The Mobile Chaos Unit

Pictures taken on September 26th, 2014.

Pictures taken on September 6th, 2009.  Two years and two months before welcoming Caleb into our family.

Kinda makes you wonder...

This photo kinda makes you wonder what they've been up too, or possibly, what they've just planned!

Crazy Hair / Sock Day

The week prior to having school pictures taken, they schedule crazy hair / crazy sock day.  So Robby is on us like a bitin' sow for dying his hair some crazy color(s). 

Not gonna happen...

My sister Doris has some wigs from past Halloween costumes and lends them to the cause. Rob is HOT at first but eventually comes around.

Good thing too, because his teacher determined he was too much of a distraction and made him put the wig away for the day. That would have been tough to do with dyed hair!!

Calebber with the red wig, green swimming trunks and a nice orange pull-over with un-matching socks.  He told me he got called a girl a few times.  I like teaching moments like that.

Robby with his "throw-back" Steven Jackson jersey, blue, pink and white shorts, with a pink and yellow sock.  Oh, and the wig.  Awesome!

The lads together prior to their unveiling.

Vacation Post 10 - Devils Tower

One of the stranger things to see in the "Black Hills" area...  Devils Tower.  This was my second time up close to it, but the first time where we actually hiked around the base of it. 

We don't have as many pictures as we'd have like to have had because of a perfect storm of camera/phone batteries dying.

Go figure.

Hiking around the base of this bad boy did provide a perspective that I didn't think possible. The awesome size of the monument is something to behold.  You would spot rock climbing folks 3/4 the way up with their rope hanging down and they weren't even ants!  Smaller than ants!

We stopped and had lunch down by the guard shack.  Did a little shopping (read: buying local micro brewed beers! Woooooooo!!!!) and the what not.  A good time for sure.

When I was going thru pictures tonight, Caleb came in to "check on me", and saw the pic on the computer, got excited and exclaimed, "I REMEMBER THAT!!".

As parents taking a family on vacation, THAT'S what we're looking for!

As we arrive near the park.  We'll be hiking this bad boy soon.

This is the boys on the trip, fat tummies from cold meat sammy's and doritos, feeling spry prior to our hike!

Not too far after we first got started.  Yes, we've had a break prior to getting this far.  The pictures refused to load in the order I wanted them in and I'm too tired to fight it, but you'll see a photo of silly young man later on which was taken during our break.

This was on the drive to Devils Tower.  We are goofy for cool rock outcroppings and take many pictures of the like.

And wildly out of order, a prairie dog!  Can't get enough of these lovable little critters!  There are large expanses of... well, prairie, where these little fellas and their fella-ettes are running wild and entertaining all of the goofy city folk.

Not sure exactly what this is/was, but it was on the drive into DT.  I would love to hear some stories that surround this piece of equipment and other old pieces like it.

A last cool shot as we were parting the area and heading into Montana for what would be a long, BIG SKY drive.  Eastern Montana?  Wow!  Pray you don't have car troubles!

After lunch on the patio by the gift shop/tourist trap, Caleb posed with his 12 shooter, recently aquired at the Corn Palace gift shop.

And not to be out done, Robby with his 12 shooter, and a different tin-can-cowboy.

Here's a dude who was about "1 hour" up the side of the tower.  He was taking a selfie.  I suppose if you're going to risk your life in regular jeans and t-shirt, you may as well get a good selfie for facebook while you're up there.  You never know if you'll make it down safely or not!

And so was our camera depleted trip around the tower.  Would I do it again as the boys get older?  Absolutely!

Vacation 2014 Post 9 - Badlands, SD

Having been here, I believe, four different times now, I enjoy the beauty of the place more every time.  I think this may be the first time that we actually got out and did a little hiking in the Badlands as well, so perhaps that helped.

Regardless, it was the first time for the boys as well as Aunt Molly and I think they were quite impressed by the strangeness of area.  It is quite similar to the Painted Desert down South, which Molly visited with us when Robby was only two years old, so we did stir some of those memories.

The Chinaman climbing and likely wondering why we put him in such places!

Bro's looking good together.

A family shot prior to Robby getting sick...

A family shot post Robby getting sick.  He looks a little thinner, don'cha think?

Aunt Molly and the Chinaman doing some "edge of the world" hiking.

What is truly amazing about this picture and the next one, is how LITTLE justice the picture does for the sheer beauty of where we were, and the drop just behind the humanoids.

