Trip to the City

Natalie and I are taking a trip to the city (Chicago) for our Anniversary.  Its been 6 years already, time flies by when you’re in great company. 

We were able to use a coupon for a free nights stay and a couple rewards points for this trip so we were able to make reservations at the Oak Brook Renaissance Hotel for free!

We ate dinner at Qudoba, we made a deal we can’t eat at any restaurant that we have in Peoria, and Qudoba is one of our favorite fast food Mexican places.

After dinner we headed to Babies R Us (since there isn’t a location in Peoria) to scope out all the baby gear to start to prepare for the arrival of "2.0".  All I have to say is how am I suppose to know how to raise a kid when I can’t even decided which model of 50 strollers we should select…

After my first adventure to Babies R Us, when we came up to our room we found a really awesome treat. The hotel staff had delivered a bottle of sparkling juice and chocolate covered strawberries, a platter of fruit, a note wishing us a happy anniversary and a letter informing us we were the "Guests of the day" with several special privileges including a free on demand movie and appetizers at the restaurant.

We were also informed since I was a member of the rewards program we were receiving complementary breakfast at the restaurant buffet each morning of our stay!  I just love when stuff is FREE!  While the Internet isn’t free, I have my trusty Touch phone with EVDO sharing so we are good.  This hotel recently added some really cool tech, there is a little box near the TV that has RGB, Composite, HDMI and audio inputs which then allows you to  use the LCD tv as your computer monitor for DVD/Video viewing or a really nice size screen to surf on.

After a little surfing it was time for a toast, (Don’t worry Grandmas.. 2.0 is safe, its Sparkling Juice)

Pregnant Lady + Chocolate covered strawberries = Happy Wife

I have to give the staff here at the Renaissance Hotel a big thumbs up for making our first night away a great evening.

Also a thanks to my favorite Platinum Marriott Rewards member for calling the hotel and telling them it was our 6th Anniversary before we arrived! Thanks Dad.

Tomorrow’s plan is a train ride into the City, Lunch, See Wicked and dinner. 

Happy Birthday and Mother’s Day

Wishing my wonderful wife Happy 28th Birthday and Happy Mother’s Day.

At a recent photo shoot the baby was thinking about this special day…

Work Continues

This weekend we continued the work on the basement, adding another wall and a few more doors.  After trying to hang one door for an hour or so noticed the reason we couldn’t get it to hang correctly was the top and the bottom of the door was warped.  That was a little annoying, checking to see if the door you just purchased is not bowed like a banana wasn’t something I thought to check.  I will now though.

So last night Dad and I went over to Menard’s to get a replacement door.  We looked thru the doors they had in stock and noticed all of them were warped.  So dad said to the man working in that area "All the doors are warped" and he just blankly looked at us and then replied "Well that’s Menard’s."  We quickly  asked what that  suppose to mean and he said "Well those doors are Menard’s quality doors, sorry". (Note these are the only pre hung doors they carry its not like I was buying the cheapest thing I could find)  I was completely floored that a employee would make such a comment. He might as well have said yep, the standard of our company is so low we just sell the bottom of the barrel junk to you poor saps who are willing to come into our brand new meaga store… that might very well cave in on you because well "its Menard’s quality".

As we left the store I quickly put down the door shims because they too were probably "Menard’s Quality". 

I realize the Tool Shop tools they sell aren’t the top of the line… but you have to be kidding me this was crazy that a sales person would say that.

So I guess this is a "Menard’s quality" post…  Lowes and Home Depot here we come….

Peoria Air Show

Today we had the opportunity to check out the Prairie Air Show today with some of our friends.  We went to the show with Tim, Mike, Kendra, Will and Avery.  Tim’s wife Cris works for a local radio station that was a sponsor of the event which gave us the chance to be VIPs.

The radio group’s tent was up close to the action and the spread of food was great.  Our location was great to see the planes take off and land. Here are some photos from our venture.

When we arrived the Army Golden Nights were ready to take the skies.

Next we saw the Blue Angels perform.  Seeing these guys fly in such close formations was quite amazing…

Blue Angels flying upside down. I wonder if they ever loose their lunch.

Will, Cris and Tim’s son, enjoying the show.  If it made noise he was sure to point it out today.

More Blue Angels

Some random shots of some planes on the runway.

The worlds fastest truck is powered by 3 jet engines.  It ran down the runway at 350+ miles per hour and burned over 100 gallons of fuel in one run down the runway.