Major Change in Plans!

We were supposed to go to South Dakota (Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, Wall Drug, etc.) on vacation this year. This was going to be the first vacation EVER that I planned where we had NO reservations made, for anywhere. We were just going to "wing it" every day and every night. I had a general idea of where about we might end up each day, but if we didn't make it that far, or if we chose to go further, that would be fine. One of the reasons for this "careless" sort of trip is that our girls both play softball. And their playoffs might last a couple days or over a week. Last year, we ended up missing B1's last game of the playoffs, which her team lost 4-3. We wonder if she would have been there, would it have made a difference? Who knows. We simply didn't want to be in this same boat this year with either one of our daughters. Knowing that in previous years, the playoffs are usually over shortly after the St. Jacob Homecoming, we felt confident in saying that we would leave sometime this week, but preferably early in the week.

Well, that's not going to happen. Thier playoffs were supposed to begin last Wednesday. It rained that day, which pushed everything to Thursday. B1's team lost on Thursday; B2's team won. It's a double-elimination tournament. After Thursday, B1 played again on Sunday (won) while B2 played again on Saturday (lost). Now they both had one loss. Another would end the season for either one of them. Next games......both on Monday night (tonight). B1's team won tonight, knocking out a team that I thought might have a good chance to be champions. B2's team lost, knocking our team out and honestly, I thought we might have a good chance to be champions. Anyway.....we are still playing, B1 at least. And the next game is now Wednesday. If they win, they would have to turn around and play the same team again the following night. If they win then, they would be the champions. Whew! So.....this could take us all the way through Thursday night.

Knowing all of this, I determined that our big family summer vacation would continue to be pushed back more and more. And although we are both teachers and have the whole summer "off", we still need to be back by a certain date so that B1 can prepare for middle school softball tryouts. Also, Bruce and I have a concert to go to in Metropolis, IL on August 1. I saw it coming and began speaking to Bruce about what we might do. Do we just up and leave, and leave the girls' teams without them? Not that they couldn't survive without our girls in the least, but still, we are trying to teach some sort of teamwork and commitment here too. Tought decision.

What to do, what to do? So here's what we came up with: scratch South Dakota altogether. Instead, let's FLY to Colorado! Yeah, fly! The girls have never flown before and B2 is a little freaked about it. But she'll be OK. We are going to leave on Friday, fly to Denver, rent a car, and drive, drive, drive. We are going to see A LOT of the state in one week.....Vail, take a mountan jeep tour in Salida, go to the 4 Corners, see Mesa Verde National Park, ride an alpine slide in Durango, do the Durango/Silverton narrow gauge railroad trip, go to the Royal Gorge, gamble in Cripple Creek, see the Garden of the Gods, go to a chuckwagon dinner show, ride the cog to the top of Pikes Peak, see Seven Falls, and see the Air Force Academy. Some of these things may change and some others might be added, we'll just have to see.

Colorado had always been on my list of "vacations I want to take the girls on" so this change is completely fine with me. It's another that I will get to check off my list! Actually, I think I might be more excited about this than I was South Dakota......which, by the way, is now slated for 2010!

My Kind of Week!

Guess what?!? Bruce and I are in FLORIDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep.....the home of Mickey Mouse! I didn't post anything about this prior to now because I didn't want a couple people to find out and I wasn't sure whether or not they would be reading my blog.

Anyway, about a month ago, we got an e-mail from Bruce's best friend's wife, inviting us (along with many other people) to a surprise 40th birthday party for him on July 15. We were included in the e-mail, even though we 4 states away, only because she sent it out to a whole lot of people all at once (I'm thinking everyone in her address book). So I casually mentioned it to Bruce......and then he came up with the idea that if we chose to try to go to the party, we could probably squeeze in a day at Disney. Gee, hmmmmm, you think that perked my ears up a little? Duh!

