Neleha's 3rd Birthday Magically Appears

While Kristy and the girls were in Ohio they got to have a cake and ice cream party for Neleha's birthday and all the family gathered to celebrate her Big 3. So we decided to leave her actual birthday events up to her. When we told Neleha to pick what we would have for breakfast on her birthday, without hesitation doughnuts was chosen. In her mind of course there is only one place for doughnuts, and so Krispy Kreme is where we started off her birthday.


Neleha is growing up right in front of our eyes, she sure is a blessing to us.


We discussed with Neleha her options for celebrating her big day and she decided that she wanted to take the Branson option over going to a local cave, going to the Precious Moments park, or going to the local theme park Celebration City. We told her that she could choose any show in Branson and so we started off at the "2 for 1 Tickets" store. However, Neleha had made up her mind long before we arrived there. You see on the way to Branson you pass about 100 different billboards advertising the many shows and Neleha liked the billboard with white tigers on it. Lucky for us it was a magic show and not some other crazy show.

It didn't take her long to select her show, she first spotted the poster and then the flyer, so we purchased our "Kirby: Prince of Magic" tickets.


The Kirby theater is very nice and a little off the main drag in Branson which made it nice not having to fight the terrible traffic this time of year.



While we waited for the show we all had our fortune read by this machine. Supposedly we are all supposed to either movie stars, musicians, or athletes. I can't wait............yeah right!




A new souvenir that we have started to see at different attractions is minted coins. I am not talking about smashed pennies, but actual minted coins depicting the attraction. Kirby had his own minted coin for sale so we got Neleha and Molly one.

The show started right off and we had a wonderful time trying to keep up with Kirby. His illusions and magic tricks came so fast that it seemed he was starting one seconds before the last was even over.


I didn't get many photos during the first half of the show, I was probably enjoying myself too much. Just as intermission arrived Neleha decided to take a quick nap before the last half started. She must have known that she had a long birthday ahead of her.


Kirby hit stage for another run of illusions and magic.

One particular illusion he acted as if the audience was on the other side of the stage so we could watch how he performed a particular trick. However, he still tricked us all the same.

Neleha was watching Kirby with real intensity, I wonder if she figured out some of his tricks.


One part of the show highlighted a Unicorn which the girls were very amazed by.

Kirby saved the best illusion for last, he made a full size helicopter appear on stage out of no where. That was a tough one to accomplish, he actually discussed with us how he initially came up with this illusion for a live special he did on NBC. It was an amazing illusion.

After the show we checked out the unicorn and stood in line for autographs from Kirby and his wife/assistant Bambi. What amazed me most about this Kirby guy was that at the end of the show he came clean and explained how although at times he appeared to have some super human power, they were only illusions. He explained that only God had super power and that he felt priviledged to be an entertainer and that is all he was, an entertainer. He really seemed to be a genuinely good guy.


Next on Neleha's agenda was the "Fish Museum" as she calls it. Actually it is the National Fish and Wildlife Museum that is owned by Bass Pro. We purchased a membership when we first arrived in Springfield because of the fun the girls had the first time we visited the museum.

Neleha sure loves animal adventures.


Neleha is a big fan of the wildcats that are almost her size. I think that is what she likes about them, being so big.


Kristy and I were talking about Neleha's birthday and we came up with the thought that although we can't give her everything that she may want we did give her this multi-million dollar museum, which isn't bad.

I helped Neleha bring in a huge Sailfish, she is going to be a very good fishergirl just like her sister.


Neleha just loves standing in front of the huge salt water aquarium and watching the sharks swim by.

For dinner Neleha decided on Incredible Pizza of course.

They gave her a bag of goodies for her birthday and a big sticker. Her and Molly really love this place, who wouldn't? All the pizza you can eat and the games and rides to boot, it's a winner every time.

Neleha scarffed down her pizza as fast as she could so she could get to the serious part of Incredible Pizza, the games and rides.

Her and Molly ran from ride to ride and when they ran out of rides they hit the games.


When they ran out of games they hit the playland.


The best part of all was getting to exchange their tickets they won from the games in for prizes. I think this is their favorite part of the experience.

