Anyone who has seen or read The Hobbit will recognize the title quote from Bilbo Baggins as he tears down the path after the Dwarves whom he wanted nothing to do with in the first place. Bilbo much prefers well-mannered company and his own well-stocked larder.
Our family is very much like a community of Hobbits. We also love food and company. We've been known to host three day parties, though adding extra children and pets to that makes it a bit more challenging. Our parties may have scaled down some, but our love of sweets and sweet friends never will.
We piled the crew into Pepe on Saturday and took off for a Mystery Adventure. They kids went hogwild guessing our destination. Dada answered, "no, and not telling" to every guess. A distinct "it had better not be Home Depot" was muttered from the backseat. Perhaps we have tried that tactic before...
At any rate, I wore the cowgirl boots I found at Goodwill for $5 because I figured we'd be chilly and I figured where we were going they would be appreciated...
The leaves are getting SO pretty. We went a back way instead of the turnpike forever, so that helped with the scenery as well. It got cloudier and cloudier as we approached our mystery destination, so the leaves got lovelier.
We arrived at an airplane hangar on the other side of Ohio. We weren't there early enough to yell, "surprise!" as we took a little longer at Panera for lunch than we maybe should have, but we DID get in line just before a busload of folks from Nebraska who were headed to New York City, so there is that. Aunt Sherri was ecstatic anyway. Sweet Tom threw her a surprise 50th birthday party, and since her birthday was the week before, she thought she'd gotten off scott free. So we brought a Scott with us, hehe.
This was adorable. The boys are under a plane that a million people had previously signed. Aunt Sherri is supervising while she eats one of the Cortland apples that Tom brought from some orchard-owning friends, and they're just all chitchatting and having a wonderful time. I love how she gets right in there with them and talks about anything and everything. She is so priceless to us!
It was so good to spend some time with Sherri's son Michael, too. He's one of Carrie's favorite people in life. We did get some quick hugs from his brother, Charlie, but Carrie really enjoyed chilling with her bud.
"And there was far too much food." That'd be cousin Eric in the background, who was partly responsible for the three batches of homemade ice cream that were devoured while we were there. His daughter, Paige, contributed apple crisp, Tom made brownies, and we had the apples. Let's just say none of us will starve anytime soon. We are a dessert-loving clan, for sure.
Aunt Sherri in her usual state: delighted. She is such a joy-filled person and I really admire that!
All too soon we had to head back home, through the clouds again. Never enough time with people that you love. We got plenty of hugs from Carrie's Squishy, more formally known as Aunt Evelyn, and Uncle Leon, and Pap. It had been fun to meet some of Tom's pilot friends, including a flirtatious man named Gerry who was pleased to find a fellow Pennsylvanian.
The clouds cleared out again as we headed home. The kids didn't seem to mind being in the car longer than we were at the party. It had been a lovely day, and now we have one more possible destination in our arsenal for our next Mystery Adventure. Bilbo would approve wholeheartedly.
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