Snow...

We got enough snow for playing a little bit... Jamie wanted to build a snowman but it was to cold snow for that!

Fall festival....

Yesterday we visited Neosho Fall Festival. Neosho is only a 15 min drive from us and it's a typical small town in USA. It is very common that the old downtown areas are a little "ghosty" in many towns mainly because the big changes that came with the idea to build shopping centers and bigger stores outside the central areas...I've said it before, it is such a waste of beautiful buildings and charming squares to not use them to full potential...BUT in Neosho the chamber of commerce is really making an effort and working on getting the square more attractive again. Yesterday the square was surely a vivid and entertaining place to be. There were all kinds of crafts, vendors, foods,  live music and performances. The kids had plenty of things to do!  We also had the first frozen morning so when the sun started to warm it up again we had clear blue sky and crisp air!

Jared had to work but me and the girls met Natalies classmate Harper and her parents Christi and David Sims. They both grew up in the area, Christi studied psychology and David just started his own law firm. So Christi is one of the Moms that helps me feel welcome here! The girls had a lot of fun and played until Jamie was so tired so it was time to leave... It is very interesting and it also feels important for me to try to find new friends in the area. Already now I can say it helps alot to meet many parents from Natalies school, so once again I am truly happy that we found that school and was able to get a place for Natalie!

Here are a few pictures from today...

We will get rain...

Even though it has been more green this year, the amount of precipitation is below average so rain in Missouri is a good thing! We have a few cows at Jared's Mom's place and now 9 pretty new babies. They will go outside all year so more good grass will shorten the period we'll have to feed them hay. The cows are a mix of breeds and of various ages. It's not a herd we are trying to keep in the long run but at least we got a few really nice calves so far!  To be calving is an interesting phenomenon among cattlemen... Usually the cows manage to calf all by themselves and especially now when the weather is alot warmer compared with in the winter months...We did loose one baby, but that one was very premature and the cow lost it about 10 weeks early.

Well back to the weather... I'm really enjoying this time of the year, and a few days with gray clouds and rain are in fact very welcomed!  I'm ready to light some candles and cozy up. I also hope we get to go on a full day hike soon while the temperature has cooled off.  The leaves are slowly changing colors but I don't think we get to see as much colors of the fall here compared with last year up more north...

Time again...

I'm sorry I haven't been writing for a while.  My computer broke..so I got really sad to loose a lot of pictures, I had some saved on the extern USB but not all of them..Anyway, today I decided to start blog from my phone ..so you have to stick with pics from my phone until I have my computer all set up again..

Days and the weeks just run away! Fall is here now and I can say Missouri is a great place to spend this time of the year. I wish it could be like this the entire summer...days are sunny and average about 25 degrees C..  The colors of the fall are slowly coming in and it is definitely cooler nights and mornings...

Our everyday life here starts to form a little. Jared has been working with a construction company for a while and Natalie enjoys her days at the Thomas Jefferson Independent day school. We are so happy that she got to start there...So far I've meet a lot of nice people that I seem to have a lot in common with. Many of the families have moved in to the region from abroad or other states because of work. A big majority works in medical related fields at the two major hospitals... or are somewhat involved in the science fields like biology or engineering.  I drop of Natalie each morning so usually there's a few minutes left to chat.. I'll write more about the school later.

There are so many things I'll have to write about..so I will try to tell you a little bit everyday.  I'm going to try to give a fair picture of our experiences here!

Just to make it more fun I'll put up some pics from Saturday when we ended up at a bluegrass festival in Carl Junction outside Joplin... Me and the girls had a nice afternoon! It still surprises me that overhere I'll find so stereotype events almost on weekly basis..And I must say that I really enjoy the diversity of the cultural activities we happen to run into!

A hot day...

Yesterday we took a daytrip to Springfield (not that Springfield..:-) , MO ( app. 1,5 h from us) and visited the world famous Bass Pro shop Outdoor world and the regional fair. A fair is some kind of country festival/exhibition/show event where people go and compete in different rodeos and animal shows. They go out to eat, listen to music and take rides on the tivoli etc..like a Killebom but with animals. Usually all small towns have a local county fair and then if you win there you qualifiy to the regional fair then the state fair and eventually the Nationals. It was very hot today so I think we made the right decision to start inside and then go to the fair in the late aftenoon. I can say going to a fair is exactly like what you'll see in the movies...(Picture Sweet Home Alabama with ReeseWitherspoon going to the fair...remember?). Anyway it was a nice day again and I manage to take a few pictures.

