Seriously??

Paul and I just had our 13th anniversary in late March. (13 years and 7 kids... I'd say those were pretty productive years :) Well, we decided to head down to Paul's parents lakehouse for an extended weekend. All the kids (except Selah, of course) were split between the two grandparents. Have I mentioned how THANKFUL I am to have both sets of grandparents living nearby and so willing to spend time with their grandkids? Well, I am (very much so!).

We took Selah on the 8 hour drive south to the Ozarks, and had a very relaxing time cuddled in front of their fireplace doing absolutely nothing. No chores, no "Mommy, watch me do this", no responsibilities at all. It was odd. (Sidenote... when you go from having 7 kids to only having one 3-month old, it's much like having no kids...) Needless to say, it was nice to be able to stay up late, sleep in, cook whatever we want without any picky eaters :), and clean up ONLY after ourselves.

On Sunday night, we attempted to go out for dinner. To avoid the $2.00 toll going into the bigger town, we went about 20 minutes in other direction to a smaller town to find a local spot to eat. Little did we know, in smaller Missouri towns EVERYONE closes early on Sunday. When I say early, I mean that when we arrived at the town at 6:00, they were all closed. And when I say "everyone", I mean everyone except the local bars. After driving on for another 30 minutes, we found absolutely nothing and decided to head back. On our way through, we saw "Vinny's", a house converted into a bar/restaurant, and, although it looked a bit shabby, it had a bunch of cars in the parking lot. We had skipped lunch and were getting very hungry by now, and being that it was only 6ish, I thought at least some of the people would be there for the food (the sign read "13th Anniversary" out front, so that must be a sign, right?). After having a little trouble finding which door to go in, we stumbled upon a bunch of tables, a waft of cigarette smoke, and a little old guy eating soup. After a bit, he noticed us and gave us a faint "hi", and went back to eating his soup. The owner finally showed up and, after realizing we were actually there to eat and not bringing our baby to the bar, told us to find a seat amidst all the empty tables then left. We walked in about two feet to sit at a table, gagged some more on the smoke smell, and walked out realizing that the 20 cars parked outside were there for something other than food. Bummer. On we went without finding one open (and presentable) restaurant, past the lakehouse, paid the $2.00 toll and went to a "real" town to eat. So much for saving gas and money...