March started with all the cattle leaving the farm - and the truck hauling them away ran into the electric pole on the farm yard. It was a slightly exciting start to the month. The electric company had a new pole in before lunch so it wasn't really an inconvenience to anyone. Just not something we see very often around here.
I spent all of March wishing the weather would cooperate - and we did have some lovely warm days, but there were lots of cold and windy days in between.
I went to see Pink with my sister and Miki and it was such an amazing show!! We had the best time!!
I'm not a huge Pink fan, but I knew she'd put on an amazing show and she didn't disappoint! She and her troupe of dancers were moving for nearly all of the 2+ hour show.
And, seriously, she flies through the air - and sings and spins and whatnot all at the same time!
Our family enjoyed another wonderful Family Reading Night at the school with Levi.
And then, we went to State Basketball. Ben was assigned games in Topeka and since we had several hours to burn before his game the boys, my parents, Ben and I all went to tour the Capital building. Mom and Levi were figuring out just exactly where we live on the map of Kansas in the visitor entryway.
The Capital has been renovated recently and it is simply stunning.
The boys in the old Supreme Court room, now used for committee hearings - looking like judges... :-)
Governor Levi Schrag - look out Kansas!
And finally it was time to watch Ben ref! Afterwards, my parents took the boys back home and I stayed with Ben.
We found a yummy bakery in the morning to grab breakfast.
And I LOVED their mural of John Brown - notice the whisk!
We had time to burn so we went back to the Capital to take a tour of the dome. It was a lot of stairs to climb! Here's looking up:
and then looking down:
Finally, we made it outside at the top!
Honestly, taking the stairs down was a lot more visually overwhelming than going up. But, we made it and it was a very interesting tour!
Finally, it was championship game time!
And, just like that, Ben's basketball season was over! Woohoo!!
Back at home, we got seeds started under our new growing lights.
The rhubarb made an appearance for the year.
Noah was lucky enough to join Ben for a couple games - including KU - of the opening round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in Wichita.
Then it was finally Spring Break! We got up in the middle of the night, making sure we had enough time to get doughnuts, to catch the train out of Newton.
We boarded, settled in, tried to sleep and woke up to the sun rising over Western Kansas.
I did my best to spend as much time in the observation car as possible. I love being able to see out and for a lot of the train ride, the scenery was amazing!
We picnicked for breakfast and lunch and finally let the boys get food from the Cafe Car for supper.
The train was pretty much on-time for our 20 hour ride, just one delay in Winslow, Arizona to kick someone off the train. But we arrived at about 10pm in Flagstaff and had no trouble getting to our hotel and falling asleep!
We found a local diner in the morning for breakfast on Route 66 - it was delicious and quaint!!
Then we hit the road north to the Grand Canyon - oh and it snowed while we slept in Flagstaff!
We had packed and dressed for it to be cold at the Grand Canyon and we were so glad for it. There was a little snow on the ground, and a bit more fell while we were there, but we had a great time!
The boys enjoyed the packable snow and threw tons of snowballs, some at each other, some over the edge, which is why Ben is holding onto the back of Noah's coat here.
It was beautiful, amazing - all the things!
There's a bit more snow coming...
And it was gone just like that, back to beautiful sunny weather.
We went through Sedona on our way south to Phoenix and saw some of the most lovely scenery I've ever seen. This was the only photo I snapped, I was too busy ooing and awwing over it all.
In Phoenix we had such a great time with Simon, Sara and Josh!
We introduced Simon and Betty (the dog) to Fred, the anatomically correct boy doll from Ben's childhood. We thought it was time to pass it along to another boy in the Schrag family.
They got off to a great start!
This Prickly Pear Margarita was so yummy, and so was the food at the place we met Josh for lunch.
Simon enjoyed his bottle, too.
Then it was time for our first Spring Training game! What fun!!
Simon enjoyed it for a while, but then the sun and heat kinda got to him. Sara and Josh cooked us a delicious Middle Eastern meal that night and we got in as many baby snuggles as we could before
flying home the next morning!
To end Spring Break, we traveled north to Nebraska for their MCC sale. It was great to see Brad, Kara, Braden, Luke and James again!!
The boys did their best to help hold up auction items - they love to be involved!
Since the weather has refused to be warm, we've spent time playing ping pong - these boys are just about better than me by now!
And finally, some new chicks for our farm! We're down to only seven hens right now, so another 50 chicks is very encouraging!!
Farm work has been a bit slow in March, but there was a full day's work done scraping the cattle pen and then spreading it out on the field north of the farm.
Growing and growing!
March was a bit of a whirlwind, we've been happy to slow down a bit since our trips to Arizona and Nebraska!!
