A Mellow Brick Road...: Southern Sojourn

Today was a Saturday much anticipated by all of us, especially Daddy who longed for a trip through Bloomington and on to Vincennes to see Grandma Betty (Daddy’s MommyJ) and your Aunts Debbie, Terrie, Diane and Uncle Mike and cousins Katie and Abby and Aaron and baby SophieJ!

Daddy started early, arising for work, making coffee for Daddy and Mommy, and then quickly away to do his usual two hour domestic violence program facilitation. Daddy rushed home (first quickly stopping by the Farmer’s Market to see if our friend Mary Bilby was there with her miniature tomato plant for our Fairies garden, but Mary was not there this weekendL) to find everyone waiting and ready for our planned journey. Well, Mommy put you, Bodhi, up to telling Daddy when he walked through the door that you and Buddha dressed yourselves and that Mommy hadn’t got out of bed yet…and you did ha/ha!! Mommy was so impressed you pulled it off J

We navigated our way first to a McDonald’s to quickly obtain some breakfast for each of us, then zoom away we went on our adventure! We made a pit stop along our travels to get gas and allow all of us to gain some needed stretch time---you particularly, Buddha boy, do not travel well, you must be allowed to get out of the vehicle and spend some energy to make any distance road travel tolerable---for you and for usJ!!! After our stop, we didn’t honestly have much further to travel before we came to a planned stop at Oliver’s Winery a few miles north of Bloomington. The decorative outdoor garden and water-fall type decoration adorning the landscape of the winery is purely enchanting. Mommy and Daddy love to take pictures of you, Bodhi and Buddha, surrounded by this outdoor garden paradise and we also particularly love to capture ideas of further beautification of our backyard outdoor garden which Mommy has so beautifully manicured. On this visit we found what was termed a decorative onion and it was a gorgeous wild-flower addition to the winery landscape that Mommy and Daddy want to add to our yardJ. We also experienced the joy of asking one of the winery employee’s assistance in recovering one of your flip-flops, Buddha, after you threw it into the middle of the decorative pond outside the entrance way to the winery, where people throw coins and make wishesJ. We also re-stocked some of Mommy’s “girl’s-night-out-get-together’s” wine supply for her friend’s visiting our beautiful home for their occasional get-togethersJ.

We then continued our trip into Bloomington and went to The Ritz, Daddy’s Bloomington barber-shop, where both you, Mister Buddha and Daddy got hair-cuts! You wouldn’t have any part of the hair-cut until it was agreed you could sit on your Mommy’s lap the whole time, and after a brief instruction to just trim your hair, Mommy and Daddy were both mortified (to borrow one of Mommy’s expressions) when Eric proceeded to trim you up and change our two-year old baby into a little boy that I swear makes you look like you are five!!! The hair-cut style, Eric explained, is called a surfer cut (popular among college-age guysJ, longer on top and trimmed on the side----and oh boy, you won’t need another hair-cut for a year so that Mommy and Daddy can get there hippie long-haired baby boy back! Ms. Bodhi, you were a perfect joy watching Daddy and your little brother get their hair-cuts, so patient and well-mannered! You kept telling Bubby, “Oh Buddha, you look like a handsome little baby boy!” You both were so cute!

After our hair-cut adventure and a quick shopping stop along some shops along Kirkwood, we made our way to the famous Opie Taylor’s for some burgers before going on to shop at an antique store Mommy really enjoys visiting, then on to Vincennes. Daddy didn’t manage to keep us on a very good time table for our journey but boy was it worth it when we got to Vincennes and found that Aunt Debbie and Uncle Mike, and Aaron and Abby and baby Sophie, and Aunt Terrie, and Aunt Diane and Katie were all there for our visit with Grandma Betty. Indeed, they had all made arrangements to order Bobe’s pizza (the best pizza ever!!!) so we enjoyed a pizza party and visit. As the evening was wearing on, everyone had to get on their way, so we stayed another hour to visit with Grandma Betty, who was so excited to see us---especially the two of you!!!. Grandma Betty of course had presents for the two of you, Ms. Bodhi and Mister Buddha (as did Aunt Debbie) and naturally the two of you wanted to stay and visit, but as nine in the evening rolled around we had to get back on the road for our long return trip homeL.

Our journey home was generally uneventful, the two of you precious babies, fell asleep for much of the return trip, and Daddy’s back was hurting so incredibly bad that Mommy took over the driving responsibility at a stop in Terre Haute to “arm” her with some coffee for the trip to Indianapolis and then onto Kokomo. We finally arrived home by midnight, and let me tell you for the record it didn’t take much to convince all of us to hug, kiss, and whisper “night, night!!!” Love, love, loveJ.

PS Happy Birthday GiPa! We've all previously planned a Gi-Pa/Grandmoo birthday celebration for later in the month.