What We Did This Weekend:Road Trip

This weekend was such a big deal that we spent most of the week preparing for it. We have been planning our trip out to Utah for a while, and we finally left on Friday. The alarm went off at 5:00am and we showered, loaded up the car, filled 'er up with gas, and headed out. And, as exciting as a 1,000+ mile road trip sounds, there isn't too much to report -- but I'll give it a try.

On Friday we drove to a state park just past Cheyenne and spent the night in a tent. There were two things that made the drive an easy one. First, we traded off every two hours. I don't usually have Brooke take too many turns, but doing kept us both fresh for the whole trip. And second, we listened to Harry Potter audio books. We never got caught up in the Harry-hype back in the day, so neither of us had ever read any of the books. We started the first book last year, and made it about nine chapters in before we got out of the habit of nightly readings. So, with our long trip coming, we checked out each audio book from the library to take with us. We finished the first and half of the second before we left. On our way we finished up the second and third books.

Our camping experience was, well, an experience. We're not really accomplished outdoorsmen. Brooke had a much better attitude than I did though. We showed up and our first spot was by a reservoir and a bunch of camper trailers, so we tried to find another spot. We did, but the ground was really hard, which made for a tough night, but at least we were not surrounded by other drunk campers and their dogs.

We scrounged up just enough wood for a fire that lasted just long enough for us to cook our polish dogs and hobo-dinner-style carrots and potatoes. So that, with some juice boxes and chips, made for a pretty good dinner.

The sun was going down as we finished eating and we hopped into our tents with a laptop to watch a movie before going to bed. We decided to get an early start on the last leg of our trip, so we set the alarm for 4:00am. This might sound early, but from experience, I knew that I wasn't going to sleep too well. And, as it turns out, I was ready to go at 2:00, and was relieved when the alarm finally did go off. We "de-tented" in 20 minutes and were back on the road.

We made it to Salt Lake by about 11:30am. We showered and went to my brother Marc's baseball game. We washed our new car and picked up some Cafe Rio (of course) on our way to the field. The games ran a little long, but at least we got to see our brother play.

After the game we had just enough time to let Marc shower before Dad took us all to the new Five Guys Burgers and Fries in Midvale for dinner. And, when I say he took us all, I mean everyone... Weston and Missy and Ellie (who we were finally introduced to -- she's totally my favorite niece!), Cameron and his girlfriend Michelle, Brooke and me, Marc, Mom, and Dad. Weston had been there before, and Brooke and I had been to the one in Missouri, so we knew what we were getting into. Their burgers are seriously good. All nine of us found some seats together, which was difficult because everyone in the valley was there too. We stuffed ourselves, but hey, it was really good, and, after all, we're on vacation.

And that's what we did this weekend.

And the Winner Is...

Well, for those of you who don't already know, we bought a 2005 Scion xB. Looks like most people thought we would get a Honda Civic, which was the safe bet. The voting was actually not as close as it appeared. The final tally was Civic 6, xB 5, and None of the Above 2. But, two of the xB votes were ours. I'm not sure what the two voters for None of the Above had in mind, but they were actually pretty close because if the xB we ended up getting had not been available, we had decided to go to the Honda store and buy a new Honda Fit. Luckily, our xB was still there. We had to drive about 100 miles to Emporia, KS to get it, but we're really pleased with our purchase.

What We Did This Weekend:Cowboys and Car Dealers

This weekend was a pretty good one. We're going to be in Salt Lake City for the latter half of July, and we're planning on going to the Days of '47 Rodeo, so we couldn't pass up the Royals' promotional give-away for Friday night's game: Straw cowboy hats to the first 20,000 fans. We went with another couple from our ward. If they didn't understand how geeky I can get with baseball, they do now. We stopped at Mr. Goodcents on our way and picked up some hoagies because, miracle of miracles, the Royals allow you to bring in outside food and water, just not soft drinks (or any other beverage whose ingredients include anything other than hydrogen and oxygen**).

**One day maybe we'll try to smuggle in some of those individual drink mixes that you dump into your water bottles and shake. That's not a bad idea.

The game went really well. The Royals won 3-1, and we were able to see Joakim Soria, the Mexicutioner, earn another save. Two years ago when we moved here, having a two run lead heading into the ninth was cause for antacid. But, thanks to Joakim, everyone stands and cheers between the bottom of the eighth and the top of the ninth. It's nice to have a closer this good. The Friday fireworks following the win were good too.

