Today Kelly is celebrating her repeating 26th birthday. She celebrated by baking and handing out cupcakes to all the kids in Primary. The girls and I have a few gifts that will hopefully help her to enjoy this day.
Have a wonderful birthday, Sweetheart!
Kelly has really been wanting to go to the Shedd Aquarium lately and Saturday was finally a day that we could go. Our day started out with us leaving around 10:30am. We stopped at McDonald’s for a few breakfast sandwiches and then jumped on the Toll Road and headed for Chicago. After a couple of, what seemed like, long construction related delays and one delay caused by an overturned semi trailer, we finally reached our destination. As we walked from the parking garage to the Shedd, there was a very light drizzle, but nothing that would dampen our spirits too much. As we approached the Shedd there were a couple of very large lines waiting to go inside. Luckily since we have purchased a membership, we didn’t have to wait through the entire line. We were able to get in rather quickly.
We looked at some of the fishes from around the world, then went downstairs to feed our starving bodies. The place was absolutely packed at 2:00 in the afternoon. Luckily one family was just about done and they, thankfully, gave us their seats.
We walked around and looked at a few of the animals from the Pacific Northwest, then found some seats to sit and watch the dolphin show. The show was completely packed but instead of starting the show early they made us sit and wait until the exact time it was supposed to start. The show moved so slow and we eventually got up and left and stopped at the gift shop. After looking at a few more Pacific Northwest animals we went back upstairs and looked around in the Amazon Rising.
Next we entered the Wild Reef, which in my opinion, has the coolest looking fish. The only problem and this was a problem in every area, was that there was just too many people there on Saturday. It was very hard to appreciate all the wonderful fish when you barely had any room to move. Hopefully we will be able to go again on a day when they are less crowded.
The trip home was much nicer, except for all the rain we had to drive through.
Friday, Megan attended her first day of Kindergarten. She was very excited about going to school, and really enjoyed her first day. Her favorite activity for the day was playing outside on the playground. She already made a new “best friend” named Nicholas. Hmm, friends that are boys and named Nick seem to be somewhat popular in our family.
Mom called and said they got to Salt Lake City around 11:00pm. They are having problems with their van that they rented so they had to stop somewhere in Nebraska and call the rental car place. So one of the first stops in Salt Lake will be at the rental car place to see about getting a replacement or some service. What a bummer that will be having to unpack and repack a new van. They also plan on visiting Temple Square and Deseret Book. They are staying in a hotel tonight and then traveling on to Rexburg tomorrow for Amanda’s official move in date.
Update: Mom just called and said that they stopped in Nebraska at 4:00am this morning after driving for 14 hours. They had originally planned on driving straight through to Salt Lake, but all that driving made them a little tired and they decided it was best to stop for a little sleep. After some breakfast they will get back on the road and travel approximately 800 more miles to Salt Lake. They should be there tonight.
My parents left yesterday to drive Amanda out to school. They rented a van and started on their long journey West. Hopefully all will go well and they will be able to enjoy the time they spend together.
Saturday night we had a little family get together to celebrate with Amanda before she heads off to college. After over-eating at Ponderosa, we stopped at Hollywood Video to pick up a movie. Back at the ranch, we watched one of Amanda’s favorites called The Other Sister. What a funny movie! If you get a chance ask Amanda to do some impressions from this movie, she does them quite well.
On Saturday we took a trip to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. The girls and I left home around 7:15am to drive to Michigan to pick up my Parents and Sister, who were dropping their dog, Angel, off at my Grandparent’s house. After my Grandpa made sure that we had enough air in our tires, to handle the extra load (his words), we headed for the Toll Road. After about a three hour ride, including a half-hour of impressions and jokes by Amanda, we arrived at the Walmart parking lot where we were to meet Amanda’s boyfriend Nick. After lunch at Subway, we drove a few more minutes to the park, then paid to park. I can’t imagine how much money a park like this must make in parking alone
Once the girls had their sunscreen on, we started the long walk through the parking lot to the actual entrance. Luckily we all already had our tickets, otherwise we would have had to wait in a very long line to buy them. We walked into the Midway and the girls, Grandpa, Amanda, and Nick all rode the carousel.
Kiddy Kingdom was next on our list of things to visit. The girls had a blast riding all the rides. Megan had this thing about raising her eyebrows at Nick as she would go around and around on the rides. It was quite hilarious. Next we attended a show, called Extreme Splash! 2004. It was a diving show, which was quite entertaining. We also attended a Snoopy Rocks on Ice show, which was a nice long break inside an air conditioned area.
After catching some dinner and after Mattey caught some z’s, we took a train ride around the park. Mattey loved this ride. We walked through Frontiertown, where we rode the Antique Cars.
Then it was on to Camp Snoopy, where the girls again enjoyed some fun rides. The highlight was watching and listening to Mattey enjoying her first roller coaster ride on the Jr. Gemini. She loved it.
We finished off the night attempting, and mostly succeeding, to win the girls some prizes at the carnival games. We stopped at McDonalds for a little fill-up, before making the long drive home. By the time we got home, it was almost 3:00am. What a long day, but it was a great time.
On Saturday we attended the Spenner Family Reunion for the first time in a long time. It was held at Madeline Bertrand County Park. What a nice park. It had a great play area for the kids, clean bathrooms (in a park, your kidding me), and we actually witnessed a park ranger come around at least twice to check and empty the trash. The girls enjoyed playing at the playground, but I’m not sure if they enjoyed that more or if they enjoyed the auction more. A White Elephant Auction was held and of course Grandma and Grandpa bought the girls some wonderful new toys. The most precious object is a wooden Grandma in a rocking chair that is also a music box. Megan really enjoyed the guy in the yellow shirt (an auctioneer) and she talked about the family reunion all day Saturday. It was a gorgeous day out and we did enjoy talking with family.
Here’s a recap of the two milestones, one good and one bad, which I experienced yesterday.
Milestone #1- Passing the one hundred mile mark on my bike odometer
Milestone #2 - Paying $30 for a tank of gas (yikes!)
The gas was purchased at the new Martin’s gas station on Ironwood and 23. That’s a sweet setup. The pumps have a barcode readers that scans your Martin’s Advantage Card to give you a discount on your gas. Currently through Sunday it gets you five cents off per gallon. And even with that I still paid $30.03. The pay at the pump is open 24 hours. I’m sure they will see a lot of my business. The funniest part was that when I pulled up, some young kid came out and explained to me how the pump works, like I couldn’t have figured it out myself. Come on.
On a side note, I tried to stay up and watch Hildago, but it had been a long day and I wasn’t really getting into the movie so I headed off to bed. How was the show, Sweetheart?
I finally hit the big 30, no not age, but miles per hour. On my ride into work this morning, coming down a hill on Eddy, I was able to reach 32.6 miles per hour on my bike. Reaching this speed was a goal of mine, and now I can say I have met that goal.