We left on Monday, flew down, and rented a car at Orlando Internaltional Airport. We checked into the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel and promptly headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Jiko. Then we went to the boardwalk and spent the rest of the evening walking around, watching the All-Star home run derby, and eating ice cream. I have definitely found the place where I want to stay next time we are at Disney: the Yacht and Beach Club! That place looks amazing! The pool there is to die for!

On Tuesday, we spent the entire day in Disney parks (except for the 45 minutes we took to come back, shower, and change). We visited Disney's Hollywood Studios, The Magic Kingdom, and Epcot. I won't go into details about all of that. The highlight of the day was surprising one of my best friends at Epcot. She is on her first Disney trip ever with some other members of her family and we showed up at the place where they were having dinner. She was shocked! I snuck up on her, put my hands over her eyes, and said "it's someone from home." She recognized my voice and said "you're kidding me!" We spent the remainder of the night with her and at one point, she said "I can't believe we are 17 hours from home and we are riding this ride together!" It was cool.

Today, we slept in (after staying at Epcot until midnight last night), went to Downtown Disney to shop (and we did pretty well with that!), ate lunch at Earl of Sandwich (my Caprese sandwich was superb!), and then headed towards Tampa. We managed to find a casino in which to spend a couple of hours, then shopped for a little while at a mall, and then went to Patrick's party. We walked into the restaurant and he looked towards us and then did a double-take. His wife jumped out of her chair and ran towards us screaming "no way!" It was cool!

Now we are at their house getting ready for bed. We will fly back home tomorrow. It's been nice to get away alone for a few days. The good news is that our girls' ball games got rained out tonight so we didn't miss anything there. We will be back home by game time tomorrow!

A Rough Volunteer Job!

We got to do a cool little volunteer job yesterday at Busch Stadium.

The major league baseball all-star game is being played in St. Louis this year and they needed the help of random people. You see, we got to go down to the stadium and "stand in" for the all-stars. The stadium has to do several run-throughs of announcing the line-ups, among other pre-game festivities. So.....they needed bodies to take the place of the All-Stars.

B1 was Francisco Rodriguez of the New York Mets; I was Johan Santana of the New York Mets, and Bruce was Jason Marquis (former Cardinal) of the Colorado Rockies. We got to sit in the dugout and when it was time, go stand out on the first base line. Then they "introduced" us and we even got to be on the jumbotron! Pretty cool. They went through the entire pre-game ceremony, including President Obama's speech. We rehearsed this thing like 3 times. We were there for 2 hours! From what I understand, other random citizens are doing this same routine every day until Tuesday.

This picture was taken while we stood in the Cardinal dugout.

Here is Bruce in the dugout.

The 3 of us on the field (we even got to walk across the GRASS! (gasp!)).

Bruce on the jumbotron!

B1 and me on the jumbotron!

Bruce next to the Jack Buck statue outside the stadium afterwards.

And while the 3 of us were there (you had to be 12 years old to participate), B2 stayed at my parents' house and among other things, created this frog with Play-Doh. Pretty good, huh?

Let Me Hold You Longer

I took my daughters swimming today at the Highland pool. And I didn't go with them. And my heart broke just a little bit as I drove away. They met 2 friends there; I feel confident in the life guards there; I never went there with my mom as a kid. Still, it hurt. They walked up, purchased their tickets to get in, and strolled in all on their own. They thought it was cool to have their own money and be on their own for a few hours. I went home and cleaned the bathroom. Sigh.

On the last day of school this year, a book company set up a bunch of racks of books in our hallway. Almost everything they had was on sale. When I walked through there on my way back from lunch that day, the other teachers who I was with and I looked at many of these books. I saw one called Let Me Hold You Longer. The title intrigued me and I read the entire book standing there in the hall. And tears came to my eyes. The book talks about how we as parents take note of all of our children's "firsts." We take pictures, record the dates, and try our best to remember those moments. But who knows when something might be happening for the LAST time? The last time they color a picture for you? The last time they need help tying their shoes? The last time they play house, or cars? The last time they WANT to sleep in bed with you? Ahhhhh..........thinking about these things is making me crazy.

