Population 850 (+3)

One huge benefit Ohio has over Florida is that we can literally drive half a day in any direction and be in a dozen other states, as opposed to South Florida when you drive for five hours and you are in... Florida. We are wanting to take advantage of opportunities to take mini road-trips on weekends, and last weekend we did just that.

Adam's godparents Bud and Abby moved with their 3 boys to Illinois last winter and live on the outskirts of a tiny, tiny, tiny town. I am terrible at guessing quantities and distances, so when I predicted the population of their town, I guessed 3,000. Whoa, that would be a sprawling metropolis compared! The official population is 850 (make that 853 for the weekend), and it's funny to think that when their family moved to town the population jumped .5%!

After miles and miles and miles of corn and soybean crops, we found their house easily, though I'm quite convinced that if we had been lost we could have just stopped anywhere and asked anyone where Bud and Abby lived. In fact, just by having our cars in their driveway no doubt brought attention to the whole town.

All kidding aside, we had a wonderful weekend! Their cute house is a mere 35 feet from the lake's edge where a dock and inner tubes are waiting.

All day Saturday we were by or in the water -- swimming, boating or borrowing the neighbor's rope swing. If there was any flaw to it is that we didn't spend enough time just hanging out, talking, and catching up. There was too much to do!

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And as a perk, my sister Kim, Josh and Jake were enroute on their move from Illinois to Kentucky and crashed in for the night. Jake and Adam have finally hit the age where they interact with one another, and it usually provides endless entertainment. The highlight was when Jake was given an ear of corn, which Adam (who LOVES corn on the cob) proceeded to steal from him. So we split the ear in half and gave them both an end, and Adam then stole Jake's half as well. While Adam was 2-fisting his corn Jake kept trying to shove Adam's pacifier into his mouth between bites. Jake just wanted his food back! I so with we had video but photos will have to suffice.

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Before our departure on Sunday, we all drove 20 minutes to the nearest open restaurant (aside from the town's Dairy Queen) and treated our friends to a Mexican lunch. It was the least we could do for their hospitality and fun-ness all weekend long. We are already trying to plan future visits -- maybe in autumn they'll come see us and in the winter we can return when the lake freezes over, because we just can't let too much time go by without seeing some of our favorite people!

Thanks, guys!