Estimated reading time: 4 minute(s)

When we were on the last leg of our return trip home last night, Jen & I were recalling the several consecutive late nights (and/or full days) we had strung together for our children. We counted three… then four… then… a WEEK. I think it goes back to our big FOOD FEST on July 1st. So far, this July has been packed full of goodness.

You know of the Food Fest, as well as the National Ice Cream Month celebrations. Perhaps you also know of how we celebrated July 4th on July 3rd with Jen’s family down by Canandaigua Lake? And perhaps you also know that we drove nearly FIFTY MILES to see fireworks on the real July 4th down in Lima, NY? Good times.

How about how we drove to Springfield, OH – the place of my birth! – on Thursday July 5th, and met up with my Grandma, my Grandma & Grandpa, my Mom & Dad, their friend Paul, my Uncle Jim & Aunt Becky, and my Uncle Jim & Aunt Sara for dinner at Cici’s Pizza? And then we went out to see a restoration project my second Uncle Jim (from above) is working on for the Clark County parks… did I mention that? AND THEN we headed down to Grammy & Grandpa’s for baths and night time routines… completely exhausted. Once again, good times. 🙂

Oh! I know I mentioned the Creation Museum on Friday July 6th… it’s created quite a firestorm in the comment section (at least as far as commenting generally goes at GregsHead.net. And, you also know that we went to one of the Esther Price chocolate stores that day, along with Graeter’s Ice Cream. But, did I mention that was following some fantastic BBQ ribs, pulled pork, and other such goodies? How about that after that long day, and following baths and bedtime routine (which took longer than it should’ve thanks to Julia) that Jen & I went out on the town at about 11:15pm or so??? Went to Applebee’s for half-price appetizers. 🙂 Again… good times.

On Seven Seven oh-Seven we once again started out first thing in the morning, just doing a little drive around the countryside. We’ve heard that Indiana has some fantastic home school regulations (like… they have NONE!) so we have always considered moving down there to be near my family, and free from the more “looking over your shoulder” type of regulations that NY currently has. So, we just wanted to see what those little towns were like. We had a nice lunch at a little diner in a small town of about 5000 people. It was a nice lunch, but not a place we’d want to live. Plus, it was hot. 🙂 (Big black mark against in my book…) 🙂 We drove around a bit more, just taking in the scenery, and then headed over to Springfield area for the evening’s fun.

We met up with my cousin Jimmie and his wife (didn’t get to see their daughter though! she was sleeping!!) 🙁 We spent 15-20 minutes with them and then headed over to meet our friends at Young’s Jersey Dairy. They’re headed to Ecuador on Wednesday I believe, so we were glad to get to see them before they head overseas. Spent more time than we expected to with them, after they locked their keys in their car. 🙁 Not what you want to do on a hot day… but we had a good time, and of course, had some great ice cream!!! Got to feed goats, too.

As July has gone… 07/07/07 was also… good times.

Sunday began early as Julia decided to mostly NOT sleep the night before, and since we were planning to leave early Sunday morning anyway (early for us…) I got up at about 7:30 or so and started getting stuff ready. Thankfully, the kids really were exhausted and I think the younger three took at least two naps each on the trip home! That was really nice. For everyone. We also stopped along the way for Skyline Chili (At 11am! That was funny!) and Dairy Queen! Also found a nice McDonald’s playplace up in NY for dinner. It was a nice trip. Even got to stop by Willowbrook and drop off some goodies for our friend Leah. Good times.

That brings us to this morning. Have you noticed that sometimes when kids are tired, they don’t actually sleep as much as when life is more “normal”? EVERYONE was up early this morning, which is not the best way to start a morning (for me, I guess) but, that’s how it started. I walked to the post office to get a check that I needed to deposit in the bank. Man, it was steaming hot even before 9am today! Then I got home and noticed we didn’t have milk yet… so, off to our grocery store I went. 🙂 I was a nice dad and brought home donuts for the kids for breakfast, too. 🙂

So, it has been an adventure everyday since the start of July. I’m hoping that 07/09/07 will be a bit back to normal. I think it just might be.