Weekend in Detroit

Hey everyone! I spent the last two days in Detroit with Lesley. We went to the Tiger's game on Friday and then the Zoo today. The Twins won 11-1!! Joe Mauer hit his first career grand slam. It was pretty exciting! It was fun to be one of the only twins fans there :) Comerica Park is really nice. I also saw Ford Field, which is just across the street from the ballpark. There were also fireworks after the game. Good time. I think we are planning to go to another game in August :)
The Zoo was a lot of fun. It was big, and really pretty. Some of the coolest exhibits were the Arctic Circle, The Outback Trail, The Butterfly House, and the Rain Forest House. The Arctic Circle is neat because you walk into a building that is basically an underground aquarium, and you can see the seals and polar bears swimming above you. The Outback trail featured kangaroos that roam freely in the trail. The Butterfly House is beautiful. It's pretty much a huge greenhouse-like building that has different species of butterflies that fly around the flowers and plants inside. Pretty much one huge garden.... grandma would have really enjoyed it. The rain forest house was really neat because when you walked inside of it, it was really humid and moist. It looked and felt just like a rain forest... or what I would think a rain forest would be like. This exhibit had a sloth inside of it:)
This weekend was really fun, and I'm glad I got our of Allendale for a few days:) If only I could come home now!! Oh well :) For now it's back to the daily grind.....

This is the ferris wheel that Lesley and I rode in the park.


Lesley and I.... I wish I had a better picture of the field, but maybe next time when I have my camera


These statues are at the main entrance into Comerica park. Very cool...and kind of intimidating.



The Zoo..

Lions, Tigers, and Bears....




This is a baby zebra with her mother. The baby is one week old! Sooo cute :)


I loved the Amphibian house!!!

This froggie faces two other frogs that spit out water. I had to fight the little kids off of them to get a picture. lol.

WOW! Sound like the boys have been having some fun. I like the shoot out picture from fort lincoln. It looked pretty neat. Well, not much going on here. Back to work for me and back to the garden. Work has been going well and I have been staying pretty busy with that this week. My boss is out of town all week so it's been kinda busy for me at work.
Besides work, I haven't been doing a whole lot. I was in Appleton for the weekend to visit my friend Megan and her man. We had so much fun. We went out to her boyfriends farm and went 4-wheeln' and then when out to a bachlorette party. We went to some small town bars which was fun. On sunday I brought the fur balls back home and they are back to normal. They are now licking each other and playing with each other instead of clawing and biting each other when they were at megan's.
Well, not much else going on here. The weather is very muggy here today and it's that sticky kind. eeeeeek. Talk to everyone later. Take care. Kelly

Relaxing weekend

Vicki took the boys on Saturday for an overnight. They didn't take naps today so they are already asleep. Sounds like they had a lot of fun. Last night I didn't know what to do with myself. Fred is on overnights again so it was just me. I bought Monty Python and the Holy Grail yesterday at Target. I almost didn't because I thought "when in the world will I get to watch it?" So Fred and I watched that before he went to work. Then later there wasn't anything on TV and knowing I could sleep in, I didn't want to go to bed. So I ordered Little Miss Sunshine and watched that. Steve Carrell and Greg Kinnear are two of my favorites and they didn't disappoint. It was a pretty good movie, the acting was really good. Then today I did some shopping. I had $10 to use at Old Navy by the end of the month so I went there. I found a bunch of little girl clothes on clearance, really good pieces that I know I will use. I think I have enough clothes for the first 6 months at least, but I will probably still buy more. I can't help it, I'm weak. Then I found some socks at TG Maxx, which I didn't have any of yet.

Fred said Norma and Hank are thinking of coming up in October. I hope they are here after the baby is born. It will probably be close, because I'm sure they will leave the second week of the month because Tenn usually takes the second weekend off before they play Alabama. I told Fred I hope the baby is born on the third Saturday in October (the day Tenn and Ala. play) so I can have a birthday party every year on that day. He told me I better not. He still complains that we had to go to a wedding once when they played. Southeners and football, I'll tell ya what.

I went out to mom and dad's today to look for a recipe. Not a good idea without mom there. Like looking for a needle in a haystack. Anyway, Winnie is mad. She meowed the whole time I was there. I was going to read today's paper and let her sit on my lap, but she just whined in the dining room the whole time. I stopped to pet before I left and she purred like crazy. Then she tried to get out of the garage when I got up. I got her back in, closed the door, and then heard her clawing at the door. Poor thing. Maggie went out to the lake with Dave so she's fine. Haven't heard from mom and dad. Tried to call once, but dad's cell was off, got a recorded message from one of you. Will probably have to call again because Torii wanted to talk.

