Anna's Birthday

So, Anna celebrated her "22nd" birthday last Friday. Mark had Guard that weekend, so he was off jumping out of planes or something in Indiana. Karen and I decided to take Anna out to have some fun. Beth Butters (that's Karen's Mom, whom we've known since we were tweenagers) came along also. We went to BD's Mongolian BBQ for dinner. (YUMMY!) Then we went to Game Works -- a large arcade.

The food was so delicious. Since it was a birthday, we saved room for dessert. Although it turned out that we did not save enough room. You can see from the picture that the desserts were ginormous. Is that a word? It should be. That's how big our yummy ice cream things were.

Then, of course, we had a total blast at Game Works. You see, two years ago, for my "22nd" birthday, we went to Game Works. That was a few months after Anna had major spine surgery, so she couldn't really participate in anything. When I asked her what she wanted to do this year on her birthday, she told me that she really wanted to go back so that she could play too. So, we went. We even talked Beth Butters into coming. She was planning on leaving after dinner, but we convinced her to stay and play. There is a game there that is a hot air balloon race. That's the picture below of Anna, Beth Butters, and Karen strapped into those strange-looking chairs. It bounces you up and down in front of a 2-story screen, on which you watch your balloon fly. I took a pass at playing this game, as I was worried that my ginormous dessert would make an unwelcome reaapearance if I bounced around too much.

Karen and I played the Jurassic Park game for almost an hour! Neither one of us realized that we played for so long until Anna stuck her head in the booth and told us. I guess time flies when you're shooting T-Rex's and Raptors. Who knew?

We also raced in the Indy 500, where, I'm proud to say, I came in 6th out of 6 racers. Go me!

The night was really fun, and Anna did quite well, considering she left Matt with a teenage babysitter for the first time ever that night. She was nervous at the beginning of the evening, but I think time and fun lessened her anxiety. (Anna, I know you're reading this. You can correct me if I'm wrong, and I will print a retraction.)


Here we are at the Mongolian BBQ. We're eating, eating, eating!


And here is me with my GINORMOUS dessert. I have to tell you, though, that it was divine! It was hot apple crisp with ice cream and caramel on top.


Anna, Beth Butters, and Karen are strapped into their "hot air balloon" chairs. I forgot who won. I think it was Karen.


This is Karen and me shooting dinosaurs. We made it all the way to the end of the game. Karen was much better than I was. I think my favorite part was when we were standing on a dock over the water, and this big alligator dinosaur kept swimming under us, jumping up, and trying to eat us.