Stay-cation Highlights

Well, our Stay-cation is pretty much officially over now and beginning to settle back into our "normal" routine (at least for another few weeks until Maisie's arrival, and then a new "normal" will have to be discovered). After 5 days of vacation, I am actually ready to head back to work -- probably helps knowing that it will only be for another month. Not that I do not enjoy what I do and my co-workers, but my heart is definitely ready for a new purpose, a new season of life.

But that is another day, another blog...today, thought you might enjoy some highlights from our Stay-cation activities -- we definitely stayed busy! But what I would call a very good busy (and BTW, definitely recommend a stay-cation for anyone needing a vacation but also wanting to keep expenses low).

*As you saw from the earlier picture, we enjoyed a night of U.S. Olympic swim trials. We ended up with some great seats, in the upper level but on the front row of the upper level and facing one of the pool ends (and though it wasn't where the swimmers started/ended for the most part, we did get to enjoy a close-up view of the awards/medals ceremony). Overall, it was a fun night and was cool to enjoy what you might call a "once in a lifetime" kind of moment.

*An afternoon of fun at Dave & Busters, a restaurant-bar / arcade-game center. We enjoyed some of our favorites (skee ball, horse-racing, Ms. Pacman, etc), as well as some new games including Deal or No Deal and a tetris-like game with poker chips. Ryan schooled me at the trivia contest but I still managed to outlast him on the gun/shooting game (he still had a little trouble not shooting the hostages that we were supposed to be rescuing).

*A great 4th of July night spent hanging out with some family (Ryan's sister Gretchen, husband Stacy, and two boys) roasting brats & hot dogs, attending a baseball game, and watching a spectacular fireworks show...again, had great seats with the fireworks almost appearing to be going off right over our heads (a little neck strain, but well worth it). There was also a fun family sitting behind us with a very cute little girl, so made us think of what Maisie might be like this time next year.

*Watching an evening of racing at a local dirt track...it definitely brought back memories from my childhood, as attending the local car races was a fairly frequent family activity for awhile (Dad, was definitely wishing you were here to enjoy with us...but maybe on a future visit some day). It was Ryan's first ever trip to a "roundy-round" (at least that he remembers), and he enjoyed (despite having some bad luck with picking cars to root for...though mostly bad for the drivers as each car that he picked subsequently crashed or developed engine trouble, one only a few seconds after he named it as his pick) so think some repeat trips will be in store some day.

*And to keep this from getting too long, will also briefly mention some fun shopping trips to Babies R Us (used up some of our gift card money), to Joann's fabric store (poor Ryan, but he was a trooper), to Menards, and to Kelly's DIY Floors shop (picked up our carpet for the family room!). And we also manged to throw in a "date night", a lunch with our Afghan family friends, and some "fun" apple tree cutting down time with our friend Steve (it ended up not surviving last week's storm)...without him & Ryan, our power might have been lost.

And after a horrible trip to Zesto's (which is now on our "never to return" and "do not recommend" restaurant list), it would have been another not-so-fun bump in our stay-cation enjoyment. But thankfully, Zesto's was the one & only! :) God so blessed us with wonderful moments & memories this weekend.