Fourth of July 2008

This year for the 4th we took another trip to my nearest family members, Jim's house in Minneapolis. It's always wonderful to be at Jim's house. There is so much to see and do and to talk about. Some of the things not photographed during this trip include watching Harry Potter in the movie room, doing doughnuts on the lawn with the riding lawn mower, going through the Weisman contemporary art museum, and picking up two pieces of furniture and a bamboo plant at Ikea.


We attended the local fireworks show that turned out to have a live band and some really great fireworks. The funny thing about the 4th in Minneapolis is that it starts so late in the evening due to the very long summer days. Here JoLee, Sarah, and Charlotte get ready for the show.

Jim bought some fireworks for the home and let me light them off. As with any good pack of fireworks, it came with its fair share of Piccolo Pete's.

I love lighting things on fire. Perhaps Aaron, Brodie, and Toby can help me with a post of all the things we've burned over the years. Or maybe not...

Sarah plays the bassoon (and she's really good at it). Her bassoon teacher performed at this concert at a nearby lake in Minneapolis. Charlotte listens below.


There are free outdoor concerts every night at this pavilion. The atmosphere is very casual. Again, I kept waiting for the sun to go down on us, but instead it just lingered on the horizon even after we left.

JoLee snapped this picture of me hanging out in the camp chairs at the concert. I wish we had a picture of the fantastic ice cream we got.

Finally, their cat, Oliver, recently decided to take up residence in the grandson's baby crib. The funny thing is that he blends in nicely with all the stuffed animals. What I like most about Oliver is that he's very polite and very quiet, unlike some other cat I know.

Who Ever Said Kansas Had Bad Weather

I can't contend against the accusation that Kansas weather is not as nice as California's (my home state), but I can say that Kansas weather is more varied and interesting. I've seen storms here that I didn't even see the likes of in Central America. We sometimes get electrical storms like the one in this video that last for hours.

The City Museum

Nate and I had been to The City Museum before, and we thought it would be a really fun thing to do with Paige, Peter, and Taggart. And it was. We started out in the caves that are constructed around the shoe factory's chutes. Taggart squeezed through some tight spots. We kept thinking that Peter was right ahead of us and then he would pop up across the room.

The last time Nate and I were at the City Museum it was February and all the outdoor stuff was closed. This time we spent a lot of time outside. We were there at night, so here is a picture of the outside portion of the museum from another website so that you can get a better idea what it looks like.

There are some seriously high places to crawl around in at the City Museum. Paige and I thought they were pretty freaky, but, when we went outside, we fashioned a new rule: "where one person goes, everyone goes," and we stuck to that. All of us climbed through the highest wire tunnel, and here is the photographic evidence to prove that I did:

We crossed over a whirlpool:

We went down all the slides. For some reason Taggart really couldn't slide. He basically had to crawl down the 5 or 6 slides.

We all had to squeeze through some pretty tight spots.

Nate was a great photographer. This is the only picture we have of him from the museum.

And, of course, Paige and I had to pose like these statues. Posing for a photo-op was one of the themes of the trip.

Everyone loved The City Museum. The trip was a huge success. We played like kids. Paige and Peter said it was the best thing that we did in St. Louis. Taggart said it was the most fun he had had since he moved there a month earlier. Nate and I said this second trip was more fun than the first one.

Paige and Peter in St. Louis

While Paige and Peter were visiting they got to take a vacation within a vacation: the four of us went to St. Louis. We weren't in St. Louis for very long, but we sure played hard while we were there. One of the reasons that we went to St. Louis was because my brother was there working for the summer. We met up with him on Saturday morning for breakfast, and then we sent him to work while the rest of us played.

First we went to the St. Louis Zoo. Where we saw: 1) river otters, 2) a baby elephant with his mom, 3) puffins and penguins, and ...

4) this giraffe giving birth. If you look closely you can see the little legs of the baby giraffe sticking out from under her tail.

After lunch we went to check out the science museum. I really liked the exhibit on structural supports and building. I carefully constructed my own skeletal frame skyscraper. Paige, Peter, and Nate all worked on this lovely arch.