Wow, for such a slow and relaxing weekend I sure had a lot to say. Hope everyone had a good weekend too.

Pictures

I got my pics developed today. There is a pic of a shootout that we saw at Ft. Lincoln. I knew Torii would be scared. Fred Rion wasn't too excited about it either.

Fred Rion had to have cotton candy at a recent zoo trip. I don't think he even ate half of it.

Torii on the slip and slide. He got the hang of it a lot faster than Fred Rion. We may have to bring it out again this weekend. They forecast in the 90's and when I stepped outside this morning it already felt hot. So we filled up the pool and let it get nice and warm and went swimming today.

I can't remember what town had this cheese and mouse, but we stopped for gas and then took a picture.

Thank you Auntie Laurie

The boys got your package this weekend and they say thank you. Torii really liked the ball because there were tree frogs on it.

This weekend is McQuades so I doubt we will do anything. I do need to run some errands but I don't want to do anything. Everything is going to be super crowded. I have some pictures to get developed so I will probably have new pics on here soon.

Cedar Point

Ashley and I went to Cedar Point yesterday. It was so fun! Their new roller coaster, the Maverick is so awesome!! By far the best coaster I have ever been on! It's so cool because it's actually not that high, and that's what makes it so neat. It rides close to the ground and twists, rolls, and turns throughout an obstacle of western-themed objects. The first hill is only 105 feet, but when you start the ride it kind of shoots you up the hill, so you go up kind of fast, but then (here's the kicker) you drop at a 95 degree angle! Before our ride started the announcer lady informed us of the drop, and I turned to Ashley and was like, "Is that possible?!?" There is also this cool part where you go into a tunnel and completely stop, and then it shoots you out at 70mph and you ride a whole bunch of twists and turns. It is SO fun! There was also this other coster that is 17 seconds long haha. It's call the Dragster. What happens is: you start at a stop light, when it turns green you shoot forward and straight up a hill, you twist and then come over a 420 foot hill, twist again, and then back to the beginning. That one was our second favorite. It's SO tall! We were there a total of 10 hours and still didn't get to do everything, but I think we hit the best ones. I just can not get over the Maverick! It was so cool. We are also very stiff and sun burnt today haha. Oh well it was worth it! :)

Weekend fun

On Saturday we went to Ft. Lincoln for the Ft. Lincoln Festival. The boys had a lot of fun. We went on a wagon ride. We also saw an Old West shootout. Torii ran behind me right away and didn't move. Fred Rion watched, but he wasn't so sure about what was going on.

Before going to Ft. Lincoln we stopped by the trolley and found some more "treasure" on a geocache hunt. The boys liked this also. We had to go through some grass that was taller than them, but they said it was a jungle. Then we took some pictures on the trolley bridge. I should have brought my black and white camera for that. It was fun, except that we had a few ticks on us after that. When we left Ft. Lincoln, Fred Rion fell asleep before getting to Mandan and Torii didn't make it to Bismarck.

Fred had to work yesterday so we didn't do anything for Father's Day. We made him steak on the grill. Then we were going to have his favorite dessert (warm brownies with ice cream and lots of chocolate syrup), but everyone was full so we were going to have some later. Then as we were starting to put the boys to bed, the tornando sirens went off so we hustled downstairs. After we were through with all the bad weather we went back upstairs, but the boys wouldn't settle down then. Finally they fell asleep as Fred and I did too and we never got our dessert. Guess we'll have to have it tonight.

More photos!

Views we seen on the way to the waterfall during our hike. Like I said it's "beautiful."

Grand Teton Mountain's

Here is the Grand Teton Mountain's. We hiked for about 2 1/2 hours to the waterfall on the left. It was a beautiful view!!! We had the best

view of the grand teton's from our campsite. Our front yard was the mountains and then take a walk about 10 minutes towards the mountain and you will see Jenny Lake which is directly below the base of the it. The day and night was such perfect weather. It was extremely calm and perfect temp to walk all day.

I will post more pics later. I will fly out tommorow morning and be home around 8pm CST. :-( I don't want to go home to madison) I love it here, it's sooo pretty. Well take care and I will call everyone soon and tell you everything we did!!! HAPPY FATHER"S DAY!!! LOVE YOU.

