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Victory Team Chaplin

We have had a garage door opener for a while. It's just been in a box. We can open the garage by hand and with the nice weather I don't really care about parking in the garage, so it hasn't really been a priority for us. Mike started it a few weeks ago when a friend generously offered to help out. They got it assembled, but had to get some parts before it could be installed. The other day as I was trying to get the kids in the car in the remnants of the hurricane that hit a few days ago it moved up the priority list a couple spots. Then, this past weekend when I accepted that summer is over and pulled out all of my dying flowers it shot up to the top of the list. I know it's a small thing, but it is really nice to just push a button and have your garage open. Especially when it is -20 outside. Something that you don't really appreciate until you don't have it. Anyways, Mike and I finally finished it and I have to say I think we did a pretty great job. I don't have a video camera or else I would have gotten some opening/closing footage. You can imagine, though. If not, come on over--I'll open it for you:).

Chuck E Cheese!

We have been telling Carter forever that we would take him to Chuck E Cheese's when he was potty trained. I think the pressure of it all freaked him out, because he would always have accidents the day that we were planning on going. Friday Mike had a half day, so we decided to surprise Carter and go. He had such a great time. If he had to pick between me and Chuck E., I am pretty sure he would pick Chuck. It took 3 hours for us to spend our 100 tokens and then 5 minutes to spend all the tickets that we won (Mike beat the basketball game after only 5 tries). I forget how exhausting it is. It will be a while before we go again, but it was definitely a good time!

Cannery Shmannery

Mike and I went down to the cannery last week and picked up a bunch of food. We didn't want to spend the whole day there, so we just bought the empty cans and canned it all here with the Stake's canner. I did 75 cans in one afternoon. I rock.

It's weird, but I feel very empowered knowing that we have some food storage. I want to get more. At least I don't have to worry about my kids starving right away if something were to happen. Now it would take at least a couple of months. Baby steps, right?

Silly Sammers

For some reason whenever I ask Samantha to smile I get this:

When she looks back at her pictures she is going to wonder why we never told her that she suffered from narcolepsy.

The Great Outdoors

We got to go camping this last weekend when some friends invited us to go along. I was super excited to try out the new tent:

Carter was excited to try out his tent. It was supposed to rain that night and it took some convincing that it wasn't a very good idea for him to sleep in it.

We had a great time hanging out around the fire (we stayed up way too late).

And we always wake up too early!!! We were all exhausted when we got home, but we had a great time and we're glad that we went!

Milwaukee at it's finest

That's right. If you aren't aware, Harley is celebrating it's 105th birthday this week. Why 105 you ask? From what I hear, the 100th bombed. They were supposed to have this great performer at the end of it all and when they backed out last minute the only other option was Elton John. Imagine Elton John singing in front of a huge crowd of bikers. Harley had made it a huge surprise so no one knew who it was before the show. Some surprise, right? Anyways, with Harley being based here in Milwaukee there are tens of thousands of bikers here for the celebration. This morning they had a parade/bike ride. We thought the kids would like it and we had friends going, so we got some earplugs and headed down to watch.

Overall, it was interesting. Lots of bikes (7500!). Some tricked out:

I don't think the bike is all that has work done here:This guy is out for blood:A bike for 5? Looks like something out of a Dr. Suess book:

The cops on their Harleys were impressive. There were hundreds here from all over the place with their lights and sirens on.

Most were just plain Harleys though. There were people from all over the world. I saw Argentina, Brazil, UK, Canada and Australia. Australia?!? How much would it cost to ship your Harley here?

My favorite guy was this one:

Tell me that it's not him:.

You know, from the Terminator? Granted he has aged a little, but I am sure that it was him. I actually learned that he is a rider when I was looking for this picture, which just reaffirms my certainty.

The kids got bored pretty quickly so we ended up leaving before it ended. But really, how many Harleys can you look at in one day? I was terrified driving on the freeway today. I so worried about taking one out as I changed lanes. They were everywhere and they don't wear helmets. I made it home without incident, but I will be glad when the cars outnumber the Harleys again.