Aug 7-9 2008 - 6 Flags in Chicago, Lincoln Park Zoo, and walking around Chicago

Aug, 7th:

For the third time this summer, we went to 6 Flags, but this time we went to the one at Great America in the Chicago area. We're trying to get our money's worth out of our season tickets. We bought 4 season tickets, and we get a coupon book with each one that has certain free days for several different occasions. We had one to bring a friend for free for any non St. Louis 6 Flags, so that's what we used this time around.

This trip was less than stellar. We hit Chicago construction traffic on the way there. It took over an hour to get into the parking lot. Once we got in to the park, it was so crowded that each ride was at least an hour wait, usually two hours, and sometimes even three. This made for a grand total of about 5 rides for the entire time we were there from around 12:00 pm until 10:00 pm. We specifically picked a week day to avoid crowds, but that was obviously a failure. We had heard that some area students had won passes for attendance at school or something, and were probably using them before they expired. So, note to self, avoid going to 6 Flags at Great America in the first few weeks of August.

Best Buds (Josh and his Uncle Ronn)

Veronica, Andrea and Donna

TJ and his Dad (Why So Serious?)

Standing in line again: Chelsea, Donna, and Andrea

One last ride: Andrew and Uncle Ronn

Aug 8th,

On Friday, we went to Lincoln Park in Chicago. With 6 kids you look for the free stuff to do.

Really, he is human: Josh

Veronica, TJ, Loren and Donna

Donna, TJ, Loren, Josh, Andrew and Veronica


Veronica, Andrew, TJ, Loren, Andrea and Donna

On our way home, we went to a Peruvian restaurant called Ay Ay Picante. Estuve muy bien.

Veronica, Donna, Loren, Tim, Andrea, Josh, Andrew and T.J.

Loren, Donna, and Veronica

Aug 9th,

On Saturday, we went to Chicago and walked around. The highlight for the kids was the Lego Store.

T.J. and Andrew

Donna, Josh, T.J., Andrew, Loren, Veronica and Andrea

Dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe

Josh, T.J., Veronica, Andrew, Loren, Donna, and Tim

Weekend Camping at Clinton Lake

This weekend we had yet another abrupt weekend vacation. Our boys were at Grandma and Grandpa's all of last week. Andrea's brother-in-law, who lives in the same town, decided on a whim to pack up his 3 boys and go camping at Clinton Lake. So, Grandma and Grandpa decided to pack up there camper and go also. This, of course, set off a chain reaction where I found that we too were going camping.

Despite the abrupt nature of the trip, we all had a pretty good time. Things were forgotten, but it was all turned out okay. The temperature was in the mid 90's the whole time, so we spent most of our time in the water.

Loren and her cousin Chris enjoying a ride on Uncle Brien's pontoon boat.

Joey, Josh and Andrea taking it easy.

Donna and Veronica right after taking their turn surfing behind the boat.

I even got a turn.

Josh gives his mom a ride on Uncle Brien's jet ski.

Andrew and Loren take turns giving me a ride.

Josh get's ready to ride the waves.

Andrew loves his jams!

Sucking down some watermelon before we head home.

Quick Trip to Chicago

Last weekend was the 4th of July weekend. I took the kids to see the parade on Lincoln street in Urbana. It was okay until it got political. As usual there were the obligatory politicians from each party going by, and the various causes that sometimes make the event non-kid friendly. But what really irked me was the imbecilic and ad hominen attacks being made behind me. It took the fun out of the whole thing.

Watching the parade

We went to Chicago (i.e. Arlington Heights) for my nephew's high school graduation party on Saturday, and stayed over at my sister's house on Saturday night.

My Sister and our niece, Meghan's son, Caleb

Heart and Soul ... ONE MORE TIME!!!

My niece Kristin and Veronica clowning around

On Sunday, we got up and went to Chicago, so that we could go to the Shedd Aquarium. We purchased a family membership pass because it turned out to be cheaper to buy the family membership, which is for 5 kids and 2 parents, and a single child membership than it was to buy individual tickets. We had a late lunch on the beach, and then the kids went for a swim for an hour. After walking back to the Shedd at 4:00 pm, Donna exclaimed "My glasses, I think I left them in the bathroom." So I made her run back with me to the beach bathroom. They were gone. We checked the car, but they were nowhere to be found. Needless to say, I was a little peeved with her carelessness. I made her job with me back to the Shedd, so we could see as much as we could in the now short time that we had before they closed at 6:00pm. When we were finished and went back to the parking lot, Andrea took Donna one last time to see if they could find the glasses. She asked the lifeguard if they had a lost and found, and sure enough they did, and the glasses were there. Suerte...