Exhibit B...

Just to prove that the Badlands aren't all colorless crumbling stones.

Calebber never misses an opportunity to model a good hat!

Again, it just simply does not capture the true magnitude of what you see in person!

Vacation 2014 Post 8 - Crazy Horse

It was interesting to see this some 22 years after my bride and I first laid eyes upon it.  

To my memory, there wasn't all that much that had changed.  After going thru the gift shops and museums around the joint, we came to a series of photos documenting the progress of this monument.

The nearest photos were from 1991 and 1993, while we were there in 1992 on our honeymoon.  I thought I had snapped a photo of the changes, but alas, I did not.

The monument as it stands today.

A model of how the monument will look whenever they get it finished.  It is slow going as the family doing it will not accept government money for the project.

A couple of cute little varmints in front of a large tipi, painted by the late Lakota artist Paha Ska, is a central attraction in the INDIAN MUSEUM OF NORTH AMERICA®.  I didn't come up with that...  I had to look it up off of the fancy hi-tech world wide interwebs.

Aunt Molly and Robby off the beaten path checking out a "marker" of some kind.

My fine family!

Two wonderful creations!

First Day of Skool, 2014

After the previous post, the first day of Sunday school, I got to thinking that I never posted anything about the boys' first day of school.

Robby is starting the 4th grade and Caleb is now in 1st.

In the past, I have gone in late after we've delivered the boys to school on day 1, however, this year saw me taking a Friday and Monday off from work only a week after starting back at Nationwide, so I thought it would be best if my butt was in it's assigned seat on this fine morning.

Besides, Grandma and Grandpa Bushman were there as the boys got dressed and armed with backpacks for their 2014-15 journey.

The critters in all their glory.

Hard to believe that Robby is 9.5 years old already and that Calebber McCheese is approaching 7.5 and three of those years with us.  Soon enough, half of his young life will have been in our hands.

Hardly a daunting thought...   yikes!

LCC's First Day of Sunday School 2014

The first day of Sunday School has arrived, for those of us who attend Lutheran Church of the Cross, that is.

Caleb wanted to wear his "new" shirt and tie that he inherited from some of my cousins kids.

Robby helped him button his shirt and get the tie on.  Yes those are pajama bottoms with black socks...

And in case you missed it above, look at the tie is on!

What is life without a silly picture?  Here is the lad fully dressed and ready to go.

And then there's the other lad.  No long pants for that boy, EVER, if we would let him wear what he wanted.

At least he has a Christian based album t-shirt on.  :-)

That's my boys, and I love them!!

Vacation 2014 Post 7 - Campsites & other randomness

Not a whole lot to say here as we didn't take a ton of pix on this particular subject.

There may be a few missing pics here and there from Robby's camera and either of our phones.  I'm trying to balance the new found difficulties of every stinking human on the face of the Earth carrying a camera even when they go poop.

It seems strange but with having a fantastic fancy-heinied phone now-a-days, it's the unfortunate truth.

Here's what we're left with...

The morning when we had breakfast in Chamberlain SD while "touring" the gift shop.   We took this photo for our neighbors who own various years Trans Am's.

Caleb Crockett in his Washington DC Zoo t-shirt from our previous vacation.

The sunset looking Northeast from our campsite.  The good woman running the place took pity on me, or something, and determined that I looked like a military man,  to provide me a discount for the services rendered.

This was at our second campground in Custer, SD.   The boys are pointing their newly aquired 12 round cap guns at the camera.  They had completed some EPIC civil war battles the night previous!!

In Custer, SD with one of the painted buffaloes.

The moon "setting" in Custer SD from the "mouth" of our tent.

Vacation 2014 Post 6 - Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota

The corn palace. What can you say?

It's silly and amazing all rolled up into one.  This particular year, it was more under construction than it was anything else, but it was still somewhat amazing.  The boys got a kick out out of it.

The outdoor, South wall.

The front of the building, facing West, with the advertisements for the up and coming greatness that they project and predict.

One of many murals inside...

another mural inside...

and yet another...

Robby with his first pocket knife.  I got my first pocket knife as my dad visited the Badlands and so it was fitting that Robby got his here as well.  He's since lost it...

Robby Crockett.

Caleb, completely enamored with snow globes!

The mobile chaos unit in more...   I don't know...  hairy, times.