Just where in the world are the FOUR little FULTON's?!...

It's adventure time! In just under an hour myself, the tribe & our special guest will be taking off on an adventure. Nothing like hitting the pavement in double digit weather. Now just what will we do? Where will we go? Who will we see? That is the 1000 dollar question. I am going to attempt to take the 6 of us on this adventure for 1,000 dollars or less. If you want to follow our journey just check in here to see exactly how I manage it. Trust me I think this is going to be more of an "adventure" for me than them! So...


Just where in the world are the FOUR little FULTON's?!...

eat almost everything off a stick!...

We, Camryn & I, went on a trip over the Labor Day weekend. As previously posted in our leaving on a jet plane post, we flew to the great state of Minnesota to visit one of my best friends Marisa. She had us seeing all we could see in the four short days we were there. Our first act as a "Minnesotan" was attending the Minnesota State Fair. The fair is apparently a BIG event up there. The guys skedaddled on us & it ended up just being Grandma Novak, aka Gretchen, Marisa, Clare & us going. What an event!
There were TONS of people! They bill it as the place where you can eat almost EVERYTHING off a stick! I would love to know exactly how many food that you can get on a stick!? They had the normal stuff ie: hot dogs, corn dogs, corn, steak & chicken on a stick. But the CRAZIEST food I saw was "Hot Dish" on a stick, aka casserole, meat dish on a stick! It sounded interesting but in the end it was the delicious pork chop that called out my name! YUM! It was unlike any pork chop I ever had at a fair & on a stick no less! (= Miss Clare has taken to Camryn rather well. She told all of her friends that Cam is her little sister! Amazingly enough they almost believed her! She is SO funny! She made sure that we got a bucket of the famous Sweet Martha's cookies & some of the fried cheese curds before we left. {The Mouth Trap had the BEST bunch!} These two foods are a must when you go to the Minnesota State Fair. Just hearing the name, cheese curds, sounded kind of gross but they were in fact SO yummy! Who would have thought frying up the leftover pieces of cheese would be so tasty! Whoever started that tradition has surely made a mint! We made sure to bring some home to Grandpa Novak since that was the only request he made, Bring home cheese curds! As we made the rounds we stumbled upon the Butterfly exhibit. We just had to take the girls inside to see all of the butterflies!I must say that it was a COOL exhibit! There were butterflies EVERYWHERE! Camryn loved seeing all of them that is until one landed on her arm pit & then she FREAKED! Of course I hurried up & took a picture of her! I know, terrible mommy, but I had to capture the moment for posterity! (= I think we are going to have to take the tribe to our own Butterfly World when we get back home. After the butterflies we checked out the horses. Camryn liked seeing them up close especially the BIG ones! I did not realize how large some horses could actually be! WOW! There was even a woman there braiding her horses mane. I wish I could braid! Maybe one day! (= As we exited the horse exhibit we noticed the milk stand. Since Camryn LOVES chocolate milk we made a pit stop there. Nothing like fresh cold milk to quench your thirst! You can buy it plain or CHOCOLATE! You know what we ordered! LOL! I just got a glass instead of the all you can drink since cups are a NEW thing for us. I put EVERY liquid in a sippy just in case! LOL! There Cam was sipping her chocolate milk out of the cup UNTIL she started flinging it at passing peoples legs! YEP that's my girl! Now you know why I bring their sippies EVERYWHERE! There was just ONE place that Marisa wanted to stop by & that was the Republican booth. For those that don't know her, she is a die hard Republican. When ever I have questions about legislation or just political stuff in general she is my "go to" girl! One day she will be an elected official I just know it! Before leaving we took a picture with Reagan. OK so it was a cardboard cut out of him but it was still cool to get a picture with him! (= Marisa was in heaven! We rested for a bit & then took in the parade. Quite an interesting group of floats, bands & especially parade goers. We got quite a laugh from one lady who rooted on EACH & EVERY participant! She even told one worker to get out of her way because she was watching the parade! TOO funny! It was one LONG day! There was SO much to see, do & eat! Especially when you could...

eat almost everything off a stick!...

Tuesday Toot...

