There. I admitted it. Didn't feel as good as I thought it might. Why, my non-existent readers, would I feel the need to admit to my rampant disorganization? Well, for one thing, I wanted to use this blog as a regular spot to write about my days, my thoughts, feelings, etc, but here I am 3 months after my last post, finally writing again. Sigh. I am, once again, a bad, bad blogger.
Sunday was a very good day. It was, of course, Father's Day. This year, I was struck with a unique idea. About 10 days ago, Laural was talking about wanting to go on a train ride. I remembered something about a sight-seeing train up in the Oil City area that my parents had been on before. So, I looked them up on the web - The Oil Creek & Titusville Rail Road - and saw that they had a Father's Day special and immediately decided that I wanted to take Steve and the kids on that trip. I had to call my mom to find out the name of it and she called later to find out why I wanted to know. I told her about our plans and she told me she had been talking about taking my nephews Christian and R.J. to ride the train. She thought maybe they could go too. I thought that would be nice and then thought that perhaps Grandma & Grandpa would like to go. After thinking about it, Grandpa decided he wanted to go. I was happy about this since many times, he doesn't like to go on trips like this since they could be fairly crowded. I decided to ask Brian if he wanted to go too. He did, so this made us a party of 13.
The weather forcasts leading up to Sunday were pretty dreary but Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous, sunny day. We arrived about an hour before the train was to depart to give us plenty of time to buy our tickets and look around at the mini museum & gift shop at the Perry Street Station. R.j. was quite impatient though. He wanted to get on that train. There were a few things there for kids that kept Laural busy for part of the wait. When we were finally able to board, the kids were quite excited. We found some good seats and waited to get on our way. The kids faces were priceless as the train began to move. Christian looked a little nervous due to the initial jerk the train made. Once we were on our way, though, he was fine. Laural was all smiles and R.J. couldn't wait to get up and explore. It was hard to keep him in his seat. Once we were given the ok, we went out to the open air car. It was so neat to be outside and seeing the sights. The total trip lasted 3 hours as we chugged along Oil Creek to Rynd Farm and then back to Perry Street Station. It was a 27 mile trip with stops at Drake Well Station and Petroleum Centre Station in between. The kids had a blast. the only bad part of the trip was that on the way back, the engine was couple directly to the open air car which means that the train whistle was about 10 feet from us instead of at the other end of the train. The loud whistle was quite disturbing to the kids. Laural started crying by the 3rd whistle, R.J. almost did and Christian was scared by it too. They stayed inside for the remainder of the trip. After the train ride, we decided to go out for dinner at Bonanza in nearby Franklin. It was pretty much the same thing as Ponderosa. Very tasty.
Overall, it was a fantastic day. It was great to be able to spend the day with all the important dads in my life - my husband, my Father and Grandfather. It was also nice to have all of the grandchildren (those who are already born, anyhow) together for the event. I think my Grandpa really enjoyed the trip which is especially meaningful to me since he is getting up there in age and I don't know how many more special holidays we will have with him. Hopefully, a lot, but you never know.
In other news, my friend Lynn got married on Saturday to Dan Moyer. It was a lovely & simple wedding. The reception was quite nie. In leiu of gifts, they requested that everyone bring a pot luck dish to share. There was quite a variety of food there! After the recpetion, we were invited back to Lynn's to toast with some wine that her brother had brought. We had a good time takling and laughing. It was a very nice and full day.
Thursday was mine and Steve's 15th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by dropping the kids off at my Grandparent's for a few hours and going out to dinner and a movie. We went to KFC to finally satiate Steve's craving for fried chicken he's been having for more than a week. Then, we went to see Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian. It was rather cute. It was pretty good for a sequel. The scene with Brandon/Brundon was rather funny. Our date had to be short, though, since Steve had to get a little sleep before heading out to work so we headed back for the kids right after the movie. Though brief, it was quite nice to get out as just the two of us.
Thursday was also a day with a first for us. The Sandy Lake library started it's summer reading program on Thursday morning. Instead of the typical read books, fill out a journal and turn it in for prizes type of program, they have a two hour program each week where the kids have stories, do crafts, sing and other activities. So, for the first time ever, we dropped our daughter off for an activity. It was so tough to leave her there. I know I come off sounding like a paranoid, over-protective mom, but this was the first time I have ever left my daughter anywhere besides with family or a very close friend. Like I said, it was difficult for me, even though I was only about two miles from the church where it is held. In my head swirled a million things that could possibly go wrong. In the end, she was fine, of course, and she loved it. She didn't even notice we were gone. She was very excited to see me coming for her and couldn't wait to tell us everything and ask us what we did while she was there. It turns out she missed us afterall. It was a tad bittersweet overall - my baby is growing up to the point where we have to let go a little here and there.
I think that is all I have to say right now. I had planned on looking for homeschool ideas tonight, but I ended up blogging for the past hour. Oh well, it's supposed to be summer vacation anyhow.
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