MantaRay Encounter

There was a free day at our local aquarium this week. We've never been, so Ruth and Jared and I tried to beat the crowds by being the first in line.  We got there 15 minutes before it opened and the parking lot was only half full. It was cold, so we were tempted to wait in the car but Jared insisted we get out and line up.  To our astonishment when we reached the doors they were open and there was a worker there who told us we could go ahead in. They explained that they didn't want us "waiting out there in the cold."  So for about 15 minutes we had free run of the place basically by ourselves.  Ruth had been there before so she guessed what the most popular exhibits would be and we went to them first.  We were to the mantaray petting area before the light were even turned on, and one excited ray swam up to us, surfaced, and stuck it's head right out of the water next to where we were standing. It freaked us out a little bit, to see it's white belly and little puppet mouth. I was the only one brave enough to actually touch the thing.  By the time we made it to the penguins the crowds started to come. And by about 30 minutes in the crowds were very thick.  Not having any strollers or little kids, we were able to work our way around the masses and see everything.  

Free Bowling

That's the playground there behind them.

Jared got a certificate for free bowling for his birthday.  We hadn't been bowling since his last birthday when we went with Grandma B. and Family, and we had such a good time then, that Jared was excited to go again.  We had a fun time, but we were done after only one game.  It was raining freezing rain, but we were across town next to this big wooden park so the kids wanted to play for a little while.  I sat in the car and ate twinkies we had purchased at the used bread store, while they played. It was freezing, and they were crazy. After twenty minutes they came back to the car with numb fingers and toes and wet behinds, but happy. 

Too Creative for a Kit

I picked up one of those gingerbread house kits at the store.  It's so expensive to buy the candy for gingerbread houses so I thought this would be a good alternative.   The kids and I went to work putting it together but ran into some trouble along the way.  I'm not going to go into a long story, lets just say we thought the kit was wrong, so we fixed it, but then it turned out the kit was right, we were confused and our "fix" ruined it.   In the end it took a few graham crackers and some extra frosting to put the thing together. But it turned out okay.  At times like these we remind ourselves that we are just making memories. 

Kaitlin and I are holding it together while Jared "glued" it.
We were laughing so hard because putting the thing together was a comedy of errors. 

The Oldest Mary and Joseph You Ever Saw

Chuck and I were asked to portray Mary and Joseph at our church's Christmas party this year.  I asked them if they knew I was almost 40, and they said "yes". Then I asked them, didn't they want a cute young couple with a baby, and they said "no" they wanted a couple with older kids that would be free to be in the play, so that's how we got the job.  We dressed up and just walked around and pantomimed while a narrator read a script and songs were sung.  It was awkward and a bit strange but we got through it without laughing, mostly.  Ruth and Jared also sang in musical numbers during the play, and one of the teenage girls portraying an angle stepped down on a broken Christmas light and dripped blood all over the stage.  It was all very exciting and entertaining.  Afterward we got many compliments on our performances. Do you think this will plant the acting bug in Chuck?  No, me neither.  (I wish I had a picture to show you of us in our costumes, we forgot our camera).