My mini-vacation

I decided to take a mini-vacation. Jen and I couldn't put the time or money together for a real vacation so I figured a 4 day weekend would be as close as I was going to get for a while. I was pretty beat too. I had been out on the floor for the past two weeks (including a Saturday) so I was pretty worn out. It was a pretty good break since the 4 days seemed like a week. So let's get started:

Wednesday night: met the in laws at Red Lobster for dinner to celebrate the numerous birthdays and anniversaries in the past month or two. The boys did very well at dinner and almost made it to the end before fussing. Andrew was fascinated by the many fish statues surrounding him and had to point and say "FISH!!!!!" at every one of them until food finally arrived. EVERYONE in Red Lobster knew where the fish statues were sitting around our table since Andrew pointed them all out numerous times. Williams fascination was with the lobster tank by the front door. He said he had to go to the bathroom, but it was a ruse to go see the lobsters. Good food once again.

Thursday: We get the crew up and going and head out the door to go visit Monkeyjack and family at his in-laws lake cottage for the day. We had a real good time swimming and taking a ride around the lake in the pontoon. I even got William to kinda jump off the dock to me in the water which is a huge step. Andrew (fearless) had fun in his inflatable ring and I think would have jumped off the dock too. Man I miss our lake cottage, but I don't envy the work and money that has to go into it year round for a few weeks of enjoyment. There was quite a house full of people and kids for the day including some teenage girls that Andrew hit on the entire time (he is such a charmer). Hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch and beef bbq for dinner supplied by Scott and the girlfriend du jour (kidding Scott). When the 3 teenage boys showed up at the cottage with one wearing a white wig and bandanna and the other "smoking" a fake cigarette I figured that was a good time to get out of there. Actually we were already heading out the door, but that was just funny to see. We stopped at Tom's doughnuts and bought enough doughnuts to last us the entire weekend.

Friday: My cousin Marc invited me to play 18 holes at riverbend as part of a coupon that he got in a fundraiser. Originally I was just planning on taking half a day to play golf, but figured that since I took Thursday off it would be silly to go to work for half a day Friday. I haven't played Riverbend in years, but the last thing I remember is that I lost ALOT of balls and that it was a crappy course and got bit up by mosquitoes, so I came fully prepared. The last time I played last month I totally stunk up the course so I was preparing myself for a long day. Surprisingly I hit the ball pretty well and the condition of the course was fantastic. It was 10 times better than the last course I played (gray goose in decatur). The fairways were like carpet, the greens were well maintained and there wasn't alot of spotty grass in the area. The cost even without a coupon is very reasonable and you can play in your tank top if you want so the course is pretty laid back. After all was said I finished with a score JUST under the century mark. It didn't feel like I played that bad, but it took awhile for my putter to get with the program. Overall I had alot of fun and enjoyed the day. I only lost 3 balls which must be a record. After that I went shopping and bought a new cell phone and then we headed over to grandmas for sloppy joes to welcome her home from Florida.

Saturday: Jen had to work so I decided to take the boys to the Muddy River Run car show at the fairgrounds. The boys love cars so I figured that they might enjoy some street rods and stuff. We took grandma with us too since Aunt Suzie was going to be there with one of her cars. One of the things that I feared was that the cars would be too loud for William to handle and wouldn't you know it just as we walk into the fairgrounds, two huge drag racers drive by rumbling with open exhaust pipes. Of course compounding the problem is that they have music blaring throughout the fairgrounds, so William spent most of the day with his hands over his ears. Andrew just rode in the stroller and seemed to enjoy it. We walked thought the fairgrounds and looked at all the cars. We got back to the tent where Aunt Suzie was, and the boys looked like they were getting a little sun so I decided to use some sunscreen on them. Wouldn't you know it, I got a little in Andrew's eye and it started to burn. And of course he uses his arm to wipe his eyes that is full of sunscreen too. So he starts to scream and cry and I try everything I can to flush his eyes, but to no avail. So we head home after only an hour and a half. I gave him a quick bath and some motrin and that seemed to help. The rest of the day watching the DVD du jour "lilo and stitch". A few more pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveandjj_ii

Sunday: Jen had to work again. So after church in the morning the boys and I just hung out around the house. Jen and I did head out to the movie after she got home. Mom brought over her new puppy for the boys to play with while Jen and I snuck out, grabbed dinner at Culvers and saw the new Harry Potter movie. Pretty good movie, but for the love of God never go with someone who just read the books since she compares the two (kidding dear and I know you're the same Carrie). We got home around 10:00pm and William was still up after giving grandma a hard time going to bed. Andrew goes to bed very easy but William doesn't make it easy, and especially for grandma. I blame myself for not giving grandma the proper "to bed" instructions to try and help the process.

And that's it. 4 days that seemed like at week.