The Harley Davidson Motorcycle shop. I thought we had a picture of Dawson on the child-sized all American motorcycle, but I guess not. He sat on that with both hands on the handlebars and a mean face. Like naturally belonged to the "Hells Momo's" motorcycle gang. Dawson was in "momo" heaven. We walked him around while he begged to drive. He actually cried when we left. Is this something we want to encourage? Maybe he'll get a leather jacket for Christmas. The rest of the day we spent walking around the outdoor mall and headed home. It was when we got home that Jason invented this:
Every little boy needs a daddy so that they can have fun and exhilarating times rideing around on a beat up changing table pad. Sunday, after church my whole family got together at Ligonier's Marshmallow Festival. It used to be called "Strawberry Valley Days" but got it's name change because Kidd's marshmallows put it on the map. I know Chris Kidd, son of Mr. Kidd (that owned the factory) personally. We were in a band together called "Tabgha". I sang he played drums. All was well with the world. Anyway, let me tell ya, a festival in Ligonier is an event to write home about! It takes up one block. The whole block, which takes 3 minutes to get around is made up solely of food booths. Mostly Mexican food because Ligonier is called "Little Mexico". Maybe the festival should be called Mexican Marshmallow Days" but boy are the tacos great! And if you stand in one spot long enough, you just may run into someone you know. There's a small section for rides which I just found out-got inspected. Which means, my sister Bobbie and I could have died during jour ride on the Octopus! We really did hit zero gravity and nearly fell out of the thing except that we were gripping the handle with our sweaty palms for dear life.
Dawson got to ride the carousel, but a grandma KK was hovering so Jason didn't get a very good picture. It was a very hot day so after the kids played a few games and we were all full of fair food we headed to Tim & Karen's to swimming. Wherein, Dawson decided to try his first hand at salt and vinegar chips which were in a bowl sitting on top of a quilt chest in their living room. Fun times had by all.
Which leads us to Monday. Labor Day.
Jason and I wanted to do something fun on Labor Day so Jason got online and looked up places to go within driving distance. He found a place called "The Frederick Meijer Garden's and Sculpture Park which is located in Grand Rapids Michigan. About a 2 1/2 hour drive. It's a neat place. But walking around outside became a chore. At one point, Dawson's stroller was reading 108 degrees. Which is a record for his stroller! Dawson got cranky and mommy and daddy got cranky. There are sculptures outside and inside.
Don't worry, this one was outside.
There are gardens inside and outside as well.
Inside, there's a greenhouse with carnivorous plants. I was expecting to meet a venus flytrap that is 10 feet tall, kinda like the one from Little Shop of Horrors. REJECTED. Those were about one inch in size. But it was neat seeing a real live one. They also had a taping of how chocolate is made from a chocolate tree so on our way out we got a free sample of Dove chocolate. Next year, I'm talking them into a candy bar. The highlight of the day for Dawson was playing in the water fountain. We got kicked out of playing in this one:
so he played in the foot fountain instead. And he got soaking wet.
After we finished at the gardens, we were instructed to take a "Michigan left"-hello! U-Turn! These Michigan lefts are everywhere.-and head toward the mall. a nice two-story mall with air conditioning! Where we let Dawson play in this indoor playground and get knocked around by kindergartners who would hug him and then pounce on him. Then it was time for dinner. Dawson was a crabby naughty butt so we stopped at Big Boy restaurant to feed him where Jason left a 3 dollar tip for the waitress who did nothing because we decided not to eat there. We stopped at Applebees in Sturgis for dinner where in total Dawson ate:
- lemons (rind included)
- French fries
- turkey sticks
- apple sauce
- rejected a pickle
Once we got home, it was off to bed...
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