A Day Out with Grandpa Georgia

This morning long before the crack of dawn, I woke up to the sound of vomitting. It was my poor husband Shawn. He is sicker than a dog. Please pray for him!!! I was awake then and couldn't get back to sleep for the next couple hours til I got out of bed. I didn't get up to exercise like I had planned - instead, I hurried and got everything I needed ready for the day and left a little early that morning to give Daddy time to rest. You know he's sick when he called off work...ugh!!!Our first stop was picking up Grandpa at Becky's house and heading to Shady Maple for breakfast. Joshua was thrilled! He ate and ate and ate (which is the exact opposite of last week). He had half a pancake with syrup, bacon, toast with jelly, an entire bowl of fruit loops with milk, some fruit and a chocolate donut since he had done so well. In the picture above, he's wearing the chocolate donut (they were really messy...the chocolate was sort of a powder/sticky substance on top, so even the adults were a little messy with them). I thought he looked too cute, though, like 5 o'clock shadow. Below are the two cousins who sat next to each other...Daniel was like 'no pictures please!'Next, just the boys & I headed to the petting zoo in Leola. Grandpa & Aunt Jen went to Shady Maple to grocery shop, which isn't my idea of "fun." So, I took the boys on an adventure by ourselves, and we saw the goats, donkeys, parrot, birds, pigs, llamas, turkeys, chickens, fish and ducks. One very nice gal gave Joshua a piece of her bread to feed the ducks. He was in heaven! Caleb quacked away, and he's added to that "woof" and "moo" and a form of "ribbit."After feeding the ducks (see Joshua's big cheese below!), we headed to Jen's house to change the kids into their swimsuits and head to Binn's Park in Lancaster City.Binn's Park is on Queen Street near Chesnut Street. Grandpa Georgia came along with me yesterday to scope it out and check out where to park, so we knew right where to go today. The best way for me to describe it is with the picture below. There are holes in the ground in the middle of this park, and water shoots up in various patterns that keep the kids guessing.
Funny enough, when we started walking up, I said 'uh-oh...sounds like they're having a function there.' As we arrived, I see Pastor Mark from LHOP who married us and dedicated Joshua preaching to the public sitting around. A few were in tears as they heard the Word being preached. Another pastor prayed, someone had special music, etc. But, there were lots of people just eating and playing, too. After the event was over, Pastor Mark came right down to say hi to us (and tell me how much my boys have grown - oh, how I know! They are getting too big!!!). He said that a group of churches from the city have united to pray over the area and the fourth Thursday of every month from May to September, they have one of them come and preach to the crowds. Their goal is to offer a free lunch to whoever comes out, along with some good ol' gospel. In the meantime, our group, as well as many other kiddos, enjoyed the water. Faith had absolutely no fear and dove right in, as you can see in the picture above. She loved getting wet! Joshua wasn't sure at all at first. The water scared him and he didn't know that he wanted to get wet with his shoes on, etc.Hearing from a friend how wet you get, I had changed into my suit, too, and I tried to get Caleb interested in the water. He also wasn't too sure at first...So Grandpa offered to hold him for a little while...
Meanwhile, Grace saw Faith having a blast and decided to join right in!
Joshua & Daniel loved watching the older girls having fun, but they still weren't sure about going in themselves. The water makes patterns so sometimes it's on full blast with water shooting from all the various holes. Other times it just spurts out here or there, etc.Emma, surprisingly, also joined her sisters in getting in the water. There were other older kiddos there, too, and everyone was having a ball!I held Joshua at his request and we tried catching the water as it shot up.I love his expressions...he wasn't always so sure!He really enjoyed watching, though, and was waiting for the right moment to jump in...So, since the Bean was happy, I grabbed Caleb again for another try. This time, he loved it!!!And since Jen's other kiddos were happy, she got little John out of his stroller to watch.Then, it happened. The water had "shut off" for a minute (which is part of the rotation) and Joshua got right in the circle to see where it went. SUDDENLY the water SPRANG UP! And it drenched him! He cried out "oh, no!!!" and he ran to Grandpa for reassurance that being wet was okay. Grandpa Georgia let out a belly laugh and said, "that's funny Joshua! You're okay!"Dad couldn't have said anything better. Joshua LOVES to make people laugh and when something is funny, he'll repeat it and repeat it. He joyfully ran back to the water and started having as much fun as the other kiddos! Caleb, in the meantime, kept running toward the stage where the pastors were sitting. He loved the freedom to run in the water and out and all around the park. The day was gorgeous - sunny and not too hot but not too cold. As Joshua was finally getting into it and Caleb was starting to really enjoy himself, Jen's kids were getting cold and had had enough for the day. We paused for a quick picture with the whole group before heading to our cars.The meter only had 10 minutes left from the money we put in, so it was pretty good timing. We had a blast!
After naptime, we headed back over to Aunt Jen's house for a cookout with my Uncle Jim & Aunt Karen.Poor Gracie got stung by a bee twice while sitting next to the playhouse in their yard. She told my sister that something fell on her as she was bawling, but Jen noticed the two areas that were bleeding and humped up. Then Joshua went into the playhouse and screamed. He ran to me crying and told me "the bugs flew in my hair and bit me!" It was a pretty accurate description, I thought. Alas, he had been stung, too, right on his forehead where his hair starts. So, Jen scoped out the playhouse and there was a big bee's nest with lots of them swarming around it. Uncle Jim sprayed it good and killed them all. But, the kiddos were still sore. Poor guys! Please pray that neither of them are allergic and that they don't hur throughout the night. Joshua told me during his bath that I needed to be careful around his "ouchy head." :(At supper, we dined on cheeseburgers (& hotdogs for those who eat them...silly!), macaroni salad, baked beans, sun chips, watermelon, homemade apple pie and ice cream. Joshua didn't eat much, but Caleb ate almost half a watermelon and lots of macaroni salad, which normally he doesn't care for pasta. Soon it was dark and time to go home and check on Daddy. Uncle Jim asked for a snapshot with all the kids, but they were pretty well spent. Daniel refused to get in the picture and Caleb & John are both crying. So, we called it a night, giving hugs, bidding farewell, and wishing Dad a safe journey home.When we got home, I gave both boys a bath by myself, got them changed into jammies and tucked them in. Joshua wanted to give Daddy bear hugs and snuggle him and sing to him to try and make him feel better, which was sweet but not what Daddy needs. Daddy blew him a kiss as he rolled over. Please pray my hubby feels better tomorrow and pray that none of the rest of us get what he has!!!