Catching up with family

With our service work complete, we had another short drive – just 25 miles east to Shipshewana Campground South.

After almost a week of camping in a parking lot, it was nice to be back in a campground again!  The south campground is close to town, but surrounded by farmland, so it’s really peaceful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the evenings, we liked to walk around the campground and watch the horses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another reason for staying in Shipshewana was that it put us within visiting range of my family.  Two of my sisters have seasonal sites at a campground about 30 miles from Shipshewana, so we were out bright and early on Saturday morning to head over there for a visit.

We had quite the family gathering --

my sisters Diane and Debbie, and my niece Katy, my other niece, Kelly and her husband, Josh . . . my brother, Donnie,

my brothers-in-law, Danny and Charlie, and my Mom.

My niece has a little guy, Jaxon, who is turning 2, and he was the center of attention, as usual!  [Today is his birthday – Happy Birthday, Jaxon!!!]

It was a beautiful day, so Tom rode his motorcycle while the boys and I drove the car.  Tom had to put Jaxon on the bike!

Danny took the boys out for a fast drive on the boat, and a swim, while Jaxon entertained all of us in the little pool,

and then he took Katy, Jaxon and I out for a nice, slow leisurely ride around the lake.

 

Jaxon even helped Danny drive!

The slow, rhythmic, motion of the boat and the warm sunshine made all of us sleepy, but especially Jaxon . . . he was almost asleep by the time we got back to the dock! 

Since we were going to miss his birthday party, we brought our present with us . . . Bryce had fun picking out some silly gifts for him, but they weren’t very durable!

The silly glasses were already missing one lens,

and the whoopie cushion didn’t survive Danny sitting on it!

We got some mileage out of the glasses, though!

 

 

 

As usual, we had a great dinner – Charlie BBQ’d ribs and chicken, and we had fresh corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon . . . along with Amish noodles and cake.

After all that food, we needed a nice long walk . . . so we gathered up the garbage and went for a walk! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way back, Jaxon and Casey took turns riding in the wagon!

 

A Saturday night tradition at Manapogo Park are the wagon rides . . . these used to be the highlight of Nicolas and Bryce’s weekend when they were little, so when the announcement was made that it was time for the wagon ride, they took Jaxon to introduce him to the fun!

There they go!

The wagon has steps to make it easy to get in now . . . when Nicolas & Bryce were little, we had to climb up over the side!  Some of the campers even throw candy to the kids . . . and the big boys made sure Jaxon got some!

After the wagon ride, Tom, Katy and I took Jaxon back to the camper while Nicolas and Bryce stayed at the pavilion with Danny to play some BINGO . . . they didn’t win anything, though!

We sat by the campfire for awhile, enjoying the beautiful evening, until it was time to make the drive back to Shipshewana. 

We all enjoyed spending the day with family, and it certainly feels good to be home again for a little while . . . well, almost home, but Manapogo Park was my home-away-from-home for many years, and even the boys spent a lot of time there when my parents still had a seasonal site.  In fact, when the ladies in the office saw Nicolas driving the car in, they commented on how they remembered when the boys used to come up with my parents in the summer during the week.  On Friday evenings, they would sit down by the office, waiting for Tom and I to show up!

We’ll be seeing a lot more of the family when we get settled in Monroe, but for the next couple of days we explored Shipshewana and stocked up on all our Amish favorites!

We had pretzels at Jo-Jo’s, 

 

 

 

 

 

YUM!!!

stocked up on bulk foods and meat at E&S and Yoder’s, popcorn at Yoder Popcorn, and cheese at Guggisberg,

had Hawaiian shaved ice one evening, and even checked out a few RVs.

 The boys still like the front living rooms!

At the Coachmen Factory, we were amazed by the sea of E-450 chassis’s that we saw – they must have bought up all they could before Ford stopped making them!

Tuesday was Flea Market Day, so Tom and Nicolas walked through it while I worked and Bryce kept me company . . . they didn’t see much, though . . . it really is turning into just rows and rows of the same old China junk you can get anywhere else!  That night we had the buffet dinner at the 5 & 20 Restaurant, and it was delicious . . . and much more reasonable than some of the other bigger restaurants in town!

Another enjoyable visit to Indiana Amish Country!