Things You Can Do On A Family Trip to Olivia, MN.

1. Stop only once to eat, and once to get gas on the nine-hour car ride, with three children (Yay kiddies!)

2. Share iPod headphones with hubby, thereby increasing the intimate time spent in car together, and drowning out many of the "Are We There Yets".

3. Allow daughter to eat french fries and ketchup, and a root beer for breakfast at the Chatterbox Truck Stop, where a welcome sign greets guests with "Handguns are forbidden in Olivia."

4. Actually ride a horse, by myself, even attempting to trot! And then saying, "Ooh, I want a horse! Why on earth did I ever think I would never want a horse! Daddy, I want a horse!"

5. Sleep at The Sheep Shedd, where their motto is, "Hope you'll come BAAA-ck!"

6. Walk into the town with Diva, and actually find a mocha freezy drink (non-fat, complete with whip though!) for a fraction of the cost of a Starbucks grande, at only $2.66.

7. Not be able to get another mocha freezy drink on Sunday because the Olivia Drug Rite is CLOSED ON SUNDAYS!

8. Avoid intimate relations with husband because of sharing the motel room with three children.

9. Fly a kite!

10. Take a walk to the top of a beautiful waterfall.

11. Watch my children meet their great-grandmother (Hubby's grandma) for the very first time.

12. Eat a lot of crock-pot meals, definitely too heavy and too hot for this time of year, and definitely something I said I wouldn't eat, but devoured when it was 'supper' time.

13. Got a nice Saturday afternoon buzz from a few Mike's Hard Lemonades.

14. Really thought what it would be like to have been a 'country' girl rather than the city girl I think I am. Think about how different my life would have been, could have been, how things would have been simpler, more quiet, more reflective, more God-like.

15. Watch a horse fart 12 inches from Diva and crack up at the look of horror on her face.

16. Come up with a new family nickname for farts due to the horse farting in front of Diva--Now we call it "Cutting a Fairy" since the horse's name was Fairy. (Sidenote: Tukey just came in here and told me to smell his butt and then exclaimed that he just "Fairy-ed two times." I guess it's going to stick!

17. Listen to the iPod a lot, but not enough to kill the battery life, just enough to make me very happy.

18. Use my amazing Neo Alphasmart keyboard to start my Memoir, which I wrote more than 20 single spaced pages in the car on the ride home.

19. Also wrote the start of an article I plan to submit to the local paper on how my iPod is my new best friend.

20. Play "Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum In A Dish" with some really poor, welfare ridden children in the park. They were sweet and fun and I love being able to hang out with new people, even if they are just three-foot little kiddies.

21. Shop in a couple little five-and-dime stores with Diva.

22. Read a whole book from start to finish, just in the car! I'm so glad I got over my motion sickness now that I'm older! (P.S. It was called Knocked Up, Confessions of a Hip Mom-To-Be--I will be commenting on it in a future entry.)

23. Listened to Hubby gripe about his pink eye, which was far worse than mine, for the whole weekend.

24. Not getting any transmittion to be able to use a cell phone.

25. Didn't touch a computer for over three days, and didn't miss it all that much.

26. Saw an Elk, fed some geese leaves, fed a horse, saw some buffalo, got bitten by a few mosquitos, saw some horse flies that were bigger than those bumble bees that are big and fuzzy and like to dive into colorful flowers, you know, the REAL bumble bees.

There's more, there's lots more; this is just a smattering of the things we got to do on our family trip to Olivia, MN., a place I wasn't sure I wanted to spend a whole weekend there, but now know that it's part of my children's heritage, part of my husband's family and I truly enjoyed every minute of learning more about the family that gave me my husband, who then gave me my children. And is there a more beautiful gift than that? Thank you, Olivia, MN. And I'm so glad I found a Frappy Mocha Freeze while I was there!