What a great trip it was. We spent some great time with our families, and had fun getting there. We love road trips!! We drove hard Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and through the night Sunday to arrive in Bowerston Ohio on Monday morning. We all chatted on Sunday, around 8ish, that we would push as far as we could, in hopes to arrive Monday morning instead of Monday night. The kids said they could sleep in the trailer or in the back seat, so it didn't matter to them. Bill loves to drive at night and its nice driving with less traffic, plus the back seat is quiet too! We can't complain, our kids have always been great travelers, and when we say we're going for the long haul, they are eager to get their things in the back seat to keep themselves busy, and enjoy the ride. You can see they don't have any trouble crashing in the truck!
We pulled into Mom & Dad's lake property about 11am, just in time for lunch! My sister and her family were already there, and my brother and his kids arrived about an hour later. Lots of catching up and chatter for the first few hours. Around 4, we headed to off to inquire (and ended up purchasing) a floating dock. Mom & Dad's dock has been in poor shape since they bought the place, and it was a perfect mothers day/fathers day gift from their kids. On Tuesday, Eric, Bill & Jason got to it...only to find it was not quite sturdy enough. Plan B....take it off the barrels and support it in the water. This however, takes more materials...so the project is on hold...and Wednesday is the family get together! The guys get a makeshift dock together for the kids to get in & out of the water with.
Wednesday is a great day of visiting. I love that everyone gets together, but so many people make for not being able to visit for a long period of time...but the hugs and just being able to "be together" makes it worth it. We'd never get to see everyone otherwise. Two weeks still isn't a long enough vacation! We celebrated my grandmother's 90th birthday and all the grand kids sang a song for my Grandfather, that his Mom used to sing to him as a child. It was fun to do that together, and you could feel the love flowing out of everyone.
Just a few great pictures from our day...cousins, uncles, and even crazier cousins (One's you should not leave your camera laying around loose!!) and a pure blessing of time spent together.
After everyone left...we set off fireworks, plus, Rachel & John (plus kids) stuck around, and we had a great extra visit!! Too bad we couldn't stretch that over a few days, and have everyone camp down there. Unfortunately, we'd have to have Dad bring in a porta pottie!!
July 5th, we headed to Amish Country...we had a great day, it was HOT, but we enjoyed the day together, and did some fun shopping. Friday, we hung around the lake, while the guys finished up the dock. The kids tested it out, and it works great! Jason headed home, while we kept kids for another day....so they could join us on our adventure!
On Saturday, our last day together, we packed up, and headed to Old Man's Cave. It was hot, (107) but we figured it would be cooler in the caves. It was, but not by much, and although I love that area, we couldn't endure more than a few hours there. The kids were melting, as were we adults.We headed back to the lake, just in time to catch the evening sun and it was an awesome time with the kids jumping off the new dock.
Sadly, our time was coming quickly to an end. Sunday was a flurry of packing up our trailers, sniffling as we said our goodbyes. Tam, Eric & kids headed South, Bill & I along with Jason's kids headed North, and our kids stayed with Grandma & Papa for another week.
We had a good time on the way to Michigan...Jason's kids are so different than ours...maybe having three in the mix made it so different, but we had fun, and were sad to see them head back home.
We arrived at Bill's Mom's in time for supper, and enjoyed a nice evening with Karen & Jeff, and the temperatures had dropped below 100 for the first time since we'd been there. We enjoyed a fire, but still from a distance! While there I was able to catch up with some great girlfriends, and we enjoyed seeing family, and sad that not everyone was able to make it.
However, we enjoy what we can with the time we have. It's always a blessing. We were originally scheduled to leave on Friday, but our longtime friends, and my best friend growing up, Judi & Steve were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. We were blessed to be there to celebrate. It only seemed right since we were there the day they got married. We shared lots of dating time and early married years together, not to mention a few blenders.
Sadly, on Saturday morning, we packed up and headed West. With no kids, our plan was to drive hard, although, the kids have never slowed us down....it was just different dynamics in the truck! We drove until 2ish on the first day, and caught a few hours of sleep...it's great when you pull your bed behind you! The second night, we pulled over 3 hours from home, and slept a few hours, mostly because we were almost out of fuel, exhausted, and knew it would be better to pull down that heavy grade in the daylight, being our trailer was so loaded with Bill's Dad's tools and cabinets. We arrived in Sweet Home at 7am on Monday and were happy to get home safely and into our own bed! It was a long haul, but a great trip. Thanks to all who made the effort to come out to see us.
