Every Young Boy's Dream

We went to Shipshewana with Jer's parents today - they needed to get some church mints.

You read that right. I think that was just an excuse, they really love to go and visit the Amish and soak up the countryside and see the "horse doughnuts" littering the sides of the road.

We started the day with breakfast with Aunt Sue, mom & dad, Ken & Sue, Lindsey, and Drew at Russ' Southtown (a summer holiday tradition in the their family). Then we let the dog out for one last potty break and headed South. We started our Shipshewana adventure at - where else? - the flea market. Mom wanted to find a blanket for Drew for Christmas and some purses for the granddaughters. Jer and I wandered on our own but did not find anything to buy despite trying on a bunch of designer imposter sunglasses and looking at fake designer purses.

Then we were on to lunch at the Daily Bread diner on top of the Davis Mercantile building. I tried a grilled PB&J sandwich and it was pretty good. Mom ate a "crouton" off from dad's chicken salad and thought it tasted a lot like meat :)

Then we went to E & S Sales for the aforementioned church mints and we got some apples. Then we went for a drive through the countryside and actually saw a horse pulling a buggy pulling a boat. We think they were going fishing on an inland lake, but it was just really funny to see. We also saw some miniature horses and lots of clothes hanging on the line. Mom was amazed that they even hung their underwear on the line for us to gawk at :) Lastly we stopped for some ice cream on the way home.

Red Sox Game!

We finally made it to a live game! On Sunday we drove to Chicago to see the Red Sox play the White Sox. It was a fun time, too bad Boston lost! Our seats were in the upper deck, but we were right behind home plate, so we had a great view!

We could even see into the dugout sort of - here is a picture of Crisp, Youkilis, and Ortiz:

Here is Jer's favorite player up to bat - Jacoby Ellsbury:

And here is my favorite player up to bat - Dustin Pedroia:

All in all we had a great time!

We even had a great view of Chicago's skyline as we left the ballpark:

Our Little Escape Artist

Molly's "escape"ades:
At our old house, we tied her out on a stake that screws into the ground. She loved running in circles. Eventually the rope part would get stuck and her circular jogs would unscrew the stake and she would be free to roam with a 20 foot tie out trailing behind her. We found her stuck in a neighbor's bushes that morning. Another time, the hook part of the tie out failed and she was loose without any rope trailing her to get her stuck. We found her a couple of blocks away barking a squirrel up a tree. Another time she was so excited by a dog walking by that she shattered the plastic clip that held her collar together and chased it down the street. Luckily our neighbor saw it happen and talked her into following her back to our house...we could have lost her for good that time - she was not even wearing a collar since she broke it! Last night a neighbor rang our doorbell and returned our dog with half of her tie out - she had broken it in half! So now I need to go out and buy a new super-duty tie out after work...we will see how long it takes before she is off again.