Our last event for Neleha was for her to pick out a toy. This year we went to Wal-Mart and gave her the $5 times her age, so with $15 she set out to spend it well. Neleha is much different than Molly, instead of trying to get the most toys for her buck like Molly, Neleha wants to get the best toy for her buck. This year was no different.

She checked out many toys but finally decided on a new generation Sky Dancer.


I think our three year old had a great time celebrating her birthday, I know we had a great time watching her celebrate it. She is such a blessing to us.

Reuniting at the St. Louis Zoo

After their very long six-hour drive from Ohio, Kristy and the girls finally arrived in St. Louis and through cell phone communication I was able to direct them to the zoo. I was so happy to be with my family again, I sure missed them. I know they missed me too.

We found the zoo, which was free, to be one of the best zoos we have ever visited. They had many interactive exhibits and maintained a wonderful standard of having larger open areas for their animals.


This particular afternoon was pretty warm and so the girls took every opportunity to cool off, from playing in the water fountains to standing in front of the mister fan.

They even found water fountains just their size.

We were very impressed by the quality of the zoo. One aspect however, that we were not used to was the intense commercialism of the zoo. Every where we walked there was something to buy, food, toys, clothes, and kiddy rides they had it all. I mean they even have a build-a-bear workshop. To be honest however, I would prefer this over having to pay for admission. At least anyone can enter regardless of financial limitations. More cities should follow this most wonderful example.

Our favorite exhibit was the Penguin & Puffin house. As you approach this area you can feel the temperature drop significantly.

Inside the house the temperature is near freezing which was a huge shift from the intense heat/humidity outside. The girls loved being able to get so close to the penguins. They would have stayed in there until they turned into ice sicles if we would have let them.

We had a great reunion at the zoo, we enjoyed this very awesome (free) zoo, and then headed on back down the road to Springfield for the last three hours of our road home. It was so good to have my family back. I sure missed my sweetheart Kristy and our little angels Molly & Neleha.

St. Louis Missouri Temple

My two-weeks of solitary finally came to an end and Kristy decided that she was going to drive the 1979 Mercury Zephyr. Despite my concerns she was set on doing it so I decided to wait for her in St. Louis. I figured that if she broke down I would at least be three hours closer to her so I could get to her sooner. Since I had a lot of time on my hands in St. Louis I decided to check out the local Temple.


It is a much larger temple than we had in Columbus and it is very similar to the temple in Boston. I enjoyed my peaceful wait at this most beautiful House of the Lord and kept in constant phone contact with Kristy during her drive back to Missouri.



After my visit to the Temple I checked out the local St. Louis Zoo which was right down the road and to my surprise I learned that admission was free. I asked Kristy if she wanted a break from driving and check out the zoo. She ran the idea by the girls and they were very excited about the idea. So our reunion was set for the zoo.

Movies & Cashew Chicken: lonely behavior

During my two weeks of waiting for Kristy to come back to Missouri I attempted to find activities to occupy me. I fished some, I exercised a lot, I played some disc golf, but mostly I just moped around.

I did take in a few movies at the local $2.50 theater. I saw "X-Men 3", "The Davinci Code", and "The Breakup". That last movie should serve as an indicator of how desperate I was for things to do. On the other hand however I did discover the $2.50 theater which is called "The Palace". It is way nicer than any cheap seat theater I have ever seen. The quality of this theater is better than that of the normal theaters in this town charging $8-$12. Of course the Palace only shows late run movies but that's cool, it's cheap and high quality.

So besides the movies I did check out one thing that Springfield is famous for. Apparently the Oriental dish known as "Cashew Chicken" was actually not invented in the Orient. Apparently one of the first Asian restaurants to open up in Springfield was not doing so well so the owner came up with a plan. He combined a local dish (fried chicken) with some Asian seasoning sauce and poof, he invented Cashew Chicken. The locals directed me to Canton Inn to take my first taste of this local legend. I must admit it was good, but it was a far stretch from Asian food. It was exactly what you would expect out of Asian food from the Midwest. But like I said it was very good. Check out Wiki's entry on Cashew Chicken

So to put it short, I was lost without my family.

p.s. I want to thank my best friend Ray for calling each day to check on my welfare while Kristy and the girls were in Ohio. I am sure at times (especially when I went and watched the chick flick) he was very worried about my continuing depression. But we got through it.