Father's Day Weekend

We had a great Father's Day weekend!  We were able to have Gavin for the weekend and just hung out around the house.  

Saturday afternoon we made an ice cream run and took the dogs with us.  We really wanted the orange ice cream from the Rivertown Grill in Newburgh, but that wasn't their flavor of the day, so we drove to Boonville to the Tastee Freeze.  You can never go wrong with the TF!

And then Saturday evening we went to a cookout at our neighbors and friend's Phil and Rachel.  We had a lot of fun despite the heat and bugs.  There was lots of yummy food, laughs, and water fights for the kids. 

Later in the evening, I brought Gavin and our friend's daughter Kennedy over to make Father's Day cards for their dad's and for Uncle Shawn.  

And then later that evening, we gave Uncle Shawn his presents and the card Gavin made.  I got Shawn new accessories for his grill...a burger press, a chef's hat, and a water squirter guy like they have at the hibachi restaurants.  HA!

Sunday at church we celebrated all of the fathers, grandfathers, and uncles!

And on our back from taking Gavin home, we stopped at the cemetery in Hatfield to put flowers on my daddy's grave.  I can't believe that I've had 21 Father's Day's without my daddy :(  I said I've lived half my life without him now.  

Tootie Turned 40!!

On May 30, my sister turned the big 4-0!  

I picked up her, mom, and Gavin and we road tripped to Bowling Green, Kentucky to eat lunch at Chuy's and just tool around a bit.  We also stopped at some of those old school souvenir road side stores and got Gavin some magnetic rocks he's been wanting.  Wonder if he still plays with them?

We Have a 4th Grader Now!

Well today is Gavin's last day of third grade.  When the school bell rings for the last time today, he'll officially be a fourth grader.  I can't even believe it!  These last nine years have flown by and in a blink he's grown so much.  He's such a sweet boy, but also a silly boy!  

Yesterday was awards day at his school and Aunt Stace took the day off work to go to them, along with his mom and dad.

He received three awards and a medal for Honor Roll, Citizenship, and Accelerated Reading! 

We are all SO PROUD of everything you are doing and accomplishing big boy! 

Stalking the Amish...

Well I've went and done it again...  #amishstalker

On Saturday over Mother's Day weekend, Shawn was at his parents, and I wanted to go up north to Amish country again.  I asked Beth and Gavin if they wanted to go and was thrilled to have the company!  

Our first stop was at McDonald's for the mandatory mocha frappes! And then on to Odon, Indiana.  It's an hour and a half north of us, and an added hour for the time change.  We got on the interstate around 8:30, and was in line for donuts at 11:00 a.m.  

After getting our donuts, we went into the little shop next door and then over to the Odon Locker for a few of my favorite grocery items.

After all that, it was time to commence with #gettingthecardirty!  And dirty it got, but inside and out.  

We spent quite a few hours driving around just enjoying the peacefulness of the Amish/Mennonite lifestyles.  I just love driving around looking at their beautiful homes and well kept yards.  Seeing horses and buggy's every where you went.  Following the paths of horse poop on the roads cause you knew a horse and buggy had been that way.  Seeing all of the laundry out on the lines because Saturday is apparently wash day.  Men out in the fields with their horse drawn tractors and plows mowing and getting ready for planting.  Little ones out playing.

But my absolute favorite, and a first for me, was happening upon this lemonade stand!  We pulled up and asked how much the lemonade was.  In the most sweetest and southern-est accent, we were told 75 cents a cup and that they had homemade cookies too!  We got two cups, chatted for a second, and then drove off.  That lemonade was good and was homemade!

I just love our backroad adventures.  You never know where they will take you!  This one took us to an Amish family's driveway!  

We stopped at a greenhouse so I could get some plants.  And then we stopped at a couple little stores.  After not successfully finding all we were searching for, we stopped for lunch at Knepp's and then headed towards home.  

For those of you that didn't know, this is what NOT SLEEPING looks like...

Who's ready for another roadtrip?!?

A Cold Day at Holiday World!

Every year my work gives us tickets to Holiday World.  I normally like to go in the summer to enjoy Splashin' Safari, and then once in the fall to enjoy the rides.  We never made it during the summer, so we had extra tickets for the fall trip and were able to take Gavin's little friend Jacob with us.

I always enjoying going on one of their last days open.  Usually the weather is alot cooler, the park isn't crowded and you can usually get a close parking spot, and there isn't any wait in the lines.  The only thing I timed right on this trip was the weather being cooler :/  Regardless, we all had a great time opening and closing the park!

Shawn and I with the hooligan boys.  I don't think there was one serious picture taken all day.  There was some form of fingers being displayed in the deuces sign (or in Gavin's words, peace!), or tongues being stuck out.  I've given up on decent pictures!

In the fall at HW, they have whats called Halloween weekends, with lots of extra Halloween themed attractions.  One of our favorites is the 3D haunted house.  The spinner room always gets us!

Something new we did was Carnival Chaos.  They had different carnival-themed things inside.  One of the things was you had to enter in and walk through this blown up black plastic area.  It was almost like squeezing your way through an opening and I didn't think we were ever going to see the light at the end.  It was Jacob, me, Gavin, and Shawn.  About halfway through, Jacob turned around and grabbed ahold of me and asked me to carry him out.  It was hilarious!  Gavin was attached to the back of me as well!  It wasn't scary at all, but just really weird.

It was alot more crowded than I had hoped, so rides were taking longer than planned.

Lunch in Holidog Town and then back to riding rides!

The boys LOVED Raging Rapids.  Despite the fact that it was only about 50 degrees that afternoon, they rode that ride and rode it some more.  It was actually the only ride without a line so the boys just stayed on it again and again.  I had to make them get off of it so we could go do some other stuff.  

And then on the way back past it, they had to ride it a few more times

Who doesn't love ice cream when it's freezing cold outside!

This kids mouth was permanently colored from all the Hi-C and ice cream he had!

The last ride of the night and it was freezing cold!

Pictures in front of Santa and then time to go boys!

Final stop - Angelo's in Rockport for pizza and bread sticks!  We all had a great time at Holiday World.  Jacob was the perfect choice to go with us and him and Gavin had a great time!