Six Flags Rules!

So memorial day weekend Preston and I decided to take a trip to Chicago. We ended up with 2 extra hooligans, which turned out to be totally freaking awesome! WE got there and it was pretty much cold. Don't worry, resourceful Lori found a way to keep her hands warm. The rest of us mocked her, but she didn't seem to care and was probably the warmest.

We raced to the new batman ride, "Dark Knight" only to be HORRIBLY disappointed by a VERY lame kiddie ride. It was actually a good first ride because no matter how bad the other rides were we could say, "at least it wasn't as bad as the dark knight!"
The superman ride was definitely a fav, although a little nauseating after riding it 3 times in a row right before closing. You actually lay on your belly during the ride, which adds a whole new element to the roller coaster experience. We also had a chance to pose with the man himself...some of us got a little more into character than others...

We rode the tower, bring you up and hold you there for a sec and then drop you ride, which was a hit. Toshi had his first churro...and then his second...and later in the trip his third!
I think we all enjoyed VERTICAL VELOCITY. Preston either thought it rocked or wanted to murder it...I can't tell from this picture :)

Tim rocks the riverbank!

Yikes folks, this blog has basically been abandoned! I'll see what I can do to pump some life back into it!

A while ago (really seriously, a long time ago), Tim ran in the riverbank and mom, Lori, and I went to watch. Unfortunately Lori and I couldn't find him in the mass of people at the start and we got distracted with Ryder and missed the finish as well (we were watching Salem's baby while she ran the 25k with her dad). Fortunately mom was there to save the day and cheer Tim on at the finish line. Regardless of hom Tim felt about his time, we were all quite impressed with our buff, quick, skinny legged brother/son! Nice work Tim!

Gettysburg Address

Dear Sugiyama Family,

(Connie's Part) Taki's parents were the first to visit us in our Owings Mills apartment. Although a little hard to find, it's been a nice place to live. Saturday morning we took a trip to Gettysburg, PA. Not really knowing where to go first we stopped at an information center where a nice lady suggested sites to see and a historic place to eat. We had a decision to make: subway, or the Dobbin House. Thankfully, we followed Taki's moms advice to eat at the Dobbin House Tavern, with colonial waitresses and candle lit tables, not to mention good food. I definitely recommend it. We spent the rest of the day traveling from site to site seeing memorials and reading little historical facts.

(My Part) There were many types of touring options. A CD car tour, a pay-an-old-guy-to-hop-in-your-car tour, and of course the drive yourself around tour. Before setting out on our self guided tour, we had to first get a grasp of what we were about to encounter. Being the do-it-yourselfer, my vote was to grab a flyer and head out the door, but mother insisted that we watch the "high tech - state of the art" electronic map show. What I thought was to be a sure flop, turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire trip. Yes it was cheesy, and not too fancy, but it definitely layed out all of the events of Gettysburg in a short 15 minutes, especially since I didn't even know which side was Confederate and which side Union. From there we drove around from site to site, recounting the battles displayed in the show.

One of my favorite "shots" came here at the cannons. Mother wasn't too happy that I forced Connie to pose in this picture against her will (hence her enthusiastic expression). Looking at it today, she did give in and say that it made for a funny picture. I'm sure there will come a time when she'll jump at the chance to pose in a "Blast Taki's head off" picture.

(Connie's Part Again) Perhaps the most anticipated site was Little Roundtop. Without the Union's occupation of this advantageous hilltop during the war, there may have been a different outcome. I found a handsome sharpshooter hidden behind one of the rocks pretending he had a Civil War gun that shot relatively far for that time period. We decided to take him home with us.

(My Part Again) That night we went out to eat at Don Pablos, where we "ravenously" devoured four baskets of chips. Dad made Pakai the next night following conference, afterwhich we settled down to a friendly game of Rumikub.

Moms day and a call to action!

So, apparently everyone decided to abandon the blog (so not cool). Actually I think Taki might be dead, so that's a bummer. But for real freakers, get off your duffs and let us know what's going on in your lives!
On a more pleasant note, it will soon be May, which means MOMS day of honor and glory is fast approaching. I've learned that with mom, sometimes it's better to just ask what you want, so if you'd like to post a list that would so totally rock.

Eggs for Dinner?

It seems that Meijer bags have dropped in quality, while their carts have become incredibly sharp. Which resulted in this. bummer.

Small Miracles

A little while back I went to Walmart and bought some chocolate chips. I was checking the receipt on the way out (because that's the kind of person I am) when I noticed that the chocolate chips did not ring up at the sale price. It was only a .39 cent difference, but for me it was the principle of the matter. The woman at customer service scanned some bar codes and then handed me 5 bucks. I'm still not sure why, but it was pretty sweet.
When we bought our car I withdrew a large sum of money from the bank and placed it in 2 chase envelopes. I ended up having 250 bucks left over. I THOUGHT that I took all of the money out and placed 50 in my wallet and left the 200 on the desk. A few days ago I started looking for that money and couldn't find it anywhere. I freaked because I had thrown away both envelopes and had taken out the trash. HOWEVER, last sunday I was asked to substitute in Primary and I wrote myself a note, which I placed on the door of the bathroom. On monday I took the note down and threw it away in the BATHROOM trash. Fortunately I don't empty the bathroom trash as often as the kitchen trash, fortunately I wrote my note on the back of a chase envelope, fortunately it happened to be the one that still had 200 bucks in it, and fortunately I remembered and pulled it out! wow.

Poop poops me out!

It all started when I thought it'd be nice to make a little "easy" money by babysitting for a few weeks. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until I was pulling the tabs of his first diaper change, that in fact, I had NO idea what I was doing! Yikes. Not a good time to realize that I'm a diaper changing virgin. I expected to open the diaper and find a few droppings (similar to those of a baby rabbit) so you can imagine my surprise. The baby took advantage of my temporarily paralysis and grabbed 2 hand fulls of his gushy poo. In terror I let go of his legs to grab his hands and used my other hand to grab a wipe. Unfortunately, I only have 2 hands, so that left his legs free, and he didn't waste a moment! Next thing I know he's turned himself over, poop is getting on the changing table and I can't do anything about it, because I'm trying to keep him from spoiling his lunch. I got everything cleaned up and he enjoyed a good laugh.

It was a good start to the experience, because it didn't get any worse than that, thank goodness. He was relatively easy - he usually slept in until 9 or 10 (my kinda baby!) and he'd go down for a nap about 4 hours later and usually slept until his dad got home. But those 4 hours each day taught me a lot!

1. Kids can find ANYTHING on the floor and when they do, they eat it! Pieces of lint, carpeting, nearly microscopic pieces of candy, etc... It's actually quite impressive.
2. If they can't find anything on the floor, they may just gnaw on a book cover or the wall - delicious!
3. They basically HATE it when you wipe their nose (lucky me, we both came down with a cold at the same time so I felt like the snot queen for about 4 days - it was glorious).
4. They don't eat with silverware, they use it to make a mess and fling food on the floor. A fork is a weapon...although when taken away, the mess still continues. It seems that kids like their food better on the floor or table.
5. Nap time is BLISS!