I thought about this today. Was last summer the last time I would go to a public swimming pool with my daughters? Probably not, but maybe it was the last time they needed me to go with them. Oh boy. I need to make sure I enjoy every moment. Life is so short and they grow up sooooo fast.

Riding to Highland

Sunday was just about a perfect day, weather-wise. It was July 5 and about 75 degrees. That's unheard of in the midwest, but this year, that is what happened. Bruce and I had talked about riding our bikes to Highland, a town about 5 miles east of ours, earlier in the summer. We hadn't done so yet and when we didn't have much to do on Sunday, we decided it would be a great day for the ride. When we first told the girls what we thought we were going to do, their weren't real sure about it. "Ride all the way to Highland? And then back home? Huh?" But once they warmed up to the idea, they actually got excited about it and began making water bottles for our bicycles.

B1 is very proud of our efforts here! The ride there went smoothly. We took the old highway, which passes right by our house. About halfway, it becomes a bit busier, but with me leading the way and Bruce in the back with the girls single-file in the middle, we felt safe. He would yell whenever a car was approaching from behind and obviously, we could see when one was approaching from the front. It was a good workout. We stopped about 3 times along the way to rest our butts and legs and get a drink! Once we actually made it to Highland, we headed straight to Bruce's mom's home. After a little visit with her and his brother and sister-in-law (who happened to be visiting her), we borrowed her car, left our bikes in her carport, and drove to Dairy Queen for lunch! We took a different route home, which was a bit longer, but we felt safer. All-in-all, I think we probably rode about 11 miles yesterday. My legs weren't tired today either, which was very surprising! It felt good to know we all did it, together!

This picture of B2 was taken on the way home. I thought it was adorable!

A Christmas Story House Part 3

This picture cracks me up! In the movie, Ralphie gets in a fight on the way home from school and his brother, Randy is scared that "Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie" for getting in the fight. Randy hides under the sink because he is scared. Their mom assures Randy that Ralphie will be fine. When I saw the kitchen, I opened the cabinet and asked B2 to get in there. She made a great face to go along with the shot! You can click on the picture to make it larger to look at B2's face.
The kitchen table

Turkey in the oven (still has an hour to bake!)

View of the lamp from the front porch area

The house, taken from across the street

This is part of the actual blackboard that was used in the movie. You can still see A++++ on it!

These are the actual pajamas and robe worn by Ralphie, Randy, and their mom on Christmas morning.

The Red Ryder BB gun in the corner, partially unwrapped!

A Christmas Story House Part 2

Here is Ralphie's composition book, his cracked glasses, and on the right side (mostly out of view), the "theme"!
Bathroom shelf.....the soap has teeth marks in it!

Ralphie's thinking area when he was decoding Little Orphan Annie's secret message: "Drink your Ovaltine".......a crummy commercial!

Me dialing the phone in the hall, calling Schwartz's mom!

Pictures hanging in the stairwell

The staircase

Our family by the lamp......I LOVE Bruce's hand on the lamp! I didn't tell him to do this but only noticed it later when I was looking through the pictures. I laughed out loud!

The Christmas tree in the living room, with gifts beneath it

More pics to come tomorrow!

A Christmas Story House Part 1

After we left Cedar Point, we drove east to Cleveland and visited the house that was used in the movie "A Christmas Story," which was released in 1983. This is one of my all time favorite movies, not just at Christmastime, but at any time of the year! The man who purchased the house in 2005 restored it to make it look like it did in the movie and then opened it to the public in November, 2006. This is where they filmed all the outside footage and some of the inside shots as well. It was AWESOME! Across the street from the house is a museum and next door to that is (of course) a gift shop.

This is the sign in front of the house.

Here is a picture and the actual Little Orphan Annie secret decoder pin that Ralphie received in the mail.

This is an actual coat that Ralphie wore in the movie.

The actual snowsuit worn by Randy in the movie (remember "I can't put my arms down!")

This is an actual prop of a toy that Randy received on Christmas morning.

Here is the mailbox in front of the house.