We wanted to dinner at a Peruvian restaurant, but couldn't find one in time. It was getting pretty late, and we needed to drive back because I had to go to work on Monday. We settled on Gino's Pizza. It ended up taking hour for our pizzas to come, and it was so not worth it. I was very disappointed. It was not like I remembered Gino's to be. We left Chicago after 10:00 pm, and got back home around 12:30. It was quite a busy weekend.

6 Flags - Take Two

We made a very impromptu decision to go to 6 Flags in St. Louis for Father's Day. We ended up getting season passes for four of the eight of us. With each season pass, you get a coupon book which has several "bring a friend for free" coupons for different days. Father's Day was one of those days. So, on Sunday morning, we decided to forgo church and head to St. Louis for a day of fun. We also invited my friend Orlando, who likes spur of the moment adventures.

Loren, Donna and Tim

Andrew and Orlando

Veronica, T.J., Josh and Scooby Doo!

Josh and Tim

Donna, Andrea, and Loren

T.J. and Orlando

The Brooks'

The Brooks' y nuestro buen amigo, Orlando

From Shoulder Pain to a Pain in the Neck

After going to therapy for my shoulder for a week. I woke up one morning a few weeks back with what felt like a pinched nerve in my neck. Every time I went into therapy for the shoulder my therapist would ask how I was doing. I would tell him that the shoulder was the same, and I also now had a pain in my neck. The pain didn't go away for around 2 weeks. Finally, he did some test on my neck by moving my head into different positions. He decided it was best to send me back to the sports doctor this time for neck x-ray. I really thought this was going overboard, and that it would go away eventually.

Anyway, I was surprised to find out that the x-ray did indeed show I had some miss alignments in my C5 vertebrae. It was enough that the doctor thought I should get an MRI. The MRI results showed that I had what the doctor called "severe disk disease". This basically means I had 2 disks that are squeezing out of from the vertebrae, one of which is pushing into my spinal chord.

The doctor said I should see a spinal specialist. So, on Wednesday of this week, I saw the spinal doctor. She again showed me the x-rays and MRI and did some movement tests. She said that I have arthritis in the bone (little pointed spurs on the edge of the bone) and disk degeneration. Both doctors theorize that this could be causing the pain in my shoulder and arm. For now she gave me a cortisone shot in the shoulder. In two weeks, I will go back to see if that helped. If not, she will move to a shot in the neck, an epidural I think. This means a day off of work, no driving afterward, etc.. So far it still hurts. Stay tuned...

The week in review.

Monday we took the family to St. Louis to see my brother, Ronn and his family. We went to 6 Flags on Tuesday and had great time. The lines were really short, and the weather was just about right. It was fairly hot, but not unbearable, and there was no rain.



Wednesday we went to Purina Farms, and saw there animals for a couple hours. After Purina we went to Merimac Caverns and took the tour. I think everyone liked the caverns, but it was pretty chilly down there.





When we got back on Thursday, inspired by my brother's pool, I decided to fix the area where we keep our little blue pool. Last year, I had just built a sand pile to make the ground level. Well, of course, sand washes away, and I knew at the time it wasn't a great idea, but it more or less lasted for the summer. I was just to lazy to dig out the yard. So, I decided to do it right. I had to first remove all the sand, and then start digging out the ground to make a level space. All of this took about 6 hours. The entire time, I had my shirt off, and was sweating profusely. Now 3 days later, I am still in terrible pain from the worst sunburn I've ever had. Of course, I didn't put any sun screen on. Idiot...

Pain in the shoulder, and Donna and the Martian Child

On Monday, I had to go see a doctor in sports medicine about my left shoulder which has been hurting me for a couple months. He determined after my exam that I have sustained an injury to my rotator cuff, and suggested that I receive physical therapy. I went for therapy on Tuesday and Thursday, and will need to continue going for a total of 4 weeks. So, far I have been given ultrasound treatments, and I have had to perform special exercises to strength one of the 4 muscles in this area of the shoulder. At the end of this week, I'm still feeling sore, and my shoulder feels very fatigued.

We had some interesting events with Donna this week. She managed to swallow her tooth that fell out. Also, tonight we watched a movie called Martian Child starring John and Joan Cusack (it was pretty good). Not to give anything away, but the foster child in the movie believes he's from Mars. About 2/3 into the movie, Donna asked me, "Dad, are the people poor people on Mars." When I gave her one of those "you've got to be kidding me" looks. She said "nevermind..." Even after two years of explanations of how movies are pretend, she still has trouble discerning what is real and not real in a movie. She also wondered if the boy at the beginning of the movie which represents John Cusack as a kid was really John Cusack as a kid.