Celebration!

John FINALLY finished Nurse Practitioner school!!  After 2 and a half grueling years, we did it!  I say we because it was an accomplishment for me as well.  We both worked hard and faced a lot of unpleasantness.  But now it's over and we just had to party!  I threw John a surprise graduation party at his sister's house in Saratoga Springs.  I ordered a big banner, got balloons, had people make and bring food.  It was awesome.  However, it was really hard to do all that with my kids and not have them spill to their Dad what we were up to.  It was mostly successful.  He had no idea until the day of.  He worked a few hours in the day and then came home a little late.  We hit traffic and were late to our own party by about 30 minutes.  Which felt longer since most our guests were asked to arrive 15 minutes earlier than starting time... we walked in on the party and after everyone yelled, "SURPRISE," John whispered to me that he already knew about the party.  Apparently EZ had said something to him that morning..  GRR!  I was so mad!  But of coarse had to let it go because can you be angry with a 5 year old for telling a secret?  No.  At least I made it to that day before he found out.  He was still surprised by some things and impressed with a few others.  It went well.  Unfortunately I got so into the party that I didn't take a single picture!  So ashamed!  I should have assigned someone to take pictures... live and learn I guess.

We also planned to visit St. Louis as part of our graduation celebration... and vacation!  We hadn't done anything big in nearly 8 years so we tried not to hold back, and it was a blast!  Even though it was over 90 degrees every.single.day we were there as well as humidity that wanted to strangle us, I swear!  But, somehow we managed to have a wonderful time.  We had planned to stay with John's brothers to save us money on a hotel, but after one night, we decided sleep was more important than saving money.  We got almost no sleep the first night and were so tired our first day, that we knew we couldn't spend the whole trip like that.  Comfort is everything to make your vacation great!  And we weren't wrong!  So, we flew in on a Wednesday and got Ted Drew's frozen custard before we did anything else.  (Bruce didn't fall asleep on the plane until we started our descent, oy!) We also ate Imo's pizza that night with his brother, Todd and his wife, Becky.

 

 

On Thursday we went to the Science Center, Steak n Shake, and a park that John knew.  So green! That night we had dinner at the amazing, Sam's Steakhouse.  John worked there as a young man and has always bragged about the place.  It did NOT disappoint.  Incredible food!  Also, the owner remembered him and was generous enough to let us dine for free.  WOW!  John had a great time catching up with some of the people who still work there. 

 

 

 

 

On Friday we went to Grant's Farm.  We fed goats milk bottles and rode a carousal!  Then we came back to the hotel and jumped on the beds!  We also ate some traditional gooey butter cake, of coarse!  Later that night we went to a BBQ with some of John's old friends.  Really nice people.  Again, we are the worst at getting pictures!  At least that usually means we were caught up in the moment, having such a good time.

 

 

 

On Saturday we went to Six Flags with some friends.  It wasn't that great though because it was opening day and bring-a-friend-for-free.  We spent over an hour in the car line and finding a place to park.  Then we waited over another hour to get into the park and then waited again to rent a stroller.  The kids rode on 3 rides before they couldn't take the heat and waiting any longer.  We stood in a water-ride line for like 20 minutes before deciding we were all done.  So, we left.  We got Steak n Shake again, with our friends.

 

On Sunday we went to church at John's old ward that he grew up in.  We chatted with a few friends then headed to his school, Maryville.  We missed graduation because it just wasn't good timing, but we had to at least get a picture out front of the school.  Then we went to Lone Elk Park to see some wildlife animals.  There weren't really many there.. we did see a raccoon though!  They also had a bird sanctuary that was pretty cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that we headed to John's brother, Mat's house.  We had dinner with them and visited for a while.  Our kids finally got to meet their aunt and uncle and a cousin!  It was also Mother's Day so that was fun to celebrate it with family.  (Side note: my brothers and sisters came up with a silly idea for our Mother.  We all got temporary "MOM" tattoos and took pictures and sent them to her! She definitely got a crack out of that! I'm only sharing mine though.  I ordered some but they didn't arrive in time so I had Sarah draw one on my arm.  She did a great job!  You can't tell it's fake huh?) Todd and Becky came by for a while too.  Fun family times of listening to old stories of cars catching fire as they were being driven...  Oh isn't Bruce just so snugly cute in bed?

 

 

On Monday we went to the Zoo.  That was a great day!  Then we got lunch at the City Diner.  I had to order the french toast because last time I got that, it was the most delicious thing in the world.  However, I think my memory over did it.  It was good this time, but not as good as I expected.  Hmm...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then on Tuesday we flew home.  Our first flight left at 9 am so we had to get up pretty early, return our rental car, and get to our gate.  We made it with plenty of time.  The Saint Louis Airport had a fun playground area for the kids.  Well we made it to Colorado for our layover which was supposed to only be about an hour.  Sadly, it was delayed a little over 5 hours.  Oh boy we were so done!  So anxious to be home.  So tired of waiting.  But whatever, we made it home and slept well that night! Oh and again Bruce fell asleep as our plane was landing.  He would have been much more pleasant if he had slept during the flights!

 

 

 

 Great trip!  Can't wait to go back.  Hopefully sooner than 8 more years from now.