Sunday Fried Chicken @ Gallagher’s

Gallagher’s is a restaurant known for its fried chicken and it has been renovated in an early 20th century style. 481.5

On Sunday night’s they serve an all-you-can fried chicken dinner…and it was delicious!

Scuba Diving

 

   This evening we had the fantastic opportunity to try out scuba diving at a special lesson here in St. Louis!

   Our Mom was curious to know whether we’d like scuba diving  and might want to peruse being certified and getting some gear.

   The teacher was great and he gave a quick talk in the classroom before we hopped in their salt water pool.  There were only us and one other family in the class, so we were able to ask any questions we might have.

   Taking our first breath into the regulator underwater was little unnerving, I could easily see how someone who was claustrophobic could freak out, but we did our testing in 4ft of water so if there was a problem we could stand up.

   Then we learned a few other skills like learning how to take out the regulator, clearing it and breathing out of it again and we also learned how to clear our masks of water…while underwater. 

   After we had tried doing these things in the shallow water we put on our flippers and swam into the deeper end of the pool that was 10ft deep.  We had to be careful not to descend too quickly without adjusting the pressure in our ears to the pressure of the water.  It was a bit of a problem with me at first, but we got used to the higher pressure and began a game of catch with water torpedoes.  It was really neat to be able to stay underwater for such a long period of time and I wish that I would’ve had a waterproof camera with me.

    We all had on a Buoyancy Control Device (BCD) that is an awesome vest that can fill up with air until it’s puffed up very large and can then be deflated…I wonder if you could fill them up with helium?

    We were in the water for about two hours and we repeatedly tested various diving skills and learning to use the flippers alone for swimming.   Our instructor was very thorough and we talked with him before we left about how we could pursue diving and what equipment would be necessary.

   This was a fantastic opportunity and my brothers and I had a great time!

BIG Burrito

 

I was pretty happy with my measly little enchilada and quesadilla until they brought Benjamin’s order out to the table.

Needless to say we brought some of the burrito home in a to go box.

 

Yo My Goodness

  After the ballgame we stopped by Yo My Goodness for a yogurt treat.  I had root beer, blueberry and creamy caramel yogurt topped with granola, chunks of waffle cone, oreos, pecans, M-&-M’s, Heath and cookie dough.  No wonder it looks like I’ve had an overdose of sugar in the picture.

New Glasses!

  We picked up my new glasses today from Crown Optical today but I just had to post a picture that shows Noah’s ingenuity.  A few weeks ago my second pair of glasses had broken (my first pair had broken in December) and I had lost the nosepiece that had broken off.  My vision is so poor that even getting out of bed can be a challenge without glasses.  Noah had the great idea of using his hot glue gun to construct a new nosepiece for me and the result was fantastic.  It may have looked a little large, but no one ever noticed it unless it was pointed out to them and it was very comfortable and kept the glasses tight on my nose.

   When we picked up the glasses the optometrist dilated my eyes so he could examine the eye more carefully than he had during my last visit.  Because my prescription is so large and my retinas have been stretched  there is a larger change of a very small chance that my retina could someday become detached from my eye.  The examination went well and everything looked good.  Just in case light became too bright for me they gave me some neat “sunglasses” that also looked great if we wanted people to think you were a blind person. (Photo credit: Noah Wong)  We still had a few errands to run, if anyone looked at my eyes too closely (and I didn’t have the sunglasses on)they would’ve noticed my large, dilated pupils staring back at them!

Photo Shoot

   Mom had purchased some large canvases through Groupon that were expiring, so we spent today trying to get ready for a photo shoot.  Mom packed a few changes of clothes to get different styles of pictures, but we arrived at the park so late we didn’t have time for too many pictures before the sun went down.

You’ve heard that we’ve making a few changes at the house….

….actually these photos were taken at Bee Tree park where there are a lot of architectual elements that can be neat for a photo shoot.

 

I think that the reason why we call these photo shoots instead of a photography session, is to trick Benjamin into grabbing a gun and hopping in the car. If the word ‘shoot’ is in it he won’t second guess.

“Hey Benjamin, it’s time to leave so we  can shopping-shoot.”

 

I thought this was supposed to be a guys-only picture

None of the photos that we ended up with were fantastic, but we probably have at least one for a canvas.

Mr. Harry’s Carnival Foods

 

   Today we ate lunch at “Mr. Harry’s Carnival Foods” where they serve food that you’d find at a carnival and also serve smoked meat.  They had hot dogs, chili cheese dogs, snow cones, popcorn, cotton candy, ice cream, meat sandwiches and ice cream.

 

 

 

    After we ate lunch we grabbed some plumbing supplies at Lowe’s (and of course Lydia came too!)

 

Benjamin and Noah were dressed like twins.

I’ve been working through Rushdoony’s American History to 1865. I tried using the print outs that were included, but as you can see in this picture I ran out of room for my notes! I suppose I’ll have to switch to just a plain ole’ notebook!

Lone Wolf Coffee Company

 

      Tonight we met up with Kate after work and ate dinner at the Lone Wolf Coffee Company.

(The image above is also an affiliate hyperlink)

Errands & a Sprain

We were gone most of the day and ran a lot of errands.

Mom had to get up early and drive to the licensing office to get the van registered. She came back to the house to pick us up before leaving for a doctor’s appointment. After that we embarked on a journey into Wal-Mart…we also call Wal-Mart stores “black holes.”

   They had organizers and work out equipment in the very front of the store so that folks could start fulfilling their new year's resolutions .

We ate lunch at the Lone Wolf Coffee Company. The décor is very rustic and there are a lot of canoes, bikes skis and anything else that involves great outdoor adventures and sports.

 

On our very last stop Noah and I had run into buy something real quick and on our way out I tripped on a curb or something and at least sprained my ankle.  I ‘m trying to keep it elevated and to get around the house I have to hop around on my left leg .

Mom’s thinking about getting x-rays just to make sure that there aren’t any broken bones, but I’m hoping that it’ll be a lot better tomorrow.  I was pretty unhappy with myself for getting hurt like this, but I’m not really sure how I could’ve prevented it…I’ve broken my arm before by doing something stupid, however this time all I was doing was just walking across a parking lot.