Everything is up to date in Kansas City!

These past couple of days have been non-stop intensity. It was so much fun, not soon to be forgotten.



Tuesday


We left Tuesday from the Freedom Church at noon and started heading to Kansas City, Missouri. Just for the record i finally got the city thing straight. Kansas City is in both Kansas and Missouri. Even though they are across the river from each other and in two different states they are still the same town.


After numerous hours of traveling in the car, I don't even remember how long it was, we arrived to the four star hotel that we were going to stay in, I believe it was Regency or something. We stayed at the hotel just long enough to sign in. After we got the keys we went to eat supper. We decided to eat at Arthur Bryant's BBQ restaurant. The place was really packed, but extremely good.


Once we finished eating we heading to the Royals stadium. It was evident from the moment we got there that the place was going o be packed, but it was ok because we already had our tickets. That didn't hold for long. Once we parked and walked back to the stadium we soon found out that the stadium accidentally over sold tickets. After checking out some scalpers, we realized that we wouldn't be able to see the whole game that night. We could come back at 7th inning and see it from there, but we wanted to see the whole game. We bought some tickets for the next night, knowing that we would then be getting back later then planned. A lot later.


After we left the stadium we had a couple hours to kill. Brian found a fun park near by and we consented to going there. the had go carts, mini golf, batting cages, and an arcade. First we did the go carts. I was towards the back of the line when another group of people joined in. I guess they had a 13-14 year old son, and if he wasn't theirs, I don't know where he came from. But he started talking to us telling us about the "Simpsons Movie." After he was done he slowly and surreptitiously made his way up our line. We saw him doing it at one time, but we didn't saw anything because we thought that he might be disabled or something, so we let him go on donig his thing. We finally got to go on the go carts and the kid was in front of me. The race started and he throttled every attempt I tried at passing him, but not on purpose. Everytime we went around a corner he would fish tail around, I tried to pass him, but he almos tmade me crash, and if you crash then you get a strick, two stricks your out. I was getting really annoyed when he suddenly spun out, or someone spun him out. It was good to be free of him, I then got to go and actually race.


When we had all gone around the go carts we went over to the mini golf. That was one of the worst hour and half of my life. I got five's, which is the highest you could get, on almost half of my score card. i never want to mini golf again.


Once I was done being tortured by attempting to golf we went back to go carts. There was about 20 minutes left, about one time around because of the line. So Trevor and I used the time as bumper cars instead of go carts. At one point I had sparks flying after me from him hitting me into the side so hard. When I had passed him I started going after one of the youth leaders, Zach. I got passed him and was trying to stop him from passing me when he spun me out. But of course at the end of the run I was the one to get a strike for this offense. Not that it mattered because we were leaving.


We got back to the hotel about 40 minutes later. When everyone got settled in and stuff all in the rooms a group of us all went out and explored the hotel. It was connected to another building that had a bunch of stores, none of which were open, that would be cool to look through, but we wanted to get to Worlds of Fun early to maximize our time we had there.


When we got back to the room some of us started playing an X-box 360 that one of the guys brought. We didn't get to sleep until probably 4 am or so.



Wednesday


It is hard to keep track of the days because they all blur together, but I know that we went to Worlds of Fun. It wasn't too hot of a day, and there weren't to many people there either. Perfect combinations.


They have this ride called "The Patriot" which is a ride where your feet are hanging down and you are strapped in from the waist up. From the moment the ride starts you are whipped around and spun in different directions in an intese fashion. After riding in the front, you never want to ride in the back again.


We went on a bunch of other rides, but none of them were as smooth as "The Patriot", least of all "The Timberwolf." "The Timberwolf" is a all wood roller coaster and it just thrashes you to pieces. It bangs your head back and forth and shakes you all around, not to mention the insane noise it makes as it goes around. But besides that ride the park was wicked fun.


Once we left Worlds of Fun went to supper at "Uno's." While we were waiting we took some apples that they had for people to take and we tried splitting them in half with our hands. It's not to hard, but it is still kind of a challenge. One of the employees saw us doing it and went back and tried doing it herslef. She ended up doing it after getting most of her co-works to do it with her. The pizza was good too.

