ace and megan: last blast

in michigan we have a so-called last blast of the seasons. at least, in my mind we do. summer and winter are the typical culprits. we can normally be well into spring and get another dumping of snow... or worse, a freezing cold super windy rainy icy day. we can also be well into fall and have a really fabulously warm sunny stretch. i'll give you two guesses as to which is my favorite last blast.

this weekend was one of those really nice super sunshiny just the right amount of hot fall days. i had seen the weather report.... which makes me feel old, but whatever.... so i knew this was going to be a fabulous day and this was one of the only weekends that we didn't have a full schedule and nathan wasn't working. the perfect combination for a village day! so i called up gramma.

let me just say, my grandparents are so cool. gramma met us at the village gate and got us in with her pass and got us a ride pass too! gramma has driven over to the village/museum numbers of times to get us in for a fun family day. it's so nice of her to do that. i love her. and i love that we have the chance to give my kids the same kinds of great family memories i had as a kid.

so the weather was perfect, the village wasn't too crowded, and we got to ride everything! connor was desperate to ride the train. but we wanted to walk a little first. i love going through the houses. it's my favorite thing to do there. but when you're with a 3-yr-old the carousel and train are pretty high on the list of must do things. we went to the farm and saw the cows and sheep. and then we went down the back road to the little shops.... tin shop, glass blowing shop. connor actually enjoyed watching some of that. then we stopped for a quick snack and drink break. we plopped down on some nice benches with a perfect view of the carousel. so of course, the next five minutes were filled with non-stop questions about when we would ride the carousel... would we get to do that next?... could he ride the horse?... or maybe the zebra?.... and these questions were only slightly halted when he heard the train whistle and wondered when it would be time to ride the train.

so we walked down to the carousel and i waited for the boys to ride. meg was zonked out or we would have been on there too. after that it was a quick walk to see the church and then lunch down by the steamboat. we took bunches of pictures there b/c it was BEAUTIFUL! they have some nice fall flowers planted and the sky was unbelievable. with lunches safely tucked in our tummies, we headed to the model t ride. that was great too, but the real story of the model t ride is when the ride was over. we had parked the stroller over by the ticket booth along with several others. when we went back to retrieve it a lady came up to me and said, "is that yours?" she was referring to a little cart that was parked behind my stroller. it was one of those that you see old ladies carting down southfield when they walk back from krogers. you know what i mean? those metal tall rectangular carts. anyway, i told her no it wasn't mine. then she asked me again. and i wanted to say, "and now for the hearing impaired.... NO. IT'S NOT MINE." then i realized why she had asked me twice. her little girl's sweater had been lost and they came back to look for it. well, they found it stashed in the metal cart. so she grabbed it and went on her way. this of course, prompted me to check my bag to insure that meg's sweater was still safely stashed in the storage section of my stroller. all was well. but i was shocked at the scene. gramma and i had just said that it was typically a very safe place to leave a stroller while riding one of the rides there. oh, it gets better. but you have to be patient.

so, we rode that and headed to the carousel.... again. after that we wanted to meet the train at the halfway point. we really didn't go in too many houses, b/c our time was so consumed by riding every possible ride. we barely missed the train. i think we were about two minutes late. so i asked the man at the gate when it would be by again..... half an hour. nathan said we could just walk back to the beginning of the village and if we met the train that time we would ride around one time and if not.... hopefully connor would forget. here's a tip.... elephants and kids never forget. connor started asking again. he seemed perfectly content with the idea that we might not get to ride, but we were walking like crazy to make sure we met that train. i mean, seriously, this would be our last trip to the village for the season and we had been able to ride everything else. so how could we not??? i looked at my watch and calculated the rough schedule and i thought, "if we're gonna make it we need to fly!" so nathan plopped connor on the handle bars of the stroller and did his goofy speed walk... yes, i know.... unsafe and goofy looking. but it was worth it! we had enough time to get there AND give connor a potty break.

so here's the rest of the sweater story. while i was waiting for the boys to get back from the bathroom i spotted the little metal cart! i thought there was no way i'd get a peek at the sweater thief, but then this lady reached over and stuck something in the cart. my eyes got shifty and i was wondering if i would get the guts to say anything.... of course, not. so i tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and i imagined the little girls with her must have seen it on the ground and picked it up. still stealing, but not as ugly as taking it out of the other lady's stroller. but that didn't help. i couldn't help but watch where they went and make sure i took everything out of my stroller when we got on the train. it made me a little sad..... crime in the village. that's a shame.

but we really had a great time. what a special day it was to spend with our family.