Calvin's Belated-Birthday Bash

 In all fairness, Calvin's birthday party is ALWAYS belated, but this year it was even more belated than usual with my Guatemala trip and work schedule.  But better late than never, right?  Typically the party is the 1st or 2nd weekend in January, and this year we snuck it in the final week of the month.  We thought it would be fun to do his party during the Chiefs/Bengals AFC Championship game.  This is the 4th straight year the Chiefs have hosted this game, and we're pretty proud of our boys.  So in attendance we had a couple of Patrick Mahomes, a Tyreek Hill, and a Travis Kelce.  We were well-represented, I'd say.  We had some delicious smoked pulled pork and lots of game-day favorites to eat.

Calvin has had Chiefs-themed birthday cakes A LOT, and he assumed that's what he would get this year also.  I told him that this would be one of the most unique birthday cakes he's ever had, nothing generic like another Chiefs cake. . . This year he got a Roonie cake!  Every 16-year-old should have a car on their cake, right?  And what's better than having a picture of your actual car? Especially when you have one as cool as Roonie! (For those of you who don't remember what Calvin's car looks like, I've included a picture from my post last spring.)

I'm not going to say he loved the cake, but it made him chuckle a little anyway.

Singing to the birthday boy so we could all have some dessert.

And he opened his gifts at halftime.  He did just fine with a few gift cards and a new big-boy life jacket. 

A picture with his godparents before they had to go.

So the Chiefs showed that a 21-3 lead wasn't safe as the game went into overtime for the 2nd week in a row.  Unfortunately this one didn't have the same happy ending for Chiefs fans and the Bengals managed to put a dark cloud over Calvin's 16th birthday for the second time in a month.  Oh well, it was still a great afternoon celebrating our boy, and there's always next year!

Calvin's 16th Birthday Adventure

 This post is a little delayed, but remember Calvin's big gift for his 16th birthday?  We decided the 16th & 18th birthday adventures could be a combo trip with both boys (after all, Oliver's 16th will coincide with Calvin's 18th, and then Calvin will likely want to go along on Oliver's 18th).  So all three boys ended up taking Mom and me to the airport at 1:30 a.m. on New Year's Day for our flight to Guatemala and then continuing on their drive to try to get ahead of some bad weather.  I'll turn this post over to Russ to share about their fun weekend to start 2022. . .

The original plan was for Beth to drive herself to the airport and for the boys and I to leave for Cincinnati a little later in the morning, but since the really bad weather was supposed to hit about 4:00, we decided to just drop her off and hit the road from KCI at 3:00.  We drove through a little sleet and freezing rain, but otherwise missed the worst of the weather.

After five hours of driving all alone (the boys slept), we grabbed breakfast at a Waffle House in Collinsville, IL.  The boys had never been to a Waffle House and I'm pretty sure they were impressed.

After a few more hours, we made the obligatory stop at Indiana State University, home of Larry Bird. 

After I took this picture and sent it to Beth I called her and asked her if she got my picture of Larry Legend.  She said, "I thought that was Larry Bird."  I'm still not sure whether I should be proud of her reaction.

We rolled into Cincinnati and it was still raining so we stopped by the beautiful Cathedral Basilica of St Peter in Chains.  This church was breathtaking as advertised.  We would have spent more time there had Saturday evening Mass not been about to start.

The rain let up and, after checking into our riverfront hotel, we walked across the bridge to grab a bite to eat in downtown Cincinnati.  

We were impressed with the "Queen City."  The stadium, many restaurants, our hotel, and just about everything else was downtown and within walking distance.

We found dinner at a huge sports bar overlooking the river and the boys approved of the burgers.

I went the healthy route with a 2500 calorie salad.

We stayed at an Embassy Suites and the place was full of Chiefs fans.  Everyone was in a good mood at the manager's reception.  We'll assume it was the Chiefs euphoria and not the bottomless bottom-shelf vodka.

The riverfront in downtown Cincinnati is really nice.  Apparently, it was just about the worst downtown in America before a revitalization project in the 1990's.  These murals detail the history of the city.  They do not get into much detail about the history of the city's putrid football team.  

The putrid team was true to form for the first half of the game.  The Chiefs were headed for a blowout win and home field advantage for the playoffs.  The boys and I were hyped.

We were so giddy that we started messing around with Evie as she watched the game with Grandma Jo back in Kansas.  We told her our location so she could find us on TV.  After the Chiefs kicked an extra point in the first half she sent me a picture and told me to circle the three of us and then send it back to her.  She was pretty excited when she actually found us.  We're in that circle, trust me.

I took some pictures of Butker and Mahomes warming up.  They were both on fire in the first half.  Again, the Chiefs were smokin........

We weren't tough enough to bear the 32 degree weather without coats, so our Chiefs red was a little muted.

.......and then the chicken Chiefs of the first 41 years of my life showed up.  We left Cincinnati with a loss and Calvin was dejected.  Ah well, it was some great bonding time and I hope the boys enjoyed celebrating Calvin's sweet sixteen.  I sure did.

While the Bengals ruined this day for the Chiefs, they gave us a big kiss on the cheek two weeks later by beating Tennessee and thereby relocating the AFC championship game to Arrowhead, where in a goofy twist we will play these same Bengals next Sunday.  Maybe Calvin's frown will be turned upside-down as the Chiefs crush the Bengals to go to the Super Bowl for the third straight year.  Go Chiefs!

JM&MG on MLK Day

 Evelyn has been begging to go ice skating for a year now, and we were finally able to make it happen on our JM&MG Day on Martin Luther King, Jr Day.  We had a great time, and she did really well!  I'll turn this post over to her to tell you more about it. . .

    It was really fun and I'm so glad we got to go. Then we went in the building.

The ice was a little bit slippery but fun!

There was one of the falls .

I even found out how to  turn.

We got off the rink because ...

the Zamboni was going to go around the rink.

Then we got on for a little longer.

Then we walked to Union Station and I saw the big hill I rolled down last time.  It was too cold today! 

In Union Station there were lots of chiefs stuff and a big chiefs kingdom sign . 

Can you can even tell we're in that picture?

Then we went to Olive Garden and got some good food .  I got some fries and chicken ravioli .

Then we went back home. We told Violet that we would go to Sonic after we were back. When we came back Violet was already ready to go. She had her coat on.

Then we got back from Sonic and played some games. We played Battle Ship and I think that's my mad face because I was losing.

I don't think I was the best at Connect Four either.  We also went to Five Below but there were no pictures at Five Below. It was a great day .