We got to the stadium, and this time we had seats. Here is a picture of our seats.

I am not really into baseball, but I defientely started to enjoy the game. The Yankee's sadly one again, they play the Royals the night before, and Thursday night also. We left before the game was completely over with because we wanted to start heading home and not get caught in the after game traffic. Over all the game was a lot of fun.

We started to head home around 10-10:30, when we finally made it on the road. We stopped at 1:30 and got a couple of motel rooms so that Brian could get some sleep so we wouldn't crash. I think everyone ended up falling asleep even thoughwe told him we weren't really that tired.

Thursday

He woke us all up at 5:30 and we started to go home the last two hours that we had left. We got to Freedom Church at about 7:50-8 o'clock.

Once the van was cleaned out Brian started to drop the ones of us who didn't have rides off. I finally made it home around 8:45, and didn't wake up again until around 2.

The trip was a lot of fun, and we got a lot out of it. I don't think you could cram anymore into a 48 hour trip.

More to come...

Eggfest.

The last couple of days I haven't been able to update my blog (mostly because I have been absorbed in Harry Potter, but dad you'll be glad to know I finished it last night and have started socializing again), but a lot has been going on.

Friday

Mike and I got to Wal-mart at midnight and we stood in line for less than an hour, someone was saying that we were going to be there till 3, and we had Harry Potter. While we were waiting in line we started talking to the people around us, everyone was really friendly, and we talked about the book and other stuff, like J.J. Abrams upcoming movie http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/ (Looks amazing!)

Saturday

On Saturday the boys had a couple tee ball games, which of course meant that I was reading Harry Potter, we also went swimming, precious time away from the book! (But I spent some of the time talking to another fan about the book, so it wasn't completely wasted.)

Margo's mom came up Saturday morning to watch the kids tee ball games, and also watch the kids while Mike, Margo, and I got out of the house (Margo had been talking to her mom on the phone a few days before and was asking her what there was to do in Oklahoma before I go home, and of course Ritta, Margo's mom, came up with the idea of going and seeing Oklahoma).

I wasn't really that pleased with Oklahoma at the Opera House in Waterville, I don't know why, but I really liked the one here! We went to an Amplitheater way out in the boonies, I wonder if they say that here?, and we got to see the authentic Oklahoma. Maybe it was the believable set, or the live horses on stage, or the peepers all around that made me like it more. I don't know what it was, but the only thing that could have gone wrong, well if you know me, it did.

Five minutes before intermission it started to rain! The show went until the end of the scene and lasted for about an hour. During that time most of the audience was under the roofed in concession area, which was really crowded. But besides that little downfall it was really awesome!

Before the show started Mike, Margo, and I went to this little picture area and had some pictures taken for us. See for yourselves...

Authentic cowboy, just don't look at the clothes.One happy family! (Of course my arm is sticking out, not that the man taking the picture centered at all anyway.)Haha...And here I just goit done plundering a neighboring Indian village, cause you know, I'm an authentic cowboy.Here you can kind of see the set. In the background you can see the horse and buggy, real by the way.

BUT the fun was just starting. After the play we went to Mike's work so that he could finish up on something. However when we got back in the car and tried to start it, it wouldn't turn on (Mike diagnosed the problem as something to do with the gas pump, which turned out to be true). But before he figured out the problem we were sitting there, Mike was trying to start the car, and Margo and I started singing "I've been working on the railroad." (Well it was really Margo singing.)

The play didn't get over with until about 11. We didn't get to Mike's work until about 11:30. WE didn't get home until, I think it may have been 1. Margo called her neighbor and had her stay with the sleeping boys while her mom came and picked us up. At one point I said that things were exciting, I only have meant it, but then again I have never been stranded somewhere before either.

Sunday

Sunday morning I was surprizingly awake, and even got to Sunday school on time.

After Church Ritta's mom, who also paid for the Oklahoma tickets, brought us out to lunch at an authentic Maexican resaurant. It was really good, everyone really enjoyed it.

When we got home, you guessed it, I went back to reading HP. I stopped when it was time to go to youth though, so it's all good.

