Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Our Vacation












































We had a great vacation. It started on the 4th of July, and ended on July 13th. I told you what we did at the beginning and posted pictures. Well now, I will update you what we did at the end. On Thursday, July 10th David and I headed down to Melodys. We arrived there around 10:30 a.m. or so. Gage was very excited to see us. We left soon after to go to the Akron Zoo. It is a very nice zoo, and very kid friendly. Gage really enjoyed it. It was so much fun being with him at the zoo.












Then later that evening after dinner, we went swimming. My daughter has a pool. Justin and Britt were there too. They got there in the afternoon. On Friday morning we left at around 7:15 a.m. and headed for Kenneywood in Pittsburgh, PA. It is about 3 hours from my daughter. Justin and Britt followed behind us in her car.Not enough room in our car. We arrived there a little after eleven. We had never been there before. It was a very nice park. Very family oriented with a kids section. I am not into rides very much, but I did ride the carrasouel twice, and two small rides with Gage and David and I rode the train with him. I also rode the log water ride, where I got wet, but it felt so good. It was a great day. Gage had a blast. He rode all of the kiddie rides, plus one adult ride. David and I would watch the kids while Mel and Mike and Justin and Britt rode some. We were there for 12 hours. We didnot leave the park until after 11 p.m. that night. Gage did great, and so did Ali. Of course Gage crashed as soon as he got in the car. We stopped for something to eat on the way home. Then Mike had to take over driving Britts car, and I took over in our car. The one last ride that was ridden, was the Ripcord. Melody, Mike and Britt rode that one. I wanted to get a picture or video of it, but it was to dark, I did try with a video, really can't see but you can hear Melody screaming. They went 185 feet in the air. You couldn't pay me to get on it. Justin would have no part. We arrived back at my daughters at around 3:30 a.m. Got to bed around 4 a.m.






Got up at around 10 or so, of course Melody and the kids were already up. We didn't do a whole lot David and Mike worked on the bathrooms, ripping out the carpeting and putting in tile which took the entire day. I helped Mel do some painting, helped with the kids, and later that night, cleaned the bathrooms when they were finally finished which wasn't until 2:30 a.m. We stopped working around 6 p.m. and went out to dinner at The Barn, just down the road from their house. Awesome food. We met Mikes parents there. Then I went to Lowes with Mike, Mel and the kids. Had to get somemore stuff for the bathrooms and they bought a new screen door. That was hilarious us trying to fit that door in my van, with the kids and Mel. Melody was sitting under the door, in the second seat, and Gage was in the back trying to sit in his booster seat, which was sitting crooked. We laughed and laughed all the way home. I wish I could have taken a picture, as it surely was a kodak moment. We were so tired when we finally went to bed at 3 a.m. again. We were planning on attending church, but it didn't happen. We were just to exhausted. We got up around 9:30 a.m. and sat around like we were dead after having some breakfast. Mike was still in the bed, but of course Melody had to be up with the kids, David got up, he was reading, Melody was sitting in the lazy boy chair, feeding Ali, Me, Britt and Justin were on the couch. Gage was the only one that had any energy. He couldn't figure out why we were so tired. He went up to David and said, look grandpa they are all sleeping. DAvid is like yes, why did they even get up? lol We laid around for awhile till in the afternoon. Then got up and I finally got a shower and got dressed, and then we made dinner. After dinner, cleaned up Justin and Britt had to leave to go back to her house, and we just sat around talking. Then got up made some brownies, and popcorn, and played a game before heading home. We lefted Mels around 7:30 p.m. We arrived home around 10:30 p.m. Headed back to work on Monday, which was a busy day, as it always is, when getting back from vacation. Have a lot to catch up on. Monday night, friends of ours from Ohio, we used to go to church with them, when we attended down there, Ben and Kay Stockmaster came up for a couple days. They are leaving tomorrow morning. We have had a couple of nice relaxing days together. Except I have sun poisoning along with a bad sun burn, heading to the doctor in the morning. I have to work now for the next 3 days. Oh well such is life.






So here is some pictures from our trip. Hope you enjoy. I enjoyed being with my Melody, Mike and my grandchildren. Ali is so adorable and so is Gage. She is now 2 months old, and weighs 10 lbs. 8 ounces.






Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Odds and ends














Well here I am updating somemore. On Monday, we started doing some summer cleaning instead of spring cleaning. I started in my kitchen, by scrubbing, out my oven, pulling the stove and fridge out, and cleaning behind that, David painted the ceiling, cleaned all on top of my cupbards they were terrible, you know with grease and dust, and he put up a wall border, an amish one. My kitchen is done in Amish stuff. We could never find an amish border and finally found one Memorial weekend. He ended up ordering it. It makes my kitchen look really nice. So I have posted a couple of pictures of it.













Brad redid his bedroom so I have posted a couple of pictures of his room.


Tuesday July 8th which was yesterday, David, and I and my parents, my brother Rick and wife Diane went up to Grand Rapids to the John Ball Zoo, then we went to Silver Lake Sand Dunes and rode on the dunes. Anyone ever been there? It is so nice and beautiful. We have been there several times, have taken my parents there twice and this was the first time for my brother and wife. We had so much fun. Then we went down by Lake Michigan which was right there where Little Sable Point is and David went up to the top of the lighthouse. We weren't about to climb all those stairs. It was hard enough climbing up the sand. We didn't stay long there. Then we headed home. We stopped and got something to eat, and of course made several rest stop stops. lol It was a fun day. So here is some pictures from that. Hope you enjoy.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

A Fun and Wonderful 4th of July


















Thursday night was my last day of work until the 14th. I am on a much needed vacation. So on the 4th we went down to my daughters and family for the day. Brad, Justin, David and I. We took Brads car. We made a stop at Cabellas. We had a cookout. We grilled hotdogs, chicken, hamburgers. Had pototae salad, pasta salad, chips, corn on the cob, pop and Mike made a cheesecake. Gage was so excited to see us. Of course he knows grandma and grandpa always bring him something. I got him a Thomas The Tank Engine book, and David had got him a an airplane that you can shoot in the air something like that. Plus, I had my daughter pick him up one of the trains from Thomas the Tank Engine. He has been wanting Take Along Edward, which I have not been able to find, but she also said he likes Diesel Ten, so I told her to get it for me, and hide it till I got there, so she did. He was so excited when he saw what he got. He didnot want that out of his sight. Ali is so precious and such a doll. I got to take her right away, and give her lots of hugs and kisses. She is already 2 months old. She is starting to smile now, when you talk to her, and she did that for me. I got some good shots of her smiling. Mike did a video of me and her when we were sitting outside, that I didnot know he was doing until later. So I am posting that. She was trying to talk to me. It was a great day. Lots of great food, and lots of fun. We were going to go swimming, but it was to cold for me. David and the boys ended up going, and Gage for a little bit. Gage is like a fish. Then they played croquet, while I watched Ali. At the end we went to the Wooster Fireworks which were a big disappointment to us all. We left at around midnight, did not get home until 3 a.m. So here is some more pictures hope you enjoy.