Summer Travels

Wondering what I've been up to? Besides taking "no make-up" selfies with fun filters while wearing my hair in Ellie Mae Clampett-inspired pigtails?

Me too.

Life (and summer) has been moving so fast, lately I've had a hard time keeping up with anything...and with everything.​ Especially the garden. But when you spend the summer traveling from one adventure to another, the garden just has to fend for itself.

Which is what it did, and it did fine.

So since Labor Day weekend is behind us now, and since I'm up early this morning (dawn hasn't even cracked yet, and when it does it better crack quietly 'cause I'm in no mood for loud noises), I thought I'd see if I could get us all caught up on what exactly I did this summer.

Maybe it'll jog my memory. It needs some excercise anyway.

Let's see...way back in June my summer break kicked off with a bang when I drove a van piled full of my aunts and cousins over to the quaint little town of Pawhuska, Oklahoma for no reason what-so-ever.

​Just kidding. We had a definite reason to drive to Pawhuska--the same reason as 6,000 other people did...

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We wanted to visit The Merc!

​Otherwise known as The Pioneer Woman's Mercantile Store, which that savvy lady opened up last year in an old mercantile building in her once sleepy little town.

It was fantastic--the Merc and the town...and her ranch. Yep, I got to go to The Pioneer Woman's ranch!

It was incredible...but better yet, I got to play in her kitchen!

I really thought she'd have some delicious dish bubbling away in the oven awaiting my arrival, but nope. The oven was empty.

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So I just popped into the pantry, grabbed what I wanted...

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And whipped up something fantastic.

Or maybe I just pretended.

Either way, it was loads of fun...as were my traveling companions:
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Emily, Jane, Sue, Cynthia, Julia, Phyllis...

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And Will and Ladd Drummond.

Oh wait...silly me. Ree's husband wasn't actually traveling with us.

But he was just traveling by us when he spotted our group, jumped out of his pickup, and begged us to snap a photo with him.

Or maybe it was the other way around, in a round-about way. Anyway...

I have tons of pictures from inside the Merc, but I can't show you them yet. But I will show you them soon, because soon I'm going to post about why I really went to visit the Mercantile...(here's a hint: big old general store in desperate need of renovation, crazy redhead in desperate need of inspiration.)

​So let's move on...
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Because in July we headed out to the gorgeous Colorado Rocky Mountains to visit my brother and his family...

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Which now includes my new little niece, Ariel, who happens to already have long wavy red hair just like mine!

Or maybe we staged that photo...but she really does have red hair, I promise.

And I also promise that Colorado is still just as amazing as always...
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Wild and rugged, breath-taking and refreshing.

Which was just what I needed, because just as soon as we got home, we were off on yet another adventure...

We hit the state fair again! Many, many times this year...mainly because Will was doing this:

Blacksmithing! He was apprenticing with the blacksmiths at the fair again this year, which meant that out of the ten day duration of the fair, he spent 6 of those beneath the blacksmith tent--in close proximity to several forges full of blazing fires and ret-hot coals, and pounding away at glowing metal.

Often in 90 degree weather.

Kids.

So while he was pounding away hitting steel, my husband and I hit the pavement and circled the fair...

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I went by to say hi to the largest pumpkin and all his friends...

And I checked out all the prize-winning produce...
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And I made eyes with an award-winning rooster.

I really feel like we bonded. But he probably just liked my earrings...or my mini skirt.

(Ahem. I'm not sure if it's alright for women over forty to wear mini skirts, but that didn't stop me from doing it anyway. At least somebody appreciated it.)

I wish Mr. Rooster and I had more time together, but for some reason my husband pulled me away and steered me right out of the poultry barns and over to our old friend, the mechanical bull.

Men.

He thought he was gonna ride that bull again this year--until he remembered he has an injured shoulder.

So then I thought I would ride it again this year--until I remembered I had on the miniskirt.

Figures. But while attempting to ride a fake wild bull might have been out of the question that day, jumping on the back of its towering, knobby-kneed, hump-backed neighbor certainly wasn't...​
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Apparently I can't resist a camel ride, even if I'm not exactly dressed appropriately for it. They're such neat creatures!

And now I want my own camel.

You heard me. And you and my husband sound a lot alike. But let me tell you what I told him as soon as I hopped off that crazy animal, re-adjusted my mini-skirt, and dusted myself off:

"You never know when you might need to cross a dry, thirsty desert, and there's no better animal to have along with you when that happens."​​

To which he replied, "Okay."

​But the look on his face clearly said something different...something like "I think you waited too long to put that sun visor on today."
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Oh, and I got some new sun visors.

So now I have several...but I still only have one head.

Oh boy. Clearly I'm still a bit groggy. Or loopy...or just plain sleepy.​​ I think I'll head on over to the couch and rest my eyes a bit while I wait for the sun to come up.

It's a good thing it's Sunday and we get to go to church today...​I'm beginning to think I need it!

​I'll add myself to the prayer list.