A Surprise Trip to Ohio!

A lot has been going on lately in our household, so I'll do my best to fill you all in!

At the end of May, Matthew traveled down to spend a few days with us.  He had two gigs planned back-to-back down here in South Carolina, one was a elementary school event on Friday ( the 22nd of May) and the other was a wedding on Saturday (the 23rd of May).  He was due to arrive Thursday afternoon, so that Thursday morning we got up and started our morning routine as usual, with exercising as a family.  After exercising but before going out to milk, I always take a few minutes to do a warm compress on my eyes (I've been having a lot of trouble with styes lately).  I normally lay on the futon in the study while I'm doing my eye compress, but since we had already turned the futon down into a bed and since it was all made up and ready for Matthew, I decided instead to simply lay on the floor next to the futon.  After a few minutes of laying there, my dad walks in the room and says with a very shocked voice, "What are you doing?!"  I replied that I was doing my compress, like I do every morning.  After a few more minutes, our big dog, Clancy, came in the study to see me, but instead of coming over by me, he stopped by the foot of the futon and started sniffing.  I called and he came a little closer, but stopped short of me, sniffing the side of the futon.  I heard our other little dog, Toby, growl from under the futon.  Clancy proceeded to the top of the futon and sniffed again, which resulted in another growl from Toby.  I shooed Clancy out the door telling him to leave Toby alone, but before I got up to go milk the goats, I lifted up the blanket to call Toby out from under the futon bed....but....

...to my surprise.....

...there lay Matthew!!!!

Under the bed!

You can imagine my shock!  Both of us started laughing and I kept trying to figure out what on earth he was doing under the bed, he explained that he had arrived at our house around 4:00, parked his car at the end of our lane, snuck into the house, left a few clues for me to find come morning (such as this sign on our dry erase board in the dairy, and newspaper stuffed down in my shoes),


and slipped under the futon/bed to wait till morning when he was going to surprise me AFTER I found the clues.  He never would've guessed that I would have laid on the floor right next to where he was hiding and then looked under the bed to discover him early.  He said he felt like a little kid in trouble!  Too funny!  

Although his surprise didn't quite work out like he was hoping, he still took me by surprise when I looked under that bed expecting to find the dog and found my sweet beau instead!

~ ~ ~

Noah and I were able to go with him to the school gig the next day, and afterward he took us out to lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse (his favorite restaurant) and then he treated us to a game of mini golf!  It was a very nice time to talk and enjoy each other's company.

While he was down here, he bought a Snowie shaved ice business.  Dad had mentioned the idea to him when one came available, and after praying about it and working through all of the details, he decided that the Lord had opened this door for us.  It would give us an opportunity to work together, and he could be self-employed!  I'll fill you in on the Snowie business more in the next post!

The weekend went by quickly and soon he had to head back up to Ohio.  A few days after Matthew left, while our family was eating pizza, Dad lifted up his plate in order to "lick it" and there on the bottom of his paper plate read "Ohio Bound, May 31st-June 3rd"!  He had planned a surprise trip for him and I to travel up to see Matthew and his family one last time before Matthew moved down to South Carolina!  Yeah!!!!  I had two days to pack and get ready and boy, was I excited!

En route...

We left for Ohio after church on Sunday afternoon and arrived late in the evening at Matthew's brother's house.  After chatting and catching up with them, we all hit the sack for the next few fun-filled days.  The next morning, all of the guys from the landscape crew showed up to start the work week.  Matthew's last day working for J & L had been Saturday, so he was off and able to spend the day with us!  While the guys were getting the mowers ready for the jobs, they let us try a standing mower.  Dad and I each got to try riding it around the lawn.  It was fun, fast and a little jerky, but I think that that was my fault and not the mower's!

 Matthew then took Dad and I up to Clifton Gorge for a nice hike.

Being our cheesy selves!

It was a brisk morning and a beautiful scenery.

Cavemen... (wink)

After the walk we grabbed lunch and headed over to visit some friends that Matthew has told us much about.  They were having a get-together with a bunch of families, so it was nice to put faces to the names!

We then headed down to Cincinnati to visit a Snowie (shaved ice) headquarters.  We were able to ask any questions that we had as well as see the setup and get some ideas of how to better run Matthew's business.  We drove back to Dayton to a local pizza joint where Luke, Matthew's older brother and boss, was hosting a going-away party for him.  Matthew had worked for Luke for 10 years in the lawn care business, so the J and L Lawn and Landscape crew gave him a nice sendoff.  After eating, we all headed back to Luke's for some games and ice cream to end the evening!

Playing cards...

(Matthew and I creamed Dad and Luke at Spades....just thought you all might want to know.  hehehe!)

Tuesday morning, Matthew treated Dad and I to a delicious breakfast!

 

Then we headed out to visit some of the small towns around Dayton and their cute little downtown areas.  We headed up to a local park to walk around, talk, and get pictures.

Enjoying each other....

Our loyal chaperone...

Our heart....(or at least, it was supposed to look like a heart!)

Matthew, goofing around in Goodwill!

Looking stylish! hehehe!

We visited another park and took a walk around the pond.

Later on in the day, Luke joined us and we all took a trip down to King's Island Amusement Park.

Luke, with a fake "group hug"!  He's such a ham. ;-)

Halfway through the day, Luke and Matthew convinced us all to try the log ride, assuring us that even though the weather was cooler, you hardly ever get very wet with this ride.

Ha....

.....ha....

..........ha.........

We-got-SOAKED!!!!

Drenched more like it!  But it was fun, and that's the main thing!

At the end of the day....

There was even a firework show right before the park closed, so the guys took us up on the high swings to watch the fireworks go off!  It was a spectacular view.

Wednesday morning Dad and I packed up and got ready to head back home.  Dad took Matthew and I, Luke, Joan, and the kiddos out for breakfast before we hit the road.  We had a wonderful time up there, packing in as much as we could.  It was the best surprise trip I've ever been on!  I'm very grateful for my parents for planning the trip as well as my family holding down the fort while I was away and filling in to finish my chores.  They are all so very sweet!