Schitterbahn & Moving Steven

Jack, Eric, Steven, and I went to Schlitterbahn today!  It was only about 85 degrees when we got there, but by 3pm it was up to 105, yikes!  We spent most of our day in the tidal wave river, which was pretty great!  We also did the teal and black waterslides, the water coaster, the true lazy river, and the connection between the lazy river and the tidal wave river.  The signs said that there were supposed to be 6 new rides in 2011, but as we near the end of July, none of them are near completion - lame!  It sucks that the ticket prices are the same for 1/2 the park as what they will be when the rest of it opens, but we still had a great time.

Steven decided not to reapply sunscreen with the rest of us, and paid dearly for his error!  When we finished at the park, we grabbed lunch at Cheeseburgers in Paradise.  I left the boys so I could take Jack home and greet Papa on his return from Michigan!  Eric and Steven went and played some games with Grant - then I joined them at his apartment later in the evening.  We managed to finish moving him out of his apartment, except for some small things, in only two trips!  Then we were able to hang around for a bit, and I snuck a mega snap under one of the kitchen chairs...it took 30 minutes for anyone to sit in that chair, but Steven just about peed his pants when he was the unlucky winner!

Yay!  Jack and I are ready to go swimming!

Jack was super tired and upset that we were leaving, this isn't a smile, but a grimace as he was crying.  :( 

This speaks for itself! 

Jack fell asleep as soon as he hit the seat, and then woke up easily to devour his chicken strips and fries. 

Dark, but Steven outside of his empty apartment!

Wenberg Family Reunion

After we got off work last night, Eric and I went to Mom and Alan's house for a nap before leaving for Illinois around midnight. 

First funny story of the night...Eric and I slept in Ashley's room because the dogs were being too loud downstairs.  Around 10:30 I wake up to Shannon and Taylor coming in, because they are housesitting M&A's dogs while we are at the reunion.  I go to open Ashley's door and hear Taylor say "Where's the magic gonna happen?" and Shannon says "Probably downstairs where the drinks are".  I jump into bed with Eric and freak out "Ahhh, we have to let them know we're here and FAST!"  I set my phone alarm off right by the door and then we stomp down the stairs like elephants to announce ourselves.  I feign surprise at seeing Taylor, and Shannon jumps out of her skin when she sees us.  We hang around and pack up our stuff so we can stop by Papa's house on our way out of town, and as we are leaving, they start talking about setting up Magic...as in THE CARD GAME!  Haha!

So then we take care of Frisco at Papa's house, and leave for Illinois.  The drive is uneventful - the GPS showed us arriving much sooner than we anticipated, so I stopped at a rest stop and we napped for an hour and a half.  We arrived at the hotel to meet Mom, Alan, Grandma, Grandpa, Greg, and Ally right on time - and had a really awesome breakfast at the diner attached to the hotel.  I ate ALL of my 2 pancakes, hash browns, and egg over hard - and Eric helped me with about half of my ham slice.  Usually I order a breakfast that has some of everything, and then get about 2/3 of the way through it before giving up.

Once we made it to Jean & Roger's property, I'll let the photos do the talking.  With one exception - late in the afternoon I check my phone and see I missed a call from the principal I worked with last year.  He left me a message saying that a woman from a gas station in Illinois had called him saying someone turned in my wallet, which had been dropped in the parking lot.  His business card was the only phone number in my wallet, so they called him!  I freaked out because we had been to a number of gas stations through the night, but it turns out that this was the gas station less than 20 minutes from the property we were staying at!  Hooray!  The man that turned it in was totally honest too, I had over $100 cash, 2 debit cards, and 2 drivers licenses - everything was still there!

The drive home wasn't nearly as fun.  It poured, thundered, and lightninged throughout the night, Ashley ended up sleeping in the car and being mega grumpy in the morning, and Eric and I were both hungover.  We stopped for McDonald's hashbrowns and Sprite - which are usually good hangover foods.  Not this time, ew!  Later in the day we had Jimmy John's, which perked us both up and helped us finish the day strong!

Shots of the property...

Shots of the property...

Shots of the property...

