We just got back from a quick overnight jaunt to Pella, IA. Mark was slated to preach there this morning, so we all went along. Orginally, Mark and I thought we would try to find places to send the children, and just the two of us would drive up there–about 5 hours away–go out to dinner, spend the night without kids, etc. Ok. So I know Pella, IA is not a great getaway spot, but the hotel was covered by the church that was hosting Mark. Alas, the sending off of the kids thing didn’t pan out, and when we realized the weekend fell at the end of the older ones’ spring break, we thought we could pass this off as their little spring break journey. So we left early Saturday morning, stopped in Hannibal, MO., to see Mark Twain’s cave and eat at the Becky Thatcher Restaurant ( a crusty old diner, but it had good cheap food with second hand smoke to boot). We got to the hotel in Pella by 5:30, so we had time to swim in the pool and eat TV dinners before going to bed. It was sort of a family slumber party. Mark preached this morning, and his sermon was well received. The church had a fellowship meal after the service, and our kids always love those. So all in all, the weekend was a success in their eyes. It was pretty good for us too, despite Mark and I both drugging ourselves to keep our cold symptoms at bay. We both felt a lot better today, and I attribute that to getting to sleep earlier than we ever do at home.

We arrived home to find our 11-year-old neighbor boy and his friend hiding out in our garage. We’ve known that he and some of his buddies have been jumping off our garage roof onto our trampoline at night for a few weeks now, but we’ve never caught them. Mark walked him home and talked with his older brother. Hopefully he’ll be too afraid of getting caught to keep up with his night-time adventures.

After being home for an hour or so, Evangeline informed us that she was feeling sick. We put her in our room with a bucket to wait to see if anything would materialize. Well, it did. After about 30 minutes, she threw up. It only happened one time, and I think she just overate while we were on the road. However, their school rule is not to send a child to school if she has thrown up within 24 hours. So this will be the third Monday in a row she will be missing school.

We’re glad to be home. We hope that we only have one throwing up incident, and we’re looking forward to that time in the not-too-distant future when Mark and I can get away for a night on our own.