August 2, 2007--Sarah's birthday at Spring Mill

Yesterday was Sarah's eighth birthday. We took her to Spring Mill State Park for a day. We had been wanting to have a nice day trip for awhile, and it was a perfect opportunity. We also took along my littlest sister and also one of Erick's adult sisters to help out with the kids. We hiked to one of the caves, visited the pioneer villiage, went to the nature center, and went swimming in the pool. It's such a nice park and it has so much to do. The kids loved the pool--it was the first time we took all of them to a pool at once. That's why we took along Erick's sister. It wasn't nearly as scary as I had imagined, either! The older ones can't swim well, but well enough to have fun. The littler ones played in the kiddie pool. It was a blast. On the way home we stopped at Wal-Mart and Sarah got to pick out a new bike! Her old one was too small for her and she's been wanting a new one for quite some time. We also went to Dairy Queen and got ice cream for everyone. When we got home, I was climbing up on top of the van to get down the bike when I happened to look over and see that our dog was inside the chicken pen! I yelled, "Pippen's eating the chickens!" and Erick and the kids rushed over to the rescue. Actually, he hadn't eaten them at all. He hadn't even hurt them. He'd scared them badly, though--he had them in a corner if they moved he'd chase them back. They were dirty and scared, but they were okay. Poor little things!