toward Michigan. Since I thought we had nothing to worry about. I told Alan, "Don't worry about getting things ready. I'm really tired, lets just go to bed".

BIG MISTAKE

Fast Forward... I'm asleep. Dreaming. Because its 4:45am...
All of the sudden in my dream I hear this faint noise... and it just doesn't quit.

I wake up.
I lay there for a few minutes. I can still hear a faint noise.
I think to myself "Huh.. that's really weird."
I get up. Walk over to our bedroom window.

The Sky is Green. A Minty Green. The clouds are low. It is EXTREMELY Windy. (as in 65mph)
I open the window.

(This is not my video but it shows you exactly what we hear when it goes off and how fast these storms move in)


I realize what is happening!! I am completely dumbfounded!!
I just stood there, almost as if I was in a trance! I couldn't take my eyes off the window!!

So many thoughts went thru my head...
Oh My Gosh this is the REAL thing!!!
I can't believe how Green the sky is!!
What time is it??
I shouldn't be standing here!
The Clouds look so weird!!!
Most importantly, how long have the sirens been going off?!
And how much time do we have??!

I stood there for only a minute, but I felt like I was standing there for at least 5 mins.
As quickly as I realized what was happening my adrenalin kicked in.

I yelled to Alan.. "AL WAKE UP!!!! ALAN ITS A TORNADO SIREN!!! GET UP!!!!".
Alan jumps up. He immediately asks... "HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN GOING OFF?!"

I am scrambling to put my sweat pants on. At this point I'm shaking. I am so caught off guard, I literally put 2 of my legs in the same pant hole twice!!! We are throwing our laptops and cells into our computer bag. I slip on my shoes and put the bag over my shoulder.

I run over to Brenton's room. "BRENT WAKE UP! WE GOTTA GO! THERE IS A TORNADO COMING". Brenton starts crying and says "My tummy hurts! I don't want it to come today." He wasn't moving. So I picked him up in his blanket and put him in the hallway. I told him to run to the basement!

I run into Savannahs room. I literally just scooped her up and ran toward the stairs. Mean while Alan runs to the other side of the house to grab the dogs and there leashes. We all meet on the stairs.

We all get into our tornado room in the basement. Which consists of a room with all 4 walls in-cased in cement. We had camping chairs already set up, our emergency bags which consisted of changes of clothing for each person, shoes for the kids, and our toiletry's. We also had our 72 hour kits, along with snacks for the kids, a few toys, and sippy cups.

We sat in the basement for 35 minutes.

We watched the doppler radar go over Dubuque.
The kids were quiet and just held onto the dogs.
While sitting there I did discover my bra was on inside out. My shirt was backwards. And I had 2 different socks on.

The rest of the day has been pleasent. Sunny and no signs of a cloud in site. The Storm had winds over 100 mph to the east and west of us. Tornado's in Minnesota and damage all the way to Chicago.

Later on I didn't hear the kids playing anymore. This is how I found them...

Looking back I think it would have made a really great 1920's silent film! You know with the old pianos playing? With Captions in between scenes. :)

Hopefully these occurrences will be few and far between.

Lacy Bear...

Lacy is our little girl toy poodle. She is such a sweetheart!! She is always cuddling up and wanting loves. Lacy literally lets the kids do anything they want to her. How many dogs do you know.. that let a little girl dress them up like Minnie Mouse for a tea party?! :)

A "Adventure" in Dubuque...
Part I

I'm now to the point where, once to twice a week, I load up my jeep with the kids, dogs, and snacks. We have come to call these outings "Adventures". We pretty much drive around Dubuque and surrounding areas without a map (or a gps now) and try to find our way around. Dubuque is a mix of New England woods, Rolling farmland, and San Francisco type hills. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking and since we live within 5 miles of the Mississippi River we have a wide variety of wildlife.

On this particular day we ventured out to the "Mines of Spain". Honestly I wanted to go because I couldn't get My Fair Lady out of my head... "The Rain in Spain, stays mainly in the plains...". When I first saw the sign, I googled it and found out it was this amazing preserve with dozens of trails. Best part was it was only about a 15 min drive from our house and FREE!! Naturally we took back roads to get there. We decided to drive up the hill and landed us at Juliene Dubuque's Grave site with panoramic views of the Mississippi River. We got out of the car and sat on a bench for 15 mins watching a tugboat go down the Mississippi...