Idaho Falls! I made it!

Hey everyone! Well I made to Idaho Falls and my flight was fun. My flight from Boise to Idaho Falls I was sitting next to two guys who are with search and rescue. They had two dogs that they brought with them and they were sooo adorable. One dog was a border collie and the other was a black lab. It made the trip a little shorter also. The view was beautiful on the way also. Today, brian is working most of the day and I really don't have much to do which kinda sucks. We were unable to get a rental car until starting tommorow. :-( So, brian is in a meeting for about another 10 minutes. Then after work I think we are going to go out with some of his co-workers to visit. I hope I get to see some of the city a little more if we have time. On friday, we will be in the Grand Teton's and then on saturday we will be in Yellowstone. I can't wait! It's going to be fun.
Megan is watching the kids while I am gone. She also has a cat and his name is Mookie(her cat looks more like a cow, hence the name MOO-kie). He is the most friendly cat when it comes to other animals. But, Victoria wasn't liking it. And from what I heard she still doesn't like it. Now, Mookie looks similiar to Gingham but just a little bit more chunkier and a light gray not black. When the cats first met, of course Mookie had to hiss a little and Victoria was so scared I think she thought gingham had hissed at her. So, now Victoria and Gingahm are fighting and still are fighting. When I was there, Victoria actually had her claws out and attacking Gingham if she came close to her! Poor, Gingham. Megan said Gingham and her lay down on the couch together often with no problems. Ooooh. I hope they calm down by the time I get back. Otherwise there will be fur flying in the car on the way home from Appelton. I bet they can't wait to see me when I get back.
Well, I better get going. I think Brian should be done with all of his work now. Take care I will write and post pictures as soon as I get a chance.
Luv, Kelly :-)

Lunch break

I usually check the blog on lunch, since I don't have time to at home. Plus Fred Rion doesn't let me use the computer. Actually he does, but the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is be on the computer some more.

This morning I was giving my hugs and kisses good-bye and Torii said he had to kiss baby good-bye. So he kissed my belly. I told him baby had to go to work with me. After I said it I thought there might be some tears because I always tell Torii he can't go to work with me. But he just laughed and said, Mommy, you're funny.

Not that anyone cares, but I am totally excited for Dale Jr. to be on my team next year. Gordon, Jimmie, and Jr all on the same team! Someone on ESPN said they have just become the Yankees of NASCAR. I wonder what all those Jr fans/Gordon haters will say now that they are teammates. I love it!

Beautiful Day in Michigan

I went to the beach today. I thought I deserved a break from all the stress of school and work. I am almost done with my spring class though! I got my project done, so that is good. I am extremely nervous to present to it though. For all our projects, we have them critiqued by our classmates. This process involves us going in front of class, presenting our film, and then taking positive/negative feedback from our peers. This project is a little bit different though. This time we have to stand in front of the class all by ourselves, whereas other times you at least got to stand with your partners. So yeah... I'm bit nervous.
The weather has been fabulous! Like I said, we went to the beach today (sorry I got a bit side-tracked), and then got ice cream. We played some volleyball, frisbee, and we buried one of my friends in the sand. It was a lot of fun. Although, I did get injured playing a rowdy game of keep away. I was determined not let my friend have the volleyball so we both ran after it and he ended up stepping on my foot while we were running. It's all black and blue now:( Oh well. It was fun.

A moment to breathe....

