Back to Reality

This picture was taken exactly a week ago at Daphne's Great Country Farms field trip. It seems like months ago. Immediately after the field trip, my mom, Daphne and I took off on our road trip to Indiana. We arrived in Beckley, West Virginia in time for dinner, stayed in a hotel overnight, and drove the rest of the way the next day. Thus began my quest to check off everything on my Indiana list, which, in spite of two solid days of miserable rain and my mom (and primary babysitter) having a bad cold, I somehow managed to do. I got my fried biscuits with apple butter (below) from Huber's, chicken and dumplings and an apple dumpling from the Harvest Homecoming booths, made multiple trips to the Zesto, got my Pizza King fix, and got a pedicure (thanks Kathy!).

Plus, there were the added bonuses of a night out with my cousin Jeremy and his wife Paula with a stop at this cool brewhouse:

And a Rock Band party with just about the WHOLE extended family, which was big fun:

As you may be able to see from the picture, Daphne was absolutely in awe of Rock Band. She studied my cousins very seriously, tried out the Wii guitar and drums, then went upstairs, found a Hannah Montana guitar and microphone, and proceeded to go into a closet to practice alone until she felt comfortable enough to re-join the game, this time on vocals. My cousin's wife happened to have an extra one of these Hannah Montana guitars still in the box (her daughter got THREE for Christmas), so she generously gave it to Daphne, who has been playing it non-stop and practicing her rock moves. The best part is that she REALLY wants to get Rock Band now and even begged her daddy for it on the phone. Keep it up, little Peanut!

AND I got to go see a movie with the wives. (Whip It is really very good! And it was filmed in Austin which makes it even cooler).

Overall, it was a good trip, but I think we were all ready when it was time to head back home. The drive on I-64 through West Virginia and western Virginia was beautiful, and at times even spectacular. We were in the mountains for about 75-80% of the trip, and the fall foliage was near peak. I recommend travelling this route if you can sometime. (Here is a tip, though: In spite of the extremely promising name, you just want to avoid Biscuit World. Trust me.)

Kevin welcomed us home last night with a big "Welcome Home" banner, a nice home-cooked dinner, and surprises for me and Daphne. I want to take pictures, but my camera's batteries are charging. Stay tuned.

The class field trip, which seems so very very long ago, was really fun. The kids got to take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick their own, they got to feed farm animals, and play on cool things like giant inflatable jumping pillows and tube slides and Tire Mountain. There are pictures of all this on flickr for those who want to see. Virginia is a good place to be in the fall. It is seriously time to plan my first pie.

So, thanks to everyone in Indiana for hosting us and putting up with us. It was great to see ALL of you, and I hope none of you get my mom's cold. (Special shout out to Aunt Mary because she is probably the biggest fan of this blog. See you Thanksgiving!) I will be back in April, so get ready. If Daphne and I are successful at getting our own Rock Band by then, we'll bring instruments and the Beatles one. In the meantime, someone PLEASE teach Jakob another song. If I never hear "Eye of the Tiger" again, it will be too soon.