Santa-Cala-Gon Days

Today we went to the grand daddy of all local festivals- the Santa-Cala-Gon. It celebrates Independence's role as the start of the three main routes west. Santa Fe, California and Oregon. It involves over 10 big old craft tents and blocks and blocks of other booths. And yummy food sold by area churches, boy scouts, high school bands and other community groups. Food that smells amazing.

We gave the boys $10 each to buy some of that yummy food and arranged to meet them a short while later. The boys were oh so typical 12 year old boys. Jackson spent his at the how-fast-do you pitch booth. And Daniel spent his at the booth where you make the cool sand in a bottle. And then they shared a big old basket of fried chip potatoes. How funny. Jackson said he must have eaten 200 crispy fried potatoes. By the way Jackson pitched 52 miles per hour.

We parked at the big Mormon center with the spiral sea shell and then took the shuttle. Check out Jack's new Chicago Bear tshirt purchased on Michigan Avenue.

Bounty

We were at Deb's on Thursday when the girls received their Chicago trip bounty. Lauren was super excited to get new clothes for her doll Jay.

Erin was thrilled with her new bitty baby that she named Alice. But she's more thrilled to see her beloved Uncle Johnny.

Among John and Jackson's many souvenirs were these fun little chocolate caskets (or cases as Jack called them) from the Funeral Museum.

Oprah: Day Four

We journeyed home on Wednesday. But oh what a ride it was. Check out my silly sisters riding outfit. Just cracked me up.

We saw the world largest covered wagon. Except the cover was being repaired after some wind damage. And Debbie got a nasty splinter on that wooden fence.

We returned to Springfield to visit the Funeral Museum which was closed on Monday. It was really fascinating and very quirky. We learned all about the embalming, funeral practices, and about Lincoln's funerals. This Cowboy coffin is a replica of Lincoln's. Just as we watched the video about Lincoln's funerals (there was one in every city that the funeral train visited) Deb leaned over and said "you have very, very bad breath it smells like a dead cats." Which of course made me laugh hysterically right in the middle of the hearses and mourning attire. This was also not the place to wear the "come on be happy" partridge family tshirt. We left with little chocolate coffins.

We rolled in to home about 11 with four days absolutely full of fun memories.

Oh yea we're "living our best life" now!

Oprah: The Day of the Show

We wake up at 4 to primp and preen. Caught the hotel shuttle at 5 a.m. We take the blue line hop off and walk, take the number 20 Madison bus, and then walk some more. And finally we arrive. Oh yea. We did it! Oprah is just as kind and genuine in person as she is on tv. We watch a show about dogs! We were selected because I wrote in when they asked for dog lovers. We saw dogs. A dog that could count (everyone in America is going to be talking about Maggie), dogs that danced, jumped rope, did handstands on their people's hands, the littlest dog in the world (little Boo Boo was scared to death), and a little Italian Greyhound with only two legs. The show was actually a follow up to last season's most highly rated show about puppy mills. A man from Pennsylvania talked about legislative initiatives.

This is one of about 50 pictures we took of every sign on the block. When we were done cheesing it up. We hit the new Oprah store. We carefully selected all sorts of things tshirts, mugs, key chains, note cards, even socks.

Then it was off to see the sites. We packed it all in to a 8 hour spree through the city. We ate Chicago style pizza, saw the Art Institute, ESPN Zone, Crate and Barrel, the Millennium Park, that big bean thing that we didn't know the name of, and the American Girl Doll Store. We must have walked 20 miles. No kidding.

Luckily Chicago has all sorts of beautiful spots to sit and rest.

Deb bought Erin her very own Bitty Baby and clothes and all sorts of goodies.

We visited a farmers market and saw the weirdest site of all. A lady was just carrying one (1) ear of corn. Who ever heard of just buying one corn. This summer Mom bought me a bushel of 30 ears of corn. And here's this lady just walking around with one! And I do believe that every homeless person in Chicago asked us for money. One lady asked me to give her the bus money so that she could go to a battered women's shelter. We saw a homeless lady and her baby struggling under a heavy load and then when she got closer we realized um there's not a baby in that bucket. Everyone in Chicago was super friendly though to two country gals with bad sense of direction.

Oprah: Day Two

We are in Springfield, Illinois. A great little city about an hour outside of St. Louis. We eat in the Hen House. And learn that this little dinner is reported to be haunted by the ghost of a former cook for a wagon train. Ya just don't get this stuff on a plane trip.

We are in the land of Lincoln, and enjoy touring Lincoln's house and Lincoln's tomb. His entire neighborhood is preserved from 1861. Did you know that his was an integrated neighborhood. Three doors down was a free black man whose house was a stop on the underground railroad. Or that someone tried to steal Lincoln's body for ransom? (the plot was foiled) Or even that Lincoln exhumed his son Willie twice just to look at him?

We arrive in Chicago just in time for rush hour. We search for an hour and a half for our hotel near O'Hara Airport. Thank you Gina for helping us reserve the hotel. You rock girlfriend!

Oprah: Day One

I got tickets to the Oprah Show! One week ago Harpo Studios called and invited me to a taping of the show. I couldn't get to Deb's house fast enought to tell her the exciting news. We're going to see Oprah! We rented a snazzy little red car that totally sipped the gas. $114 to Chicago and back!

We enjoyed St. Louis with a stop at Grants Farm. It's a small zoo with free beer. Anheiser Busch Beer. It was a beautiful relaxing Sunday afternoon with warm sun, happy animals and cold drinks.

We dined at the Old Spagetti Factory and then got back on the road.

Jamboree Day

It's Jamboree Day at Myers House. The start of the Mustangs football season. The team played a series of mini-preseason games to try out new plays. John took the opportunity to coach the kids in things they could do to improve their game.

Jackson during warm ups. Cause I'm not going anywhere near that line of scrimmage during a game. Those boys are big. They hit hard.

John is determined to make this a positive experience for every boy. We have a couple boys who have never played before and he makes a special effort to help them keep up.

Same age. Same team. But what a difference in size. Wowzie. Somehow Jack always ends up standing next to the tiniest boys on the team. Jack was double teamed for a good part of the day. That frees up the smaller but quick and tough center to break through the line and nail the quarter back.