It's crazy how days filled with not a lot still seem to fly by.
We got to go back to church! Hip hip hooray! In groups of 50, with masks on. So strange, but so good at the same time. They finally got to wear their Easter dresses in public and they were bouncing off the walls Sunday morning. Miri was very confused about the masks. hehe.
She was not interested in the cold water in the pool on this particular day, so she just chilled with me in the shade, on her little chair, contemplating life.
Bob working from home has been good for the garden- I'm more inclined to just let it be weedy, but he had us all out one evening and it looks really nice for once. We're mostly pulling purslane, "parsley," to certain unnamed children.
I don't want to go to sleep! I want to stay up late and read a book! I've run out of reasons why she doesn't want to sleep/doesn't stay asleep for long so I'll just blame it on teeth... perfect catch all excuse for every unwanted baby behavior. :P
And I want to climb up on things that I can't get down from. She was quiet, and then I heard whimpering.
This lasted for all of two minutes.
We needed more holes in the yard. This time they're upgrading gas lines. *sigh*
I am so happy! I have my own little chair and my very favorite oatmeal cream pie!
They are so weird sometimes- part of whatever game they were playing involved sitting by the hole for a while, before tearing off to do some other part of the game.
We spent an afternoon at the farm- sweet little girl asleep in a sweet little room.
Dad and I took the older three girls up into the haymow. He and Jack have some hay forts up there.
Emmy: I feel like there's something in this tunnel! *screams* (kitten runs out). Haha. (Back in my day we didn't have cellphones to see in our hay forts... kids these days have it made)
My father is fearless and also part monkey. haha.
Em just enjoying an afternoon swing with MaryEllen.
We stayed up "late" one evening to wait for the lightning bugs to come out. I've been loving the mild, not humid days and cool evenings.
We heard a muffled thump one morning and looked out the window to see that this tree at the school had lost a large branch. Bob took the girls over to check it out.
Wyss vacation this year was everybody-hang-out-at-Rita's-house. We did not go for the full week this year, sadly. The girls were sooooo excited. I was a little less excited, because, well, travelling with four small children is exhausting when everything is open and when you can't go sit in McDonald's to eat (and use the bathroom) it adds a layer of complexity to the process. But it ended up being fine, we stopped for gas and bathrooms right next to a McD's that was right next to a park with picnic tables and the weather was perfect for sitting outside. :)
The drive still took us forever. Thank goodness for Hank the Cowdog. We stayed in the neighbors garage apartment. It was nice, and only a short walk from Rita's (and Loren's :P) house through the woods on a scenic plywood path.
Cliff brought his dog.
Uncle Ron is so patient- all of the kids wanted to fish and they all wanted to throw rocks in the river, scaring the fish.
Rita has an amazing play room that I'm pretty sure the girls could have spent a whole week in.
Besides the lake and swimming, they had lots of activities planned. I did not play four square.
Wren is so funny. She's two... when she saw Miriel, she sat down on the floor, held her hands out, and said "Baby!" Miriel was very confused why she was being held by someone practically the same size.
Michelle and Nathan took us to Gateway to show us around a little bit. We checked out their house and Gideon showed us the animals in the barn.
Rita's pool is poured, but not finished yet so we swam at their old pool, at their old house. That you can walk to from their new house. (you know how it goes sometimes... haha... )
The kids spent so much time sitting on the rocks by the river waiting for the boat. Or something. I took Cadence out on a kayak briefly when the boat was full and she was sad. We had fun and got slightly wet.
There was a pickle ball tournament. Bob and I technically had more points when we had to stop playing to eat supper, and we weren't super interested in winning the tournament so we let Cliff and Jacie advance. :P
Pickle ball court on the concrete pad that will be the 'barn.' Where we stayed was on the other side of those trees.
Poor tired little girl didn't make it back from the pool before succumbing to sleep, wrapped in her beach towel.
Generally, if you miss Wyss Vaca you better have a pretty good excuse. One acceptable excuse is "saving my vacation time for a honeymoon." Kirk zoomed one evening during devotions to announce his engagement. *sniff* *tear* They just grow up so fast.
Way back when they were in house 1 (in my memory anyway) Rita hired an Amish girl to help her clean. So we've been hearing about Loretta for years, and she's grown up and has a bunch of her own kids now, and sends big batches of salt water taffy every year at Christmas. We all were able to go to her farm for wagon and buggy rides. It was pretty cool. It didn't hurt that it was a gorgeous evening.
Miri mostly enjoyed it, even if it doesn't look like it. hehe.
Dad sat up next to Ben and he handed him the reigns for a bit which was slightly scary. (Not really) Dad learned all kinds from him- he likes to raise horses. Race horses that they sell in Kentucky. And they build retail shelving in their wood shop for stores like Victoria's Secret (Ha! What!?).
We met a bunch of buggies on the road coming from a wedding; everybody would politely wave, and then the Amish kids would turn and stare at us all as they went past while our kids were staring at them. I found it amusing- kids are pretty much all the same.
And they enjoy the same toys- jumping on their trampoline while waiting for everybody to get a buggy ride.
Rita's playroom has one of everything, including an adorable set of play hot roller curlers. Gideon was cracking us up serving "hot rolls" and coffee.
The neighbors pool was available Friday afternoon, so we walked over there (Rita's house is in the background).
The big girls wanted to go tubing so Ron spent all afternoon pulling them around the mighty St. Joe.
Just chatting with Parker and watching the tube go by.
Emmy even got to go for the first time!
Poor Clayton got put to work hooking up the sink in the basement kitchen. haha. You don't plumb on your family vacations?
Rita has a bounce house in her play room too. (as one does.) Miriel was not a fan, but the other kids loved it.
We found a quieter spot in the library and pulled books off of the secret door bookcase.... it really is a door!
Shena and Cecily spent a really long time looking at a WWII history book, I'm not sure Cecily had been exposed to much WWII yet. :P
Since they were saving so much money on accommodations they catered most of the meals- this was a pizza place that brings their oven to you and they cooked pizzas until we couldn't eat any more. It was really good pizza too!
Good times.
I spy 5 little second cousins playing on a rock pile...
It was fun to visit the new house- I'm excited to see it when all of the outside things are done. Now that Shells is out there too we may have to visit more often. And the girls have already asked to go back. haha.
The night before we left we had a bunch of tired, weepy girls who didn't want vacation to be over...
Attitudes were much improved in the morning, thankfully. We left Saturday after lunch so we wouldn't have to stop for food and we made slightly better time on the way home. Thus ended the 34th annual Wyss vacation. mur. I have been to at least a day or two of every single one- Scott and I may be the only two who can say that.
Anyway, this is getting very long so I shall stop here for now.
Blessings.
