Labor Day with the family was great, too. All of us kids were there, for the first time in about a year and a half at least. Some of Erick's family came to visit, too. I got to meet Erick's brother's new wife that he eloped with a couple of months ago. He was the ring bearer at our wedding. It seems unbelievable that he could be old enough to have a wife now! She seems really sweet.
We all set up instruments outside and played music on the front porch pretty much all afternoon. We had to take turns since there weren't enough instruments to go around. It was my idea to put them on the porch, and it was a brilliant idea if I do say so myself.
That way those inside
didn't have to hear it, at least not as loud as they would have had to hear it
if it were in the house. Later on, after a family picture of just the eight kids and Mom and Dad, which I'll try and post later if I remember, Erick and I left for a hotel we had reserved in Fort Wayne. We found a real bargain on a jacuzzi suite. It was the first time I'd ever been in one, and I really loved it. I'm trying to talk Erick into getting one, but I don't think I'm having too much luck so far.
Tuesday we went to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. I think we were the only ones there without any preschoolers. We rode the sky ride, fed lettuce to the giraffes, and even rode on the little train. Erick barely squeezed into the seat. I really enjoyed it. I think my favorite animals were the orangutans.
Then we drove up the Gene Stratton Porter home on Lake Sylvian and walked around the gardens. After that we went to Hartford City. The Assemblies of God has a cabin that they have for credentialed ministries and their families to use free of charge and we'd reserved that for a night. It was really nice! It had a kitchen, three bedrooms, leather couches, and a gorgeous prayer room. It was right there on the lake with a beautiful view from the deck. The only downside was that the Internet was down, so I couldn't get on Facebook. We went on a walk around the campground. It was pretty empty that day. Erick took me out to the Ranger campground, which had been empty since early August. The grass was all grown up back there. As we were walking back by the woods, I heard a little pop, almost like one of those pop-its they sell for the 4th of July, right by my foot. A second later I heard a gunshot coming from a nearby house. At first I didn't really realize what was going on, until it happened again. Someone was shooting towards us! I don't know if they were shooting at targets or just into the bank (the house was down the hill) but obviously they couldn't see us back there. We started walking quickly and got out of there. That was a little scary.
When we got back to the lake, we took out a paddle boat. I had never done that before and it was a lot of fun. A spider crawled over the top towards me, while we were in the middle of the lake. Erick tried to flick it off and ended up flicking into my side. I was practically crawling up the the seat of the boat, trying to avoid the spider. Erick was trying to get me to sit back down, so I didn't tip it over. It was kind of funny.
The next day we went to the Limberlost State Historical Site and toured Gene Stratton Porter's other home in Geneva. Then we went to see the Loblolloy Marsh preserve, which was in the process of restoration. Then we went back and picked up the kids and went home. It was fun running away together, but being the good, responsible people we are, we figured we'd better come back.
We do want to do it again
sometime, though, and not wait another fourteen years to do so.
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