One thing that did not go so well on Friday was finding out that our '97 Accord wasn't going to be able to make the road trip to Salt Lake without $1700 of repairs. So suddenly we absolutely had to find a car before our trip. That was our goal for Saturday, but unfortunately, we didn't have much luck. By about 3:30pm we went home defeated.

Sunday we had a new family from church over for dinner. They thought we were brave for inviting them and their 3-year-old boy and their 12 month-old girl. Whenever we have people over for dinner they're always worried that their kids will destroy our house some how. No matter how often we tell them not to worry, they still do. Bless their hearts. The Baked Ziti went over well, and 3-year-old Reagan enjoyed the pepperoni in the salad. We had a good time. And, truth be told, feeding other families we know is really just a ploy to borrow their kids for a few hours. Reagan arrived grumpy and shy, and left kicking and screaming, so he had a good time. Actually, he really did. His parents told him goodbye and he was totally cool with that. Then, finally, his Dad had to go back and carry him out. Poor kid.

And that's pretty much all that we did this weekend.

Just In Case

I doubt anyone who reads our blog is really excited for socialized medicine, meaning national health care, but just in case, here's a great little cartoon with a catchy jingle that illustrates the shortcomings of universal health care.

What We Did This Weekend:Happy Birthday USA

Three day weekends are great, aren't they? Friday, July 4 marked the anniversary of our independence. We started the day off by sleeping in, what else. Brooke had just gotten back from Girls Camp the night before and after all of the hard work she put into planning it, she deserved a little extra shut-eye. When she woke up we cleaned up and headed off to our traditional 4th of July breakfast at Neighbor's Cafe in Lee's Summit, MO. It is a great little restaurant with a real down-home feel. The walls are plastered with old newspapers whose headlines tell the story of our great country. Brookie had a half order of biscuits and gravy and I had the "All-American Platter," which included a biscuit with gravy, hash browns, eggs, sausage, and bacon. Mmm. Good stuff. It wasn't as busy this year as it was last year, but, then again, last year we ate breakfast before 11:00am.

After breakfast it was a shopping spree. We single-handedly supported the Lee's Summit economy that afternoon, and had fun doing it. Old Navy was out of their $5 4th of July t-shirts, but luckily we found a pair of patriotic tees at a nearby Kohl's. Unfortunately, our financial standing dictates that we "look" more than "shop," so we eventually went back home for a nice afternoon nap.

Luckily we woke up in time for our movie. We had purchased tickets to Kung Fu Panda, so we drove back to Lee's Summit for the showing. It was AWESOME! I'm not kidding you, this show was the funniest show we had seen in a long time. We laughed the whole time (but I couldn't laugh my real laugh because we were two of only ten people in the theater, and I didn't want to annoy anyone or embarrass ourselves). If you haven't seen it yet, you must. Kung Fu Rocks!

As we literally laughed all the way to the car after the show, our plan was to head over to Legacy Park, also in Lee's Summit, so buy some hamburgers and watch the fireworks after sundown. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the only concessions they had were hotdogs, nachos, and pretzels; not exactly what we had in mind. So, we left Legacy Park, ran to Five Guys Burgers and Fries (better than In n' Out, no kidding), and returned to stake out a spot for the fireworks display. It was a nice venue. There was plenty of room for kids to play, and there were plenty of them playing. We found a patch of grass, ate our burgers and fries, and waited for the show to begin. It was a good display, and afterwards, rather than fight the mad-rush out of the park, we just sat in our lawn chairs without a care in the world. By the time we left, we pretty much drove right home.

Saturday was a little less fun, but very productive. We didn't sleep in nearly as long, and by 9:30am we had cleaned the house and were half-way through the week's laundry. We ran a few errands: America's Best for some adjustments on my glasses, the Starlight Theater to exchange some of our tickets for a different night, and (this is the biggee), to the local nursery to buy plants for our front yard. Yeah, only about a month after we began the project, we finally finished it. We spent a few hours trying to decided on the right shrubs and flowers, and another two digging holes and planting them. The end result was a sight to behold, and I can hardly believe that we did the whole thing ourselves from scratch.

We were dead-tired after that and showered again before heading out to our friends' daughter's second birthday party. We didn't think we'd stay long, but once we were there, we had a good time and stayed until the end. They barbecued hamburgers and hotdogs, and, of course, I overate.

And that's what we did this weekend. What did you do?