The Servant's Quarters

Finally, life has slowed to some kind of reasonable pace, and I can now fit in a little bit of writing on the side. At last! I've missed writing my thoughts down on this site. I'm more than ready to get back into it. What better place to start than the Butler family vacation!

Actually, our annual vacation to Northern Michigan officially kicked off yesterday. We had intended to start things out right with our usual dinner of fat burgers at Miller's Bar in Dearborn. I got off of work early (as usual for a long weekend) and decided to use the time to good advantage. I took our van to a local Quick Lube for an oil change and tire rotation. Three hours later, I was pulling out of the parking lot. (Insert your own joke about "quick" oil changes here.) The kids were starving, Dearborn was a half hour away, and we surely had at least an hour's wait at Miller's for the best cheeseburgers in the world. We decided to go for greasy, fatty food closer to home. We went to Culvers, which is 5 minutes away and guaranteed to satisfy our glutenous urges. We weren't disappointed.

I'm so ashamed.

We dragged our over-fed bellies home and spent the rest of the night packing for the journey.

Up early the next day, I walked with the dog for exercise. (HA! What a joke. The fat burger was still sitting in my stomach. I was completely full from the day before's dinner. But as you're about to find out, that didn't slow me down much.) We all got dressed and went for breakfast at Golden Corral in Westland. This is a joint that must be experienced by all. For about $40, my family of eight was unleashed in the land of all you can eat paradise. Made to order omelets, french toast, pancakes, waffles, donuts, cereals, cookies, and candies followed.

It was a grand feast.

Below is a picture of Nathanel and Aidan finishing up their meals. If you look carefully, you will notice that the bowl they're eating out of is full of candy. That plus the pop and ice cream they ate the night before would ultimately come back to cause me some major problems.



What were we thinking?

We hit the road shortly after that. For those of you who have not experienced the joy of making a car trip with a family of eight, I thought of giving you a comprehensive narrative of the journey. But to tell you the truth, nothing happened. No one threw up. No one wet their pants. No one fell out of the van. We only had to stop to go to the bathroom once.

The sugar did kick in. But that story is just too frustrating to tell.

We made a couple of stops. Rita wanted to go to Pinconning to get some top notch cheese. We went, but didn't stay long. The store we picked was full of delectable cheeses, including cream cheese and chocolate cheese. It was also staffed by some older ladies who get a little grumpy with kids who get too interested in the cheese and other foods they were selling. (It didn't help when Christopher picked up a sausage about as big as he was and threatened to shoot me with it.) Here's what it looked like:





Later, we stopped at the outlet stores in West Branch so that we could buy some church shoes for Than and some....... unmentionable undergarments for Rita. (Look, I don't blog about stuff like that in public, okay?????) Things got too dicey when the kids had a sugar induced bad behavior meltdown and all the boys (including me) ended up back in the van while the ladies wrapped up the shopping.

And here we are!!! Safely at the lake. We had pizza for dinner. Then Rita went grocery shopping while I bathed the kids. Now, we're winding down with a little TV, some games, and some snacking.

Stay tuned. I'll try to provide an update everyday of what we're up to.......