In the spirit of St. Louis

Elizabeth mentioned how much she wanted to go to St. Louis and see Uncle Al and Charlotte many times during the past year.  Michael also wanted to see them again.  I have wanted to travel to their home for years; however, I didn't think my back/neck would let me.  But you never know unless you try … so off the three of us went, while Steven stayed behind to work and take care of Zoe and Niki.  As rare as this comment probably is after a trip, everything was amazing on this trip.  Even the car ride was significantly (p<.01) better than I expected.   

In one day, we made it all the way to the beautiful Crowne Plaza Hotel, which was recommended by Charlotte and is 1.1 miles from their home (unless I am driving and misunderstanding GPS, as happened every morning, so it ended up being a multi-mile trek for us).

If you ever travel to St. Louis, stay in that hotel.  Pool, fitness room, fabulous breakfast reminiscent of The Seasons with its omelet and waffle station, large hotel rooms, etc.  We loved it.  I got to play Frogger for the first time in probably 30 years at their arcade!  It cheered me up after Michael would soundly beat me at fuse ball every game.  

We saw Uncle Al and Charlotte the next morning and headed to the zoo.  The hundred degree (literally, it was 100 degrees) weather did not deter us from touring the majority of the zoo (with multiple stops at the misters to cool down) and loving the sea lion show!

We then cooled down further at the science museum, where Michael loved working with the construction demonstration and Elizabeth loved figuring out the Killer Ball activity, which involved sparing Gumby's life by figuring out how to use random supplies (i.e. paper clip, straw piece) to divert a fast-moving ball from plowing into him (Gumby is male, right?).   

We had a fantastic home-cooked dinner made by Charlotte and just enjoyed being in her and Al's presence and sharing our lives with one another.  None of us wanted to leave their home.   

 

 The next morning we picked up Uncle Al, who took us to the Arch.  The gods and goddesses were shining down on us as there were no lines for tickets or the ride up to the top.  You can ask him why we weren't able to purchase the souvenir photo, but we fortunately had plenty of photos of our own.  We spent time in the beautifully-created exploration museum and ate taffy, which apparently is food popular a few centuries ago.

Uncle Al then took us on a tour of St. Louis and Washington University, where we ate in one of the dining halls.  Uncle Al was quite the popular person, as we saw very few people during our campus visit, yet Uncle Al knew three of them.  We were surprised.  Only because he is retired, not because he is not an extravert.  Then we had my favorite … frozen yogurt!  That evening, we went for Chinese food at their favorite restaurant and wow, we knew quickly why it was their favorite.  Back at their house, we had dessert and a big coin spill all over the kitchen floor.  I won't tell you the name of whose fault it was, but he wears glasses and longish hair and is my mom's brother.

 The next morning we headed back to Kentucky and arrived in one piece.  We knew seeing the sights of St. Louis would make the trip worth it, but to spend time with Uncle Al and Charlotte, well, nothing compares to that.  As I said last time we saw them in Kentucky, the world needs more Uncle Al and Charlottes.

Louisville again, then Holiday World

Elizabeth and I were back in Louisville a few days later, this time with the boys in the family.  We ate lunch by the river, then everyone indulged me in my one request - that we go on the Belle ferry, which I hadn't done since Laura was with us there a couple of decades ago.  I loved it. We loved it.

You can see that everyone did their own thing at some point - Steven was the sightseer, Michael ate lots of food, and Elizabeth avoided us because we are generally an embarrassment to her coolness.

After the two-hour ferry ride, which was absolutely spectacular (in spite of repeated playings of polka music, at the request of some visitors from Kansas) we headed toward the History Museum.  Just before we arrived at the entrance, Michael noticed the big Louisville Slugger Museum's bat.  Off he and Steven went, while Elizabeth and I went to the history museum, which featured an exhibit on mythical creatures (e.g., mermaids, sea monsters, unicorns, etc.). The highlight was seeing a non-mythical sword demonstration and getting to practice a little en garde (that might be fencing; Aaron could explain the difference to us) behavior ourselves.

We left Louisville and went to Indiana.  Swam in the pool, had pig-out night, then spent the next day at Holiday World.  There were new rides but the fun was the same as it is every single year.



