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| Dan's Journal for 2009 |
| "NATHANAEL IS BORN" TRIP - 26 DEC 08 - 04 JAN 09 26 Dec 08 - Our trip was to see our newest grandson in South Carolina. For our trip we rented a Dodge Caravan - It's got the stow and go you know. After loading up we finally hit the road around 1100am. The weather for the week was expected to be warm, so we added a stopover at my aunt Ruth's who lives in Tennesse. We've never traveled in December before, and I wasn't sure about driving in the mountains if there would have been snow. We finally arrived at her house around 9 pm - it always takes us longer to get places for some reason. We didn't do much stopping because we left so late. 27 Dec 08 - We stayed at my aunt's until about 1pm. It was good a good visit, and I was able to get some more family history. She's getting on, and hasn't been doing well healthwise, so I'm glad we stopped by. Before we left I took the kids for a walk, and showed them some of the places I used to play when I visited as a kid. Unfortunately/fortunately I wasn't able to find the cave I used to explore with my cousins. I found out later from my aunt that I went to the wrong spot, and then she related some stories about how some other kids got hurt exploring in the cave. The drive through the smokey mountains to Crystal and Jon's was gorgeous. It was a beautiful clear day, and even though the trees were leafless it was still awesome. Especially when you live in flat Illinois. While we were in the mountains, we stopped at a park by the North Carolina border for a little hike. We finally arrived at the Acker's residence around 7pm. We were very excited to see the new baby. He's such a cutie! Before Josiah's bedtime we had a belated christmas time, and exchanged gifts. 28 Dec 08 - Went to church morning and evening. 29 Dec 08 - A beautiful day! High in the 60's. I spent it with my kids and Josiah drawing on the pavement by the house with sidewalk chalk and just playing out in the church parking lot. Ruth helped out with Crystal and the baby. For lunch we went to the Silver Bay restaurant - Nathanael's first time eating out. Later on we went to Walmart to get Melodie the scooter she wanted for Christmas. We also secretly got her a tiara to replace the one she got for Christmas. Sean-Daniel had accidently broke it, and he felt really bad. I let him present it to her when we got back to the house, and she was very happy. As for the scooter. I was a little nervous at first, but after she crashed a few times she started to get the hang of it. Unfortunately, she was not in the sharing mode, so in the spirit of Christamas I took Sean-Daniel to Walmart and let him pick out his own scooter. It was fun watching Sean-Daniel and Melodie scooting around with Josiah following in his electric tractor. 30 Dec 08 - Another beautiful day! We all went to the Greenville Zoo to see our favorite animals - they were all still there. 31 Dec 08 - Today was a littly rainey, so Jon and I took the kids to Monkey Joes. Josiah was so cute climbing the huge slides. He always seemed to tumble head over heels though when he got to the bottom. 01 Jan 09 - Happy New Year!! Not much fanfare. We stayed up till about midnight last night watching movies. Later in the day we went to Reedy River historic park. It finally got cold again, so we stopped off first at Spill the Beans coffee shop before going for a walk. 02 Jan 08 - Me and Ruth and the kids went to a historic art museum that Bob Jones set up. There was a kids section for them to learn about paintings and some basic information on the evolution of painting. 03 - 04 Jan 08 - Heading home the same way we came. This time we stayed with my cousin in Tennessee for the night, but we did stop by aunt Ruth's to say goodby. We got home on the 4th around 9pm. |
