Vacation 2008!

On Saturday, me and the best kiddos on the planet


















will be traversing a little bit of the planet...we're going to Michigan, my homeland and where my sister lives. Tony has to stay home and work :( but we will try to have fun anyway.


Our plane leaves at 6:00 a.m. so that means getting up at 3:30 a.m. to get to the airport on time. Hopefully, we can all nap on the plane, except the kids have never flown before, so they will be excited. We will actually end up a little north of the heart in the picture above, just to the west of the white bloop that's over the heart.

While we are there, guess what will be in season??





Yesssss...sweet corn!! I am one of two people in my house who will eat corn on the cob, and I love it. And my sister loves it, and so do her seven kids...so I can buy, and eat, fresh sweet corn that is actually in season! And guess what else will be in season??




Bingo! Tomatoes! When I was a kid, we used to eat tomatoes like apples...they were so good, warmed from the sun.

And, finally, I can have another (few) Faygo Pop! Have you heard of Faygo Pop? It is the best pop in the world!








Besides eating fabulous vegetables, we will be doing other things. We will visit:











Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland, this huge place that is full of Christmas decorations. The picture doesn't do the size of the place justice. The white building on the right is the Christmas Chapel. Here's a link to Bronner's...it is a really fun place.


We may be going to a waterpark in the same town as Bronner's, but we aren't sure yet. I can't find any pictures of it, but I'm sure I'll have some (if we go there) when I come back.

There is a remote possibility that we will go to an amusement park, Michigan's Adventure, and an even more remote possibility that we'll visit Mackinac Island, but that is a 3-4 hour drive each way. Although my sister will be there...we can gab and stay awake on the drive back, right??

Our kids will also spend a lot of time playing together, I would think. My kids hardly ever get to see these cousins, so I'm sure they'll have a lot to talk about.

I will post pictures when I get back! Have a good week, and keep your powder and your pants dry! (1,000 magic points if you can tell me what movie that line is from. Are the points redeemable, you ask? No. But you will have the thrill of knowing that you know stuff.)

Rain

I live in the desert. As you probably know, deserts are hot and dry, except when they are cold and dry, in the "winter." But we don't really get winter here.

But tonight, the wind started to blow, and raindrops started coming down...big raindrops. That was an hour ago, and it is still raining. Blowing and raining. Blowing rain down our air conditioning tubes, and through the return into our hallway, and down the pipe for our water heater (a gas one). But it doesn't matter. Because it's raining in the desert!

Rain so hard that it's difficult to see the houses across the alley. Rain that turns our roof into the home of a bunch of waterfalls, waterfalls that, if found in the mountains on a hike would be considered fairly sizeable.

Rain, washing the pollution out of the air (for a minute). Rain, pounding on our roof with its soothing rhythm, luring me to sleep even as I type. It's washing our yard, our cars, our driveway. I love water. I was raised in Michigan, so am used to water in all its forms; ice, snow, rain, lakes, humidity. This kind of weather takes me home for a little bit, to when I was a kid and we'd stand under the eaves of our house, when it rained in the summer, laughing, twirling, splashing. I haven't seen rain like this here in probably 20 years!

What a beautiful night!