Summer's Last Hurrah

So school is back in full swing and we're in the crazy mix of coordinating schedules, trying to find baby-sitters, dealing with a teething child, fixing up the house, staying on top of bills, and doing course work. But before the first day of class, we managed to take a short swing back home to Lafayette and Indianapolis. Now it was totally impossible for us to get in touch with everyone we know and introduce Emerson to them, but even the amount of running around we did totally ran Emerson ragged. Indeed, he was a complete mess on the drive home (and far less excited about being in the car than when we started!)! So we did manage to go home and see some family and friends.

On Thursday morning, we drove home, with our first stop being a Mexican restaurant we have frequented that is at the Cedarville University exit in Ohio (we always get the nachos supremos). Then, we stopped at College Park in Indy on the way to surprise all my former coworkers (actually, the morning started out with me getting up really early to change the oil in Amber's car which hadn't been done in a long while and fill the car up with gas). We were a bit disappointed that some of them were not around when we stopped by, but it was certainly a big surprise for everyone we did see. We actually got there as some of the guys were getting ready to go out and play soccer after work, the regular Thursday afternoon ritual that I used to be a part of, which brought back a lot of memories. Then, we went to my parent's place, where Emerson got a taste of some of the future antics he'll experience from grandpa :).

On Friday, Amber took Emerson over to her friend Sarah's house to introduce him to her two little girls and the now infamous "jumperoo" toy that he loves so well (He's played in it so much that the batteries that play the music in it are already dying out). That night, Everette Mills came over to hang out with us, and stayed for dinner. Sorry you couldn't meet Emerson too, Megan!!

On Saturday, we went down to Indy and unwisely went to the State Fair in the heat of the afternoon on an August day. But we had to keep up with our yearly ritual of going to the fair with our friends, Dennis and Heidi and their addition, Edmund. Edmund is three months older than Emerson (but the same weight!!!), and it was amazing to see the clear developmental differences between the two as Edmund crawled circles around Emerson who just watched.

Saturday night, we and our family stayed at a hotel in Indy as my two youngest brothers were running in the Tri-Indy triathlon on Sunday morning. Exhausted from the heat of the fair (Emerson actually got a pretty nasty heat rash too), we took a nap and then our friend Beth came by to meet Emerson and catch up on each other's lives. My older brother, Brandon, also drove down from Fort Wayne for the evening so he could meet his new nephew. Then, we went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown where Emerson proceeded to completely destroy the paper place mat that was at my spot at the table (apparently, he has this thing for paper [maybe its the crinkly sound?] and he even cries when we take it away from him!). Then, he suddenly had a meltdown and I had to take him on a stroll through downtown for him to fall asleep.

Finally, on Sunday, the family cheered Brant and Brogan on as they swam, biked, and ran for two hours. Afterward, we were off back to Pittsburgh. We took a slight detour near Dayton, OH to see our friends Matt and Nancy who had just moved from Lafayette to the Dayton-Fairborn-Springfield area. A couple hours later, we were back on the road for an exhausting five more hours (which should have taken three and a half but Emerson was sick of being in the car). By the time we got home we needed a vacaction from our vacation!!