At the fort

The family spent some time at the old fort here in Fort Scott, Kansas, before folks started home.

Zonkers

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Family shots from Zonkers.
Nick David Wright

This past week was Spring Break for the school district I work for, so we spent most of it at my Beloved's sister's house.

One of the things we did was go with the kids to Zonkers. A small kind of indoor amusement park. They had games and rides, etc. I took along my camera and got a few snaps while they were at it.

We were planning on returning Saturday morning so that I could be at the college for my shift. But when I woke from my afternoon nap Friday, I checked the weather to find winter storm warnings for our area. I had no desire to repeat what we did last Christmas (i.e. - drive home through a blizzard), and we had turned off all the heat in the camper. So we came home that evening.

I really can't believe this weather. It's completely crazy. It's been snowing all day, pretty heavy. I'll post some pics later.

I want spring back! Luckily I won't have to wait long.

PS - Notice my Beloved's new hair cut? That's another thing we did while up in KC.

Merry Christmas

We're spending Christmas with The Sister and her family. We're having a great time. Here's their tree:




But last night a real honest-to-goodness blizzard blew in!


But that didn't stop Christmas!




And here's their neighborhood and backyard this morning. Not a whole lot of snow but that wind sure piled it up in places!

Lit pumpkins

Lit pumpkins
Originally uploaded by Nick David Wright

As I promised here is a video and a couple photos of the lit pumpkins we made today.

I love Tori's comment in the video! "My pumpkin is beautiful!" (P.S. - I helped Tori carve hers!)

Matt-man!

batman
Originally uploaded by Nick David Wright

Here's my young nephew Matt Matt dressed up as Batman for Halloween.

Carving pumpkins

Carving pumpkins
Originally uploaded by Nick David Wright

I helped my niece, Tori, carve a pumpkin with a cat's face on it for Halloween today.

It was pretty fun. I'd never carved a pumpkin this way before.

Here's the finished pumpkin. I'll take some more photos of it tonight when it's lit up.

Uplifting power of family

Thursday evening I was dead tired, very stressed out and just feeling pretty crappy. I wanted nothing more than to go home, pop in a movie and veg out the rest of the evening. But we'd promised the grandparents that we would come over for dinner. So following my afternoon bus route we headed for Fort Scott.

As we were just getting to town, I told Noel, "I really shouldn't have come, I am so tired. I wish we'd just called and said we couldn't make it." But we were there, so we went.

And I am so glad we did.

Grandma had made a simple pot roast that was delicious. And we sat around and talked and watched an episode of Survivor and I left still feeling exhausted, but the stress and crapiness was gone. I was tired, but having spent the evening with them I felt good.