It was about 100 degrees, so the long-winding lazy river was a huge hit (do Elizabeth and Michael really think they successfully eluded me by repeatedly staying underwater each time they passed me?)

There was a new basketball game and long story short: After watching grown men not reach the required points to win a prize, Michael did - check out his form!  Then Steven did ... three times - we see from where Michael gets his remarkable form.  So now Michael has four more sports pennants in his room.

Such a great family trip.  Zoe and Niki also had a wonderful time, spending the two days at Angie and David's house.  Hope some of you can join us next year!

Louisville

After buying tickets over a year ago, we finally got (had) to go to the One Direction concert in Louisville!  OMG!!!  Look at our poised photo, but then no, we could not help it - oh, our excited faces - YES!!!  The traffic, the rain, nothing put a damper on our day - it was the best day EVER!!! 

Elizabeth selected a Mexican restaurant for dinner and had her first daquiri.  I don't think it had alcohol, but she sure was giddy that night.  The concert itself was simply awesome, starting with the warm-up band, 5 Seconds of Summer, which sounded like One Direction, looked like One Direction, and moved like One Direction.  I was a bit confused.  Incidentally, there were very, very few males at the concert, and there were very few quiet females at the concert; just the texting moms not shaking their groove thing.  How could they not?  Elizabeth seemed to be so happy at the concert, and that was all I cared about.  :)  I'm glad I got to spend the day with her and see Louis live in concert.  Of course we never got lost, and I never had to ask which direction we were going, because there is, in fact, only One Direction when it comes to anything.  Elizabeth makes the pun much better than that, but I can't remember quite how she says it. 

Michael Bennett

The timing couldn't have better for Michael, who celebrated his 12th birthday this past weekend.  His best friend Stephen (I know you knew who it was without my writing the name, but whatever) got to spend two nights and three days with us because his family was out of town for his sister's softball tournament.  Lots of legos were handled.  Lots of food was eaten.  Sports were watched.  Dorky jokes were told.  The usual.  Michael got a new trundle bed for his birthday (no, we didn't count that as his gift; we are not that lame) and more legos.  A scooter has been ordered.  Life is so good for that boy. 

Michael's one request in terms of a celebration was Gattitown.  Elizabeth was at a party (naturally) so Steven and I took the boys there for pizza (Michael had 8 pieces; sadly, in terms of his cholesterol, that is not a typo) and lots and lots of lots of arcade games. 

A special surprise visitor showed up - Carola!  She drove all the way from Morehead to bring him his card and gift!  The boys earned over 3000 points (I wish I could put that into context so you would realize how impressive that was, how skilled they are at some of these arcade games) but I can say that they went to "spend" their points in the prize room and after selecting many, many items (only a few of which are in the photo), they still had over 1000 remaining points that they're just keeping for another day.

The Oreo ice cream cake was delicious.  Michael wears contacts, but you will notice he is wearing glasses while making his birthday wish.  That's because it was something like 1:30 in the morning when the boys finally decided they had had enough lego building and Michael was ready to blow out the candles.

The coolest, most non-nerdy part of the week leading up to Michael's birthday was STEM Camp!  Michael was one of I think five or six students from the entire 5th grade class (126 students) at his school selected to participate in our county's STEM (Mom knows what these letters stand for, don't you, Mom?) Camp program for in-coming sixth graders.  There were about 50 kids from all of the elementary schools combined.  Michael loved it, evidenced not only by his actual daily reports but by the fact that he didn't complain a single morning when I woke him up at 7 a.m. to get ready to go.  During the week, he built a solar thingy, a rocket ship, a kite, and a bridge.  He loved using his brain all week.  Okay, he never actually said that or anything remotely close to that, but that's what I decided was true.  I was so proud of him for being selected and more than that, because several of the counselors told me what a good, smart, thoughtful child he is.  Michael, your middle name is Bennett for a reason!

50 years of Junior Miss

Fifty years ago, Rowan County had its first Junior Miss pageant.  Last night was the 50th year in a row of once-a-year pageants and all previous winners were invited back to attend and be recognized.  I also served as one of the five judges for this year's contest.  I was so happy because I knew Kim (Reeder) would be in town for the reunion, and I texted Rebecca Craft in the hopes she would also make the trip.  (She did, yay!)  First, there was a social hour, which was followed by a dinner with this year's contestants.  I was psyched to be at the same table with Rebecca and Kim, but then Mrs. Brown made Rebecca move.  :(  I guess she thought it wasn't fair that all the cool girls were at the same table.  So in the end, I didn't get to talk much with Rebecca but we'll hopefully get together in Lexington soon (and we sure won't tell Mrs. Brown, even though I love her). 

