A Super Sunday

It was a busy Sunday here at the Dutton Household. Archie and I visited the church down the street from us this morning. We went to the earlier service which I enjoyed a little more than the Contemporary Service we went to last week. The music was lovely and I really liked the choice of hymns. Also the people were older, on average. I don' t know why, but I really enjoy the company of my elders. And I think they like me as well. There were a bunch of kids there as well, so Archie had a nice time too. I met my neighbour across the street and I really liked her. I might have to get up the courage to bring a nice dessert over and visit. She is a very vibrant person. Archie liked the donuts and juice after church. Then we walked home.

Phillip was working on our garden wall that we had to take down to get our stuff down the driveway when we moved in. We are replacing the wall, but moving it slightly, in order to get the vehicles in and out more easily. I cut the grass, edged, weedeated (or weedate, possibly?) and used the blower.

A few days ago we noticed that a couple of houses for sale on our street were having open houses today. So out of curiosity, we wanted to go and check them out. It was very interesting. There's one around the corner, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, but is 2200 sq feet (much larger than ours) that the people were asking $250,000! Unbelievable!! And it didn't even have air conditioning! It was nice, but not anywhere near that nice! The other one we saw was okay and priced much more modestly (much, much more) but wasn't that great either. We obviously got the best house on the street!

After we returned, my Uncle Chris called to see if we wanted to picnic at the Miami Whitewater Park this evening. You know...hotdogs on the grill and some beanies from the can...nothing fancy. So we went. My Uncle Chris reminded me so much of my Granny today, packing up for the picnic. He was slicing celery and carrots and had a bunch of grocery bags on the counter when we got there. I teased him about whether he made potato salad and packed the olives. It made me smile to see that characteristic of hers passed on!

We made it to the park (prolly about 15 minutes from the house). Wow! What a great park! It reminded me a lot of Hocking Hills (to the north and east of Cincy) without the large rocks. We found a great picnic site kind of up in the woods away from the street. Here's a shot of Archie and Phillip enjoying our Granny-style picnic:

Then we had marshmallows for dessert. We were going to roast them over the coals, but the coals had gotten too cool for those in the "I like mine black as coal" camp. So the fire was stoked and we were really smokin now! Here's Elisabeth and Archie trying to rid our site of all the smoke.

Ahhhhh....now the marshmallows are toasting up nicely...

Until....Morgan dropped her marshmallow on the ground! No that's not a blackened rock...It's a blackened, burnt crisp marshmallow!
And of course...guess who stepped in it. I now have a marshmallow-y wad of dirt on the bottom of my shoe. And it's still there!

All the excitement made Phillip tired. Why do I always catch him sleeping at family functions?

After we cleaned up our stuff, Chris showed us the playground area where the park office is. There's a nice lake where you can rent paddle boats (but apparently not today) and a sprayground for the kids. There were some swing sets, so some of us decided to have a bit of a swing while we were there. Even Aunt Sue got in on the swing action!

Wait a minute...Is that...In the above picture...Could it be??? A smile? Having Fun? YES! Morgan actually appears to be enjoying herself with her family. In Cincinnati, no less! I guess miracles really can happen!!

After we got done, we checked out the campground scouting tent sites for a future family camping event. The sites were just great! Nice and wooded, shady campsites which were mostly isolated from others. The RV sites were really nice also (in case Mom and Dad might be tempted). There's apparently tons of hiking trails through the woods and hills, bike trails, horse trails, plus the playground and water accessibility. We will definitely have to plan a camp out when the cooler weather comes--around the beginning or middle of September. Are you jealous much, southerners???

Here's a nice sunset picture over the lake. A beautiful end to a very fulfilling day.