Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Silence is Golden!!!


Wow, it's so quiet hear. Stephen took the kids to Chuckie Cheese for lunch and I'm getting a taste of what my days will be like when school starts. Gotta say I'm looking forward to it!


What a week we had last week. We drove down to my Mom's on Monday, spent the afternoon swimming and had a little BBQ. Then we we all left to head back to Bill & Heather's none of the kids wanted to go in their car with them. Well it turned out that it worked out for the best as Bill hit a cow on the way home. Luckily we were about 5 minutes behind them as both their cell phones were dead and they had to use mine. They were so lucky as there wasn't a lot of damage to their car. Just the hood basically. We all said that it was a good thing that it wasn't us that hit him as there probably would have been a lot more damage to our van.


OK, so Tuesday we spent the afternoon swimming and then headed for the Bond County Fair. We got there about 5:30, scoped out our spots for the parade and took the kids to the midway. They were able to ride some rides and then we all got something to eat and sat down to watch the parade. Let me just say it was 98 degrees but felt more like 110. Well just after the parade started Heather turned to me and said "that's the weather siren going off". But, no one was moving or even paying attention as the fire engines and police cars were going by with their sirens on. I think we kind of assumed that the police or firemen would let us know if there was a problem. We were wrong!! A few minutes later the sky looked very ominous and I thought for sure we were going to be right in the middle of a tornado. Needless to say my girls were freaking out, as girls will do. We took shelter under the cow barn which basically just had a roof over it. After about 5 or 10 minutes a police officer came and told us that two tornados had been spotted and power lines and trees were down all ovre town. He directed us to the grandstands or any buildling with a concrete foundation. Off we went to the nearest building and got drenched in the process. We stayed their for about an hour while the storm blew over and then headed back to Bill & Heather's. Now my children will probably never want to go to a county fair again.


Wednesday morning it was off to St. Louis to go to the arch. Everything went well until we tried getting Seth in the little pod elevator that takes you up. He was screaming and crying and holding on to the stair railing for dear life. Marc physically pried him off and threw him in the elevator. He freaked...kept screaming "where's the buckle" and kept his eyes closed the entire way up while saying "don't touch me, nobody touch me". Once we arrived at the top he kept walking down the center of the aisle with his arms out for balance and continued to say "don't touch me, nobody touch me". Luckily after a few minutes he got braver and started looking out the windows. According to him it was the best part of our vacation. After that we made a quick stop at the Soldier Museum and then headed to Ted Drewes for their famous frozen custard. Then we met Bill, Heather and the girls at The Magic House which is really a huge children's museum where we spent almost 3 hours. The kids had a blast and so did the adults. Then we all headed back to Bill & Heathers for pizza and an evening of Guitar Hero.


Thursday we headed home and Friday I spent the day doing laundry and packing to go to Mike's house for the weekend. It was the last time we'll probably go to Kalamazoo since he starts his new job in North Dakota on the 18th. Saturday we had an uneventful ride to Kalamazoo and then that afternoon we headed to Ribfest. The ride home on Sunday was long and we thought it would never end. We left K-zoo at about 1:00pm our time and didn't get home until almost 6 as their was road construction and traffic. We decided to take the Skyway since according to the radio station it was clear. Well that was true until we got to Comisky Park and the White Sox game had just let out. Then we got caught in that traffice. Whew!


This weekend we are all headed in different directions. I'm going back to my Mom's on the 14th to spend a long weekend helping her clean, organize and go through everything. The girls are going to be with their Dad. Suzanne is still with her Mom. And, Seth and Marc are headed to Fulton to see the Peoria Chiefs play the Clinton Lumberkings on Saturday night. Ryne Sandburg is the manager for the Peoria Chiefs and they are hoping to get his autograph. We'll all return on the 17th and then we are done with our travels for awhile as school starts on the 26th.


Well I'll close for now as I've been quite long winded, as usual!