So Saturday, late morning, we headed towards Cedar Rapids, yet again. The traffic was thick at places, but still allowed me mostly to keep my speed at the level where I like it (about 10 over). We stopped at my parents, dropped off a CD of the pictures that I took the previous weekend, and picked up a can of mashed potatoes (Shannon says they are the best dried mashed potatoes that she's had), which my mom said I could take the previous weekend, but I forgot, headed over to Shannon's Parents, dropped of a CD of pictures and then Shannon and her mom started to look for some old videos and pictures of Shannon's childhood, so I sat down to watch the ISU game.
After a while they got done looking and found some of what they were looking for and we headed towards the Mattas.
So we gave the Matta's a CD of the pictures I took for christmas, and settled in.
Both Nathan and Jenny weren't feeling the best, from what they ate for lunch (although Jenny was just not feeling good since she's about to give birth), but they still made us a very nice dinner of Chicken and a pilaf, I think, but it was quite tastey. We talked about cooking stuff...or at least I did. The dinner was very good, the chicken very tender and the buckwheat (?) pilaf good...interesting to say the least.
They put Taylor to bed and a while later people started to show up for a quiet, reserved, new years eve. I had my bottle of Laphroaig 15 year old Whiskey and a bottle of Godiva Chocolate Liquor for Shannon...Over the night, Wade, Clif, Bret, Scott (all friend from High School), Clif's girlfriend, and Bret's Wife and new child were all there and we had a fun time, chatting, some card playing (bridge mostly), some Game Cube playing, and it was fun. There were a lot of appitizers (lots provided by Jenny's mom), that were pretty good. At midnight we had a champagne toast where I am fairly certain I had my first New Year's kiss...Shortly after midnight, Jenny called it a night and the rest of the Party kinda decided to go too.
Sunday, we got up and eventually headed towards Chucky Cheese, for Shawny's 6th birthday party. We stopped by Panera to eat (last time I ate at chucky cheese I had indigestion for hours). We were still running early and then decided to wander around Lindale Mall...which I remember being much bigger when I was younger. I thought a walk to the end of the mall and back would probably burn the time to the Party...It didn't.
So we were headed to the lower level of the mall (which is a tiny area, not over the entire mall) and on the escalator I was standing right behind Shannon and this guy was standing right behind me...and he kinda followed us as we wandered around the lower level, even into the store that we went into. Shannon needed to go to the bathroom, so I kidna stood guard at the door and waited for the guy to come down the hallway... He didn't. Apprently I was just being paranoid.
After wandering into Radioshack, and a not very good kitchen and coffee store (their selection of kitchen stuff was very lackluster), we headed out and across the street to Chucky Cheese.
In talking about the previous party they described the place as being pretty much empty. However, it was very busy, kids and adults everywhere. It was kidna annoying. Apprently last year, the reason why it wasn't so busy, was because it was during the middle of an ice storm. So...uh... Anyways, there were lots of grandparents, a few friends and us (more adults then kids) and it was fun. there was a pile of presents and a kid's parent whom I vaguely remember from Kennedy...but I wasn't sure enough to ask.
After pizza and cake we played a few games, won Shawny some tickets and then headed back to the Matta's after making our good byes.
Jenny's mom came over to babysit Taylor and we all headed out to Chili's to have dinner with Clif and his girlfriend. The food was ok, nothing really memorable, other then the bleu cheese hamburger which was also supposed to have the taste of chipotle, had no taste of chipotle. After Dinner, Jenny was getting uncomfortable, since the chairs weren't very comfortable, and we headed over to Panera to hang out...
It was Closed...
Then we headed over to Barnes and Nobel to get some tea or coffee and sit on some comfortable couches and hang out...No couches availble.
So we ended up at Perkins and sat and chatted for a little while longer. A little adult conversation for Jenny, I think made her feel better. After a while, we headed back to the Mattas and Played some Trivial Pursuit 20th anniversery edition.
Intially Jenny pulled out way ahead of everyone else, but then had trouble getting her last piece (Sports and Games) eluded her, and after getting to the center and not getting the win several times, she went to bed. After a while, I think Nathan finally won, but the rest of us had all our pieces and were looking to win, and then Shannon went to bed. Nathan setup to play some World of Warcraft, and I was gonna watch, but apprently his wireless connection dumped him, so I went to bed. It looked neat for what was there, but again, I've banned myself from playing a game like that (It'd take up way to much of my life and piss Shannon off). But Nathan did make a good point, in that when he logged on, Wade, Bret, and Scott were on (Wade left and clif got on a bit later)...but it's a good way to spend time with the friends having fun together...since it's hard for him to get time together to spend time with friends (between work and family, there's not a whole lot of time left).
The next morning was pretty lazy, spent napping, watching some Dora the Explorer (1 episode) with Taylor and a nice breakfast.
Around 3:30 we packed up and at around 4 we headed towars home.
6 of 10 days were spent in CR, it was nice to get home and sleep in our own bed.
Of course, we're going to CR this weekend too, although only for a few hours on Sunday, for a wedding show (which I don't have to go to, since Shannon's going with her mom and sister). So I'll be there again anyways, with a few hours to wait for Shannon to be done. Hopefully, at least for Jenny's sake, Nathan and Jenny's daughter will be born some time this week, so I can see it :)