This Summer's MI Recap

      Because I promised a cheerful post to make up for my bitch-fest this morning.

      The MI trip was - as always - amazing.

      After the first marathon driving session (during which I filmed my first ever VLOG that no one commented on because it was boring as hell and completely pointless *pout*), we stopped at a waterpark hotel in Indiana for one last blast before dropping Punky off at the bad place.  Great fun was had by all.

 Punky wasted no time at all making a new boyfriend.  Cripes I am screwed when this kid gets a little older.  The child has been picking up boys left and right since she was 6.

All that fun can be exhausting!  After I took this picture, I sat down in the chair next to them, and I passed out, too  for about 40 minutes.  (Yes, it's a disposable diaper.  The cloth ones are a pain on the road.  We switched right back to cloth when we got to MI, though, because the chemical monstrosities gave Flintstone diaper rash.)

      We dropped Punky off (which will get it's own post - like I said, this post is supposed to be a cheerful one), and continued on to MI.  The first couple days were a little rough becasue Flintstone decided to sprout four new teeth the moment we arrived so we just laid low and relaxed a lot.  After those teefies popped through, though, everything was perfect.

Recovering from the trip.

  

 There was a LOT of swimming in the crick.  Flintstone LOVED it.  He does the most adorable little baby swim the second he gets in the water.  I really need to post a video.  As soon as he's in the water, he paddles with his arms and kicks his legs like mad.  MacGyver calls it the Polywog.  It is super adorable and he love, love, loves doing it.  Little FishBaby. 

 

Flintstone's favorite toy the whole trip was my mom's yellow colander.  He had no end of fun chewing on it, dragging it around the house, and, best of all, putting it on his head (and mine)!

 Sirius also loved the crick.  She looked like a beaver swimming around in the crystal clear water (even though it doesn't look that way in this picture).  And it was highly comical when she'd get caught in the current.

 Flintstone loved his uncle Boo so much that Uncle Boo is going to come stay with us for a while and take care of him!

 There was much imbibing of beer and wine.  MacGyver even built a beer "cooler" in the crick out of rocks.

 These beautiful damselflies were everywhere down by the crick.  I wish there had been a way to capture it, but even video wouldn't do justice to the beauty of it.  The sound of the water gurgling over the rocks; bright green leaves of the thick foliage overhanging the water, creating dancing patches of light and shadow; and all over among the leaves these beautiful, shiny creatures, jeweled shades of blue, turqoise, green, and olive fluttered around on velvety black wings.  It was perfect.  And MacGvyer and I did manage to slip away one day and take full advantage of the romance of it all . . .

 We also went to visit my dad who has moved a couple hours away from my mom.  We played horse shoes and a whole lot of Outburst, and let me tell you, the version of Outburst from 1988 is a heck of a lot harder! 

      Another big development on this trip:  Flinstone started walking!  Now, he's been able to take a few steps here and there for a couple of months now, but we all know that's not really walking, and I really thought he was going to wait a while before he started really toddling because he seemed so content to just crawl, but after only a day or two at Nan's house, the kid was off like a shot, walking everywhere.  Probably because there was so much new fun and exciting things to get into and do.  Like eating the dirt out of the potted plants.

      He is my big walking man.  Who I've recently started calling MonChiChi, for whatever reason.

      I expect to do one or two more posts about the trip - about Punky's adventures and so on, but for now, that's it.  Back to the grind - and let me tell you, an amazing trip home like that makes the day to day crap here seem a whole lot less pleasant.  I am very seriously looking at the "next step" right now.