Vacation: Part 1

This past weekend we went camping for the first time with Back Seat Baby (I feel we should be calling her Back Seat Girl since we know we’re having a Back Seat Boy, I’ll have to discuss with Driver). Anyway, we were a bit nervous since camping is something we really enjoy, so we were hoping that she would have fun, too. Kind of like the Burley, which she has started to really like and which makes us immensely happy.

We left Thursday night after I got home from work and we finished up packing the car. We stopped in Elk River to eat at Sbarro. This is where the first Back Seat Girl quote took place. We were all sitting there eating our slightly tasteless food. It was one of those times when everyone else in the place seemed to be leaving all at the same time. Back Seat Girl turned around in her highchair and asked “Where eveybody going?” It was pretty funny.

We stayed at Mam and Pap’s place on Mille Lacs Thursday night through Saturday morning. We had a great time Friday. We went swimming in the pool, which she loved, and also took a canoe ride around the bay, which she also really loved. She didn’t even mind the life jacket we made her wear.

For supper we decided to go to a place called Happy’s, which is just north of Onamia. We thought it was just a little family diner. We were wrong. First of all, Back Seat Girl got to eat her own French fries, which she calls ‘hamburgers’, and which she never gets to do. Then we went outside to the playground. While we were out there, I kept thinking I heard a goat bleeting (a multitude of jokes could be inserted here, but this is a family blog). There was a woodsy area next to the playground, where the alleged bleeting was coming from. Finally my curiosity got the better of me. I found a well-worn path through the woods, so I walked through it and practically tripped over a lamb, which was in a little pen at the edge of the woods. She was bleeting and seemed very happy to see me. I was pretty shocked to see her, and summoned Driver and Back Seat Girl over. Back Seat Girl was thrilled by the lamb and kept mimicking her sounds, but touching her was out of the question. We seemed to be on a little hobby farm or something, and soon a little girl ran up to us and told us the lamb’s name (Mary, of course) and did not seem shocked that some total strangers had wandered through the woods and ended up at her house petting her lamb. Then a teenage couple, a girl and boy, I’m thinking the little girl’s older sister and boyfriend maybe, came over and talked to us for a while. No one seemed perplexed that total strangers were on their property-- it was a little weird. You may think that was the highlight of our trip to Happy’s, but no, there's more. We went back to the playground, and while we were playing we spotted a little pen by a shed behind the restaurant. There was a bunny in it. Back Seat Girl toddled right over and was more than happy to stick her fingers in the pen and feed it “flowers” (clover). She loved it. It was one of the cutest darn things I’ve ever seen. She wasn’t scared of touching him at all. It still got better for Back Seat Girl, though. It started to rain a little so we went back in where she got her own ice cream cone and got to play on the indoor playground, too. Talk about a full night! So much adventure and her vacation was only beginning.