At youth we played a water volley ball game, similar to the one we play in youth, except you split up into pairs. At one point we started just throwing the balloons at people, I don't know why, but some guys targeted this one kid. I went along and did it, but only because i was aiming for the person next to him and could blame the throw on bad aim. However I hit the kid that everyone else was targeting... right in the balls. Morter attack to the balls is got to hurt, and it wasn't even the first time that night that it happened.

After the official youth a group of the youth got together and went to a park and started worshiping God through singing. There were only nine, I think, of us who got there to start with, but were soon joined by three more adults. It was the first time they did this, but it was really awesome and meaningful. They/we are now going to try and start doing it on a regular basis.

Monday

Nothing much happened yesterday, besides the usual, but I did finish HP in the wee hours. 12:10 maybe. Margo and I also made this really good Rookie Road bar dessert... yea it was good.

Today and Tomorrow

Today at 12, in a couple hours, the rest of the youth and I are setting out to go to Kansas City, Missouri. Tonight around 7 we are going to a Yankee's and Royal's game and spending the night in a hotel. And then tomorrow going to an amuesment park and getting home around midnight. I can't wait, it should be loads-o-fun!

more to come...

goodsearch.com

So I just became aware of a new search engine, http://www.goodsearch.com
You click on a charity to help and then every time you search something it adds a penny to the account. That may not seem like a lot, but if you use that instead of other search engines for all you searching needs (there you go mom a good alternative to Google), then you can add a lot to the foundation. I know some people that use Google all the time (Jon), so put your searching to good use. Winslow High School has one, so just go to the site, make Winslow your charity, and start helping us get some more money.

On another note, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows" comes out tonight/tomorrow morning, and if anyone ruins the ending for me they will show up dead the next day. To put it bluntly.

More to come...

Air 1 contest.

One of the first things that I did, upon arrival, was look up a good Christian radio station that I would like. It didn't take long before I found Air 1. It is just like Solution FM, but I still miss "Tim and Jolie in the morning."

Right from when I started listening to the station I became aware of different contest they are having. At first I didn't really pay attention, but since looking up the words of "Take me out to the ballgame" I have almost thought of nothing else.

One of the contest they are having is "Take Hawk Nelson Out to The Ball Game." All you have to do is be the tenth caller to Air 1, and be able to finish the song wherever Hawk Nelson leaves off.

Hawk Nelson:
Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out to the crowds,
Buy me some peanuts cracker jacks,
I don't care if i ever get back,

Cause its root, root, root for the home team - stop -
Contestant:
If they don't win its a shame,
For its one, two, three strikes your out
At the old ball game!

(See Sara I finally learned the words, just for you. Well you and the contest.)

It's not always in the same place, but you always have to finish it.

So the grand prize for winning the contest is an all expense paid trip to L.A. where you will go to a Dodgers game and see a Hawk Nelson concert before. Everything is paid for, I mean it, everything. Plus you get a chance to hang out with them. But just for being the tenth caller you get Hawk Nelson cd "Smile It's The End of The World" and a Hawk Nelson Popsicle tee. I want the shirt if nothing else!

So for the past day I have feebly been trying to be that caller. Either its always busy, or it endlessly rings. I still have a couple more tries at it. Cross your fingers! I mean, Please God!?

One of the other contests they are having is a tee shirt designing one. If you design the best Air 1 tee shirt than you win an Apple I-Phone! You also get your design made into a tee shirt and have Air 1 sell it.

(Hold on I am trying to win again....................................................................................................... FOUR whole songs, I try call during FOUR whole songs, ahhhh....)

So they have some pretty awesome things going on.

For other Hawk Nelson fans, I looked online at a couple of different artists, and I found out that Hawk Nelson is coming to Connecticut! In September I think? And also Thousand Foot Krutch is coming to PORTLAND in September. I really want to go to both of those, even if I have to hitch hike to them!




So besides trying to win the impossible contest I have been watching the boys, working fervently on my script, attempting to clean the house, and attending swim lessons. But it looks like Kyle isn't going to be able to take swim lessons anymore because he has swimmers ear. Poor boy.

As for my script, I have been working just about every free moment that I have had to finish it. I am not working on it just to finish it, but I won't lie, I am really excited about it.