And if you are a true fan, you remember what happened with this bowling ball on Christmas morning! It was wrapped in the movie though. And look to the right; see a bit of a jumble of extension chords!?!

Ralphie and Randy's bedroom

More pictures from this part of the trip to come tomorrow!

Cedar Point Pictures #3

The girls still playing in Lake Erie.....
They've spotted me!

Our initials and all of our left hand prints in the sand

I smartly chose the positioning on this picture as to hide as much of my body as possible! Ha ha!

Washing off the Lake Erie beach sand before heading back into the water park

It was a good day! They loved each other this day!

See what I mean?

Posing in the Camp Snoopy section

More Cedar Point Pics!

I think this is Schroeder, but I'm not positive.
Charlie Brown

Snoopy of course!

B1 and B2 riding their favorite ride.....the Blue Streak roller coaster. They especially waited to be able to sit in the front seat......6 times!

In front of another one of their favorite coasters, the Iron Dragon

The past 3 years, this has become a tradition for us. We wrote our name like this on the same beach in 2007. In 2008, we wrote it on the shore at Disney's Castaway Cay island. I am hoping to find somewhere in either South Dakota or Wyoming to do something similar later this month!

They really enjoyed playing in Lake Erie. These pictures were taken from far away, which is why they are a bit blurry.

The water was really shallow quite a ways out. They are basically laying down in the water here.

I'm back!

Our trip to Cedar Point was great! I finally got to ride the Top Thrill Dragster and I can say that it was the most thrilling roller coaster I've ever been on, even though the ride only lasts 17 seconds! It's a serious adrenaline rush. Between the 4 of us, we rode 14 of the 17 roller coasters there. The 3 that we didn't ride went upside down and we're not big fans of going upside down! I did ride one stand-up coaster that went upside down though, albeit not my favorite. I will post some pictures from the trip each of the next several days.

This is where we stayed in Sandusky. We did not have any reservations before we left and we anticipated just staying at some "mom and pop" kind of motel, which we did. This place had 8 units! But it was clean and cheap, so it was fine with us. All we really did there was sleep anyway and the owners were very nice. It was in the lobby here that I found out Michael Jackson had passed away.

This picture was taken on the first day we went to Cedar Point outside of McDonald's. The water is Lake Erie. It's really pretty nice there because the amusement park is located on a peninsula and therefore, even when the temperature is high, you have a breeze almost all the time.

Here is one view of the park as you drive up to it. Pretty cool! The yellowish colored coaster is the Top Thrill Dragster. The blue one on the left side is the Millenium Force and is seriously the smoothest coaster I've ever ridden. It is really awesome too!

Here is B2 trying to climb the rope ladder. She is falling in this picture.

Family shot in front of an old rail car.

I look too happy to be here!

They are having their feet massaged on a "footsie wootsie."

June turns into July

I owe you 7 more pictures. I am going to have to finish this project in July.

I didn't take a picture of anything "interesting" today AND, we are leaving tomorrow for Cedar Point and will be gone for 5 days. I promise I will finish this task next month!

June 23

I took a picture tonight of something that sits on the counter in our kitchen. Yes, that is our family on a Wheaties box! We had this made in 2003 when we were at the Mall of America in the General Mills Cereal Adventure area. Each of the girls also made their own box of cereal and got to design the cover of the box. It was pretty neat. Yes, there is real cereal in this box (still) and yes, that is a plastic cover you see around it. Bruce loves this souvenir!

June 22

I forgot to take a picture of something today so I am posting an old picture that I've never had on my blog. This is B1, B2, and one of their very good friends (who happened to spend the night at our house last night) back in March at the High School Musical musical at our school. The picture was taken from pretty far away with a zoom lens. I think it's a cute one though!

June 21

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Today was party day at our house. This is the 4th or 5th year that we have hosted a Father's Day party for our families and some friends. It's always a fun time and we always have a TON of food! Seriously, we have a lot! Here's one of the things I made this year.....Banana Split cake. It's not really cake though; it's a dessert. I love it, which is why I chose to make it. I have not had this for awhile now and it tasted really good!

