Gone to the Dogs

Apparently my dogs have found my car to be a fun jungle gym. GREAT!

I'm pretty sure I said, "NO DOGS." Right?
Well the kids and Marshall love having them, so I am very much out-numbered!
"My Heart Belongs to My Dogs."

Santa's Here!

Marshall is focusing on getting some holiday traditions going for our family. We have a lot of things going on with the extended family's but nothing that feels like ours
Last year we took Trent to see "A Christmas Carol". This year Callie came too. It's a start for us. We warned Callie ahead of time about the Ghost of Christmas Future. It turned out to be both their favorite ghost. Go figure!
After the show the cast are in the lobby to collect donations for charity. Last year Trent gave his money to the Ghost of Christmas Future. It really is a great, intense costume. He remembered that and asked for money ahead of time. This year we met with one of the regular cast, but it was much more interesting to Trent to play with the mans wig! Marshall had to work a conference the rest of the weekend, but the kids and I renewed one of my old holiday tradtions. We went to welcome Santa to town. Since the reindeer need to rest for their big night Santa comes in on the Trolley. When I was a girl we would catch him on the tracks right down the way from my parents. My Aunt would always dress-up as one of the elves and they would stop especially for us. I am glad the tradition continues.
We were late to hit the stop by my parents house so we drove up the tracks a bit. We parked on a side street, I turned on my hazards and we said "Hi" to Santa. When I went back to start the car it was dead. The kids leave the lights on all the time and it has been a problem. I wasen't surprised. I asked the car behind me if he had jumper cables, since I had reminded myself to no avail that I need to put them in my car for just this occasion. He did, got the car started and we headed off to see the tree lighting on the Square. I love our ex-little town. We bumped into some friends and they invited us over for some hot chocolate and Grog. It turned into a really nice evening.

Something Fishy

Trent had off school so we went to Chicago to visit the Shedd Aquarium. We hit traffic as usual. I was excited because I finally remembered to use the express lane. It turned out to be slower than the regular lanes. Why are there so many cars on the road at 9am on Thursday!

My Mom called me with an urgent sound in her voice. "Where are you?" "Listen to me!" Yikes whats wrong? Katie has extra Cats tickets do you want to go tonight. Sigh of relief! Perfect! We're in the area anyway.

I wanted to get there early, so planned on letting the kids sleep in the car and then getting them dressed when we got there. I had everything packed the night before. I felt so organized, until we got there and Trent says, "Mom, do you have shoes for me?" Ugh! Luckily Target was close and he needed a new pair anyway.

The aquarium was fun. My favorites were the sea turtle and the sea dragons. (In pic. w/Callie)

Trent's favorites were the hammerhead sharks and the stingrays.

Callie's favorites were the dolphins.

We got popcorn, but had to put it away in the dolphin area. We had to explain to the kids why we couldn't have our food in that area because it wasn't good for the animals to eat it. Trent immediately asked me if I had any fish.

This chameleon crawled from the far tree branch right up to the window by Trent. It was so cool!

It was a rough day for my car. When we were pulling out of the parking lot the barricade arm came down on us! I was following Marshall and the GPS out of the city, but had to ride 2 inches from his tail or I would get cut off. After that happened 5 times I decided I had to drive like a F.I.B. ! Even a that someone wiggled their way in. I complained out loud and Trent suggests I "ram him!"

Went out to dinner, then Cats. (It was great dancing and choreography, weird story.) I left my car in the structure at KD's work. On the way home I noticed a business card in my windshield, but figured it was from security. Couldn't reach it while I was driving, so I read it when I got home. It was a note from someone who backed into my car. At first I thought it stunk, but didn't really care all that much until I drove it the next day and realized it rubbed on the tire every time I went over a bump!

Enjoy the Jennyography. Can't get the kids to both look at the camera at the same time to save my life, but it seems the fish were very interesting.