Next up, Didi and Papa!

On the 4th of September, Deb and Tom flew into Indy and then drove a deluxe minivan up here to the Fort for an almost weeklong (yet still too short) visit. We made blts and relaxed the first night, but the boys were gearing up for the first of their 2 scheduled golf games! Ava had school, her first full day, on Wednesday, and she was so excited that Didi was there to go with her! So Wednesday a.m. the boys took off bright and early, and Didi, James and I took the little Miss to school. She said she felt a little nervous, as there was only one of the same kids in her class from last year. But we talked about it on the way there, and I think all her fears were gone because there was not one look back from her once she got into her classroom! And there was a positive report when we picked her up a couple of hours later. We had a nice dinner that night, and got the kids bathed and in bed. The next day, Dad took Ava and picked her up, and while the kids were napping, Didi and I took off for a little adventure. We went to Concordia thrift shop, where we each found something we NEEDED. (she really needed her cd holder, my book? not so much, but it will come in handy! It's a how-to bhg sewing book, pretty great!) Then we were off to the library to pick up a cd they had on hold for me and get a book of recipes for the bread machine. Of course there was coffee to be had, and then we were off to yet another bookstore, where she found a couple of treasures. I was scouring the cookbook aisles, but found nothing I couldn't live without. After that we were off to the co-op to pick up the weekly csa bounty. There were beautiful beets, lots of tomatoes, still mores squash, mysteriously disappearing kale (seriously I was going to make it last night and it is NOT in the fridge, weird!) peppers, broccoli, etcetcetc. All yumminess. All this took longer than expected (hellooo, we were in the BOOKSTORE!) and an awesome PJ had dinner started when we got home. Salad was prepared, and potatoes were in the microwave (to be finished on the grill with the steaks) and beers were opened and dinner was awesome! And there were brownies for dessert, but they took a backseat to the Red Vines that were brought all the way from Costco!
Friday the boys were scheduled to golf again, but the weather looked iffy. We took off anyway in the minivan and headed toward Amish country, for a few stops (few because we had both kids) and then off to the Elkhart Farmers Market. More on both later... Saturday we went to Syracuse to see lakehouse country, and Sunday was church, zoo, Bob Evans, and Baskin Robbins! Monday they had to go back, but not before we went to get Master James some new kicks. He walks great in them, and they are fun! There were many tears shed as Didi and Papa drove away, but we all were grateful they were able to come!