Frolic and Freedom...

That is what Sarah is thinking tonight as she lounged around with no class to attend. Sarah has finally finished her last full semester of school! We are so happy and proud of her accomplishments. She truly inspires us all. In celebration of her month off from homework and paper writing, we invited her two friends over, Saturday, for a dinner of epic proportions. Or perhaps I should say, epic portions. When Josh BBQs he cooks for an army. There was only 5 of us and 5 does not equal an army. Needless to say, the girls took home leftovers. Hey, what college student doesn't love leftovers anyway? Josh cooked some mighty tasty tri-tip. With it we also served some garlic bread, macaroni salad, and a fresh garden salad. That was just the first course. Afterwards we had munchies and a chocolate cream pie for dessert. I kept hearing cash register bells in my head - racking up the total of calories. Cha-ching! I ignored the feeling of gluttony as I took another bite because hey, it was good!

After dinner, us girls had our own game night. It has been a long time since I have had a good game night. We played Scatergories and Apples to Apples. I love this new found favorite! I had never played it before and although I seemed to get cards that weren't very funny to play off of, I still came close to winning the game! We have got to pick that one up for ourselves.

We have been planning for months now to go to OMSI the weekend Sarah finished her classes. So on Sunday, we took Sarah for her first visit. On the way to OMSI, we stopped at the dog park and had Cocoa run around a bit. We also brought a picnic lunch. We had packed some ham and cheese sandwiches, string cheese, left over macaroni salad, crackers, and fruit leathers. It was nice & peaceful. The blue sky was beautiful and full of white fluffy clouds. We were watching a little boy play on the single person merry-go-round. The rider sits down on a single person seat and then another person spins the rider by turning a handle. I thought it looked fun. In an impulse I asked Josh to spin me. What was I thinking? We just had had a conversation about rollercoaster's and my motion-sickness. Josh interpreted my laughter, screams to stop, and me closing my eyes as me having a blast. He didn't stop until he noticed that my face was turning colors and I wasn't breathing normally. He asked me if I wanted to stop and I was able to force the words, "Y-e-s... S-t-o-p."

Ethan would have loved the ride. I didn't care for it at all. I was instantaneously nauseous and I had Josh stop at the little country market and the end of the street to pick up some 7-up, gum, and mints. I sat with my head between my legs for a few minutes before we started again for Portland. Of course, the rest of the trip to Portland has some turns and dips and the Tuliagar Curves are no fun when you aren't feeling well. Josh did his best to drive slower than normal for me. We arrived at OMSI and I jumped out of the car and sat down on the curb just in time for me to up-chuck my lunch into the bushes behind me. Not the best way to start the day but hey, I felt a lot better and was up to doing the museum.

I was glad I had left the camera at home.

It was much busier than we expected and I had expected a crowd! I didn't realize that the special exhibit was also included in the $2 entry cost. The regular cost for general admission plus the exhibit on Da Vinci was $16 per person. As you can imagine, on a semi nice spring day, there were a lot of people who came out to take advantage of the special price and catch the last day of the exhibit. The experience was a lot of fun and we all had a blast learning new things.