ourians is mellowing somewhat; we met some very friendly locals here, and in a tourist area, that can’t be that easy to do. Yesterday we went to the Alley Springs Water Mill, a large three story building that had a water powered turbine that could power any number of different machines, rather than the typical grist mill that had one wheel to the side just rolling around two stones together. It was built in 1894, cutting edge technology in its day, and it still works today. Well, not yesterday, it had a belt slipping, but they claim it ordinarily works. Another great thing about this place is it 
was right next to a cool spring-pond that had 81 million gallons of water dumping out every day. Pretty impressive to this Kansas boy!Then we went to Rocky Falls, a beautiful waterfall area 
with a great swimming area. There weren’t very many people around, and the kids just loved climbing up the falls. Isaiah even got a chance to poop in the woods, and while he’s not a bear, he was wearing a ball cap with a bear on it!
Isaiah has really been more adventuresome than we expected; he usually is a pretty cautious boy, but he was climbing boulders and rocks and getting irritated at momma for asking if he wanted help. Stu is the one to worry about, though. As long as he has been able to walk, he has just been pretty fearless, but out here he has been a little monkey demon climber and risk taker, and crashing and burning does nothing to slow him down. You can actually see it on his face when he sees older siblings doing anything, he thinks: “those kids aren’t a bit better than me, so I gonna do it too!”, and then he does. You can’t take your eyes off of him for 5 seconds!
with a great swimming area. There weren’t very many people around, and the kids just loved climbing up the falls. Isaiah even got a chance to poop in the woods, and while he’s not a bear, he was wearing a ball cap with a bear on it!Isaiah has really been more adventuresome than we expected; he usually is a pretty cautious boy, but he was climbing boulders and rocks and getting irritated at momma for asking if he wanted help. Stu is the one to worry about, though. As long as he has been able to walk, he has just been pretty fearless, but out here he has been a little monkey demon climber and risk taker, and crashing and burning does nothing to slow him down. You can actually see it on his face when he sees older siblings doing anything, he thinks: “those kids aren’t a bit better than me, so I gonna do it too!”, and then he does. You can’t take your eyes off of him for 5 seconds!
It has taken us a little time to figure out our “groove” of vacationing. I’m not so much the kind of guy that wants to “just relax”, so we keep pretty busy, but we can’t hardly move fast enough for the kids.
Say we just finish up lunch and are planning to go swimming. Brynn and I have been frantically cleaning up, finding swimming suits, applying sun block, digging up sandals for kids, packing towels, unhooking trailers, finding maps, etc, etc, ETC!!! The LAST thing I personally want to hear is: “I’m bored. I want to go swimming. Can we go swimming? Daddy, I want to go swimming! Daddy! Did you hear me? I want to go swimming!” After about 2 days of this, I was about to leave them there and just start over (can I say; I know what God was telling Moses about in the desert?)
But instead we just had the classic vacation lectures about good attitudes (I guess classic, we’ve not ever really vacationed like this before) and patience and getting along 
with each other. Emma even lost her marshmallow privileges the other night, a mighty blow to her, who ordinarily doesn’t care a flip about getting spanked (at least she won’t show it). They've shaped up and adapted nicely, though. It has been very enjoyable to be able to be around my kids so much. I don't feel like an absent father most of the time, but this week I feel like I’m actually able to be a father to them. I think that we are all benefiting from a little time of serious together-ness.
with each other. Emma even lost her marshmallow privileges the other night, a mighty blow to her, who ordinarily doesn’t care a flip about getting spanked (at least she won’t show it). They've shaped up and adapted nicely, though. It has been very enjoyable to be able to be around my kids so much. I don't feel like an absent father most of the time, but this week I feel like I’m actually able to be a father to them. I think that we are all benefiting from a little time of serious together-ness.
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