Ok, off to a late supper, right after...


HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

MORE! (<-That is the ultimate win!)

More to come...

Oh, and Kelley, if I could have one thing for the youth room... it would probably be a youth camera or something. Maybe a digital one, but I think a youth camcorder would be cool. So we can record all our crazy moments!

NERF or NOTHIN!

Kyle Had his friends birthday party this last Saturday. One of his gifts was a Nerf Gun. I have never been given a nerf gun for my birthday, but I was glad Kyle was. For at least an hour I ran around the house shooting, in a friendly manner, at the boys. We all had a really good time.

At one point Ian was hiding under some covers. I patiently waited for him to pull them down. What that really meant was that I had to wait about less than ten seconds. After a couple seconds he pulled down the sheets, like I had planned, and I planted a Nerf bullet on his head. Literally.

For about three minutes I was lost in a fit of laughter. Ian just sat there and looked at his forehead and was like "What are you doing up there?" Of course he didn't actually say that, but I could tell that's what he was thinking.

In the above picture Ian was posing for it. But when it actually happened he had a much funnier look on his face. It was classic...

Well that's my bit of ranting for the day...

Birthday Binanza!

Don't know if that is spelled write or not...

I haven't been able to write blogs in the last couple of days. I have been really busy, and Caden unplugged a connection plug from the computer and Margo and i couldn't find out where it came from. But oh well.


Sunday

Sunday I went to my first Church service at Freedom. Mike and I got there late with the kids. Margo was doing special music in here home town of Mannford and we didn't have any milk so we had to find something for them to eat. We ended up going to McDonald's, but we didn't make it on time. Sorry Aimee I didn't get to Sunday School, they also don't even have a Wednesday night Bible Study either... so...

After Church we drove to Mannford, about forty minutes away, to spend sometime with Margo in her home town. A woman that Margo knows told us that we could come and spend the day at her house even though she wasn't going to be there, she also told us that we could use the pool. It was a scorcher of a day and we were really looking forward to swimming. However when we got there we discovered that the pool had no water in it. That was a bummer.

While we were driving in we noticed that a near by park had been flooded. As we continued to drive we saw that the water level was high all over the town. Margo told us that she had never seen it so high.

We spent sometime relaxing and watching t.v. After a while Margo decided that she wanted to show us the dam that is right near her house.

The dam controlled the water flow for the Arkansas River, and it was a really dirty river too. The water was totally brown and there was even huge amounts of dirty foam on top. Still it was really cool to watch and look at.

Mike and I drove home with the kids because Margo had more special music that night in her old church. When we finally made it home it was time for me to go to youth. Sunday night they had youth at the bowling alley because there Youth Pastor was away on a missions trip to Cancun. Mike was going to stay home and go swimming with the kids, so I was on my own. He wasn't quite sure how to get there, but don't worry after half an hour to an hour I had found it. I got to bowling late and so I really didn't get to meet anyone. Don't worry Sara next week I will report back to you, like a double agent, what the youth group is really like. the youth actually doesn't have a regular building that they meet in, they just go to different peoples houses so it should be interesting.


Monday

Yesterday, as a gift to Kyle, we went to the zoo. There is a zoo only about ten minutes away, so it is really convenient. We had a good time at the zoo, well, until Nate dropped his Luncables Transformer prize in the Sea otter exhibit. It wasn't even his it was Ian's, but all three boys were crying. Nate was devastated.
If I put the pictures from the zoo up here could we pretend that they were from the Bronxs?


Today

Kyle's fourth birthday is today and we are doing stuff for him all day. First with Mike and then with Margo when she gets home from work. Last night after Mike got home from work we blew up some balloons and wrote on them with sharpies. It would have been really cool for Kyle to wake up with them in front of his door, but right before Kyle woke up Ian kicked them all to the kitchen, Kyle asked me what the balloons were for, he didn't understand they were suppose to be his. Ian also ended up eating all of Kyle's gum.
So far the balloons haven't been much of a problem, but you can imagine my enthusiasm of having thirty balloons and four preschools to play with them!