Paige and I tested our memories. And then my little sister grew into my giant sister.

On our way out we posed like the rockets and the spaceship, but really we just look kind of like The Incredibles.

We really enjoyed the science museum, and after all that fun we were ready for a little break. So we went to the hotel to swim, rest, and revive before picking up Taggart for dinner and a trip to the City Museum, which will be featured in the next post.

New Job

You may or may not have heard that I recently took an new job. After 8 years of supporting a fledgling flowers business, Hallmark decided to close up it's doors and walk away. In doing so, they dismissed me and about 100 employees that worked on their internet e-business. I worked at Hallmark for three and a half years, and while there are many things that I won't miss at all, I decided to make up a list of things that I really will miss. Here they are.

Top 10 things I will miss about working at Hallmark.

1. Not having to explain to people what my company does.


2. Receiving 20+ Christmas cards from coworkers every year.


3. Missing the tears and sniffs of my coworkers at the quarterly viewings of upcoming TV commercials.


4. Snagging food outside the conference rooms.


5. Monthly birthday celebrations.


6. Passing YoYo in the hallway (I never did meet Hoops).


7. Turning in my cafeteria t-shirt labeled "Body by Crown Room".


8. 50% discount on cards, gifts, and flowers.


9. Market tours (code for taking the afternoon off).


10. Not playing trumpet in the Hallmark band.

I'm currently working at Adknowledge, an internet advertising firm located in Kansas City. I'm working on their behavioral targeting system which attempts to match ads to consumers most likely to respond to those ads. I'm working with a great group of people in a small but growing company. Basically, the company is everything Hallmark was not: small, fast-paced, flexible, young, and high tech. Now if only Adknowledge had a concert band.

The Joys of High School

This post is brought to you by LeiAnn (who tagged me) and Jackie (who told me that LeiAnn had tagged me.)


1.What was your school's full name? Rampart High School

2. School mascot? Ram

3. Did you win anything in Seniors Who's Who? I don’t think we had these awards. The best award that I won in high school was a city-wide scholar-athlete award. All the schools would nominate one person from every sport and then the winner for each sport was announced at a banquet. I won for girls' cross country my senior year. Here I am with my medal.


4. What kind of car did you drive? A blue, Ford Taurus station wagon. It was perfect for taking everyone from seminary to school. And Paul Simon was always playing in my car. Sadly, no picture.

5. It's Friday night...where are you? We had a lot of cross country parties, which basically consisted of everyone on the team watching movies or playing pool at one of our teammate’s houses.

6. Were you a party animal? Definitely not. If I wasn't at a cross country party my preferred weekend night activity was watching TV with my mom. Seriously.

7. Were you considered a flirt? no

8. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I sang in choir all four years of high school. The picture below is from my senior year. Our choir teacher was unable to come to the concert so the boys all decided they weren't going to wear their shirts. And the thing is that the guys shirts were just plain blue and not crazy, big plaid like the girls.


9. Were you a nerd? I'd probably have to say yes. I took all the TAG (talented and gifted) classes I could and some AP classes. And, if not nerdy, at least a little quirky. Remember the stick figures post?

10. Did you get suspended/expelled? Not even close.

11. Can you sing the fight song? Of course. “We are the Rams of Rampart. Fight for the blue and gold. We’ve got a spirit that sets us apart. We have a story to be told, for we are the Rams of Rampart. Winners as you can see. Fighting. Striving. There’s no denying that we’re headed for victory.”

12. Who were your favorite teachers? Mr. Clark: U.S. History and my track coach. We used to go downtown and run at the park for practice. Mr. Clark had a Sesame Street tape in his car that we always listened to on the way. I can still sing 3 of the songs. Mrs. McCombs: My awesome senior English teacher. She really got me ready for college. At the end of the year she had her senior English class over to her house for breakfast. The only stipulation was that we had to try grits. I was not a fan. Mr. Bierman: My sophomore English teacher. He taught me how to write a thesis statement. Madame Kozhevnikov: She was my French teacher. She had lots of funny stories about when she was a cheer leader and her Russian husband. One time Katherine accidentally locked Eddie in the closet in her class. Mr. Duggan: My junior English teacher. Lots of funny things happened in Mr. Duggan's class. His TAs gave him a goldfish for his birthday, which they christened Bitey. When Bitey died Mr. Duggan wrote a hilarious elegy for him. Then he got some new fish named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Also, Mr. Duggan had us rewrite the Beatles' song "She Loves You" in Shakespearean English. I have never forgotten it: "She loveth thee and thou knowest that canst be bad. She loveth thee and thou knowest thou shouldst be glad."

