Last full day with us.  And it rained.  That kind of put a damper on going fishing.  Rich and Bel made a couple of valiant attempts to get down to the river and fish.  After freezing a bit, they had to call it quits and head back.  Then it proceeded to rain most of the day.

I sent Rick out for some groceries.  Kind of hard to have tuna fish sandwiches without bread.  After lunch, we hung around for a while.  I was still working around the noise and commotion.  Bel loves to tease (or is it torture?) Rick.  She’s very good at it also.  Rick was giving piggyback rides and just generally entertaining the kids for a while.  Then I really needed quiet, so Rick took them down to the basement to watch some TV.  I got to do my phone calls in relative peace.

I had Rick show Bel all of his guitar equipment.  They split up some picks that Rick was holding and used the punch to make a couple of news for Bel.  She got to use the fingerboard to exercise with and play with the traveling guitar.  Just a few more toys that she can ask for Christmas.

The rain let up and Rich thought he would venture out with the kids.  They took off for Moraine State Park to walk the Lake Defiance trail.  It wasn’t too mud and they were outside to burn off some much needed energy.  After the short hike, they drove over to the McHenry Dam to check out the sights.  Apparently, one of the fisherman caught a huge carp.  Since Rich was wearing his Got Carp? t-shirt, the guy showed off the fish and the others he caught to the kids.  He had a couple of nice sized drum as well.  Bel was dreaming of fishing, I think.

Back at the ranch, I was finishing up the work I had planned to get done.  I put the kids in the car and headed to the Dollar Store.  Doesn’t sound like much for a trip, but the kids hadn’t spent any of their money yet.  They didn’t take their money to Ren Faire and didn’t really want anything.  Then they forgot to stop by the gift shop at the mooseum.  Apparently, they didn’t remember they wanted to go in until they were almost home again.

Then we made it home in one piece again with most of our money.  It was time for dinner.  Originally, we were going to sit out on the deck at Vickie’s, but the weather still wasn’t cooperating.  I guess this means we’ll have to settle for an inside location.  Nick’s Pub should work.  With all the peanuts, shells on the floor and dead animals hanging on the wall, it was a good kids’ place.

While making our way through pizza, peanuts, and drinks, we talked about our time together.  We discovered we had a lot of firsts.

First….eating Spam, in a bog, time in Wisconsin, at Ren Faire, eating garlic mushrooms, eating peanuts at dinner, and probably a bunch more things I can’t remember.

Tomorrow morning, we pack up everyone and head back to Michigan to meet up with Vanessa.  Time to drop the darlings back off with their Mom.  We will miss them.  It’s been fun.  However, I’m tired!