Our Wonderful Mini-Vacation...

As July began, we packed up the family, and embarked on our mini-vacation. First stop, Six Flags!

While we were at Six Flags, one of the ride attendants dropped Carl's glasses, and we had to stay the whole day and night (until 10 pm) to retrieve them. However, we made the most of out time. We picnicked in the parking lot, rode all the rides we wanted, saw some performances, and stayed for the night parade, which was fun. We had a long drive to Springfield, Illinois, but ended up at Jim and Nan's house around 2 am. We slept like the dead!

The next day, we were going to spend the afternoon at the Springfield beach, have a picnic, and see some sights, but the beach was closed (hence the kids' sad looks in the first pics below). However, we got over it, had a wonderful walk on the Lincoln Memorial Garden trails, and then spend the evening with Lara's grandparents, and had awesomely good ice cream at Krekel's in Springfield.

We got up the next morning, and drove BACK to St. Louis to spend a day at the zoo. We were joined by Jim and Nan.

We had a great day, and made it back home to Metropolis by about 10 pm that night.

Lara and I had a chance to see some old friends in Carbondale that night, but age was catching up to us, and we decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Unfortunately, when we got home, Lucky, our new dog, had injured herself in her kennel, rubbing her nose raw and chipping her front teeth on the kennel door. Even with someone watching her and letting her out regularly, she worried herself practically sick. We have decided that it is probably time to take our chances with the dog in the house instead of the kennel, or the next time we travel, we will professionally kennel her.

We went down to the river and watched the fireworks in Metropolis on the 4th. They were beautiful.

A Surprise Trip To Dallas, and a Sad Homecoming...

Over the weekend of January 3rd, we decided to visit my sister in Dallas. Her family was throwing a surprise 50th Birthday party for her, and on the spur of the moment, we gathered up the kids and drove down to visit. We left Friday day, and arrived at about 2:30 am Saturday morning. Her surprise party was not until the evening, so we decided to spend the day at the Dallas Zoo.

After the zoo, we got ourselves ready, and prepared to surprise Carla at the wonderful party set up by her daughters. I think we did!

We had a nice drive home, but had suspected, and actually talked about, the eventual death of one of our old cats, Ptolemy. When we got home, we were informed that Ptolemy hadn't eaten or drank anything since we left. He was having a hard time standing on his own, and was obviously in pain. We decided that night to end his life. Here are the last pictures we have of Ptolemy, with a sad group of kids around him. The kids each wrote a remembrance of Ptolemy, and read them before I buried him in our backyard. May you rest in peace, Ptolemy.

Ptolemy 1994-2009.
Rest In Peace, you lovable little shithead.