Life from a truck window: Happy Birthday Ethan!

This past weekend was a fun one but also a tiring one as we are still feeling it today. I know sometimes it feels like we have so much to do when we do make it home that we run harder then we do when we are on the road. On Saturday Josh decided we were to go to Evansville and upgrade our phones and plan with a special deal that Best Buy had going on so we head to Eastland Mall. Ethan was able to join us and made it even better. We stopped in Old Navy and got Ethan some socks and new tshirts, Payless Shoes for new tennis shoes for Ethan and me, and a Kitchen Store for a noodle cutter for me. We eventually get to the Best Buy Mobile and got that squared away and happy to say we now have bigger phones that are easier to read as I read alot on my phone on the road and we got more data so hopefully I can blog more often. We then went to TGI Fridays for lunch which is one of my favorite places as I love almost anything with the Jack Daniels sauce on it. When I ordered my usual meal of steak this time it came with a lobster tail and I was excited about that, I love lobster. When my plate came out I was highly disappointed with the lobster as I looked at Josh and said "I thought I was going to get lobster not shrimp." it was so small and when I did pick out the one bite of meat that was there it had tiny pieces of shell in it where they cut it, nice. We thought about going to a few other places like JoAnns fabrics and Barnes and Nobles but by the time we got done eating my head was pounding, probably from each store flooding the areas with music that was way too loud, so we headed home. That took up a good portion of the day and I didn't get much else done.

On Sunday we got up bright and early as we were heading to Chicago to Medieval Times for Ethan's birthday. He is now 19 years old and makes me feel old that my baby is that old. He invited 3 of his friends to join us and we drove for 5 hours to get there. It is weird that when we are in the semi it doesn't seem like it takes that long to get there but in a car it seemed to drag on forever. I know I missed the fact that I wasn't able to get out of my seat anytime I wanted and also missed my potty as we had to stop each time I needed to go. I guess I am becoming more accustomed to riding in the truck than I thought. I also didn't like feeling so small on the road, it seemed as if I could touch the pavement easily and I like being able to look down on people on the road, it just feels more secure up in the truck. We make it there and I took quite a few pictures and it was pretty neat with all of the paintings of shields and wooden items to make it look like a castle. We got to dress up in costumes to get our picture taken and Ethan got to be Knighted with a real sword that he got to keep. We got seated and we were front row center, which was awesome. They had horses come out and show off all of their fancy foot work and tricks, and then it was the hawks turn. He was not going to cooperate as well as the horses did as each time he was allowed to take off he sat up by the roof and refused to come down. You could hear the trainer muttering his anger under his breath and eventually the hawk came down and that part was over. Then came the knights on their horses and they did tricks like using their lances to get rings that were hanging, and riding along side each other passing battons. Then the real fun started with actual jousting, breaking their lances and then sword fights, some fights were on horses others were on the ground and of course you can tell that it was choreographed but it was still an amazing feat of strength and talent. Each section of the arena was colored and each section had a knight, and I have to admit that our knight was quite good looking and he was quite good at getting out section to cheer. There was a story line to all of this but it was lacking and the king and princess were there but further away it was hard to see them. I like the trumpeters that followed him around though as they really did play. Now on to the food, all of the food was to be eaten with your hands and so I guess this limits what they served and the food was good, but the portions were on the small side. We started with a tomato bisque and a piece of toast. They didn't even fill the bowl 1/3 of the way, we then get half of a chicken, which sounds like a lot but not when they looked like pigeons, we got one rib but mine was almost all fat, and then for desert we got a apple turnover, again small. I was good with the portions and was pretty filled but everyone else was complaining about still being hungry when we left. We paid dearly for the tickets and did expect a bit more. Almost forgot we did get a slice of potato too. I think overall Ethan had a good time and we are thankful that we got to spend the day with him as it may be a few years before we get to spend another birthday with him when he leaves for the military. I think we celebrated big and it was more than worth it. We drove home and didn't get there til close to midnight and we had to get up bright and early to leave in the truck, plus I didn't have anything done that needed to be done to prepare for leaving. Laundry didn't get done or the grocery shopping and everything else that did get done was rushed that morning but I believe we remembered to grab everything that we needed.