Interesting Rest Areas

The boys and I recently took a road trip during spring break. We traveled across Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska until we came to Wyoming where we stopped at Kris and Thomas's. It was two really long days in the car, but along the way we discovered a couple of things about Iowa. First, they really like to put sculptures in their rest areas. Second, the trees are great for climbing! I guess Hughes donated the land??
Sam spotted this tree and had to play squirrel. He is a master tree climber. Andrew followed him and the dog watched from the ground!

My squirrels.

Sam was up about 25 or 30 feet. It was a great tree!

This sculpture had me puzzled for a bit until I figured out that it is corn. With weird things coming out the top. Things like fish and sunflowers. But my favorite was the pig, yes, a pig coming out of the top of the corn cob.

The pig is the last one on the right. I don't know, I mean, I "get" the sculpture, but well, it is just a little odd. No offense to the Iowan's who read this blog....

This is another, different rest area. I liked this one, it actually makes sense. A flower and "a place to grow". I get it.

The boys posed for lots of pictures. Sorry guys. You can tell Andrew is a bit frustrated with me.

As well he should be.

This was NOT in Iowa. This photo proves that Nebraska takes the prize for undecipherable statues. I don't get this at all. It looks a bit like something crashed into the ground and they just left it there. Sort of "Mad Maxish" or maybe Planet of the Apes...(the old movie) If anyone can explain this to me, I would be glad to hear it!

At any rate, we had a great trip across the great states of Iowa and Nebraska. I find the people really nice and friendly. The trucks on the interstate were a bit scary. They drive REALLY fast and it was a bit unnerving in my little car. But we made it. I listened to Sam play pokemon the whole way across Nebraska. Next time I bring the charger for my MP3.

Latest Quilt

I finished the quilt I made for Lindsay, my niece, in honor of her graduation from High School! It was really fun to make, kind of different because of the bright colors. It is a two-sided quilt and I think it looks great! When I was all done, I wanted to keep it for myself! But it looks just like something Lindsay would love! So it is hers.

It is made out of tie-dyed material - and some really bright prints I found at Walmart.

I love the colors! Pretty cool!

BAND EXTRAVAGANZA!!

One of the fun things about living in a small town is that local events are really BIG deals. This week we had the privilege of going to the Oregon Schools Band Extravaganza! It is pretty fun to go and listen to the 5th - 12th grade bands play all together! We had a great time! Sam plays in the Oregon High School Band and has just started in the Jazz band. The bands all walked in and sat down.
Mr. Beske, the brains behind Band Extravaganza!

Sam, the Tuba Man!

The whole band. They played the Star Spangled Banner, it was pretty awesome!

They also play Ode to Joy all together too.

The High School Band played selections from the Lion King and a Sousa March. They played something called Invicta, which I wish I could have recorded. It was really beautiful.

Sam, listening to the 7th graders.

Mr. Ekhardt, the High School Director.

Sam, playing. We are so proud of him. He really has learned alot and is planning on taking music theory and has already signed up for Jazz Band. He will start marching this summer in August. He also is hoping to play the Sousaphone - the BIG tuba next year too. He will be learning the sousaphone dance! (video to come!)

The Sublette Tractor and Toy Show...

Sublette is a small town in Illinois whose claim to fame is the Sublette Tractor and Toy Show. When we read this, we thought, "well, a toy show could be fun!" So we drove down to Sublette to check it out!

The ever present water tower. Someday, I am going to make a coffee table book all about water towers.

There were semi trucks of all sizes, shapes and colors! They were gorgeous!

I liked this one! Way cool and WAY HUGE!

Brett liked this one the best.

Now, let's talk tractors. In Sublette, the tractor of choice seemed to be the Minneapolis-Moline. There were some others, but MM tractors seemed to be the big thing!

They have such character! The movie "CARS" comes to mind, with the tractors in the field and 'Mater herding them around!

They have cool paint jobs too.

Now, when they said "toys", they actually meant "farm toys". And boy, did they have toys! Tractors and semis and hot wheels and whatever else you could think of. They also had collectibles from the companies, like John Deere and MM.

A pretty nifty collection. Brett thinks that these are probably just toy collections that got out of hand, so the wife said that he had to sell them!

These kid sized tractors were my favorite! They are so cool.

Then there were the big boys toys. Let me tell you, they had some pretty nice tractors and combines. Makes farming look almost easy!

This was the oldest one there. It had steel wheels and looked pretty indestructable. Unless it got caught in the mud!

Tim the Toolman would be impressed with the More Power logo!

Oliver is another big manufacturer.

This was just so pretty. I liked the blue! ( I am such a girl!)

Even real men need to read the instruction book, according to John Deere!

I like the grill!

You can't have a tractor show without a John Deere.

That is me, underneath the sprayer thingy. I am not sure what you call it, but it was huge! Pretty amazing. The things on the side fold out - WAAAAAY out - and then they spray the fields. Although you can't see him, there is a little boy under there with me. We were fascinated.

Needless to say, Brett and I had a very nice day. We got lunch for $4 at the 4H booth. Brett bought some old Andy Griffith trading cards and I got a cool John Deere tractor key chain. You can't beat a spring Sunday afternoon at the Tractor Show....next week...the auction!

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Brett and I had decided when we moved to Montana that we would see as many of the sights we could see. We didn't see much of Montana when we lived there, we were too busy, so we make it a point to read our little local newspaper to see what there is to offer.

Along with the Sublette Tractor show, there was a quilt show and an open house at the Catholic church. I don't know how the Catholics name their churches. I would be interested to know where this one got it's or her name. Anyway, this church reminds me alot of St. Ignatius in Montana, without the painted ceiling. It is a gorgeous building.

The Stations of the Cross are all these plaster sculptures. They are beautiful, but like Brett said, theologically inaccurate. And I noticed, no resurrection station.

The stained glass is from Germany. It is beautiful.

The church is hushed and reverent. I bet it has GREAT acoustics! I think I would have loved to sing there, but the ladies who were hosting the open house wouldn't have liked it. Not that I would sound bad....

In the Rectory, there was a quilt show. Of course, I had to go! It was fun. The quilts were nice, but the house was unbelievable! It was so gorgeous! This quilt was tiny strips of fabric, mostly silks and was made in the 1890's.
This was my favorite. I love the wedding ring pattern. It wasn't a big one, but was really pretty with all the colors. I love quilt shows.

Unique things in my town!

The other day I went for a walk around the neighborhood and I ended up in the golf course. It was pretty barren. I picked up a dozen or so golf balls....Brett says that they might want them back! I hope not. I promised my dad that he could have them for the next time he is here! Anyway, I saw some interesting sites. This is a tree that looks like it was hit by lightning. Keep in mind, while you are looking at it, that Brett is 6 feet tall. That gives you an idea how tall it is! But imagine how tall it was before the lightning struck it!

In addition to lots of fake deer in people's lawns, there also is alot of patriotism. This is one example of that! It is actually pretty close to life size. But it doesn't have an American flag on the pole, it has an MIA flag. I am not sure what I think about it, but I think whoever painted it was pretty talented! (or they had an overhead projector that they blew it up with!)

Lego Man

Lego mania runs amok at our house! I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of Andrew and his favorite pastime! He loves legos and his most recent acquisition was some sort of Star Wars warship thingy... He used to let his dad help him, but now he has to do it himself. This one was pretty hard, but he kept at it until it was all done! The Star Wars universe is alive and well in Andrew's room!