Holy crap, where did the last two weeks go? Um, so yeah, I kinda never got to that mid-vacation post...oops. But, in my defense, we ended up being way busier than I had expected, so I was barely on my laptop at all, other than to check my email at the start and end of each day. So, here's my recap.
So, I dropped my mom off at work Friday morning, which involved me waking up at 5:45 in the morning, throwing on some normal clothes so I wasn't driving around the ghetto in my pajamas, and getting in the car. Apparently, getting to my mom's work is a lot easier than I thought. So, anyway, I dropped her off, came home, and decided not to go back to sleep. I ended up taking a shower and getting ready, and then packing and stuff. My mom came home with the car at just before 1:00. They didn't have but two cars in the lot that were ready, so she ended up being upgraded to a luxury class vehicle for the same price they had quoted her for a mid-size or whatever. So, we got ourselves a Chrysler 300 that had 1800 miles on it...essentially, a brand-new luxury car. It was awesome.
We got on the road about 3:30, and stopped at the Shoney's in Summersville, WV, which is about three hours down the road. We got back in the car around 7:15, and the sky immediately darkened up. Then, the wind started blowing, and there were leaves flying everywhere, and the gusts coming from in between the mountains were insane. It felt a bit like the tornado from The Wizard of Oz, actually. And then, the wind died down, and the rain came down in buckets, and I think it finally stopped around 9:15, but we couldn't stop because all the exits we were passing had no power. We ended up at a Red Roof Inn just outside of Pittsburgh in a little town called Steubenville, which actually had a drive-in movie theater and this really creepily-lit church on a hill, complete with an old graveyard.
So, we set out the next morning at around 8:00, and we drove the last three and a half hours without really stopping for anything. We ended up eating lunch at my grandparent's house when we got into town, and then helped my grandmother do some cleaning, since her house has become a mess since we last saw it in late August. So, we cleaned out and organized the sunroom, since that's where we were planning on sleeping, and then had pizza for dinner and chatted for a while before bed.
On Sunday, we moved some furniture from the living room to the family room, and then, I ran some errands with my grandfather and cousin, and then I went to the movies with my mom and my aunt. We ended up seeing Snow White and the Huntsman, which was...decent. Not terribly entertaining plot-wise, but the special effects were pretty awesome. Kristen Stewart just cannot act at all...she just stands there with this blank face the whole time, just like she does in the Twilight movies. And then, we had dinner and visited with the family, and said goodbye to my cousins who were off to a two-week camp in Michigan the next morning.
We chilled out Monday morning, and then went for an early lunch at Frank's with my grandfather. My grandmother came down (she does the books there), and we had lunch with her (beef on weck...because it's awesome), and then we went over to my aunt's house and waited around for AJ (my cousin) to pick a couple of us up to go to the mall. So, it ended up being me, AJ, my cousin Brian, and AJ's friend Zak, and we basically walked the mall, went into, like, three stores, and then Zak dropped some clothes off at Plato's Closet, and we killed time by eating at Burger King, and then picked up his money at the consignment shop and then went back to my aunt's.for dinner.
On Tuesday, AJ took three of my cousins to Six Flags, and my mom, brother, and I ran errands with my grandfather, in the rain. We went to Walmart and Sam's Club, and then chilled out for the afternoon. My grandmother made tilapia for dinner, and then we met two of my aunts at the mall for a little shopping. And then, we drove over to Dairy Queen for some ice cream.
Wednesday was busy.My mom and grandmother did some cooking, and then we went over to my aunt's to help set up. We were over there for about five minutes, and then my brother ripped his pants jumping on the trampoline, and so we went back to my grandparent's house for him to get changed. And then, I went with my aunt, uncle, and cousin to Target and Kohl's so my aunt could look for a hat and a shirt, and then we went back to my aunt's and basically chilled out inside, and watched a bunch of Criminal Minds episodes, and then baseball, and then we ate, and I played Scat (our family card game tradition), and I ended up winning the game and getting eight bucks out of it (everyone puts in a dollar at the start of the game).
And then, we had cake and ice cream to celebrate the July birthdays - my grandfather on the 3rd, Quinn's on the 8th, and AJ's on the 17th - and they all opened their gifts, and then my aunt, mom, brother, and I headed out to get a spot for the fireworks. Which were a bit disappointing, actually. Not nearly as pretty as last year's, but they were fireworks just the same. We came back to my aunt's, said goodbye to my aunt, uncle, and cousins (since they were leaving in the morning to go back home), and went back to my grandparent's house.
On Thursday, we hung around the house for a while, and then ran a few errands to the grocery store and to Antoinette's, the local chocolate shop, which has the best chocolate anywhere, period. It's so good. Anyway, we dropped everything off at my grandparent's house, and then drove a couple towns over to visit with Karen, my late uncle's girlfriend, and her two daughters. It was really good to see her, and to meet her kids, and we all had quite a bit of fun, chatting and playing around and having lunch.
We came back to my grandparent's house in time for dinner, so we went out and picked up KFC, and my cousin AJ and I got burritos from Mighty Taco, because everytime I go up there, AJ says he swears by it, and that it's so much better than Taco Bell. It's only a Buffalo thing, though, so you can't get it anywhere else. And they really were pretty good. And then, we went over to my aunt's to say goodbye to them, and I stayed up a while with AJ, watching Amish: Out of Order, of all things, because there was nothing on.
We got up Friday morning, and packed all of our stuff, and my cousin Sarah came over to bring my grandmother some skirts she needed sewn, and we said goodbye to her, and then to my grandparent's and cousin, and then we headed out. We had Wendy's for lunch about three or four hours down the road, and then we didn't really stop after that. We got home, and ordered pizza for dinner, and really just chilled out.
We celebrated my brother's birthday on Sunday (which was his actual birthday anyway). We went out to IHOP for breakfast, and then picked up his cake, and then played a round of mini-golf, and then picked up a birthday balloon, and then picked up milkshakes from McDonald's, and then went home and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, and then fixed dinner, and then my aunt and uncle came over, and we had lasagna for dinner and cake and ice cream for dessert, and my brother opened his gifts, and then my aunt and uncle left, and we watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and then went to bed. Whew.
Not much else going on, though. We celebrated Quinn's birthday with my dad's family last night, which included having shrimp, crab cakes, and hush puppies with my dad and grandmother, and then cake and ice cream with the aunts and uncles, and opening gifts, which was nice.
On the agenda for the next few days - I need to do some reading (I borrowed those books from Sylvia, and am only forty pages into the first one), I have to go over to my mom's co-worker's house on Sunday so she can go over the house-sitting stuff with me for next weekend, and I also need to find time to get together with Aaron, because he's in town, and there is no way I'm missing out on seeing him while he's here. And possibly ask my mom to get me an appointment at the optometrist's office to see about trying out contacts.
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