The Piano Guys at the Fabulous Fox

March 10, 2016 - My Mom's...39th birthday!   Again!

It was also the first birthday of my Mom's niece, Keira, so the birthday girls had to go out to celebrate with some ice cream.

It's hard to believe just how much Keria's grown in the last year.  

As the saying goes 

"They grow up so fast."

The "they" in that phrase was so commonly applied to me and my brothers, that it's a little odd to bestow it on someone else.  I guess that's part of getting "old!"

For my Mom's birthday, we had a date to the Fabulous Fox theatre for a performance of the Piano Guys. A one night performance - on her birthday - how cool is that?

We're the two biggest music lovers in the house - if there's ever music being played around the house, it's either coming from her or from yours truly.

Yes, I'm driving.  No, my eyes are NOT looking at the road.

#livingdangerously

Coincidentally, we had friends just across the way at Powell Hall.

Well, I didn't know this, but you're not allowed to get photos of the Fox Theatre.  

(From this shot, I could see why, because it appears to be a sacred Buddhist temple or something.)

That said, I hope you appreciate this post all the more when you take into account that I was tracked down by security and could have been escorted out of the theatre for getting these photos!

And, of course, I wasn't able to get photos or video of the Piano Guys' performance, and this is the closest thing I can find: 

It was a lot of fun to spend the evening together.

Little did the two of us know that my Grandpa would pass away just a few days later and we'd have to heavily lean on one another for support in the following week.

Mudhouse Coffee Shop

February 24, 2015 - Most of the blog posts seem to be about an event on a weekend.  So, it's with some amount of pride that I say that this post is neither event-related or a weekend occurrence (Tuesday!)

My Mom got some blood work done in Springfield, MO, so I came along to split some of the driving time.

For lunch we ate at the Mudhouse Coffee House in downtown Springfield

We ordered "mud puddles."  

It was with great relief that my inferences I'd derived from the name were dispelled when I was presented with an excellent frozen mocha!

One the way back home we drove by the Savoy Ballroom where 

we're planning on doing some 

stompin' 

(or "dancing" for all of you who didn't catch that Benny Goodman reference)

this May.

Oh, and this completely random photo was taken to commemorate the realization of how much I enjoy hearing only one side of a phone conversation.

You get to utilize your powers of deduction to determine what's being said in the silent pauses of the conversation, exercise your imagination in filling in the missing pieces, and to write your own words into the blank spaces left by the articulations of the person on the other side of the phone.

Oh, wait...honestly, I think I do this even in a face-to-face conversation. ;)

Route 66

My Mom has the opportunity to drive a box truck from Indiana to Los Angeles for a dealership. She would "convoy" with my grandparents (who were also driving a truck )to LA, deliver the truck and fly back home - about 2000 miles to drive in 3 days.

Below are some photos from the trip that my Mom took from the truck.  Listen to the classic song, “Route 66” because it’s a very accurate description of all the towns they passed on the way to CA.

“Well, it goes through Saint Louis, Jopin, Missouri…”

“..you’ll see Amarillo…”

“…and Gallup, New Mexico.”

Hotel in, “…Flagstaff, Arizona…”

“…Kingman, Barstow…”

“San Bernadino!”

Little Cody

   On the third day one of the trucks had to stay behind and some logistical problems ensued, but thankfully the Lord worked out  away  where Mom was still able to catch her flight from California and was able to return home safely!

Father’s Day/Wedding Anniversary

  Today would’ve been my parent’s 23rd Wedding Anniversary and tomorrow will be Father’s day, so I thought this would be a good time to take some time and remember the times my Dad and I did have together before he died August ‘10.

  Even if my parent’s marriage wasn’t ideal it was an enormous blessing that divorce was never an option.  This really hits home when I look all around and see marriages falling apart and children being caught in the cross fire…it’s amazing that half of kids will be placed in this situation.

   

I can also see how through the years God brought men into my and my brothers’ lives and I’m very thankful to the men through the years who have taken time out of their day to be with three young men/boys.

It was hard not to live with a paternal influence in the house, but my Mother was very deliberate about letting us be boys, promoting our interest in masculine activities and teaching us how to shake a man’s hand.

Just very thankful for how God has worked through others in my life and He certainly is “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows…”  -Psalm 68:5

Arcadia Valley

 

    We drove south today to visit Taum Sauk Park and to hike a trail that led to the highest point in Missouri.

    The foliage was absolutely gorgeous along the windy two lane roads we drove as we got lost tried to find the park.  We drove to lookout tower first and got an amazing view of Missouri’s wooded rolling hills.  Then we took a short hike to the highest point in Missouri which is 1,772 feet above sea level.  We then had a picnic in a lookout area where we could see hills up to 15 miles away. 

    This area used to be a large mining operation-some of these hills were known to be nearly 100% iron ore and folks from the St. Louis area would take the train to “the valley” for a nice break from the city.  Scientists from all over the world would also come here to visit to see the mining operations.

Four Wheelin’ & Campfires

  We finally got Kate to come down with us and go four wheeling at our Aunt & Uncle’s property.  It had rained that morning and the landscape looked fresh-but also a little moist.

   I drove a four wheeler that had a second seat on the back rack where Mom rode while she was video taping with her phone.  Because she was holding her phone, she only had one hand to hang onto the straps of the seat with so whenever we’d go downhill she’d slide off her seat and run into me .  (This explains the laughter)

We look a little villainous in this lighting

My Aunt and Lydia’s “Cousin”

   Noah wiping his sticky marshmallow fingers on a shirt (just kidding)

   As it got dark, my brothers and I (as well as Lydia) took a hike on one of the trails.  It was really dark, but using our flashlights would’ve stifled the adventurous part of walking in the pitch-black woods.  However, every time we’d turn the lights off Lydia would start whining in the darkness-apparently she is scared of the dark!
  We had a great time talking around the fire and eating a few s’mores before heading home.
Sep 10 11

Day 1-Heading to Lake Michigan

   We were up pretty last night to celebrate Noah’s 13th birthday with family.
   We had a later start that morning than we had planned for and half of us weren’t even packed.  However, it was only mid-morning when we had the van loaded with our bags, the trailer loaded with bikes and our canoe loaded on top of the van.



  Because of a few errands we had to run we didn’t hit the road until after noon.  We made some good progress and listened to a few teachings on tape-no, I mean on CD-no, I mean…well, they were actually tiny bytes of information encoded in MP3 format transferred onto a tiny hard drive inside of an audio player.  We’ve been on a real Sherlock Holmes kick lately so we listened to a few mysteries as well.  We made a couple of stops to make sure the canoe was strapped securely.





   We were nearing southern Chicago when we stopped for dinner at Jimmy John’s.  We ordered our sandwiches and then asked for cups of water. 
We can’t give you our water.
Well, could they give us ice?  We had warm water bottles in the trailer.
Yes, we can sell ice. It’ll be $1.75/cup.
No thanks!
   We drove on and ate at Boston Market as it began to get dark. We gassed up (please take this to mean what I mean it to mean) and drove up along the Eastern side of Lake Michigan.
  We had a few delays along the road…someone smelt rubber burning, so we stopped a couple of times to check and sniff everything…Noah thought he saw someone being held up in a gas station…called the police, but I think everything looked fine.
   Arrived at our home away from home after 1am (but we lost an hour due to time zones) and then we had to unload all of the bags before we could hit the sack.


As you’ll see in this video, we got a bit slap happy towards the end of the trip.