 Shots of the property...

 Shots of the property...

 Shots of the property...

Everyone hanging out by the pool

 Using my waterproof camera!

Haha!  I can see you!

And there's Eric!

Hi Ashley! 

There's Me and Ashley! 

A delicious lunch, and I somehow managed to get a picture without a fly in it...there were dozens hanging around the pool.

Crue was one of the little kids, and he loved being thrown into the pool. 

This is where Eric spent most of his day, and got an awful sunburn. 

Alan throws Eric into pool, Eric tries to retaliate, Alan wins, Eric gets scratched up from landing in the dirt.  Owwww 

My sunburn before it evened out, there were strange white streaks toward the bottom.  P.S. This picture makes me look like I have a giant back and NO BUTT or hips!  What the hell?

The start of Eric's sunburn+his well established farmers tan. 

Eric and I in "The Hacienda" 

Ashley, Eric, and I are pooped! 

Drinking at the bar in the Hacienda 

 Kasy taught us to play bar dice.

Ashley went to bed, and then joined us to look annoyed while reading.... :p

I was having Mike's Harder Lemonade! 

Aren't we cute?   

This is where we found Kasy passed out after he eloped from the bar. 

Adult swim!  I had all the noodles to make sure I stayed afloat...as I was a little beyond tipsy. 

Yay underwater pics! 

Finally, the best mileage we hit while on the trip.

Day 347: June Already?!

Wow!  It is already June...just a short 3 weeks until our first wedding anniversary!  Wow again!

Today was another Andrew/nanny & O'Reilly's work day.  Jack only had a half day of school, so I took all three boys swimming this afternoon!  The evening was a quick routine and then bed for everyone.  We were pretty wiped out from work and Andrew, zzzzzzz...

Bad Andrew!  Texting and driving!

Andrew LOVED the kiddie pool!  At one point he reached for a dive toy on the bottom and toppled in face-first, but he just looked surprised and kept splashing when I picked him up.  What a sport!

The boys sharing a puzzle...Andrew is squatting in a block container, haha!

And our happy crew at the end of the day!

Day 37: GoJo's!

Today was pretty eventful - first off, it is my brother's 22nd birthday.  Happy birthday Kris!  I took my nephew for a few hours so he could have a child-free afternoon.  We went swimming at the Blackbob Pool with Jack.

He was such a good swimmer!

Then Eric and I went to dinner with Kris and Sarah at Gojo's!  Yum!

We're ready for some Japanese steakhouse entertainment and dinner!



Mmm, soup!



Salad!



 

 

All of the veggies and meat cooking



I had chicken and shrimp, Eric had the Tokyo cut steak.



Of course, rainbow sherbet for dessert! Woo!

We had enough leftover for 3 boxes! But they didn't have the usual takeout boxes :(

 

Day 33: New TV!

Eric was off of work, so he came out to Olathe with me.  He spent the morning with his mom while I was at the house of the boy I nanny for.  Later we went out to Best Buy to look at the 3 TV's that we had narrowed down to, so we could see them in person.  Luckily, the TV we decided on was on sale for $100 off the advertised price on their website.  Not so lucky, the closest store that had it in stock is 40 miles away.

So we set off to go swimming with Jack and laid out in the sun for awhile.  I took Jack to speech therapy while Eric went to the Harley dealership with Alan.  When I was done nannying for the day, we contacted the Lees Summit Best Buy and had them hold our TV - we jetted out there, after stopping by the bank, and paid cash!

Underwater shots turn out really well!

Here we are, turning money into a TV!

It filled up my whole car!

Mystic found a new home.

The TV is so big!  We watched 24 and it looked "too real," as though we were watching it from the set.

When we got home, it was set up pretty quickly and we had a fantastic dinner of homemade chicken strips, mashed potatoes with gravy, baked beans, and buttermilk biscuits with honey.  We also had fruit smoothies and wine, yum!

Eric made our smoothies.

I made the rest, in my lovely apron!

Chicken strips battered with mashed garlic potato flakes.

Bread, butter, salt, pepper, smoothie, wine, mmmmm.  Oh, and cat litter.