Vacation

Our family usually likes to go on a mini vacation every year with some tax return money. Normally we go to Chicago but this time we decided to go more local still. We ended up going to Shipshewana. There is a nice hotel there with a water park. The nice thing is they had a room big enough for our whole family. So we took off Friday afternoon and spent the evening splishin and a splashin. Oh and we had to stop by Terry's Pizza and Sub on the way there for some wet burritos. Those are my favorite and the last one I had was years ago. Of course we had a flat tire on the way there and we had to make a police report because it happened on the railroad tracks where a spike was sticking up. Even though we were delayed a bit we still had time to play a lot that night. Koen and Eades went down the two big slides over and over again and they got soaked in the water fort. Dougan played in the kiddie pool and we also liked going with me in the family pool and the lazy river. Brandis hung out with Tony in the kiddie pool and eventually warmed up to the whole idea of getting wet. We even got him to go down the little slide a couple of times.
After we were wet enough we decided it was time to get ready for bed. The boys were excited because they each had their own bunk and there was a t.v. in the bunk bed area so they could watch their shows while we watched our shows. They also liked that we let them fall asleep watching t.v. That doesn't happen very often. Eades decided that we should live there, but I explained it was very expensive and we couldn't survive on Capri Suns and microwave popcorn. So after a good nights rest we absolutely had to go to the Essenhaus breakfast buffet. I'm talking fried mush, biscuits and gravy, and mini donuts. Yummy! Then we went back to the hotel and spent the morning playing in the water again. We were so stuffed from breakfast that we didn't eat lunch we just snacked on some stuff. On the way out we had to go to the Cheese house and buy the necessary cheeses; Colby Jack, Farmer's cheese, and Aged regular Swiss. The kids got some taffy and candy sticks, oh and two whoopie cushions. Tony humored them as he seemed to be their only target.
We also stopped by Leo Lorene's. They were making syrup. Of course Lorene sent us home with some. I wanted to open the jar the whole way home but I knew that would only result in a mess. Maybe I'll have German pancakes tomorrow for dinner. Anyway, it was nice to visit with them and hear some family news. I didn't know this but Uncle Leo volunteered down in New Orleans after the hurricane. He also got to go fishing while he was down there and he has some cool stories. He caught a lot of fish he never dreamed of. He even caught some sting ray and he saw jellyfish. There house looks almost exactly the same as before the fire. Lorene told us of some of the things that she lost that made her really sad, things from her mom and grandma mostly. She also had a ton of Tupperware that smelled like smoke. She doesn't want to throw it all out so someone told her to bury it. She did that right after the fire but it didn't work. Someone else told her to freeze it outside. So she had a frozen pile of Tupperware out and she's keeping her fingers crossed that it works. I hope so too.
After that we went back home and relaxed from vacation. It was very fun and we did everything I wanted to do, so it was a great little trip. It might be something we do every other year with Chicago. I think it would be a good tradition to start.