Things you can see at Six Flags America....

...or any county fair. I went to Six Flags Great America in northern Chicago twice in one week (Michelle's B-day and with the office) and couldn't help see some things over and over again. Allow me to indulge you in some things I saw that brought a smile to my face over and over again . . .

1. Fanny packs. Clearly this is the most practical method of carrying personal belongings, but only a choice few are willing to subject themselves to it.
2. People hauling super life-size stuffed animals. Never mind it costs $50 to enter the park. Spend another $50 for a chance to lug something around that will keep you from getting to ride the coasters!
3. Men dressed in matching outfits from hat to boot. I thought this particular art of matching clothing existed only when mother's dressed their children. Not true. These guys hold strict standards to their attire.
4. Air-brush t-shirts. I thought this was something that went out with the nineties. Apparently the fad lives on!
   

What is your favorite??

Final birthday celebration--Six Flags

We celebrated Michelle's final birthday week by going to Six Flags in Gurnee, and we went along with the Bodell's. Michelle will give all the details.

-kyle

Happy Birthday Michelle

July 17th Michelle turned the corner...she is now 25! She was even invited to go boating with the Facer family and had a great time. Cade went along for the ride and loved being on the boat with the boys.

1 Day til birthday day---Ipod jogging headphones

Since Chell and Alicia are gearing up for this marathon she definitely needs a nicer set of headphones to go with her pink carrying case. The headphones she has been sporting is a mix between the $2 airline headphones you can buy if you wanna watch the cheap movie playing overhead, and the $9 panasonic headphones you buy on canal street in downtown New York on New Years Eve. So let's give it up for cheap airline headphones but pause for a moment of silence as Michelle gets promoted to a more serious type of headphone. My hats off to her. I am proud of you honey.

your husband,
Kyle

Here is what the headphones look like:

3 Days-- Macaroni Grill and a Movie

We left the kids with Zoe, and went to Macaroni Grill with our friends. I love going to places with free appetizers like the bread and oil. One day I will even pace myself so that I am still hungry when they bring me my main course. They even gave Michelle a chocolate cake with a candle in it. It must be nice to have a birthday week.

After dinner we went over to the Zach and Amy Hart to watch a movie on their new projector. It was awesome and now I know what I should get for Day 2 (tomorrow).

4 Days-- I forgot to get something

I didn't get anything special. I hope I am not in trouble.

5 Days until b-day --smoked salmon

Michelle's favorite food is smoked salmon. Every time we go to a restaurant I can guess that she will get either a chicken quesadilla or salmon. So, for this gift of the twelve days of Michelle she is getting some gourmet smoked salmon. I am going to help her eat it.

A Lesson Learned.....Hopefully

Yesterday I was in the car taking Zofran (The name we gave our cute little Zoe. Her middle name is Frances, so we combined the two. Zofran is also a miracle drug that played a key role in my survival through pregnancy with Savvy. Zoe is also a miracle worker herself, so the name suits her quite well.) to a friend's house and I kept hearing Cade screech "Mama, open it!"

I tuned him out as I often do when he uses that screechy tone of voice. A few minutes later I turned around at a stop light to check the situation and found Cade pulling the plastic off the Blue's Clues DVD we borrowed from the library. Mercy. He knew right away he had done something wrong and proceeded to express his apologies.

I thought about this and decided to teach my son the valuable lesson of having to pay for your mistakes. Literally.

So this morning we took the DVD and Cade's piggy bank (a baseball bank really. The piggy bank he owns is a real piggy bank that you have to break in order to get the coins--didn't want to mess with that) to the library. He handed the newly deformed and pitiful case to the librarian and said he was sorry. The lady was kind and accepted it and went "to the back" to check out how much the damage would be. A total of eight dollars. I decided 2 dollars would be fair for him to sacrifice and we began emptying the baseball, taking all the silver coins.

I am not sure if he completely understood what teaching moment I was trying to create, but I know he will remember having to face the librarian and hand her that pitiful case he knew he had "broken."

6 Days to go--Ipod case (ipod not included)

My wife was born to run. She loves it. In fact, she would have ran in the St George marathon had she not torn her achilles playing lasertag with me. I remember she would run 20 miles on many a Saturday while we were dating.

Anyways, this gift is to help her while she is getting back in shape so she can run a marathon with Alicia Spencer. I think they both set a date to have one ran by the end of the year.

7 Days left...

What could be better for a birthday week present than a Frosty from Wendy's? Most things, but since I didnt get back from work until 10:30 pm it was all I could do.

8 days til birthday--LG Tromm Steamwasher

I don't know why I seem to always make the same gift-giving mistakes for my wife, but I do. This gift was actually purchased a couple of days ago and was supposed to be the "big one."

I spent several hours on the internet reading about washing machines and deciding what one to get my wife for her birthday. The LG Tromm Steamwasher is AWESOME...and I was so excited to give it to her, but I have been told by many that it was a horrible idea. I was told giving things like dishwashers, pots, washing machines are all not gifts that a woman would want for their birthday. I guess I am glad that I have 7 more days to make it up.

Countdown: 9 Days til birthday--pedicure

What week is it? A little week we like to call "Birthday Week" and it happens only for my wife! What do we do to kick off birthday week/week-and-a-half? Michelle started by taking a little trip last night to a dayspa to get a pedicure. I will keep you updated on the rest of the festivities.

Taking a Break at the Ballpark

Last Wednesday we had an activity with the youth of our church at the Kane County Cougars stadium. The baseball game was great and the food was good too. Here are some pics from the evening. -Kyle