Road Trip

So we have been away from home a bit lately. We travelled to Charlevoix last week for the Venetian Festival and to see my sister's new home. It is beautiful! Grace was in the Venetian parade (my pics will post when I get home) with her cousin Madison. Jacob (in true Jacob form) made a visit to the ER. He fell off the moving merry-go-round and ended up with a "larger than a golf ball" size bump on the back of his head. So better safe than sorry we journeyed to the ER. Praise the Lord - he was fine! While we were registering him the lady asked if I worked outside of the home. I said no. And Jacob piped up with "You do sometimes Mom." When I asked when, he responded with "when you water the grass outside" OK - so I guess I do work outside the home, sometimes. I ran into someone I used to work out with when Greg and I were first married at the Walgreen's in Charlevoix getting Jacob's Tylenol. And all this was after running into Greg's cousin at the beach the day prior. We went downtown for the fireworks on Friday night and it ONLY rained during the fireworks. Can you believe it? The rain started with the fireworks and ended with the finale. On a whim, we (OK - I) decided to detour to Illinois to surprise Greg instead of heading home. And surprise him we did. I called the receptionist where he works and asked her to tell Greg that someone called and said they hit his car. He came storming out to find Jacob (and then the girls, then Grant and I) running across the parking lot at him. For a few seconds he was so stunned he had no real clue what was going on. He finally got it but was still visibly shaken for another hour or so. We sure pulled that one off! We came to celebrate Jadyn's birthday with him. He was sad to have missed Jacob and Grant's birthdays so I figured we might as well come to him. Today was filled with a trip to Tipton Park for climbing and the spray park, a much needed nap, then an "exercise" walk around Tipton Lake - the path has little exercise stations around it. That was full of complaining. Surprisingly it was the kids and not me. Then tonight we went to the McLean County Fair. Very 4H. But fun. All 6 of us got in for $3.66. Technically we could have gotten in for $0.45 but we figured that was too cheap. It was "school supply" night and in lieu of admission you could bring in 3 items from the school supply list. 3 spiral notebooks at 5 cents each times the 3 of us who actually would cost admission equals $0.45. But I bought 20 notebooks, 8 bottles of glue and 8 boxes of crayons, hence the $3.66 We saw a magic show, had a massage, drove a combine, stood in line (unsuccessfully) for face painting and caricatures, got some goofy balloon animals, then went outside and had the coolest balloon hats made for us (again I will post pics later). We saw a bit of a tractor pull, saw and or touched bunnies and rabbits, chicks (even watched some hatch - cool), horses (who were very scared of my hat), cows, goats, sheep and pigs. We ALMOST stood in line for a ride that Jacob wanted to go on but then thought we would be TERRIBLE parents if we let our child go on the crazy thing. Besides neither of us wanted to go on it with him. All in all, a very busy and full and fun day for $3.66. Tomorrow our trip ends - well at least we head home. For a few short days...then off to Oscoda. Who says we aren't having a summer vacation? Check my savings account - we MUST be having something.