What can I say? I have been soooo busy lately. I apologize for the lack of communication lately. I just finished my final project for my media production class. It's a 3-4 minute video that took me two days to shoot and two days to edit. Plus, all the paper work that goes into it. I still have a paper to write and it's due in seven hours. Time was defiantly against me this weekend. I have been putting in so many hours at the zoo lately. Last week was also hectic because I worked every single day between the zoo and WGVU. Both jobs have been going pretty well as of recent though, which is good.
A few times this past week, I have got to step back, breathe and enjoy myself a bit. Thursday I went out with a girl I work with, and some of her friends. It was fun. It was mostly (if not all) film/video majors, so it was kind of geeky, but we all really enjoyed ourselves, and I got to meet some new people.
Lesley and I bought tickets to a Tigers game on the 29th. They are playing the Twins :) We are going to be the weirdest fans, and people will probably wonder if we are actually friends haha. I guess I can sort of root for both teams, but probably won't just because I have to support the Twins while they are away form home. We have outfield tickets. We were going to get some in the upper deck along the third base line, but there were none left! I think that game is going to be close to sold out, if not all ready. There are also fireworks that day :). If I get the chance, I would also like to check out the old Tiger's stadium because I heard they will be demolishing it in September.
I'm getting excited because Ashley will be here on the 19th. I have some fun things planned. We will probably go the Cedar Point. Should be a good time. I also got invited to go a friend's house on a lake that weekend. We will be tubing, jet skiing, and relaxing. I'm excited!
Academics....I switched my major yesterday. Anthropology it is. I found what I want to do, and for once am pretty content with that decision. I will still be taking film/video courses, so I can work on a visual/anthropology concept. I will also be taking environmental classes to broaden my studies. I'm pretty excited about all of this. I will be talking with the head of the Anthropology department on the 19th.
I'm so happy to hear that everyone is doing well. I miss you all, and I when I get a chance I will call :) I am almost done with my class for the spring semester, so I should have a little bit more free time. Talk to you all soon!!! :)

Buggies and Blues

On Sunday we went to Buggies and Blues. We weren't going to stay long, but ended up there all afternoon. It was really good this year. They added more food vendors and they had inflatables for the kids to play on. Fred Rion helped Grandpa a little bit at the swap meet. Grandpa tried to sell his pedal Jeff Gordon car. Every time someone would look at it Fred Rion would stare at them and was really concerned that someone was going to buy it. Towards the end Grandpa let Fred Rion play with it and he told him it didn't look like it was going to sell so Fred Rion could have it. Then someone came to look at it and Fred Rion told him it didn't have a tag. Fred Rion had fun playing a tire changing game(pictured). I sat around most of the afternoon and ate. The snow cones were really good since it was really hot out.

Thanks Auntie Kelly

Trip to Craters of the Moon National Monument and EBR-1

EBR-1 was the world's first nuclear reactor that generated electricity. It was on our way to Craters of the Moon so we definitely had to stop and check it out. This is a picture of the building. I figured I'd spare you guys views from the inside, lol.

Afterwards we drove out to Craters of the Moon which happens to be a relatively young lava flow. There are several volcanic cones in the area where the views are just spectacular. I took the next two pictures with the tree from the top of the "Inferno Cone." It was so cool to see nothing but white, salt covered ground a few weeks ago in Bonneville to black, volcanic rock covered ground like this.

Here I am out on the solidified lava flow(yes, we can walk on it). You really have to watch your step because as you can imagine, the rock is very abrasive and uneven. Most of the rock is a blackish tint, but if it gets exposed to air, it turns red like the rock we use for landscaping.

Last up was by far the most exciting part of the day. We felt rather adventuresome and decided to check out the caves that were formed from old lava tubes. Some caves were only about the size of a two stall garage, others were much larger. Considering the only caves I've ever been in were on guided tours in the Black Hills, I couldn't resist climbing around inside them. We found that even in the larger caves, there were all kinds of smaller tunnels inside them. Some were just big enough to crawl through and we found would just lead back into the same cave we started in, but not always. The caves were surprisingly clean meaning, there wasn't any dust but just water condensation that formed ice on the floor. It made climbing around the rock even more interesting when most of it was covered in ice. All in all, yesterday was a lot of fun!

Major Pain

This week I was dealing with back pain. It hurt so bad on Thursday I took the day off from work. I didn't work on Friday either. Today I am feeling much better, but still feel some pain when I bend down. The house is such a mess because I haven't done anything but sit around all week. There was so much I wanted to do this weekend, but I better rest. Mom took the boys on Thurs afternoon and again yesterday for an overnight. That helped a lot. It's funny because many times I wish I had time to just sit in front of the tv and watch what I want to watch and just relax. Yesterday I was going crazy because I was sick of watching tv and wanted to clean, but couldn't. I did discover a new Discovery channel I didn't even know we had. I watched some really interesting shows yesterday afternoon on that channel. Since we didn't have the kids last night Fred took me out to eat. We went to Red Lobster. Then we decided to go to a movie. Pirates was just starting when we got there so that's what we decided to see. Fred liked it, but i just thought it was ok. The first one was so good that I've been disappointed by the other two. The next movie I go to will probably be Harry Potter which I can't wait for. So that's my week in a nutshell. Last weekend mom and I went to the Lincoln rummage sales and I picked up a bunch of girls clothes. Lots of pink. Found a few other treasures as well.