This last weekend Susanna and I went to my moms on Friday night and then the three of us went to Aberdeen on Saturday. We met up with a good friend of mine, Angie, and went to Storybook Land. Susanna had a great time. She ran and ran like crazy, me following after her of course. It was a beautiful day too. She got to slide and swing and we even got to walk the yellow brick road. Susanna and I rode the merry-go-round three times. She LOVED that!! Here are some pics from Storybook Land:
My friend Angie and Susanna at the entrance.
Susanna and I
Susanna on the train.
Sliding out of Captain Hook's Ship.
Driving an old fire engine.
Using a back hoe.
Feeding the goats.
Follow the yellow brick road.
On the merry-go-round.
After Storybook Land we ate lunch and then headed for the hotel. This hotel had a small water play land in it. Susanna loved it. There was a section for toddlers that was only 8 inches deep, a section for older kids that was 4 ft deep and then a big water slide. Susanna went down the little slide in the 8 inch water a lot. Then she wanted to go down the big slide. We did and it was FAST. Faster than I thought it would be. She was not very happy with me when she went under water at the end of the slide but she wanted to go again. Same thing happened, too fast and under we went.
After Susanna was tired of swimming we went to Pizza Hut for supper. If you have a chance to go to a Wing Street (??) Pizza Hut, do it. It was really good. We had bone out chicken garlic Parmesan and honey bbq. We did not try any spicy ones. Since Susanna had a long day she was having a hard time staying awake at the table. Here is some video of that. LOL.
I promised a number of posts ago for pictures of the boat. Here they are. Larry recently got a new fish finder and sonar (I think) for the boat. He is eagerly waiting to try it out on the lakes. He is also getting ready for early goose opener which is Labor Day weekend. It seems a little early for hunting to start but oh well.
August 7th, 2008 was Dairy Queen's Miracle Treat Day for Children's Miracle Network(CMN). This is where Dairy Queen's (DQ) from all over the country and Canada donate the proceeds from the sale of blizzards to CMN. This was the third year that our DQ participated. I am not sure if this is the third year of the Treat Day or just our third year. Anyway, two years ago, our own DQ sold more blizzards that day than any other DQ in the US and Canada. This from a town of 6,500 people. Last year our own DQ sold 7,011 blizzards that day and again sold more than any other DQ in the US and Canada. Last year the CEO of DQ came to the store for the day. Obviously our DQ wanted to be the best again this year. There goal was to sell 8,000 blizzards. Well last Monday the total was revealed at 12,347. That is quite amazing!! And remember this from a town of population of 6,500.
As most of you know my daughter Susanna was a CMN baby four years ago. Susanna was born at 24 weeks gestation (16 weeks early). She weighted in at 1 lb 8 oz and was 12 in long. (I will share our story in a future blog.) Our family has been personally touched and helped by CMN. Susanna and I participate in as many CMN events that we can. We went down to the DQ that afternoon to greet people and talk about our story. One of the co-founders of CMN, Joe Lake was their from Utah and one of our US Congress Rep was also in attendance. That evening the DQ had some inflatable games for kids and a small concert that was put on my a CMN dad. It was a wonderful day with many many people from our small community coming out to support this wonderful cause. Since our DQ made its goal and then some, I guess the national CMN will be hosting a concert of some sort for our town. We do not know the specifics yet. Here are some pics and a video of Susanna having fun at the festivities that evening.
One of my very posts was about our garden. Well it is growing. It is weird though that the tomatoes plants on the east side of the garden are small and the ones that are in the middle of the garden are BIG. Most everything gets the same amount of sunlight. Who knows. I have picked about 15 tomatoes but this is really low compared to what I had two years ago. I have only picked a couple of peppers. However, we have gotten some onions and broccoli. I don't have to go to the store for onions now. I am not sure if I will make spaghetti sauce or salsa or both with the tomatoes. If I don't start getting more of them I am not sure it is worth it.
Then a couple of nights ago I pick this really different looking tomato. Larry calls it a happy tomato. How does it do that?!?!?!?!? Take a look for yourselves. My flower bed around our deck is doing really well. Some things that I thought would not come back this year did and they got REALLY big. I am going to have to dig up my hostas and give some away and move some, they are just getting SO BIG.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I had 2 free tickets to the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a couple of weeks ago. My friend Karen and I took the 12 hour drive to our hotel that was in Illinois just across the border from Indiana. It took FOREVER to get through Iowa. We arrived at the hotel about 9pm, checked in and went to bed. We needed to get up by 3am central time, 4am eastern (the track is eastern time zone but we were staying in central time zone). We still had another 90 minute drive to the track. Also we wanted to get there early to get a good parking spot and check things out. The drive into Indianapolis was good. We got about 2-3 blocks from the track when we were at a stand still on the road. The parking lot that we were originally going to park in, since it was free, was a long ways away. Since the speedway is in the middle of town there are house just across the road from the track. We stopped at one to ask the price and it was $30 to park for the day. I thought that was not bad so we went around the block and found one for $20 if you were blocked in by one car or $30 if you wanted on the curb. We took the $20 and were soon blocked in. That was ok, we were not going anywhere anyway. So we parking in someones lawn. There were people tailgating everywhere, it was a site to see.
There were many vendors per say along the road so we checked them out and bought some souvenirs and gifts. We then walked back to the van and rested a little and ate before heading into the track. I have been to the Kansas Speedway 3 times before this so I am used to the rules there. Compared to Indy, Kansas is VERY strict. You can bring anything into the track as long as it is not glass. Coolers, backpacks, chairs, etc. It was awesome!!! Once we walked around the track for awhile we realized that we could just walk to the infield, this was incredible since you need special tickets to get to the infield at Kansas. Most of the driver's trailers (merchandise) were in the infield, as well as a stage, a museum, the drivers haulers, and the garages. You could get close to the garages and such. Then we kept walking and realized that we could go walk on the track. This was the coolest so far. We walked on the exit of pit road and up the track. We could then look down the front stretch.
After that is was a long walk back to our seats. It got pretty warm but at least the humidity was low. Our seats were GREAT. We were in turn 3. For those of you who do not know this track is 2.5 miles long. You cannot see the whole track from any point. We could see the cars coming out of turn 2, down the back stretch, turn 3 and 4. I thought the race was AWESOME despite all the cautions that NASCAR threw. Jr actually was doing good for awhile was that was nice to see. Karen's driver, Micheal Waltrip, was in an accident on lap 4 so she did not get to see him much.
Despite the 300,000+ people that were there it was easy to get in and out. It did not take long to get back on the Interstate and head for our hotel. On Monday morning we started the 12 hour ride back home. My ultimate conclusion is that I will probably never go back the Kansas Speedway but I am already planning the trip to Indy next year. ANY TAKERS!!!!!
Other Pictures!!!
Dale Earnhardt Jr
Jeff GordonPace LapsDale Jr
P.S. Jimmie Johnson won the race. Thank goodness it was not Kyle Busch. If that would have happened it would have been a long ride home.
