The first weekend of May, we drove back up to the Wasatch Front and spent the weekend with Lynnette & Jim. They had given us tickets to “Wicked” for Christmas. We didn’t really realize what a big deal that was until people started talking about how they had tried to get tickets and wanted to know how in the world we were able to get them. So “hats off” to Lynnette for evidently bringing off the coup of the year!!! (Thanks to a tip from Lynnette, Jennifer & Jeff also got tickets for the same night and Carolyn & Dustin were able to get tickets for a performance two days before she had her baby.)
We started the evening with Lynnette & Jim and Jim’s parents for dinner at a Japanese restaurant where they cook the food right at your table. The Chef was very entertaining and flipped shrimp up for each person to catch in his or her mouth. Since I’m not fond of shrimp, I bowed out on that one – which was probably a good thing since it was all or nothing – you caught it or you didn’t! It ended up about 50-50 at our table. After a wonderful meal, we headed for downtown Salt Lake City and the Capitol Theatre. To quote Roger: “Wicked” was, well…. “good”! The production was well done and we really enjoyed it. The only other professional production of that type that we have been to was “Phantom of the Opera”. We may get some “culture” yet!
Outside the Capitol Theatre
We ended the weekend with dinner at Jen & Jeff’s home to celebrate Roger’s birthday.
Happy Birthday, Roger !!!!!!! Love ya !!!!!!!!!!
We drove back home for a couple of days of work, and then drove back up to SLC to fly out to Illinois to visit Monica and James and the kids for a week. We flew into Chicago and rented a car to get us down to Champaign. We were excited to see them, and they seemed excited to see us. We finally got to meet our other new grandson – Liam.
We had a fun week. We went to a University of Illinois baseball game at which they offered free hot dogs and pulled in a pretty big crowd. They weren’t quite prepared for the size of the crowd and ran out of food just as we were reaching the front of the line. We stood so long just to get to that point, that we only lasted for three innings – there weren’t enough seats for the crowd, and we got tired of standing. If the game had been a little more exciting and the grass not wet, we might have stayed longer. (By the way, Illinois did come from behind and win.) We found a pizza place on the way home and fed our hungry group. Ice cream from McDonald’s topped off the evening. One afternoon, we did some shopping and ended up at the Mall where the girls had a fun time riding the carousel and playing in the mall playground. The goal was to find something for Liam to wear when he was blessed. We found a white polo type shirt at Wal-Mart and Monica & James found some white pants to go with it.
Baseball……… ……..and pizza!
Carousels………….
……..and playgrounds!
James gave Liam his name and a blessing at church on Sunday. It’s always a great experience to be involved in the special events that happen with our family.
After church we took some sandwiches and drove out to Lake of the Woods Park where we explored the botanical gardens and the forest preserve.
One evening we attended a barbeque with a group of law students and their families.
We finished our week’s visit with a trip to the zoo with Monica and the kids.
First, a picnic…….
Then the animals. Some were small and colorful……….
Some were just as interested in us as we were in them…….
There was a tiger…and leopard….and bear! Oh, my!
It was a great visit, and we hated to leave! The thunderstorms hit the night before we left, so we drove back to Chicago in some heavy rain. We flew from Chicago to St. Louis and from there to Salt Lake City. Our plane was an hour late leaving St. Louis, and we had some turbulence on the way home because of the thunderstorms building up in the area. (We hit one really big “bump” and part of Roger’s drink of Sprite ended up in my lap!)
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