Spring Break 2014 - Family and Car & Truck Museum Hopping in Indiana

Spring Break 2014 was probably the best spring break we have had in some time. Took the girls in my new little 2009 Cube car...

Went to the fabulous destination of Indiana for the week. Now I know many people wouldn't say "Wow! Can't wait to go to Indiana for spring break!" LOL Neither did we. But we had a great time and the weather was GREAT all week.

I have family there in Indiana that we hadn't seen in a couple years and so we decided it was time to test the gas mileage in our new vehicle and see what she could do. The cube lived up to the test left home on a full tank put $20 in when we stopped in Toledo then didn't put any more in till our last day in Indiana and added another $20 then stopped in Port Huron, MI and added another $20 I still have 3/4 of a tank and we went back to Port Huron yesterday. My trip mileage was on a bit over 800 miles! I see many more trips in that car coming soon!

Our fabulous time was mostly going to the park, putting together puzzles, cooking together and we went thrift store shopping! We ate at a Chinese Buffet restaurant for the first time and then walked along the river in Bluffton, IN.

Finally we made plans to get up early on Friday and go to the zoo on the way home to Michigan. Ha getting up early was not in the cards for my teenage girls on that morning. Then we had some issues with the bike rack that slowed us down so we made a last minute decision to stop in Auburn, Indiana to check out the museums. We visited the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum, the National Automotive and Truck Museum of the United States and the Hoosier Air Museum. I have a ton of pics on my Google + and my facebook page from the museums https://www.facebook.com/arvillahowe 

I never would have guessed how much fun we had at the museums it helped that we were about the only ones in there so we could cut up and be silly plus the information was interesting and just being together made it great! Alannah did start to get a little bored and tired by the last museum but I promised her dinner with ice cream for desert and she was back on track LOL. Below are a few of the many pics. 

 
 

So what exotic location did you visit for spring break 2014? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Pushing the Bus

It was a typical Michigan January. The snow was deep and the wind was blowing. Like usual when that kind of weather hits the roads were getting some pretty good snow drifts.

Jim was home from work that day because of the weather but the kids still had school. The storm had stirred up really good about the middle of the day and by the time that we were expecting the school bus the roads were very nasty. Jim had gone out to use the snow blower to clean out the drive way and the drifts that had gotten quite big in front of our house. I was inside making supper so I didn't actually know any of this that had happened until all the excitement came in the door.

With all four kids now in school the youngest being in all day Kindergarten we had enjoyed our day and looked forward to their arrival from school. The bus was coming down our road towards the house but the drifts were to high and it became stuck just past the neighbor's house still a quarter mile from us. Jim noticed and stopped working in the driveway, grabbed his shovel and started walking down to the bus. He promptly started digging out the tires only to find that the bus was on a patch of ice too. He walked back up to the door and told the bus driver that he would give her a push to start rocking it back and forth a little.

You can imagine the excitement of the thirty kids on the bus all ranging in age from high school seniors to our little Kindergartner. Most were telling our sons that there was no way he would ever be able to move the bus. After just a few minutes they were on their way and the entire family was back at the house everyone talking over one another as they took off their snowsuits and boots to tell me what had happened.

"Mom did you see that Dad was awesome!" Alicia said as she burst through the door.

"No one thought he could do it! You should have seen their mouths hanging open as he pushed the school bus!" Justin added as he was unzipping his snowsuit.

"I told them my dad can do it he is stronger than he looks, he does construction for a living." Jacob proudly exclaimed as he was hanging up his little sister's snowsuit.

"Dad was strong! He pushed us out!" Alannah added as she wrapped her little cold arms around me and buried her cold nose in my neck giving me my usual after school hug.

"It was nothing we used to get stuck in the snow all the time and push the bus back when I was a kid." Jim said as he was coming in. "Now who wants mom to make us some hot chocolate?" he added.

I was glad everyone was excited and four years later, my children still talk about how their daddy was so strong that he pushed the school bus and how all the kids were amazed. They said all the kids were in awe and said "Don't mess with Mr. Howe he's strong." The kids insisted that I include this story in the blog.

Happy Father's Day to my fabulous, strong husband from all of us. We love you.

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there have a great day!

The Moment I Knew

Call it the romantic in me but this is one of my favorite memories.

Jim and I were dating and it was January in Michigan. He drove a brand new 4-wheel drive red Chevy truck. He had just traded his one year old black truck for the next year model a couple of weeks before.

He picked me up at the apartment where I was staying and we were just cruising around on the back roads that were very snowy and talking. All the sudden he looks at me and smiles the kinda grin someone has when they are about to be mischievous says "Let's just see what this thing can do." Then he pulls the steering wheel to the right and drives into the ditch.

I was shocked and worried. The ditches in Michigan can be huge, some of them you can drive down into and no one would even know you were there if they didn't look. They are that big. I held on wondering just what would happen next.

We made it a quarter mile or so and got stuck as he was trying to get back up to the road.

It would not have been unusual to me if he would have gotten angry, mean, began cursing and acting like a jerk. I was used to guys who did stupid things and then got mean when they backfired.

Not Jim, he looked over at me and laughed.

He shook his head laughing and said "Would you mind leaning forward?" I leaned forward and he reached behind the seat and grabbed a shovel. "Well, now we know what she can handle" he said, still with laughter lingering on his voice. "Make yourself comfortable, I'll have us out of here in no time." Then he leaped out of the cab and sank in the snow up to his thighs.

That moment, when he chose to be cheerful and playful in acknowledging the foolishness of his actions and happily accepting the consequences, that was when I knew he was the man for me.

I can honestly say, I've never, not once regretted that decision. After 20 years of marriage I only love him and his craziness even more.