Today was the day of our staycation. A bunch of our friends went to Gulf Shores Alabama this week and invited us along. We decided against it because the complex that they were staying at only had condo's that slept six. Our family doesn't get along well enough for such cramped quarters. We decided to save money and stay home. Dave was on vacation this week so I took a vacation day and planned a day at Grants Farm. The nice thing about Grants Farm is that it is free, you pay $10 to park and the rest is free. The plan was pick Shannon up at Cheereleading practice at 10:30 and head to Grants Farm. Of Course we overslept and had to hit the ground running, Maggie had to take a quick bath because she had a party at 5:00 and I knew there wouldn't be time after our family outing. It was pouring down rain when we headed out. When we picked up Shannon we noticed something was a little off. She had a swollen top lip. She got punched in the face by accident when she was coming down from a cheerleading stunt. It didn't help when my darling husband so eloquently stated "Shannon, you look like a duck billed platypus!!" We headed to Schnucks to get doughnuts for my five starving children. (the oldest two were too cool for the family outing) We came out of schnucks in the pouring down rain with the doughnuts to find that we locked the keys in the car. Lucky for us, we know how to slide open the tiny side windows and push Maggie in sideways to unlock the door. We decided that the weather was not going to let up so we should pick another destination. We decided on The City Museum. We got there and it was $12 a piece to get in. It was going to cost $84. I looked at Dave and said "do you want to stay??" He said, "we have to now, we can't take the kids to a fun place and just walk in the door and tease them." The kids had a fun time, it really is a pretty cool place, not $84 cool but still pretty cool. On the way home, daddy took the scenic route we got to see lots of spray painted buildings that said bloods or crypts. A little educational gang activity is always fun. We headed for home and stopped by Wendy's for lunch. We were running out of time and decided to swing by Target to pick up a gift for Maggie's party. Erin was throwing a fit, she had to work at five and she needed time to straighten her hair so she didn't look like a wet dog. Shannon was throwing a fit because I was going to Target instead of WalMart because WalMart was giving away free 3D glasses for the Hannah Montona movie that will be on TV on Saturday. We were in the turning lane going in to Target when we heard a loud bang that sounded like the van engine dropping to the ground. Dave tried to step on the gas and nothing, the van wouldn't move. We sat there for a while trying to figure out what to do. Some man stopped to help but there was no way they could push the van off the road because it is too heavy. Erin and I decided to run across HWY K to the auto garage to see if they could tow it. Erin and I were sprinting across the four lane road in our flip flops in the rain and I said "see, I told you that today would be more fun than going to Florida." The people at the garage were really nice, they even had an employee with a Yukon drive me and the kids home while Dave rode with the tow truck driver. I called the mother of the little girl that was having the party and said "Maggie will be there on time but she is coming empty handed. I was going to drop her off, get a gift and come back, hopefully before they open gifts." We got in the car to go and I heard Maggie screaming. I turned around and she had smashed her thumb in the door. She got it out and I ran inside and got her a baggie full of ice. I'm hoping that this day was a bad dream and I will wake up in Gulf Shores or Florida on a real vacation!!!!

11 doughnuts at Schnucks $8.00

admission at City Museum $84

Tow truck $75

Ice for Maggie's thumb and Shannon's lip $1

Van Repair TBD

Family Fun!!!!! PRICELESS!!!!