Thursday, May 24

As promised, here I am! :)

We left off Sunday, with a lazy day spent at home with Stone and Sage (Saylor in Murdo). Monday morning, my dad called, in need of a ride home to Custer after dropping off his car at the fix-it shop. He took us out to lunch at Q-doba, then we had a lovely drive to Custer. It's a beautiful drive, and really beautiful country. The boys checked out the horses there at his house, and saw the naughty little German Shepherd pup chase one of the horses, and get herself kicked (but she was ok, no injuries). But they did get the chance to witness how powerful a horse is, when in full swing and kicking about trying to ward off a pesky dog.

On the way back to RC, I saw a dog that resembled Max, so had to pull over and ask about her. Turns out, it was Max's sister, same litter and everything! (or so I conclude. He said she was a couple years older than Max, but all the other info just adds up to it being his litter mate) And I ALMOST brought Max with us to Custer, but didn't, now wishing I would have. It would have been cool to see them together. She (Miss Kitty) and Max have nearly identical markings around the eyes, and they were the only two of the bunch that had the dalmation spots. (Mama was a boxer, Papa was a dalmation, or vise versa? I always get it mixed up, John knows for sure) It was fun to meet her!

We stopped in Hill City next. Anytime I'm in Hill City, I ***HAVE TO*** stop at the Alpine Inn and order up a couple Napoleans to go! My favorite desert! Then, we browsed around the Granite Sports store, and I picked up a Life is Good hat (yellow with a little happy person sitting in a meditative yoga pose), and also a groovy green Life is Good T for John. He looks good in dark green! Then, we stopped at Everything Prehistoric for a cup of coffee and some hot chocolate for the last leg of our journey home. Stone got to check out some of the cool dinosaurs they have there. We need to go back and spend more time there, though.

This brings us to Monday evening. Robert (neighbor boy) is over playing, it's 7:45 and my phone rings. Saylor's been hit in the eye by a baseball while playing catch with some boys. HE'S OK! But...he needs his mama. He's not sure he wants to come home just yet, but he's quite positive his needs me to come be with him *tonight*. I throw a bag together, give the birds a fresh, full dish of food and water, shuffle everyone into the suburban, load Max into the back, and we're on the interstate heading towards Saylor by 8:30. We arrived in Murdo around 10:30 (which is now 11:30 Murdo time, they're CST, we're Mountain Time) Saylor is grateful to see me. I bring in the sleeping boys from the suburban, Saylor shows me the new kitties (eyes still closed new, CUTE!) and then I prepare myself for bed. Saylor decides he'd like to sleep with us, but I could see the pull of really wanting to stay up with Wyatt and his friend, Skylar, but also desperately needing two things: 1. Sleep 2. Me I didn't say anything to persuade him of which way to go. It was enlightening to watch him make a choice for himself, and he chose the one he knew to be right for him at that moment, but he figured it out all on his own, without any "you need to come to bed" mumbo jumbo from me. Smart kid!

The next day we went out to Grandpa's farm and rode Roxy the horse for a while. Also got to see a colt that had been born just hours before, pretty little black colt. We spent Tuesday night with another family and then headed back to Rapid City on Wednesday. My mom took the boys to her house Wednesday night and I helped unload and stock the weekly order at the Breadroot. I won't volunteer Friday, as my kid helper will be out of town for the holiday weekend, so I was putting in time where I could.

Today, we stayed pretty close to home. Saylor mowed most of the lawn, per his request. We dropped off the clippings at the yard waste spot. The boys wanted to go to the skate park for a while, so we did that, too. Stone was zipping around that skate park on his scooter like a pro! He's brazen, but never gets hurt. He's fun to watch, so confident and clearly enjoying the moment. Sage and I played and laughed, well, mostly I laughed at him, while the boys skated. He had me cracking up all over the place, he's so funny! While we were out, we picked up some groceries from the co-op and washed off the mud from driving those country roads for two days. Tomorrow, we're spending the day with friends. And that, my friend, brings us up to the Present. I'll get some photos up of the horse riding and skate park, and whatever else looks interesting, soon! Too lazy to walk aaaalllllllll the way downstairs right now! :) Until next time...

Peace...