Our family decided to go to Wisconsin for the fourth of July that year to visit my grandma, aunts and uncles. I was about 12, and the whole clan decided to brave the crowds downtown Milwaukee to see the big fireworks. There are 8 kids in my family, and with our cousins and everyone, we probably had 20 people. We carried our blankets, snacks and games to play until the fireworks actually began.
Somehow, amidst the group of our 20 family members, and the millions of strangers in Milwaukee, I suddenly found myself walking along the sidewalk alone. We were together a second ago, I turned around and thought I must have gotten ahead. Nope. Maybe I was behind, I looked ahead and saw millions and millions of people, but not my family.
I was so scared. I walked along that sidewalk scanning the crowds for what felt like an eternity. I was searching for a policeman too, but only saw strangers. It was horrifying. I prayed like I'd never prayed before. I wasn't even sure what I would tell a police officer, I knew my grandma's name, but not her address or phone number. I remember the smell too... beer.
I got really scared as it started to get darker. The firework show started and I still couldn't find ANYONE. I really don't know how long I was lost, but I imagine it was at least an hour or so. I cannot even begin to describe my feelings when as I walked, I FINALLY recognized my Mom. They were sitting right by the sidewalk. I probably passed them a dozen times without noticing. I sat down next to my mom and started bawling. She looked at me slightly puzzled and asked what was wrong. She had thought I had sat down by my sister, and hadn't realized I was missing yet. I remember the finale starting about that time.
I've never really fully gotten over my fear of crowds. I have a hard time going places that I am unfamiliar with, and am extremely paranoid of losing my kids.
The good news is that I still LOVE the fourth of July fireworks displays. I have NO desire to see them downtown Chicago, but the local ones are better anyway in my opinion. I'm hoping the weather holds out so we can go see some good ones tonight.
I sort of hate to post again, because I was really enjoying re-reading about my adventure when I logged on. It was sort of like it would be a good place to end. However, I still have to record about our family reunion! Another good stopping place, but don't count on it.
So all of Benson's family made the trek from their various home bases across the country to meet in St. Louis. We couldn't complain about our 5 hour drive when Benson's brother drove all the way from San Diego! Others travelled from Minnesota and Washington! Our reunion was centered around a reception type celebration for Benson's parents 50th wedding anniversary. Yes, FIFTY!
On Friday we spent most of the day visiting while we set up the church for the celebration. I was so impressed at how everyone came together to make it a success. The food was amazing, the "entertainment" (a slideshow and wedding cake recreation) was beautifully done, and the decorations were great! I think everyone enjoyed themselves at the party. Best of all, my kids behaved themselves. (whew!) The only damper on the night for me, was that Tank was in the bathroom a ridiculous number of times. I was worried she might have an infection, so I took her to the local urgent care. Luckily it wasn't an infection, but we are following up with our doctors about some other problems that were related.
Anyway, one of the top, ok, lets be honest, THE TOP priority for while we were in St Louis was to go to Ted Drewes. This is a custard ice cream shop that is truly to die for! Most of the family went one night around 11pm and the place was PACKED! There is no place to sit, you just walk up to the window and sit at your car to enjoy. There is no explanation for the place's success except for the AMAZING ice cream. If you are ever in St Louis... TOP PRIORITY! Anyway, on Saturday, the ENTIRE family went to Six Flags St Louis. It has a water park and amusement park in the same location. I have some issues with crowds (have I ever told that story here? 4th of July when I was about 12?) ... so anyway, I had a hard time relaxing while we were there. The kids had a blast for the first half of the day hanging out in the water park area. Twister LOVED the water! He was sooo entertaining to watch. He would walk under the water mushroom type things, he would have this surprised face everytime... you know the one where they look like they could burst into tears at any second... but instead he would walk out and just laugh! It was hard to keep track of the other kids, but the place was somewhat contained, so we just let them wander around with their cousins, checking in every so often. The second half of the day, I was lucky enough to get Twister to fall asleep with Opa, so the rest of us were able to go to the amusement park. Goose was happy to go on any rollercoaster that was not fast, or have any big falls or upsidedowns, or twisting. *sigh* In other words, not very many rollercoasters looked fun for him. He ended up enjoying the kiddie type rides with his sisters. Benson and I were able to leave them with cousins and family a couple times so that we could go on bigger rides. I think my favorite was "The Boss". Good times. The kids favorite thing ended up being a turn on a trampoline while hooked up to a safety belt. The spotters helped them jump ridiculously high and if they wanted they could've done flips etc. I think my kids just jumped. :) Overall, it was a good day, but it was hard to spend quality time really enjoying all the extended family.
