Vacation...er....Kind of

Josh finally has gotten the honor of getting ten days of vacation at his job. He started out with three and then moved up to five, finally getting ten. Yay! We had a grand plan of going somewhere exotic this summer and using five of his days. You know, like...within a two hour driving limit. Maybe four? Well, the joys of my surgeries this year made it so that he had to use two of his ten days and so we were left with three days this summer if he still wanted his annual week off during Christmas break. So, instead of going somewhere that required lots of driving, we opted to go to several local places and enjoy some family time. Our first stop was the local zoo. We try to go every year as a family anyways, so this was good timing. The kids always enjoy going, no matter how many times we go. We got my mom (Grandma) to go with us and I think she had a great time too. The kids love having her along for the ride no matter where we are going. And Evie is the age where going places is actually fun. No diapers! Woo-hoo!

If I really looked, I could find a picture like this on this horse every single year. Wouldn't that be a hoot to see?

I had to add this picture because it freaked me out.

 

Our second stop was going to an arcade/mini golf/"amusement" park. It's not a lot of super big rides, but they have a small coaster and lots of rides that kids (and adults) enjoy. And the beauty of it was that the place was deserted when we got there. We pretty much had the entire place to ourselves and rode everything several times. Then it was inside to the arcades. We got so many tickets and the kids exchanged them for lots of goodies. It was a pretty awesome time. Even Josh and I got into this strange game where you knock evil clowns down to get lots of tickets. Our throwing arms were sore for a week!

I'm not a huge selfie fan. But it's a great way to get me in the pictures...as it is very rare.

The next day we went to go to the movies and out to eat at Wendy's. Because with Alex's allergies, we only really have two safe options for eating out. We went to see Secret Life of Pets. Josh slept through half of it, but the kids really enjoyed it. Regardless of the movie quality, it was a great time. Our last thing was to go swimming at our local pool. It was the last weekend it was open and the kids had free passes. So...bonus!

  

I love my son. But ugh...I do get tired of Wendy's and McDonald's.

Of course, our vacation ended on a bad note with the passing of our beloved Penny. (insert massive amounts of sad faces and teardrops here.) So unfortunately, it wasn't the vacation of our dreams. But the time we spent together was wonderful and I am very glad that we did all that we did. I also spent the vacation time taking care of Mandy's many, many beasties. It's always nice going over and feeling like I'm "country" again. Even if it's just for a little while. Next year, we are seriously planning to go somewhere that requires overnight stays. I'm getting excited already!

Feeding the beasties. I really wish goats were in my future.