4th of July in Quincy, Illinois
The kids, Stu, and I are visiting my sister and brother-in-law in Quincy, Illinois for the long 4th of July weekend. I have Monday and Tuesday off for the holiday this year. I also needed to take some sick time from work last week so we were able to leave earlier than we thought on Friday morning to get here. However, Stu decided to take a small detour to Rochester, MN to eat at one of our favorite restaurants - John Hardy's BBQ. When he told me the plan, I was really excited.....nearly 10 hours later, when we pulled into my sister's driveway, I was questioning our judgement. But we haven't been there in years and probably won't get back there for years so even though it was a long, long, long haul, it was probably worth it.
Our vacation has been like a comedy film so far:
1. Not 20 minutes after we'd arrived, we took the kids over to the nearby playground to stretch their limbs after nearly 10 hours in the minivan and Max scraped his back on the dodgy old slide. He's ok though.
2. Not one hour after we'd arrived, settled the kids down, and gotten them into bed, for some inexplicable reason, Adam decided to pull his glasses case from his bag, take out his very expensive glasses and tear the left ear/stem piece thingy clean off. Stu was not a happy camper. I took it in stride. Whatever. That's what tape's for. And the insurance plan we paid for at Lenscrafters. When we get back home to good 'ol Roseville, MN, we'll be able to get a new pair of specs for $30.
3. Ryann has stepped on something in the yard and got a little cut on the bottom of her foot, gotten gum in her hair (for the second time in approximately 2 weeks), and zipped her hair into the sleeping bag-like portion of the cot that her auntie and uncle have for her to sleep in here. When the gum and hair-zipping happened, she moaned, like a movie star, classics such as "Not again!" and "Why me, why me?!"
4. We trekked 20 miles to Hannibal, Missouri to participate in the advertised "National Frog Jump Competition" during their "Tom Sawyer Days" festival. This meant we registered all three kids and then loitered for 2 hours in 95 degree, 100 % humid weather waiting for the kids to take their turns in attempting to get their frogs to jump farthest from a center starting point, in only three jumps (photos forthcoming). By the time it was our kids' turns, those poor bullfrogs were so overheated and jumped-out (we had to rent frogs from the boy scouts for $2 a piece since we didn't bring our own), they barely moved. Adam's strategy was to nudge, nudge, noodge his froggie in the bum to try to get him going. Ryann slapped the ground behind her non-jumper with all her might. Max leaped up and down, trying to provide demonstration and then resorted to snapping his fingers in the general vicinity of the croaker. The kids were all glad they participated, knew there was no way they'd won any prize, and didn't give a rip. As soon as the last of them participated, we immediately headed for the air conditioned van. Uncle Bryan called ahead for pizza delivery so we could eat as soon as we got home. The pizza place said they'd be there in 45 minutes - giving us plenty of time to get home before they arrived; however, we pulled into the driveway next to the idling pizza truck and Uncle Bryan jumped out of the van to hand the guy waiting at their front door the money for the pizzas.
5. Stu and Max golfed six and a half holes out of nine this afternoon before getting rained out.
Next on our agenda is to eat tacos tonight and hot dogs tomorrow (we'd originally had that menu switched around but Max and Uncle Bryan decided it was completely un-American to eat tacos for our 4th of July supper), try to go to a place near here called "Bonkers" (an indoor playground), and then go to the Veteran's Home tomorrow night to see fireworks (Auntie Nikki read in the paper this morning that the resident buffalo has been moved so that he would not be upset by the noise; thank heavens).
Our vacation has been like a comedy film so far:
1. Not 20 minutes after we'd arrived, we took the kids over to the nearby playground to stretch their limbs after nearly 10 hours in the minivan and Max scraped his back on the dodgy old slide. He's ok though.
2. Not one hour after we'd arrived, settled the kids down, and gotten them into bed, for some inexplicable reason, Adam decided to pull his glasses case from his bag, take out his very expensive glasses and tear the left ear/stem piece thingy clean off. Stu was not a happy camper. I took it in stride. Whatever. That's what tape's for. And the insurance plan we paid for at Lenscrafters. When we get back home to good 'ol Roseville, MN, we'll be able to get a new pair of specs for $30.
3. Ryann has stepped on something in the yard and got a little cut on the bottom of her foot, gotten gum in her hair (for the second time in approximately 2 weeks), and zipped her hair into the sleeping bag-like portion of the cot that her auntie and uncle have for her to sleep in here. When the gum and hair-zipping happened, she moaned, like a movie star, classics such as "Not again!" and "Why me, why me?!"
4. We trekked 20 miles to Hannibal, Missouri to participate in the advertised "National Frog Jump Competition" during their "Tom Sawyer Days" festival. This meant we registered all three kids and then loitered for 2 hours in 95 degree, 100 % humid weather waiting for the kids to take their turns in attempting to get their frogs to jump farthest from a center starting point, in only three jumps (photos forthcoming). By the time it was our kids' turns, those poor bullfrogs were so overheated and jumped-out (we had to rent frogs from the boy scouts for $2 a piece since we didn't bring our own), they barely moved. Adam's strategy was to nudge, nudge, noodge his froggie in the bum to try to get him going. Ryann slapped the ground behind her non-jumper with all her might. Max leaped up and down, trying to provide demonstration and then resorted to snapping his fingers in the general vicinity of the croaker. The kids were all glad they participated, knew there was no way they'd won any prize, and didn't give a rip. As soon as the last of them participated, we immediately headed for the air conditioned van. Uncle Bryan called ahead for pizza delivery so we could eat as soon as we got home. The pizza place said they'd be there in 45 minutes - giving us plenty of time to get home before they arrived; however, we pulled into the driveway next to the idling pizza truck and Uncle Bryan jumped out of the van to hand the guy waiting at their front door the money for the pizzas.
5. Stu and Max golfed six and a half holes out of nine this afternoon before getting rained out.
Next on our agenda is to eat tacos tonight and hot dogs tomorrow (we'd originally had that menu switched around but Max and Uncle Bryan decided it was completely un-American to eat tacos for our 4th of July supper), try to go to a place near here called "Bonkers" (an indoor playground), and then go to the Veteran's Home tomorrow night to see fireworks (Auntie Nikki read in the paper this morning that the resident buffalo has been moved so that he would not be upset by the noise; thank heavens).
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