Monday, July 14 - Sunday, July 20
Family Time

For our last stop before heading west, we spent the weekend in Wisconsin with the Wisconsin Burgoynes.  On Friday, the Indiana Burgoynes drove up to LEGOLAND Chicago and we and the Wisconsin Burgoynes drove down from Wisconsin for a family reunion.  It was a great blessing for us to have the entire family together!!!  We also enjoyed Harmony's second birthday on Saturday, July 19th.

It has been a long but fun nine weeks but it is now time to head home!  We are planning an uneventful week-and-a-half driving west on I-80 and arriving home around July 30th.

For those of you that have endured all or some of our logs, thank you!

Monday, July 14:

We left Fishers, Indiana and headed to Michigan City, Indian for a few days of rest and to get caught up again (184 miles).

It is now summer in the Midwest which means it is time to play that thrilling game: Road Construction!  You know, the one where you are driving along and there are 10-15 miles of orange cones, confusing signs, lane closures, and no sign of equipment or men anywhere.  You know your tax dollars are hard at work just looking at the pretty cones.  You try to figure out if you are still in a 35 MPH driving zone or if you are back to the normal speed limit.  There are even threats of "double fines in work zones," or "8 Years in Prison for Reckless Driving,"  The real goal of this game is similar to Where's Waldo.  Some, but not all, of these work zones has a man leaning on a shovel somewhere along the route.  Your job is to find the work zones where there is a man and where he is.  You have to look carefully, because he may be hiding behind a piece of equipment or standing behind a sign.

After playing a few rounds of Road Construction, we arrived in Michigan City and setup camp.

Tuesday, July 15:

Work day: laundry, shopping, cleaning, planning, and general catching up.

Wednesday, July 16:

A quiet day so we rented The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012, to review the story) and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013).  A nice way to relax for the afternoon and evening.  The third and final part, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, is due out December, 2014.

Thursday, July 17:

After catching our breath, we headed to Racine, Wisconsin to visit with the Wisconsin Burgoynes: Andrew, Erin, Micah, Noah, Silas, and Harmony.  After settling in, we headed over to meet up with the family where we found highly excited and energetic grandkids and Erin served us an excellent dinner.  

Friday, July 18:

We had a special all-family get-together at LEGOLAND in Chicago (Schaumburg), Illinois.  Matthew and family drove up from Indiana and we and Andrew and family drove down from Wisconsin.  We met for lunch at Subway before attacking LEGOLAND.  Afterwards, we found a park to run off some steam and get an all-family picture before having a family dinner at Red Robin.

Tasha, Timothy, and Lego R2D2

The Wisconsin Burgoynes

Silas after being eaten by the lion

The family table, please pass the ketchup!

Our entire family together; the crazy branch of the Burgoyne tree.

Saturday, July 19:

July 19th is a very special day, it is Harmony's birthday!  Harmony turned 2 years old, a pretty young lady.  The celebration included hotdogs, mac and cheese, and, of course, Erin made a beautiful butterfly cake for Harmony.  We all ate very well.  After cake and ice cream (and cleaning faces, pictures deleted), Harmony opened her presents, with a little bit of help from mom and boys.

 

The butterfly cake

Time for presents

Mom and pretty two year old birthday girl Harmony

Sunday, July 20:

After church in the morning, we headed to the beach at Lake Michigan for the afternoon.  We enjoyed a pizza dinner before having to say our "good-byes."

The Wisconsin Burgoynes before the big attack on daddy (Andrew)!

We are now headed home, see ya!