Peekaboo!

We're back!

The break here in posting was due to a family vacation. Dale took a couple weeks off work so we could get away for a bit.

Our vacation started off Monday the 2nd... well, for Dale it started. I felt like I was still "on duty", if that makes any sense! We went to my mother in laws for the day and played hide and seek with Walmarts and tag with the deer.

What happened was we planned the day out so that we could do a couple errands while travelling up to my MIL's, who is a little under 2 hours from us. One stop was a mennonite owned bulk food store where I like to get my flour, split peas, brown rice, and lots of other goodies. After that we planned on stopping for lunch, and feeding the baby. We got some of those $1 burgers for everyone. Then we went to where we knew a Walmart was, and I was going to stay in the van with the kids, feed the baby, and have them eat lunch while Dale ran in for a couple things. My SIL (the one who's expecting) needed diapers for her toddler and called that morning to see if we could pick some up on our way in. She just wasn't feeling up to a trip out to the store. No problem! We were glad to be able to do something for her.

Anyway, we pulled into the Walmart parking lot... and it was boarded up! I was surprised we didn't see tumbleweed rolling across the parking lot.

A Walmart closed? Wow! This recession must be worse than I thought. So, we parked near the main drag, and prepared to just eat really quickly while I nursed Isaac, and talked about where we could stop for what we needed.

Just as we were getting Isaac out of his carseat for a diaper change, a little sedan pulled up next to us and an older man called to us and said we couldn't park there, that the owner's didn't want any trespassing. He was nice enough about it, so I asked if I could just feed the baby quick and then be on our way. He said "no". I had a few choice words that I swallowed since he was using a respectful tone of voice (although showing no compassion for a mama wanting to feed her baby) so we packaged Isaac back up and went back to the McDonald's (aka... "greasy spoon") parking lot and ate there. We figured we were safe since we were actual customers.

Turns out Isaac wasn't as interested in eating as he was looking around and playing with the dashboard, but he at least got a little snack in. Dale and I again discussed options and finally decided we could take a little detour to a different Walmart we knew of in the general area.

Everyone ate, cleaned up, buckled back up, and off we went, prepared for another 45 minutes or so in the van. Just up about two blocks Josiah called out: "Hey, look! A Walmart! It's really big!"

Sure enough, there it was... Stuffmart, um... Walmart. Apparently the old one was closed so they could build a new, fancy, SuperWalmart just a couple blocks away, which the older gentleman in the sedan neglected to tell us. At any rate, after much eye rolling on my part, our mission was accomplished.

Our visit with my MIL was very nice, and as usual, we left later than we had planned. On the way home, we had 5 close encounters with deer. Not just one at a time, mind you, herds at a time. What is with the deer this year? They are out in droves, it seems. In our little game of tag, our van must have been "it", because thankfully, the deer kept running away from us. A couple times I could have almost reached out the window and slapped them on the back sides.

Tuesday (November 3rd), was spent in packing, running errands, packing, doing odds and ends, packing... Oh, did I mention packing?

Then Wednesday, we were off! Of course, most of you already know we are off. ;)

The rest of the story will have to wait until later!

Blessings!