Our first day of school (sort of!)

Okay, maybe it wasn't the official start of school.... but it was close enough!

Now I've mentioned before that Mommy is a political junkie, and I mean that. She was reading Twitter yesterday morning and ramdomly said "Hey! Mitt Romney is going to be in downtown Greenville today! Why don't we go see him??" Now, I must admit that I am also very curious about politics, so I said sure (and the boys didn't have a choice)! We packed up snacks, a stroller, extra clothes for Johnny-Boy to play in the fountain (unlike last time), and our homemade "Romney for President" sign.

We got in the van and drove through downtown. There were SO MANY CARS!!!!!! And it wasn't even near lunch time. When we FINALLY parked and walked all the way up to Soby's, we were hot, hungry, and thirsty (we parked all the way down by the Swamp Rabbit Trail). We ate a snack of crackers, and observed people.

Johnny-Boy's favorite part! He LOVES buses!

The Secret Service Agents and policemen!!

Greenville News reporters - Note the multiple cameras! :)

And of course all of the TV reporters and camera men!

We held our Mitt Romney sign up, hoping to get noticed. And we did get noticed. People started looking and pointing at us. It was so weird! After people started to spot us, reporters came over with their phones and cameras and took pictures of us and our sign!

And then it got better! Stephanie Trotter (WYFF News 4 reporter) asked if I would like to be interviewed after Romney showed up. I said sure.... not exactly knowing what to expect. Finally, after waiting a very long time, Mitt Romney arrived and waved and gave a thumbs up. That's it. All he did was wave - then he went inside where we couldn't see him. After he ate lunch, and by that I mean give a speech and shake hands, he flew of some other fund-raiser. 

The people who got to eat lunch with Romney had to pay $25,000 for a sandwich, salad, and fruit. That has got to be the lamest lunch ever (especially for $25,000). 

No, I did not take this picture. I found it on Google!

Romney went into the restaurant and then I got to get interviewed! It was really easy, all I had to do was say what grade I was in, how old I was, what I thought about Romney, what I thought about his wave, and my news-worthy line "Romney looks like a good grandpa, and if he's a good grandpa, then he'll make a good president!"

A picture of us that was on Twitter!

Watching all the commotion was great fun, but after standing in the sun for an hour and a half, we got to go in the fountain!!!! It felt so good!

I got soaking wet! It was awesome! We walked out to the van (a long ways) and got semi-dried off. We were STARVING!!!!!!!! All we had was a box of Angry Birds Cheese Nips. We ate them and ate them and ate them until we were sick of them. And even then, we were still hungry. (It takes a lot to fill this family!) So we went home and ate lunch. 

Later  we watched the 6:00 news and sure enough, there I was - live and in person on real television! (Clearly - I am a celebrity!)

Our Strange Day....

You wouldn't believe how weird our morning Friday was. It all started with my brothers being really loud at 7:30am (I can't STAND 7:30 - I am NOT a morning person). I've been trying to sleep as much a possible before school and co-op start!  I went in their room half asleep and told them to be quiet. But then...I couldn't fall back asleep so I gave up on sleeping and started reading.started reading my book. About 8:30ish Mommy called up the stairs to see if I was awake. She said to hurry - that we were going to run some errands and that I should get dressed and comb my hair. I got dressed and went down stairs looking for my hairbrush (Oh where, is my hairbrush....). All she would tell us was that there would be breakfast where we were going and that we should bring our money. It was driving me CRAZY!!! As some of my cousins may know, I hate not knowing things. It turned out that we went to Krispy Kreme! I love Krispy Kreme! Sweet doughtnutty goodness that melts in your mouth. Mmmmmmmm!!  Plus the boys love standing at the window, watching donuts going by on the conveyor belt.

After all that, we headed to downtown Greenville and  Falls Park. We wanted to see the waterfall after the
downpour of rain the night before. I have never seen the Reedy river that full!

I wouldn't like to fall in there!

While we were walking down the hill towards the falls, the first weird thing happened.  E-man tripped, and did a complete  - Olympic-worthy somersault - and landed with a CRASH, skidding his head into a stone wall.  We felt so badly that he had gotten hurt - but it looked really funny and we had to try hard not to burst out laughing.

Johnny-Boy was mesmerized by the water drain!

He has eyes, a nose, and a mouth!

 

Sorry the pic is so blurry, It's hard to crop pics from  Mommy's phone

After the falls, we headed to the train fountain because "One does not simply go to downtown Greenville without stopping at the train fountain." Johnny-Boy loved chasing the water shooing out of the fountain and of course managed. We had planned to go to Toys R Us to look at legos (oh the beauty of the LOTR legos!) so we dried Johnny-Boy's shirt and pants off on the air conditioning vents in the van. In the front of our van we have 3 air conditioning vents in the middle and one on each side. The pants were drying on the middle and the shirt by Mommy's window. We turned on the heater so the clothes would dry faster. It got really hot in the van so Mommy had the brilliant idea to open the window. As soon as she opened the window, Johnny-Boy's favorite Elmo t-shirt flew out the window onto 385 in busy, lunchtime traffic. :) At the time, it was terrible, but looking back, all I can so is laugh!  How often do you see an Elmo shirt flying down highway? We stopped at Babies R Us to get a new shirt (on sale, on clearance).

After much struggle, we finally arrived at Toys R Us. We immediately dashed for the Legos aisle. I stood in awe at the beautiful Lord of the Rings legos. All I could do is stare. They were so beautiful. The Battle of Helm's Deep is as glorious as I imagined it. :D (Yes, I had seen LOTR legos before, but only Shelob Attacks and the Orc Forge.) We are exactly five dollars short of The Mines of Moria. (Donate to the Cause!!)

The boys liked playing with the trains (notice Johnny-Boy's new shirt)

MY HOBBIT IS RUINED!!!!!!!!

BEFORE:

AFTER: 

Look at him!!!! HE'S UNHOBBITATIZED!!!!! It's terrible!!!!!!

(He got a haircut)

Other things we did in Ohio

1. We went miniature golfing. Mr. D wanted to go miniature golfing every day! He LOVED it. He really extra loved it because the first time we went he got a hole in one AND shot his ball just right at the end to win a free game. I guess he's a natural. 
2. We had ice cream at a really yummy ice cream place where they served SMALL cones that the ice cream part was 6 inches high! (but don't worry, I still love Trailside Creamery more!) Our plan was to see how many times we could go out for ice cream in our two weeks of Ohio vacation.  I know we did at least 7 times - maybe more. 
3. We went to the Cleveland Zoo with all ten grandkids aged 11 and under plus one extra kid. We watched an elephant crossing (which is where elephants walk where humans just walked), saw a falcon fly right over out heads, and slid down a snake slide! The zoo was really huge and it had a really cool rain forest part. Next year I want to go to Lake Erie, but that's even farther than the zoo.... I can still hope though!
4. I went to Rosedale Choral camp which was really fun! I learned 3 valuable lessons while I was there, 1. DON'T EAT SHAVING CREAM!!!!, 2. Be grateful for air conditioning, and 3. being surrounded by corn fields as far as the eye can see is not good for the mind. Camp was great - some of the highlights were the carnival (which had chickens), The Big Show, the shaving cream fight, the sponge fight, the Super Games, The art room, getting stranded on the hay ride, CLAP class, the awesome councilors, playing the glockenspiel,  the potato candy, the Irish dancing.... I think that might be all. :)

Some of the endless corn fields....

One of my room mates eating her ice pack

The hayride

The flat tire

Us being left behind and stranded. 

5. Ummm.... I'm sure there is a 5..... hmmm..... I'll think of one eventually....