You should've seen us at church on Sunday. We took up 3 full rows, and that was a bit squished. :) You couldn't imagine a prouder OPA on Father's day. :) It was a really awesome sight. We were even able to take a family photo with all of us. We were only missing one of the cousins who wasn't able to get leave to come. I think my only complaint about this reunion was that it seemed to end too soon. I enjoyed the times where we were just able to sit around and chat. What can I say, I have some awesome in-laws! Looking forward to the next time we can get together!
I apologize ahead of time as this is sure to be a novel, and I still haven't posted about our family reunion so another novel is to come.
Anyway, I had the most amazing last few days.Amazing, stupendous, fabulous…Yeah.It started a few weeks ago when Matt sent me a message on facebook asking if I wanted to fly out as a surprise birthday present for Teri.I immediately hit reply and typed "YES YES YES!"then realized I really needed to stop and see if it was feasible first.My amazing, awesome, generous husband said he was fine with it if I could work out arrangements for the kids when he needed to work.SO!Next I called my super stupendous parents who were also willing to help me out.Next step?press send!Next thing I know, I have an itinerary being sent to me for flights from ORD to SLC.Crazy.
I really didn't have a lot of time to sit and stew over everything because we had Benson's family reunion to prepare for.I got back from that and had 3 days to "reset" before I was flying out.
Matt was wonderfully deceptive and devious and managed to actually come pick me up at the airport under the premise that he was taking his son to get his haircut.I walked in their front door and the surprise was, well, astounding.Teri, obviously, had NO clue.Very fun surprise.I think their kids were nearly as excited as Teri, although, the excitement droppeda level when they found out my kids were still in Chicago.One of my favorite moments was when 2 year old Kate seemed to recognize me and said "Lucky's mommy!"(They call Tank "Lucky"… maybe I should adopt that nickname, it’s a bit nicer…)
Anyway, we stayed up ridiculously late just talking.It was awesome.
On Friday, Matt had, once again, "slightly altered the truth" to make Teri think that she and him were going out to dinner and I was there to babysit.About 10 minutes before he had told her they were going to leave, he started barking orders for her to go pack a bag because they would be staying overnight.Then, all Teri's good friend started to arrive at the door, one by one.Teri just kept asking WHAT was going on?!Finally, Matt spilled the beans… just us girls would be taking the transportation outside for a night away.What was outside you ask?OH YEAH.
We packed up our bags and headed out.Matt had hinted to the rest of us ahead of time that we would be heading to park city, utah.But that was all we really knew.The limo did, indeed, take us to park city.We talked along the way and got to know each other a little bit better.Our first stop was the outlet mall.Teri got a few fun things and the rest of us found a few things too.Shopping without kids, and WITH a bunch of ladies with good taste… awesome.
Next, the limo took us to our accommodations for the night.Ever heard of the Sky lodge in park city?It was ASTOUNDING.From the moment we walked in the door, we were treated like royalty.The manager came and showed us around the room, highlighting some of the perks of the place.
We didn't have too much time to gawk at everything since we had to change for dinner.We were able to walk to the restaurant just up the hill a short way from the hotel.Again, treated like royalty.There was a talented guitar player singing to the restaurant, and the food was FABULOUS.
We were then told we had tickets waiting for us next door at the Egyptian theatre for the "dueling pianos".I'm running out of words to describe all these awesome things, but the dueling pianos was probably my favorite thing of the night. They took requests for whatever song we could come up with, and they were SOO talented.