A ZONKEY ....(Zebra X Donkey...)

We found big Draft horse and of course Natalie got a ride!

Floating...

The second day Mikael and Katarina were here it was going to be a really hot day so we went floating down the Elk river! There are many different locations where you can rent canoes or kayaks for a day of fun. You get to choose your own time frame and then the people from the rental place come pick you up down the river. We got ours at Kozy Kamp and paid 40 USD / Kayak for an 8 miles float. We didn't really know what to expect since we had the small girls with us, but we hoped they'd do good and not get bored after 30 min. Just in case we told the manager that we might give them a call if we needed to retreat....

We brought fishing equipment, plenty of water, and a cooler with snacks like fruit and nuts ( we did forget alot of it in the car though...) and sandwiches. And of course sunscreen, and hats! We figured we were going to make it in about 5 h with alot of stops along the way. We also had one life-jacket for Jamie. ( The rest of us got from the rental company).

We left around 11 o'clock and the sun was already burning so it was very nice to go out in the water and swim... Elk River has very clear water with bottom and alot of different fish. ( Pearch, Sunfish, Suckers, Carp, Bass...) and of course also other animals..turtles..snakes..spiders. Even though I had my doubts about this trip together with the girls, we had an amazing, wonderful day! All of us enjoyed it very much! It was so relaxing to just float down the river. Natalie was in Mikael and Katarina's kayak the whole day, and Jamie just enjoyed it without trying to escape the boat or get bored. We did stop for swimming and fishing alot so I guess that was very necessary for Jamie to stay patient.Mikael got lucky a few times and actually caught 2 fish!

But of course..this day also included some extra drama ( or excitement)...When were halfway we got surprised by a smaller rain/storm with some extra dark gray clouds. We left the water in a hurry and searched for protection ( or mostly to get away from the water just in case of thunder..) up on the riverbank. The wind and rain got heavier (extreme with swedish measurements..) so at least I started to get real worried for what the dark clouds were gonna bring..( you can't really deny that we are in the tornado valley..) Jared was of course calm and played with Jamie in the rain... Mikael looked around the area and found an abandon barn a little bit up the road so while the wind and rain increased we ran up there to try to get out of the storm. Luckily we never got any thunder and lightning.. After 20 min or so in the barn we could get out again. It was a good thing that we found a place under roof because both girls were really wet and even if it was around 35 degrees C outside you can always start to freeze, so they got dry clothes and warmed up quickly again...puh  I can say I wasn't really scared but the adrenalin started to pump a little extra because I know what dangerous weather conditions can roll in very fast...  Anyway a short while after this little unplanned break we got sunshine and clear blue sky again!

We reached our goal around 5.30 p.m so all in all it took around 6 h. We were all very satisfied with the day and this is something I really recommend for everyone to do if you have the possibility. It's a good activity for all ages and since it's downstream the bodywork you do is minimal. I'm sure this is something we will do soon again!

Here are some pictures that Katarina took. I will put up more later...

In Monett...

We went to see G-grandma Rena and Morris in the small and friendly town of Monett. It is always nice to get to see them, and I think Jamie somehow remembered Rena from last year. She wanted to be held and hugged as soon as we stepped into the house. We had a nice late afternoon, went to Brahm's for dinner, enjoyed their icecream and played in the park for quite a while. Brahm's is a typical hamburger restaurant, but I think they are best among all in the area and they also have good icecream. The playpark in Monett is good for kids of all ages, and there's plenty of room to run around. This evening we were almost alone there, but I've heard it's very crowded during the weekends. So here are some pics from this day...

Countrylife...

Some pictures from Mcfarland's farm outside Stella, Missouri. We have a nice week here in Missouri and I'm happy to say that the weather has been great. Not a single day above 100 F... Everything is still nice and green! At this time of the year the farmers put up alot of hay. And this year everything has been a little delayed due to rain in the early summer, so people just started haying. ( In Sweden that was done long time ago, at least the first round...) Anyway here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately!

Bike ridin' with cousin Izzy.

Running downhill over the hay... 

Tractor ridin'

Picked greenbeans...

Ate most of them...

Played more...

Relaxed...