13. Where did you sit during lunch? The lunchroom opened up to the central portion of the high school where all the halls came together – sort of like an atrium – and that’s where we always sat. On the floor. Usually over by the auditorium doors. I can only remember sitting at a table for lunch in high school once.

14. Did you date someone from your school? Yes, Dave Gotsill.

15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? I went to Homecoming with Dave Gotsill my junior year and Hadley Henshaw my senior year. This is Dave. His outfit looks kind of funny now. I look so young.


16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? No way. Life after high school is so much better.

17. Where did you go senior skip day? We went out to breakfast and then to the park. Senior skip day was lame. I ended up going back to school. See, I really was a nerd.

18. Were you in any clubs? Sports. I ran track and cross country in high school. The track team was really good. We won state my sophomore and junior years. This picture is from my junior year. The picture of me running is from my sophomore cross country season.


19. Who was your prom date? Chris Guillan. Prom was so lame. Ask anyone. The music was terrible. Plus, my date and I were both on the track team, and Prom was held right after the conclusion of the two-day Regional Track Meet so we were so tired.


20. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Who wrote this quiz? Is this supposed to make me feel old? My 10 year reunion was last year, and I did go. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It was kind of scary how little people changed. The "cool" people still didn't really talk to the rest of us.

21. Do you still talk to people from school? A few. Jessica (we went to collage and grad. school together too). Rebecca. Some people I recently found on facebook.

Paige and Peter in KC

Paige and Peter came all the way from Utah to visit us so we had to show them a good time. We went to the Deanna Rose Farm. The last time that Paige visited this cow and this bison were little babies. They lived together as babies, and now they are adolescents, and they are still friends. Paige and Peter also had a chance to feed the goats. The goats really like it when people feed them.


I took Paige and Peter to the World War I Museum. Paige is teaching WWI next year, so she was really interested in seeing the National WWI Museum. Here's Peter and Paige at the museum with the city behind them. One of the cool things about the museum is that there are a bunch of interactive consuls where you can learn more about the weapons, airplanes, and camouflage, etc. that were used in the war. On one of the consuls you can design you own memorial. Here is mine.

While we waited for Nate to finish up at work, the three of us went to the Kauffman Gardens. Paige really liked the fountain.


After we picked up Nate and went to dinner we went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The weather was pretty nice so we walked around the sculpture garden. The sculpture below is made from wood. Paige and Peter got a picture with the Shuttlecocks, and Paige and I played a rousing game of badminton.

At the Zoo

After I got back from Arizona, Nate and I decided we needed to have some fun because he had just finished his first week at a new job and I had been away. So we went to the zoo. The Kansas City Zoo is really great if you want to see African animals or Australian animals. If you want to see North or South American animals you will have to go to some other zoo.

The African section of the zoo is like a mini safari. The animals have a lot of room to roam. Highlights in Africa included: 1) the week-old baby zebra, 2) the lions, and 3) the meerkats who all came over to say hello. We also saw this enormous African vulture. He has a 9 foot wing span.

Highlights in Australia included: 1) the soft-looking tree kangaroo, 2) the curious lorikeets, who explored our shoelaces and their food jug, and 3) the kangaroos. The kangaroo section of the Kansas City Zoo is pretty great because the kangaroos can roam throughout most of the Australian section of the zoo. Usually they just lounge around in the shade, but this kangaroo was hopping down the path like a tourist.




We also took a picture of this pig. We wanted to see if this pig was as photogenic as the pigs at the farm (pictured below). And, we decided that he does indeed take a mighty fine picture. We are starting to wonder if pigs are just naturally photogenic.