I could've stayed there all night, but alas… the show came to an end. We walked back to the hotel and decided it was a MUST to try out the hot tubs on our deck.They were obviously sized to be used by couples, but we made do.
After relaxing in the hot tub we all vegged out on the couch, talked and watched a special on Michael Jackson.About 1:30am, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and excused myself to the luxurious bed.
The next morning we were able to get up at our own pace, enjoy the crazy awesome showers and baths, and get ready for brunch.It was a beautiful thing to wake up when my body wanted to wake up without kids or a schedule.
The brunch was, once again, amazing.The food was spectacular.SOOO good!We then were directed to a salon in town to receive manicures and pedicures. The chairs had built in massaging, and the mani-pedi's were awesome. The cute little ladies working there were happy to pamper all of us. Second time in my life getting a pedicure. Not to be the last! So relaxing and fun.
The rest of our time we spent wandering ParkCity's eclectic shops and the art center.It was a most relaxing and beautiful day.Perfect weather just topped it all off.
Close to 3pm another limo showed up to bring us back to reality.
To the women out there, Sorry Matt is happily taken.To the men out there, sorry he's set the bar so high.We had the most wonderful time, THANKS MATT!
My awesome weekend didn't end there though.I got to spend the rest of Saturday and Sunday morning playing with my good friends.Saturday night we stayed up playing Rock Band.My first experience with it was… well… addicting.Someday, that will be our next Wii purchase.I was really nervous at first, but it was lots of fun.Although, the company certainly helped that too.
Sunday I went to church there, then took off early to go to the airport.The whole weekend was somewhat surreal.I kept wanting to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming.It was such a relaxing getaway. I had fun with Teri and made a bunch of new friends I plan to keep in touch with as well. What a weekend...I plan to hold on to those memories FOREVER.
Ok, so ignore the *still* unfinished house in the background and take a look at these adorable little kids. :) They decided to open a lemonade stand earlier this week. They made the lemonade themselves and made their sign:
Lemonade for sale: $.50.
The funny thing was that they had nearly finished it amongst themselves when a "customer" came driving up. Luckily, they had just enough for one cup full. They earned their money, gave the lemonade, and hurriedly went inside to make another pitcher full. Goose saw the commotion, but felt a little excluded since it was mainly girls heading it up.
So...
whats a boy to do? He made up his own gallon of lemonade, brought cups from the cupboard and made his own sign:
"Lemonade, $.10! Buy one get one free!"
I tried to discourage him from competing with the girls, but he was determined.
Apparently our dead end street has more traffic than I thought. The girls made a couple dollars, and so did Goose. (Although I heard later that some nice people donated some extra money to the cause). Anyway, everyone was happy, so I didn't pay too close of attention until it was time to clean up.
The girls sign changed when Goose opened up shop next door:
"Lemonade $.50, buy one, get one or two free!"
I'm sure there is some official economic name for what happened... something about monopoly's or supply and demand. . . but whatever you want to call it, it was sure funny to see it in action with a bunch of elementary school kids. :)
I'm a couple days late getting this posted, but we had an awesome celebration for Sweetie's 7th birthday. We went to the morton arboretum and played in the Children's garden. They had a BLAST.
After that, we had a gourmet meal at Red Robin. They had a human sized red robin roaming the restaurant that scared the bejeebers out of poor Twister. I think every eye in the restaurant must have turned to see what happened. All I could do was laugh. And poor Red Robin went into hiding for the next 20 minutes. :)
Maybe you haven't noticed, but my business website has been down for about a month. In the past week, I finally got it up and running again.
I'm also working on another makeover for my site. I got new software a while back and its taking a while to learn it... (dreamweaver and fireworks) BUT, I think the final result is going to be amazing. Here is my prototype:
It will still take me a while to get it up and running. There are a million little things involved in creating a website. BUT, I wanted to share how far I have gotten. (If you want to see the website as it is now, click the Designs in Floral Online Store icon in the right sidebar)
