About 3 weeks ago I left St. Louis with the kids and headed to the Rochester NY area to begin a long summer extravaganza! The drive was good with the kids until we hit about 65 mph. At that speed my steering wheel began shaking like it had consumed a wee bit too much coffee. I instantly knew my tires were off balance, panicked, called Scott, googled Firestone and arranged an "appointment" in Terre Haute, IN to get things all fixed up. This leads me to the picture below. The Square Donut- yes it is in Terre Haute! And we were there. And we were at Burger King and the Clabber Girl museum and we were at Firestone. For 2 hours.
I figure you really get more donut with a square donut, so I am all for it.
Back on the road we go with a much steadier steering wheel. They were in fact out of balance. I am not sure why that happens to me so much?! I have my theories, but I will not share them here. I do not think it is a symbol of me having an unbalanced life or anything! We stayed in Columbus and hit the repeat button for day 2 minus the Firestone stop. We arrived in NY in time for dinner and spent Thursday there hanging out with some cousins and getting all the girls' camp stuff together.
Friday morning I left Rochester and flew to Denver-exciting I know! I need continuing ed for my physical therapy license and there was a
RRCA running coach certification class that I wanted to take. It was super intense. Good, but so intense I was in bed both nights by 8 pm. However, Friday night I got to catch up with my old neighbor and newly-wedded, Sarah.
Here she is with her new hubby Jeremy. They are cute and happy and I love that for them! They have a great house in a nice part of Denver and are enjoying all Denver has to offer. We had a yummy dinner together and a lot of chat time. My kids love Sarah and we miss her.
Once back in NY I was introduced to the frog pond. The frog pond is a stagnant pond full of algae, frogs and turtles. Sam and Brendan loved this pond. Me...not so much.
Early the first week Scott's parents took the boys (Sam and Brendan) camping at Watkins Glen along with Sue and Kristina. They did not even ask me to go! Can you believe it?! I think they know camping is really not my thing. However, sewing might be becoming more my thing because I had 2 full days to work on stuff and I loved that.
In celebration of the 4
th of July we attended 2 parades. I have not been to a parade since I was a senior in high school. There was a lot of candy and the volunteer fire departments have bands. Those were my only 2 observations. Completely unrelated. Fun though!
My kids loved the parades. Here are my girls with the clown. Bet you can guess who really loves the clown?!
From Sunday-Friday my girls went to covenant acres camp with their cousins. Here they are at the drop off just outside their cabin. They had a great time and seemed to get by just fine. We could not call them, only email.
Aunt Sue always finds unique things that kids love. This year it was GIANT size marshmallows. They made your average
smore look like a cheese-it! These required double graham crackers and still squeezed out the edge. I (usually in control of my sweet tooth) could not resist and neither could Jillian.
4
th of July fireworks were great!
Haley liked them
Maddie did not like them
And then it all had to come to an end. We had to pack it up and hit the road back to St. Louis. We had a great time. Here we are after we cleaned off all the marshmallow!
Emma and Sam were more into the pyro events of the early evening. We had to leave before it was quite dark enough for the full enjoyment of all the fireworks, but we did get some sparklers for the road! Even though my kids do not have first cousins on my side of the family these 2nd and 3rd cousins are great for them. Everyone gets along and can barely remember names from the year before, but in no time they are giggling and playing a game of baseball. 
Donnie had a new addition of an ATV this year. Emma loved riding on the back of it. I just tried not to look as there were no helmets used! 