We went to Incredible Pizza for Kyle's birthday on Saturday, We are spending today celebrating, and he is also having a friend party on Saturday. He is one lucky four year old!

Victory for the "A" team!

For Kyle's 4th birthday we all (Mike, Margo, the boys, Margo's parents, Margo's brother Keith and wife Bridget) all went to "Incredible Pizza". It is like a "Chucky Cheeses' except way better! They have a buffet of pizza, salad, and pasta. They have really fun games, more so than that other place, the prizes are better, and way! cheaper. Best of all they have Go Carts and Bumper Cars, all inside! The place was huge, we all enjoyed ourselves.

When we first got there we went straight to, you guessed it, the Go Carts. Mike went with Kyle, Ian went with Margo, and I went with Nate (as he is known here), Keith was stuck all by himself. So we started off, and at first I was a little timid about driving the go cart because its not exactly like driving a car. I was also afraid that I would hit into a car and have the employees yell at me.


Needless to say Nate and I won. Although it is disputed that Mike and Kyle should have won, Nate and I are going to stick with the judges decision.




On a bizaar note (for any who know the people I am about to mention, this is bizaar). I had a dream last night, I have NO clue where this dream came from, but it was about Patrick, Aimee, and I. Patrick was going to go to the movies so I went with him. When we got to the theater Alyssa Flye was there and some how she ended up dating Patrick. I don't know why, but I had to stop Alyssa from finding out that Patrick was related to Aimee and I. Aimee was the usher, or ticket stub collector, so it was kinda hard. But in the end I think I told Alyssa that Aimee and Patrick were high school friends, and that he, Patrick, and I just liked to hang out. I don't remember the out come, but this, in my opinion, is almost as weird as the "pregnacy of the hand" dream. Although I didn't wake up laughing...

more to come.

Fireworks extravaganza!

So I finally figured out how to get my pictures on the computer.

But now I have to wait for Margo to show me how to get my movies on here. Oh well.

So I went to a pizza buffet for the first time. I had never really thought about it, but its a good idea. How come Winslow doesn't have cool restaurants like they do down here? Another cool store is Braums. It is an organic dairy store, a restaurant where you can get burgers and such, but they are especially known for there ice cream. I have yet to go there, but when I do it should be fun. We also ate at Taco Bueno last night. Before I came Margo was always raving about how good it was. I wasn't disappointed.

So here are some pictures of the fireworks that I have so far. I will update the movies later.


Mikes fireworks collection.
These are some of the fireworks that Mike owns/owned. Bottle rockets are illegal in Oklahoma, but we had a blast playing with them the night of the Fourth, shooting 3-5 off at a time! Shh, though that's top secret information.

Owasso Fireworks

These are some of the pictures I took the night of the Third. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but still they are not nearly as good as the real thing.

Personal Fireworks

Some classic smoke balls.

My first fire cracker. Never turning back.

Ian the fearless.

My first BIG firework(s).
Like father like son.

I took a bunch of pictures, but a lot of them didn't come out right. I also had a load of movies, but I can't figure out how they work. So come back later.

more to come.

First couple of days.

So I have been in Oklahoma for a couple days now, and I soon found out that fireworks are legal. Living in Maine my entire life I have never had the experience that fireworks can provide. However last night I got to have the FULL experience of fireworks. It was amazing, it even ended in a cop showing up, thats when you know they are good. Actually fireworks are legal, but only outside of city limits, its a $289 fine otherwise! I might just come to Oklahoma for the fireworks next year.

Another thing I found out about Oklahoma, or at least this part, is that they don't really do anything for the Fourth. They have fireworks, but on the Third. They were huge though! They were the biggest and most amazing fireworks that I have ever seen! They must have been 500 feet in the air.Actually I am not sure how high they were, all I know is that from were Margo and I were sitting we had to tilt our heads back to see a lot of them. I got some pictures, so when I get them onto the computer I will put them on here for everyone to see!

more to come.

Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plain...

So, this is my first blog as I journey to Oklahoma for the summer. For those of you that don't know I am going to Oklahoma tomorrow (July 2nd) until August 19th. I am going to be staying with the Lowry's the entire time. Maybe I will be able to see some roller derby while I am down there?...