We continued walking to the grave site which is enclosed in a massive stone tower. Savannah and Brenton were beyond excited!! A Castle tower was just in the middle of the woods. haha. We noticed steps going down from the tower down the bluff. So we went to the bottom of the stairs. When we got to the bottom, I thought it would be a cool pic if the kids climbed back up with Benson and stood in front of the monument. Dubuque has amazing birds here, as in BIG Birds. I saw this huge bird above us while the kids climbed. He just was flying round and round... I didn't think anything of it to be honest. I took the photos and that's when I realized something was not right. I could hear these weird noises. I looked around and couldn't figure out where it was coming from! Than I looked up, and noticed this Bird was circling us. I than realized it was after our dogs probably.

Oh Crap.

I ran up those stairs as fast as I could. I tried to stay calm, because the last thing we needed was chaos. I quickly told the kids it was time to go, and that Mommy was going to carry Benson (he is the smallest of the 2, weighing in at 4 1/2 lbs. Lacy is 9lbs.) and hold onto Lacy.(After all if it wants the dogs, let the bird attack me and not a 2 & 3 yr old!!!) "Lets have a race to the car! Okay?". The kids started running, and I started running behind them.

However, this BIG Bird was not giving up. Savannah turned around. HUGE MISTAKE!! This Bird was so low, that I quickly realized its wing span was probably BIGGER than ME!!! And I'm guessing since Savannah starts to SCREAM bloody murder at this point, she had realized it as well!!! FYI, when your kids realize there is a GIANT BIRD chasing you, the no chaos kinda goes out the window! Savannah would NOT stop Screaming! Brenton was Crying! I'm holding 2 dogs and trying to get the kids to RUN!!! Savannah couldn't and wouldn't stop looking UP at the bird. So she was screaming and running in circles. literally. I told Brenton "Grab your sisters hand!!! RUN to the car as FAST as you CAN!!!". He quickly grabbed her hand and just ran!!

I'm pretty sure that because we were running under so many trees that it was the only thing protecting us somewhat. The most anxiety was when the dash thru the parking lot. It was just wide open asphalt. I quickly pressed the unlock button while we were still under the trees.

Meanwhile there is a beat up car sitting in the parking lot. With 2 ppl sitting in it, with their windows rolled down. (Pretty sure they were smoking pot) As we run past there car. The Guy says out there window "Hey! There is a pretty big bird chasing ya!"
Me: "Yah I kinda gathered that." (No Shiz... seriously?!)
Guy: Ya he almost got ya!!!
Me: Im throwing dogs and kids into the Jeep at this point. And Ignoring him.

It took me a good hour to calm the kids down. Can we say TRAUMATIZED?! Never taking dogs to wildlife preserve again!! And def not coming back unless there is a second adult with kids.


We later learned, that the BIG BIRD, was a Turkey Vulture.

*A large bird, it has a wingspan of 170–183 cm (67–72 in), a length of 64–81 cm (25–32 in), and weight of 0.85–2.26 kg (1.9–5 lb).

*It has dark brown to black plumage; a featherless, purplish-red head and neck; and a short, hooked, ivory-colored beak.
*Its life expectancy in the wild ranges upward of 16 years, with a captive life span of over 30 years being possible.
*The Turkey Vulture is a scavenger and feeds almost exclusively on carrion.
*It finds its meals using its keen vision and sense of smell, flying low enough to detect the gasses produced by the beginnings of the process of decay in dead animals.
*In flight, it uses thermals to move through the air, flapping its wings infrequently.
*It roosts in large community groups.
*Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses.
*It nests in caves, hollow trees, or thickets.
*Each year it generally raises two chicks, which it feeds by regurgitation.
*It has very few natural predators.

Although they are not known for going after live animals... it does happen. Its just rare! Yay for adding to a rare statistic! :/

To Be Continued...

(Our Car before we left!! Scary!!!)

We have Arrived!!!

Well after 4 Food Stops, 15 Bathroom Stops, & 28 hours of driving we have FINALLY made it to Our New Home in Dubuque, Iowa!!!!! Yay!! Let the unpacking begin!!!!

We got these amazing Ice Cream Cones for 99 cents at a rest stop along the way.

We enjoyed our yummy snacks Aunty Mallory picked us up!! Our kids LOVE Lunchables!! Total stapel food on any road trip!!

We stayed at a Days Inn in Sidney, Nebraska aka headquarters of Cabelas.
Lastly a Video of the kids when we crossed the Iowa Border...