Raging Waves Waterpark Day

During the school year, Ashley and Paige tracked their exercise hours for a PE incentive program and were given free admission to a local waterpark.  They have done it before but for some reason we never ended up going.  

This year, we decided to do it early in the summer before we ran out of time or were just too tired by the time August rolled around.   So the Smith girls and the Edrosa girls headed to Raging Waves Waterpark.  Honestly, it has been a while since we went to a waterpark and the girls had a blast and I got a scorching sunburn.   We even did the Boomerang slide - it was scary but in a thrilling way.  Here's a picture - it's  one of those big funnel slides.  Let's just say that we caught some air and I am so glad that everyone had a tight grip of the handles so no one went flying off the tube.

Father's Day

Hooray for Dads!

We celebrated Father's Day in our traditional manner.  The restaurant this time around was "The Chinese Bird Nest" in honor of Dave's bird lovin'.  No actual bird nest dishes.  (To tell the truth we actually tasted the delicacy of bird nest while in Thailand and its not something we would want to eat again.  Its exactly what you would expect a slimy nest covered in bird saliva would taste like, uggh.)

The girls made up the menu and the entertainment.  On the menu was: bird drop soup, bird seed fried rice and green beans in a noodle nest.  I kept it pretty simple because of our late church.  I wouldn't have enough time to come home and cook for hours.  

For dessert, we had German Chocolate cake and Neapolitan ice cream.  The ice cream was in honor of my dad, who is currently in Thailand.  He is really the only person I know whose favorite ice cream is Neapolitan.  I remember growing up how he would bring home ice cream and everyone would be so excited until we saw it was Neapolitan.  As a result, it seems like we always had a 1/2 gallon of Neapolitan in the freezer because nobody but him would really want to eat it!   

The entertainment as always was pretty good.  Ashley played "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home" on the piano and Paige choreographed and performed a dance to his favorite old-time rap song.  Seriously, that was a sight to behold, that girl is so funny.

We gave Dave a big bag of M&Ms.  Paige made him a clay turtle which is super cute and Ashley gave him a coupon booklet.  The big present he got a little earlier - hiking boots to use on his birding trips!

We also got to talk to Grandpa Smith.  We tried to Skype but had some technical difficulties so it was a bit of a disjointed conversation, but still nice to see his face.  We sure are lucky to have such good fathers in our lives.

At church, the youth hosted their annual cookies and milk for all the fathers.  A couple young women also made a video montage of the kids answering questions about their dads - always good for a few laughs.

(Very much like Mother's Day, we didn't take good pictures on Father's Day either.  Oh well, its a picture fail for 2013)

Ravinia - MoTab concert

6 years ago, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir came to Chicago for a performance.  It was the first time they had come in decades.  Paige was just a little toddler but we took the whole family to see the choir, especially because we weren't sure when they would come back.  Paige doesn't even remember it at all.

Fortunately, the Choir came back and so once again we went as a family to hear them.  Of course, the Choir is amazing but so is the venue they come to.  It's called Ravinia and is basically a huge outdoor music park.  There is a pavilion and stage with assigned seating, but surrounding the pavilion are beautiful grassy grounds covered in trees designated as "lawn seating."

Lawn seating is perfect if you have kids with you.  The grass areas have lighting as well as speakers that pipe music all over the park.  There are also paved paths that cut all through the grounds so you can walk up to the pavilion or walk around to see friends.

The big tradition at Ravinia is to bring a fancy picnic while enjoying the concert.  People bring tables, chairs, and even candles.  We skipped the candles and table, but we did bring chairs and glow sticks.  We set up in a nice little area, ate a picnic dinner, and then just listened to the Choir.  We also happened to be able to see the huge jumbo screen in the pavilion from where we were sitting, so we could actually watch the Choir too.  The weather forecast rain, but it stayed dry.  Even better it was a little overcast so we didn't have to sit in direct sun or high heat - it was a perfect summer night.

The girls ended up laying on the blanket to listen.  Here
they are "posing" asleep.

Our lawn location was very near the ice cream shop.
How convenient!

Youth Temple Trip

This week I went with the some of the youth from our ward to the Chicago Temple.  We had a very small group because most of the youth from our ward were at Youth Conference on a Pioneer Trek.  We usually don't get to take pictures because it seems like our temple trips are always in the winter.  Its so cold and dark by the time we get outside that no one, especially kids with wet hair are willing to pose for pictures.  Another plus was because or our small group, we stopped at Wendy's after for dinner.  It was a very nice and peaceful trip, glad Ashley and I got to go.

All to Ourselves

When you go swimming three hours before a tornado warning is scheduled to take effect you pretty much get the swimming pool to yourself.

The girls and a few friends at the pool:

Since school has been out, the weather has been pretty cool in the 60 degrees.  This week was the first time it was warm enough to go swimming.  So even though bad storms were forecast for that evening we still went swimming during the day.

Fortunately, we played it safe and timed it right.  We were home safe and sound way before the storms finally came in.  The thunderstorms were very strong, it poured rain and even set off the tornado sirens. We decided to eat dinner in the basement just to be safe but everything was fine.  No tornadoes near us and even better we didn't get the any hail (softball-size!)

Own the Runway - Spring Dance Recital

Paige has pretty much chosen to pursue dancing for a while.  Her latest session of classes started in January and culminated in a Spring dance recital.  This time around she took a lyrical/contemporary dance class.  She is actually pretty good, one of the best dancers in her class.  She even got her right splits down.  If we were willing to invest a ton of money and time she could probably join the competition dance team but honestly, we are not willing to go that far.  So for now she is going to keep taking classes at the studio, but we aren't going "all in".

Back to the recital, the theme was "Own the Runway".  Paige's group danced to the song, "Who Says?"  It was very cute and they did a great job.  I helped backstage with her class during the show.  It  can get pretty hectic, the show was 3.5 hours long start to finish but fortunately my group was really good and easy to handle.

Here are some pictures:

Backstage pictures

Showing off, getting ready for the finale

Paige on the far left

Look How My Garden Grows

This year because Dave was home, we were able to get our garden in early.  We did it during Mother's Day Weekend and then promptly had a frost on Mother's Day.  Ughh.  Every year we have friends plant early with no problem.  I always dutifully wait and think, "I should have planted earlier too!"

So this year when Dave offered to help me get the garden ready and it was only a few days before the traditional midwestern, "don't plant before Mother's Day" I figured lets go for it.  Then three days later I was out covering my plants because of a frost warning.  In the end, a couple of my tomato plants had some frost damage on the leaves but they survived.  The bean plants fared the worse.  I lost one plant and the others were more heavily damaged, but fortunately everything seems to have bounced back.

Hooray!  The garden is growing well, and next year I'll just wait until after Mother's Day.  I learned not to press my luck.