As with most little (and big) towns, its County Fair time. I haven’t gone down there for a few years now, but I did attend the parade. Note to self: stay away from parades during a political year. The parade seemed to go on for-ev-er. But, I wanted to be there to see our VBS promotion, plus Ethan’s cousin (David’s nephew) had 2 cars he run in the demo derby, so he was in the parade as well. The only problem with being there (the parade) was the temp. 100 degree. At least we were able to sit in the shade, but it was hot nonetheless. David and Ethan attended the demo derby (and took pictures for me). The derby is so not my cup of tea. Too loud. And watching cars crash into each other is not my idea of having a good time. So, we have deemed it a “Father/Son Night” and they go together. Well, usually. They didn’t this year because the derby started at 6:00, and Ethan had to work until 7:00. But David had already bought him a ticket, and Ethan called him when he got off work. The fair ends tonight.

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My son, Jason, and his step-son, Christian, have been taking Karate classes together.  Christian tested and received his Green Belt a few weeks ago, and Jason tested and received his Green Belt tonight.  They both look pretty impressive doing their moves.

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Liam turns 9 on July 29, but we celebrated on the 27th. We were there, Jackie and her boyfriend were there, as well as Becky and Alex. Most of his gifts centered around the Game Boy Advance he got, but Becky got him a really cool robot, that was fun to watch and operate. After eating cake and opening gifts, we played a couple of games, which was interesting to say the lease. One of them was a game where you answered the question “Would you rather ….” and then you were given 2 answers. The other team had to quietly guess among themselves which one you would chose. It got funny because David got a question about “being married to” — and would you rather …. Seeing how his EX-wife and his WIFE was in the same room … he defaulted to another question. Smart man. I think the question was something about would he rather have a wife with no sense of humor, or one that was always pulling pranks and never being serious. He probably made the right decision passing on it. [grin].

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We were away from home all weekend.  Granted, we were only 3 miles from town, but still.  Its nice to be able to enjoy what camping has to offer and yet, be able to run into town and pick up stuff if we need to, run home for whatever we forgot.  We stayed out Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night.  David’s mom and dad, in their motorhome, stayed out there Friday night and Saturday night.  Ethan left for camp yesterday afternoon.  Its going to be a very quiet week.

I know I’m tired today, but thats because I didn’t sleep very good last night.  Not sure why.  I know why I didn’t the first night.   We have an air mattress on this hard hard mattress that came with the camper.  For the life of me, it took me until 2:30 in the morning, to figure out how to get on my left side to sleep.  I know I’m the epitome of a beach whale … but getting on your left side shouldn’t be that big of deal.  But, it was.  I finally figured it out.  Its the way you get into bed … not after you are in bed.  Once I figured that out, and was on my left side, I settled down and slept the rest of the night.  Saturday night, I went right to sleep and slept all night.  So, why sleep aluded me last night, was beyond me.  I was comfortable in the sleeping positions I was in (each and every one of them).  The room temp was good.  Maybe even a bit chilly, because we had a fan blowing.  But David was snuggled around me, and that was a comfortable feeling.  I just couldn’t sleep.   I got up around 1:30, went to the bathroom, and finally, I would say around 2:30, I finally found my sleep mode, and morning came waaaay to early.  A work day, so no sleeping in.     We really like the spot we were in, and the one across from us is a good one too.  I told David we need to reserve them now for Labor Day Weekend.    Otherwise, we’ll either get crappy spots. or none at all.   I know they were filled up over the 4th of July.  And it just seems like Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends are “all family camping” weekends.  Usually, there is us, David’s mom & dad, David’s brother and his wife, David’s other brother and his wife, and our two girls.   Everyone has campers except for the girls, and they set up tents in our area.  So, again, we need to reserve what we want now, so where the girls can/will set up the tents won’t be an issue.  The spot we have picked out has a nice big area that would be perfect for setting up tents.  And right across the road is the playground.     For once, we really do need to play ahead and get this done right.

Here’s some pictures from this weekend.  David has this big remote control truck, and the gears got stripped in it this weekend.  So, the “guys” are tearing it apart to see if it can be fixed.  The motorhome is David’s mom and dad’s.   Ours is the 5th wheel.   More pictures of the weekend can be found at SNAPSHOTS (navigation bar just under the banner picture)

We had an enjoyable evening in Topeka with David’s daughers and their families. The weather was perfect. After eating hot dogs and such, we then had homemade ice cream, and I could help but feel a tinge of being cold. How can you be cold on the 4th of July? But as we were driving home, I noticed the temp in my Explorer, and it said the outside temperature was 67. As you can see, we were sitting around a firepit, so that helped keep the chill at bay.

We live in a quiet neighbor in a small town. We hear fireworks go off here and there. In Topeka last night, there were times we couldn’t hear each other talk, and it wasn’t OUR kid’s fireworks that caused that. Fireworks all around. Very pretty. Very noisy. When it got dark, we headed a few blocks away to a grocery store parking lot (where lots of other people had the same idea), and watched the city fireworks that were shot off at Shawnee Lake. I captured some of it on video that I will post one clip of here, but the rest of them will be in the “cinema” section of this blog. It was a nice evening, just a late night. The city fireworks didn’t start until 10:00. They were done by 10:30, but it probably took us another 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot and through the first stop light (there were cops directing traffic, and it took him forever to let our lane go). It was a little after midnight before we got home. Still, watching the fireworks from that distance was so much more enjoyable that right over our heads. I’m glad we went, and I can see us going again next year.