The girls and I gave Bruce a hot dog cooker for Father's Day. He has wanted one of these for awhile now. It's the kind that rolls the hot dogs up and down on a hot surface and cooks them. He immediately had to make one for himself and try it. It worked!

Here is Bruce and the girls doing a "3-way kiss." We do a "4-way kiss" every year on New Year's Eve so this was his special Father's Day kiss!

We also gave Bruce a pair of flip-flop Crocs to wear. I think he liked those as well because he wore them all day long today.

My dad and my honey!

Some of the bathing beauties in the pool!

And some more.....

Shinza managed to escape from our yard this morning. She ran around the neighborhood for maybe 10 minutes. Then I think she decided it was just too hot to stay out and about, so she came back home!

The kids got a lot of use out of the slide today!

Even the really little ones had fun in the pool!

I had a great day. I love having this party every year because honestly, it's one of the only times anymore when I see my 2 uncles and their families. It's also nice to spend time with friends. I hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as we did!

June 20

Happy Birthday Shinza! Today is our dog's 6th birthday. We always celebrate the birthdays of our pets and since dogs aren't supposed to have chocolate, she usually gets some kind of white or yellow sponge cake.

6 shiny caneles!

Taking it directly off of the plate from B1!

YUM!

June 19

THE FIRST ONES!! Here are the first tomatoes I picked for the season. I love tomatoes. My cherry vines are loaded with little green tomatoes right now. These two probably could have waited another day, but I was just so excited to pick them! All of my tomato bushes are really full of green tomatoes. It looks like it's going to be a great season for them.

June 18

Tonight was my second Girls Night Out for the week! It just happened this way and wasn't planned to be so close together. Tonight I went out with 3 high school friends. It was a very nice, relaxing evening. We first went to dinner at Calico's in downtown St. Louis and then we went to the Cardinal game, which the Cardinals lost, but still, we had fun! These pictures were taken with my phone camera so the quality isn't real great.

I like getting together with these gals. We've known each other for so long that it is just comfortable being with them. There is no pressure to act a certain way or be a certain person. It's just nice to hang out together and talk about our spouses, kids, and families as well as old times!

June 17

Today, we took my mother-in-law on her annual Mother's Day trip. We choose a day in June and take her on a "mystery" trip. She doesn't know where we are going. It is fun.

Because of an evening ball game and softball camp in the morning, we were a bit short on time this year so we opted for a close destination. After the girls got done at softball camp, we went to Applebee's for lunch. Then we headed to St. Louis and we took her to Lumiere Place. She enjoys gambling and so do we. But Bruce (being the nice guy he is) let her and me gamble for a little over an hour while he took the girls for a walk on the Landing. Then they found an ice cream cart inside the Lumiere Hotel.

We left Lumiere and headed for the arch. This picture was taken as we walked from the parking garage to the north leg. I think it's a good picture!

The clouds were moving when I took this one. It makes me dizzy standing below and staring up at the arch!

Here was a photo op of the little capsule thing-y that you ride to the top inside.

Busch Stadium, home of the best team in baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals.....taken from atop the Gateway Arch!

Our family at the top!

I think we forget that one of the biggest tourist attractions in our country is only 25 miles from home. We don't really even notice it anymore when we cross the river into St. Louis. But yeah, the Gateway Arch is a pretty cool place!

June 16

Tonight was a Girls Night Out with friends. We do this every 3 months or so. Tonight we went to a place in Edwardsville called Wang Gang. The weather was perfect that we were able to sit outside and eat. The meal was yummy and we had enough food that we all brought home leftovers!

Sesame Noodles with shrimp...............

Spring rolls..........
Lettuce Wraps...........

Thai Basil Fried Rice...........

Crab Rangoon...........

After dinner, we sat and talked for awhile at the restaurant, let our food settle a bit, and then headed to Bobby's for dessert! It was a very tasty evening!