On Thursday Chris made it home from Chicago and I kept waiting for him to come over to the office when he arrived "home". I worked away until I couldn't stand it anymore and called (I was sure he would've been home and since he hadn't called, I was afraid of: a. if their would be an answer on his phone or b. who would be answering his phone). He was home and said he had to run into Rochester on his way home for a couple things. Well, when I got home, I found this bouquet on the island with a super nice card!

I can't remember the last time I received flowers! He couldn't find a vase (duh, I'd gotten rid of them because they were never used) and ended up using the one I had decorating the spare bedroom which was from when I sold Home Maker's Idea Co. I don't think you were supposed to put water in it, but it didn't leak and looked okay. Today when we got home from camping, I had thought of what I could use for the flowers, so I rearranged them, but they were still as pretty when Chris set them up.

Last Friday was the last day of our "busy week". The boys don't have any swimming lessons to make up because the rain/storms always ended before their time everyday! They will really miss Tony and his upbeat attitude :~) They were all ready to spend their college money on swimming lessons!

Right after lessons (well, I did sneak in one garage sale), we headed out to go camping with my mom & dad. We were headed to Hidden Valley in Welch where we had never been before. We made it all the way to Pine Island before we had to stop for ice cream (all of about 30 miles!). It was a good day to stop because their burgers were $1.39, 6 pc. corn dog nuggets were $.99 and their root beer floats were FREE! Chris got a root beer float without the root beer :~) Brayton wanted a hot fudge sundae and they gave that to him for free too! We ate burgers and corn dogs, drank floats, ate ice cream and were happy! :~)

I swore I had read on Hidden Valley's website that they had a pool, but when you look at a bunch of campgrounds, their amenities get mixed up. . . We paid the fee of $35 per night and made it down and around to the campground (the "office" was an old house and isn't right next to the campers, for a good reason, I believe. . .). This is the first one we've been to that tells you to just find a place that's open and park. We made our way through the wash-outs from the recent rains and found 2 spots together, but they were very uneven and one had a pile of dirt in the middle of it. . . After speaking to an adjacent camper, she said these were the only 2 together on that side of the campground and there may be one more site farther down the row. Well, we didn't want to go farther down the row, so we decided to go with our plan B and that was to camp at Treasure Island (casino in Red Wing). We got our money back and Mom called T.I. when we finally had reception and got us a couple sites there. This was actually more convenient for mom & dad because they were going to see Louie Anderson there on Saturday night. It was convenient for us because they allow the campers to use the exercise facilities and pool at the casino just like the hotel guests! AND, the rate? $20 per night and they gave us $10 to put on a players card at the casino (which Chris lost, but it was father's day so we couldn't be too upset he didn't come back with the $2 million he was planning on winning)! Saturday morning mom and I went garage saling and Chris and Bray went swimming at the hotel and had the whole pool to themselves! Taite said he didn't want to go because he didn't feel like it (Chris and I both thought he didn't feel good, so we didn't push it). Come to find out, later, he didn't want to go because he thought there were going to be a lot of people there. . . Well, he missed out on that, but in the afternoon, we went to the lock and dam that is just outside the reservation that the campground/casino are on. That was interesting because one of the employees answered our questions and hung out a little bit to chat. When we got back to the campers, it was really hot out, so we packed a little cooler and took the boys to the pool. They swam together with one other woman who was very understanding about their cannonballing into the pool (even after I told them not to do it when she was on the deep end of the pool, but you know kids!) and they pretty much had the pool to themselves until the beer was gone (dad packed the beverages in the cooler for him and mom and he packed 4 beers and 2 Cokes ~ guess who he thought was going to drink the Coke??? -- didn't happen LOL) which was about an hour and the boys were good and tired. During our supper making, the boys were entertaining themselves outside with playing catch and Brayton created a build and destroy (some show from Dish) type thing with the empty cans laying around. . .

He also made a little obstacle course for the remote control car to drive between, but I think that was a little too difficult :~)

Here is one of Brayton's injuries from the weekend. He was trying to get out of the shower in the camper and was standing on the bottom of the door when he fell in the shower! This is the bruise on the bottom of his foot. The other incident was on his fingernail and not as photogenic. A friend of mine had a posting on Facebook that they go camping with their little baby and that got me thinking how it's not bad camping with kids until they start to walk ~ I think that one weekend when Brayton was about 1 1/2, he fell out of the camper 2-3 times the same weekend and looked like he'd gotten beat up something terrible!!