 

Elizabeth came with me to Morehead because she wanted to visit Grandma, stay in her house on the pull out couch is not to be pulled out when she is sleeping on it, and hang out with Ansley the next day).  Sunday she hung out with just Mom while I did the Junior Miss events.  The two of them shopped, ate, and went to The Internship, which Elizabeth highly recommends. 

The next day was quite the long (more than 12 hours of judging) yet intruiging day, as the five of us judges started by having brunch with the contestants and then the individual interviews began.  Almost five continuous hours later, the interviews ended.  Then dinner.  Then the pageant, to which Steven came!  The former winners introduced themselves and we judges were very briefly interviewed. 

The judging was surprisingly stressful, because you realized how much your perceptions and evaluations affected every outcome of the voting.  The pageant itself was almost 4 hours long; Mom showed up just as the winners were being announced (Alex Northcutt won.).  We got back after midnight.  I am sworn to secrecy regarding the voting and evaluations and discussions.  You'll have to threaten my life to get that information out of me.  I loved the experience, though, and hope I was fair, consistent, and accurate in terms of evaluating the quality of contestants.  I would love to do it again.  Especially if Mrs. Brown lets me sit where I want, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Lize (as she currently spells her name)

Meanwhile, Elizabeth, now 13 and 1/12 years old, is loving having all kinds of extra time to just hang out with her friends. She loves her ipod touch for texting, her phone for calling, and her parents for driving her to her friends' homes.
 
Her hands-down favorite event of the past week was when she was lucky enough to attend the 90-minute presentation on teenagers' identity, given by her lovely mother, as part of the Scott County Public Library's Teen Summer Program.  (One of my students sent me the flyer photo.)

I was practically beaming on the way home afterward, when she told me, "I thought it was going to be super-boring, but it actually wasn't that bad." Of course I think she said that only because I threw in a photograph of One Direction on one of the slides. Kim Kardashian and her 72 hour marriage were on another. Also, I didn't call on Elizabeth and make her answer any questions. 

Elizabeth knows what a lovely father she has, too; thus, she is unbelievably ecstatic the few occasions when Michael is unavailable for Friday night Eat-Out Night with the family, and she gets to have both of her parents' undivided attention for almost an hour when she's trapped at the table.  You can imagine how embarrassed she was when I made her and Steven pose for this picture at Galvin's last week.  The first picture I took was blurry, so she had to suffer through the experience twice, while people throughout the restaurant stared at us as the flash went off and I kept repeating, "Smile!!!".  She was mortified, but she's got to admit, the photo is a keeper!

Good bye soccer, Hello basketball

Michael's last soccer game was last night in Berea.  [I wrote this last weekend but apparently never published it.]  He and Stephen are such fun to watch, especially because they're the only ones that ever score.

This week Michael attended the Scott County High School coach's (Billy Hicks') basketball camp.  He came in 1st for made free throws and his team came in first for the tournament.  He starts practice with his middle school team this afternoon.  His coach is a former assistant coach at GC and the coach's wife is a former student of mine, who was just named principal of the county's new elementary school.  I love living in a small town, feeling like I know many people with whom my kids come into contact.

The Scott County High School basketball team was the subject of a recent book, Outside Shot.  Here's a section from the New York Times review of it: So forgive “Outside Shot” its minor flaws and its junior varsity title, and celebrate it for what it is: a reporting tour de force and an utterly gripping account of the Scott County High Cardinals, who hail from the hill country north of Lexington, home of the fabled University of Kentucky Wildcats, and are renowned in their own right, winning two state titles over the last 14 years. It is a legacy that imposes immense expectations on the Cardinals coach, Billy Hicks, and his kids, a tension that is sustained throughout the book: the Scott County players are at once admired and burdened by a community that derives way too much of its identity and esteem from the fortunes of a bunch of boys in shorts.

Michael and Steven bought the book.  I don't think it's been opened yet, but I'll keep checking.