I was convinced that this would be the only day Ashlyn would want to sleep in; the only day she really shouldn’t. Being the awesome wife that I am (I feel like I need to convince myself of that) I got up before everyone else to be ready when the kids woke up. And no, Ashlyn did not sleep in.
Church and Sunday School are always interesting when they’re not at your home church. We enjoy coming here though and everyone greeted us like long lost family, or the prodigal son or something. We didn’t get offered the “welcome bread” this time though signifying that we are no longer first-time visitors, for the fourth time.
After church we ate lunch at SLEEPY’S!! Nearly the only restaurant in these parts, Sleepy’s is your typical small town restaurant. It’s actually called “The Cove” now and attempts to dress itself up with new wall paint and chic wall decor and light fixtures. It cannot escape its roots though as there is a huge fish hanging on a plaque on the wall over the buffet boat (not a table. a boat) and a huge turkey in flight out of one of the corners of the walls. The waitress that always waits on us waited on us again today. She is now on a first name basis with Dick and Ruth and is pretty close to learning their usuals. Awesome buffet boat, btw: fried chicken, baked chicken, pulled pork bbq, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, rolls, salad, cherry cobbler, lemon pound cake…I had it all. almost all of it at least.
After lunch we headed to the town park. They had swings, which made the girls’ day. We noticed a path beyond the horseshoe pitches and decided to explore. After juicing up on sweet tea we headed out. It’s a perfect path for a letterbox or geocache. We’ll have to see next time if someone has left something there. It took us to the other side of the lake that we normally don’t see.
An afternoon thunderstorm cut our power for a couple of seconds but got no more serious than that. I did get to see Danica Patrick get wiped out by some bozo on pit lane. (Does this guy actually have a license to drive?) Missed NASCAR though because we were monitoring the storms that were threatening to spawn tornadoes. The highlight of the night (well my night anyway) was watching live NASA’s reaction to the Phoenix Mars Lander land safely on the Red Planet. I made my family tune in to the NASA channel a couple hours later to see the first pictures come back, live, of Mars. Absolutely incredible. We saw a solar panel, a Lander leg, and a little bit of the Martian horizon. Not much really, but I thought it was absolutely incredible. We’ve never seen Mars that closely before. God’s creation is amazing and to be able to slip past Earth and see more of it, that’s really just beyond our grasp, wow. I can’t wait for the color pictures to start showing up.
The highlight of the kids’ evening was seeing a raccoon that had scaled the probably twenty foot deck post to get up on the deck to eat the suet that’s been left out for the bluebirds. He wasn’t frightened at all by twelve peeping eyes at the kitchen door. Nor was he afraid of the spotlight Dad shone on him so we could get a better look. The pig ate all the suet and then climbed out of sight. Probably to go get in a neighbor’s trash can. My ‘rents are smart enough to lock up their cans.
Tomorrow is the drive home. But first we’ll stop at that fabulous fabric store I hinted at on Twitter. Reagan’s dying to do some shoe shopping as well. She thinks that big girls shouldn’t have to wear shoes that have security straps over the tops of the feet. She wants just plain flats with no straps. So we’ll see if we can’t find her some.
Oh, did y’all totally miss my Friday 13 post this week? How are you doing on your scavenger hunt?
Not So SAHM 
I, for one, missed the Friday 13 post! And I am ashamed to admit that I have not engaged in the scavenger hunt. I’m a cheater – I would go to google images and google them all 🙂
Sounds like you are having (had) a great vacation. I am jealous that you are stopping by a fabric store! Too fun!
Toni
I wanna hear about the fabric store. I wanna hear about Reagan’s big girl shoes. Libbey’s “thing” this summer is espadrilles, only she calls them “esparelles.” Adorable. She thinks they are high heels, so I found her 2 pair at Old Navy and now she is in shoe heaven.
How was the trip back? Oh, we had a mini-tornado here. Our yard is a nightmare, but praise God we had no damage. It was exciting, though. The girls sat at the window with Poppy and asked a million questions, while I ran around saying (shouting), “Get away from the window–a tree might fall in!” They were not worried one bit. Ah, my fearless daughters…