Saturday, June 27, 2009

St. Louis Trip - 06/23/2009 to 06/25/2009

This year and last we have found a way to do something fun with the family of 8 relatively cheaply. We buy 4 season passes which come with coupon books that have several "Bring a friend for free" days. We had two bring a friend for free tickets that we needed to use for June. So, we did two days in a row at Six Flags and then went to the Arch on our way out. My brother and sister-in-law were nice enough to let us crash at their house for a couple nights. Uncle Ronn took some time out of his busy schedule to ride some rides with us on the second day. The temperature on both days was at or near 100 degrees. So, we spent a good deal of time at Hurricane Harbor.

DAY 1


Stopped at Burger King to fill up our tanks and avoid a costly meal in the park.



TJ and Andrew get to hang with Batman and the Boy Wonder while the big kids go on the Batman roller coaster.



Pepe Le Pew



Marvin the Martian




Taz and the family


TJ drives his dad crazy.

Veronica is all smiles on Tony Hawk.

DAY 2


Josh and Andrew cruisin'



Uncle Ronn takes one last spin with the girls.



Uncle Ronn with some crazy characters.



Going Up?



Coming down...

DAY 3

Andrea and the Arch



Andrea and the kids



Tim and the kids



The kids demonstrate the Arch elevators



TJ and Andrew look at the ants down below.



Cool!



Who knew Donna was 630 feet tall?






Waiting to go down
Elevator 4



Elevator 5


The Arch Museum




Sunday, June 21, 2009

Father's Day

Dad with his kids on a hot Father's Day.





Taking the train to Chicago to go to the Shedd Aquarium

On the weekend of the 13th and 14th, we took a quick trip up to Arlington Hts. to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Andrea's brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Robin, and also the 8th grade graduation of their daughter (our niece) Lizzie. It was also my sister, Lori's birthday on the 13th. We stayed the night at my sister's house. And on Sunday took the train into Chicago to go to the Shedd Aquarium. This was the first train ride for most of the kids.


T.J, Andrew and Andrea on the train





Who Knew We Had Our Own Building in Chicago?









Outside the Shedd Aquarium



Josh on the train ride back to Arlington Hts.

T.J.'s Birthday - June 06th, 2009

T.J. turned 9 on June 6th. My friend Orlando came to visit and help us celebrate. Donna and Veronica were at Camp Take A Break that weekend. Here's some pictures from the day.








Happy Birthday to You!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Loren goes to the State Finals in track - May 22 & 23

It seems I'm always a few weeks behind on my posts. This one is no exception.

After advancing through sectionals, Loren competed in three events in the Illinois State Track Finals on May 22nd and 23rd. On Friday, she ran the 1600M. I don't think she really had a feel for the importance of the event. She placed about 5th in her heat and 20th of 43 girls. On the last strait away where the runners usually kick it up to 5th gear she was still going at the same pace. She didn't turn it on until she was really close to the finish line. Her personal best is 5 minutes 42 seconds. In this race she ran 5:46.90.

On Saturday she ran two relays where she ran anchor in both. The first was the 4 X 200M and her team was in first place in their heat, but 12th overall.



Her second relay was the 4 X 400M. This was an amazing race! Her team started out in 1st place with the first runner. However, after the 2nd and 3rd runner had gone, Loren received the baton and started her run in 4th place. She was in 4th place for nearly the whole 1st straight away, and there was a even distance between 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Loren. It didn't look possible for her to catch up. However, by the time she got to the turn she had overtaken the 3rd place runner, and was gaining on the 2nd. She took the 2nd place runner and was gaining on the 1st by the end of the turn, and the whole stadium was pulling for her as she made amazing come from behind. As they were heading into the straight away Loren was on the heels of the 1st place runner... literally. She accidentally caught the heel of the 1st place runner, and she stumbled. There was collective, "OH!" from the stands. Unfortunately, she could never make up the ground after the stumble, but she still pulled off an amazing come from behind race and place 2nd for that heat. The team placed 10th overall in the 4 X 400M.

Loren seems to be a natural, and I think she has great potential for the coming years if she sticks with it. Pretty soon, she'll be back at it with cross country.