Mini vacation

We've done it again. We were supposed to go to Debbies ( Doug's sister) Friday night for a BBQ/Pool party on Saturday. Needless to say, Doug was too tired to go after work, so we decided to go on Saturday. Doug had brought home a Kia Sportage to test drive from work ( his boss has it for sale) So we went for a test drive Friday night and decided to try the Jeep Cheereke (sp?) instead, since we couldn't pull the boat or a camper (if we were to ever get one) any distance. ( Doug is thinking of selling the boat to buy a camper instead). So then he took that back Saturday morning, while he and Brad were gone, I showered and started packing to leave when they got back. Ryan was still sleeping , past 9:45 when the door bell started ringing non stop, that would be Ainsly ( age 4) from next door... ( If I ever did this to you and your family Amy Sorry!!! ) Needless to say, Ryan woke up and not very happy! But I asked him if he'd like to get in the tub and he was in , instantly ( he loves his bathes!!) So I washed him all up, then he played... the whole time I finished getting ready to go. By the time Doug and Brad were back, I was ready to go out the door, we decided to eat on the way. So off we went. We got to Debbies and the kids went right in the pool... as did everyone else. So we swam, had ribs and chicken and all kinds of yummies. Then after dinner we decided to go to the Casino with Doug's mom and other sister Sue. We each took in $20, Mine was gone after about 45 minutes. Doug was down to about $1.50 when he started doing well, he ended up winning back my $20 plus his $20 plus another $13... okay, so it wasn't a fortune, but who cares, as long as we actually left with a little more than we came with!! Doug' s mom and sister lost thier $50+ each. We got home, played cards, put the kids to bed ( Annie ( neice/deb's daughter) ) got Ryan in the tub, Annie asked Ryan if he needed a bath, he said yes, it had been a couple days since he'd had one... goofy kid, see how much he loves his bathes! Brad on the other hand didn't want anything to do with it ( he's the one that needed one , he did get one the next morning) Sunday morning we got up, showered, fed and Doug was ready to go... we said our good-bye and we were on our way. When we got to the end of the road, the car decided to go North, rather than south. We decided to surprise the kids with the Mackinaw Bridge.. They were really excited. We shopped in Mackinaw City for awhile, then we went across the bridge into St. Ignace, on the north side of town is a resturant called North Bay or something like that, it is across the road from the water, and they have buffets a lot and fairly decent food, sort of a hometown resturant type thing, we've eaten there lots of times on our trips up north before kids. So Ryan finished every bite of his grilled cheese, Brad had lots of spaghetti, Doug had a cod fish sandwich and I had a hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy, 1/2 an order of it anyway... just the right size. Then we went back to Mackinaw City and got dippen dots for dessert ( yes we are still liking the dippen dots) Then we stopped in a shop where they had a cinnamon candle burning that smelled SO good, I couldn't go home without it. Then we headed towards home, via US 31. On our way in Oden there was a fish hatchery place with a visitors center. We walked over 1/2 a mile to see the hatchery and saw a creek viewing area where you see fish in thier natural envioronment. We also got to a fish pond where they had really big brown and rainbow trout, for a dime, you'd get a handful of fish food, so we fed the fish for awhile, the kids loved it, it was a lot of walking, but so worth it, it was a beautiful day!! Then we drove through Petoskey, and Traverse city and stopped in the Cadillac area for one last time, we got Little Caesars pizza ( hot and ready) they gave us some plates and napkins and then we stopped at Meijers for drinks , gas and a potty stop. We ate on the way pizza isn't the easiest to feed to kids on the road but it was cheap, and that's what they asked for when we saw Little Caesars. We have found it's a looooooooong trip anywhere when you don't have a portable DVD player!!!! We got home about 10pm. We had lots of fun! Next weekend... we go to Brighton after the Boy Scout camp out Friday night...