Last Saturday we had a tornado warning and spent some time in the basement. It freaked out the girls and they were emotional catastrophes, especially as the light flickered out. Apparently they didn't get their dad's survival skills. I read to them by flashlight in an attempt to calm them down. Thankfully we had no wind damage to our home and the tornado touched down in Clarkston and not in our town. The worst thing to happen to us was that we ended up being without power for 2 days. During that time I was very grateful for our generator so that we were able to still have running water, our devices charged, our refrigerators on and we even got to plug in a fan in attempt to keep cool.
Sunday we had the blessing of in person church with a/c, the power had stayed on there, just some street lights not working on our way to the building. In YW's Maizie taught a great lesson about obeying the commandments and all the girls seemed to have fun analogies to contribute that helped them understand the doctorine.
Monday we spent the afternoon at the beach in order to stay cool. Sitting in the shade at the beach with a cool breeze was much better than our stifling home. Shortly after we got home the power turned back on and all was normal again. It was glorious.
Grams really wanted to go to Frederik Meijer Gardens so on Wednesday we took a road trip there. Steven's friend Max came with us. The beginning of the drive wasn't terrible but as we neared the end they got so loud and obnoxious. Once there Steven and Max took my phone and did their own thing, while the rest of us toured the statues. It was a warm and humid day so the kids were super whiney but we did find a pond off the beaten path that had a turtle, and frogs that was fun. After not too long the kids were just too sweaty so they went and played at a water area for a bit and got good and wet. Then the teens were ready to meet up so we toured the inside a bit, took some pictures of the teens outside to prove they actually came and then bought unnecessary things at the gift shop. Max went crazy and bought like 20 tiny bottles of "gemstones." I wonder what his parents thought of his frivolous purchases. The drive home I started to get a bad case of afternoon slumps, so we stopped at a gas station for snacks. This helped me and the slurpies quieted the kids down. Win-win.
Thursday I was grateful that my friend had my girls over at her house so I could get the house cleaned. It's amazing how much better I feel when the house is cleaned. I just wish the cleanliness lasted more than an hour. Friday I finished up packing and then in the afternoon we had Etta's birthday party at our beach. It was a little cool but he water was still warm from previous weather so the kids still had a good time. Then Saturday me, Penny and my mom started our adventure across the country.
Saturday was a long day of driving, almost 8 hours. We stopped at a rest stop with a playground where Penny made friends with a chatty girl who was on her way to Wyoming.
Then we stopped at a Wilton Candy Kitchen which I thought was going to be a big candy shop but was really just an old, hole in the wall ice cream/soda pop shop with a tiny "museum" in the back. Penny was impressed with the rotary phone and we were all impressed with the ice cream. It was really good.
Our last stop was Mormon Handcart Park. It had a few plaques and was a nice cool, pretty walk. Penny got tired with our 5 minute walk, how lucky she is that she wasn't a Pioneer that had to travel thousands of miles...pushing a handcart.
After that we checked into a hotel, got dinner and played at a nearby park. Penny made another friend who was a little bit of drama. He attacked his sister because she said their daddy was in jail *cringe* and then yelled at Penny telling her that she couldn't leave him when it was time for us to go.
Sunday we went back to the park but the other part of it- this part had tons of things to climb and Penny had fun climbing them all. And this time, no drama friends.
Our next stop was to see the World's Largest Nickle. Aren't you jealous?
Then we headed to our main destination of the day, the Amana Colonies. It was an old, really beautiful German village with lots of shops to spend your money in. I bought some of the most amazing caramels and Penny got a chocolate covered pretzel at the Chocolate Haus. At the rock shop they had a pile of rocks in front that Penny could search and keep 1 treasure. She found a sparkly rock and is convinced it's gold. For lunch we ate at the Millstream Brau Haus and Penny and I split a giant pretzel and chicken tenders. For being a touristy place it didn't feel too peopley and I really enjoyed our visit MINUS Penny throwing a fit because I wouldn't buy her something at the toy store that had generic toys you can find anywhere. It was really my mistake because I had said I would buy her something there but I was thinking something special to the area, not a $10 toy car she could buy anywhere. I ended up calming her down by promising to get her something at the Zoo. Man my parenting skills with my youngest are subpar and she is sooooo spoiled.
After lunch we had an almost 4 hour drive to our next hotel. On our way we stopped at a Jesse James Historical Site- the site of the first ever train robbery. Super exciting ;) I had also wanted to stop at this Danish Windmill Giftshop but it closed before we could get there so we just kept going to the hotel.
When we got there Penny did some swimming and we watched some of "Parent Trap" and then it was time to call it a night.
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