Ok I was "nudged" or better yet reminded to join the ranks of the many that did a "Tuesday Toot" today. I LOVE Tuesday Toot's! I just can never figure out the linky thing to add it to our blog. Remember I am computer challenged! LOL! Actually I have missed a few "Tuesday Toot's" since we went on vacation. It was HARD trying to keep up since I was viewing things through my tiny phone! We're FINALLY home & I am sitting in front of our computer! YAY! During our mini vay cay it rained a lot in S Florida, so much that the pond in our back yard is now a HUGE lake that even has fish in it! Yes fish are now swimming around where our yard used to be! TOO funny! Don't get me wrong I prayed for rain! We have been in a drought & our yard looked terrible! I just would like a yard & not a lake! (= This is a perfect example I give my hubby on why we need to bring in some fill to raise the yard up. I keep telling him that I'd like to bring in a few loads of dirt to raise the yard up a few inches. He says it is a waste I think of the future. That way when we get our NEW "used" swing set it will be high & dry with no standing water! The other bad thing about all the rain is with it comes the mosquitos! Man are they BAD! The county we live in even has mosquito control where they fly planes to spray. Linz ALWAYS gets bitten & bitten BAD! They must think she is SO sweet! She sure has those skeeters fooled! Only kidding! LOL! Here's to hoping for a DRY...

Tuesday Toot...

once in their life...

We were SO lucky this past weekend to get away MINUS the munchkins! My 2nd cousin Jackie & her fiance' David got married in Louisiana & they invited us! We were SO SO appreciative to have this mini vacation I cannot tell you! This was not the first time they had an overnight HOWEVER it was the first time we split the foursome up! We are SO lucky to have such WONDERFUL people in our lives offer to take them just so we could go away. AMAZING! Debbie, aka "Auntie Debbie", took Camryn & Brendan. It was a no brainer for that choice! She LOVES Camryn! Not that she has a favorite! LOL! She has been SO good to us. She will watch all 4 of them when I work during the week. Our cousin Linda took the "twins", aka Avery & Lindsey. She has a grandson, Roman, that is one year younger than them so there was another child there for them to play with. We are SO blessed having them in our lives. Not just anyone would offer to watch your kids when you go away on a mini vacation let alone out of the state! I prepared the munchkins for weeks on who would be where. I wanted to make sure they knew were everyone was. Like a two year old can tell! ha! Anyhow one day I quizzed them, I asked them to raise their hands if they were going to Auntie Debbie's. Both Camryn & Brendan raised their hands, I was in TOTAL shock! I guess those brains are sponges! I think they needed this mini vaca as much as we did! I just hope they do not wear out their caretakers! This is how it all went down... I put Camryn & Brendan's car seats into Debbies car a day earlier. Then I arranged for my good friend Delia to spend the night at my mom's house the night before we left. She planned it perfect & was there to play with them before they went to bed. Our flight was EXTRA early so I did not want them to have to spend another night away from us. It worked out perfectly! We left around 530am for the airport as they were sound asleep in their own cribs. They got up around 8am & had their breakfast not knowing we were LONG gone. Then Debbie & Linda came to get them shortly there after. They each had pack n'plays for each child PLUS highchairs & a BIG bag full of all their stuff. I packed for it all! They had toys, snugglies, clothes to play in, eat in, swim in, sleep in, go out in & even COLD weather clothes! (Just in case! LOL!) Then there was the diapers. It was hard for me to figure out how many diapers 2 children would go through! I figured it's better to have more than less! Linda had her hubby drop her off at my mom's so she could just take the BURB with Avery & Lindsey's carseats already in it. MUCH easier for me! I told them before we left that I would try to call twice a day but not before bed. I did not want them missing us & then have to go to sleep thinking about how much they missed us. Well... that was in my dreams because they never even missed us! There were times we would call & they said they did not want to talk to us! Can you believe that!? Those little rascals! They were having the time of their life while we were away! We felt so good knowing that they were being loved on even if it wasn't us doing the loving! LOL! We kept ourselves busy so we did not miss them too much! The first day was SO strange! There was NO food to cut up, NO nap time or schedule to follow, no baths to run. It was VERY surreal! I hope everyone with a ton of kids can feel this...

once in their life...