Ren Fest 2010

This past weekend Shannon, Keagan, and I visited Jenette, Chris, Cassidy, and Michelle in Manhattan. Rhonda came up too. It was a fun time on Saturday. We went to Cox! They used to be the best bbq in Manhattan, their BBQ nachos were my favorite!


They left a few years back (looks like in 2005). And this summer they returned! So I was excited to go. It wasn't bad. I got bbq nachos again. They are basically as I remember them. Which is good.


But Billy Simms on Peoria her in Tulsa is still better. Their meats are amazing!

After that we traveled to Wamego for an hour of K-State Tap Ensemble, of which Michelle is a member.


It was an outdoor show.


The main attraction last weekend though, was the KC Ren Fest. We left Sunday and spent just about all day there. Mom and Maria joined us, too. Mom had been looking at houses with Maria in KC the day before. She's looking to buy! How fun.

So here are some pictures of our day.

Jenette and Chris got a tandem stroller for 15$ at a rummage sale. Sweet. So, they decorated it up to be a pirate ship for Cassidy and Keagan. It worked really well and got compliments. :)


Maria brought Hendrix with. He was pretty good. People like him, so even though he's still all pull-y on his leash, it was ok.

Here's our clan split in 2, minus Chris for some reason.



The grandma's and the granddaughters.



Chris and Shannon look Cassidy and Keagan to the petting zoo. Both babies just chewed on their costume the entire time in there.


Just a funny picture.


The two of them got along pretty well. There was some times when they just burped at each other.

Memorial Day Weekend

This last weekend was really great. Friday night Shannon and I drove to Wichita for another graduation party for Maria. We got to see Mom, Jayme, Charles, Nikki, Maria, Cody, a bunch of people I don't know very well, Michelle, and all the doggies!


I'll point out that Jayme has lost a lot of weight. She looks great! Not to mention that Nikki just gets cuter with age. Kinda like a wine.


Saturday, Michelle and Shannon drove up to Kansas City to meet up with Newgen, Jenette, Chris, and Andrea. They had some fun of their own, but I stayed in Wichita with Mom and Maria. Jayme, Charles, and Nikki headed to Oklahoma for a wedding for Charles' cousin.

On Saturday, Maria, Mom, and I went to Exploration Place. It was pretty awesome. They had some fun maze displays out, a neat whale exhibit, a really groovy wind wall, and a bunch of other entertaining things. It was a good time. Then we went to eat somewhere not bad, but not spectacular. We headed back to Moms, and basically just chilled. And by chilled I mean, ate some tiramisu and watched some movies on TV.

Sunday, Mom, Maria, and I headed to the Sedgwick County Zoo. That was pretty cool too! It cost more than the Tulsa zoo, but it is nicer also. So, worth it. They had a bunch of animals and everything was well kept and nice. We spent a good chunk of time there, then got hot and ate at Uptown Bistro. After that, we headed back to Mom's and met up with Jayme and Charles for dinner when they returned to Wichita.

After dinner, we all went to the Keeper of the Plains and took Atari and Hendrix. Oh, Atari is pretty large. Kinda like sausage dog. :)

That was a neat place. They have fire, but we weren't there at the right time. There was Indian music playing and for some reason it confused Nikki a good bit. She kept looking around for it. When I finally found a speaker, she kinda of tried to grab the music. Odd.

Monday was my last day in Wichita. Maria, Jayme, Mom, and I went to the mall to look at prom dresses for wedding dress ideas, then we went to David's Bridal and tried on the real things. Fun. There were a lot of really nice dresses. Jay found one that she liked enough for us to make! So after David's Bridal, which Maria had to leave early from, we met up with Charles and Nikki and looked at JoAnn's for a pattern and some fabric.

To finish off my trip, we had a good ol' BBQ at Mom's with Charles' parents, Sandra and Charles. There was yummy corn and limeades and hamburgers, and homemade french fries, and salad, and absolutely delicous watermelon.

I drove back to Tulsa all by my lonesome and was soon joined at home by Shannon and Michelle.

I don't get many chances to spend with Mom and Maria and Jayme. So it was a nice weekend to be able to spend quality time with all of them. :)

The tentative meeting is tentatively scheduled.

Last Friday Shannon and I left work a little early because we had a delivery coming. So we got home, and about 15 minutes later, our delivery came. What was it? It was a bed! Now when guests come over, they can sleep on not-the-futon!


And our first guest on the new bed? Andy! He came in Friday evening and we just kinda chilled. Which is good, because the rest of the weekend was un-chilled.

Saturday we started our day at a lazy noon and went to the Tulsa Zoo and Living Museum. It was pretty nice. There were lots of cute monkeys, a roaring lion (we happened to walk by right when he was roaring, and then he took a nap), kangaroo's chillin' on their elbows, roadrunners, and many many other animals.


Afterward walking around for 4 hours, we went to a coffee shop (Shades of Brown) and I got some tasty, but overpriced chai. Then we went to the last weekend home game for the Tulsa Oilers, who just happened to be playing the Wichita Thunder. Actually, this is the reason we chose this weekend for Andy to come down. The game was crazy. The final score was 6-5 Tulsa. Did you read that, 11 goals! Jeepers, more like a roller hockey or baseball game than ice hockey game. No fights either, the game was just too close I guess. Good times. (The picture below is not mine.)


On Sunday, we again started around noon. We headed down to Tin Star for some lunch and then walked the Riverwalk. Now it was time to hit up an Indian casino. We were gonna go to the new one by Riverwalk, but it didn't look very open when we drove by. So instead we headed up north to Cherokee Casino. I belive that I am the only one of the three of us who didn't lose money. I actually made $3.34. I started with 5$ and played with it the entire time we were there, which was about 1.5 hours. I got up to 16$ once! It was a fun time. Although being at the casino was kinda depressing because you can see how easy it would be to just keep losing money. It's so easy to say "One more time" and push a little button that takes your bet and keeps it. But once in a while, not too bad. (Neither did I take this picture.)


Andy eventually left, after he and Shannon watched Watchmen. I went home and did some stained glass instead.

Nice weekend (as they usually are). I will add some pictures when I get home, too.