Super Bowl Mania!

We are sad to report that our two chinchillas, Ewok and Obi, have succumbed to a mysterious illness.  They both passed away last week, within 48 hours of each other.

We have been starting to add "finishing touches" to some of the rooms in our house.  It will be two years in April since we closed on it (and Matt moved in) so even though all of the major things are done, we are enjoying adding some little decorative elements.  Last week we hung a picture in the guest room as well as hung some curtains.  We also added a decal above the bed in the master bedroom.  Last night we worked on our bonus/sunroom, which at one point was a screened-in porch (that the previous owners added drywall to before we bought it).  My treadmill has been in there for awhile but we are turning it into an actual fitness room now.  We put a rug down in the middle of the room and moved Matt's stationary bike in from the office.  The room had previously been a bit of a storage space for boxes and other odds and ends, but we are now going through and getting rid of some of the stuff.  We still want to add a TV to the room, as well as a bit more lighting and maybe some free weights, but we are excited about the progress!

New curtains in the guest room

Above the bed in our room

Tonight (Tuesday) we went downtown to take part in some of the Super Bowl festivities.  Dad had given us tickets to the NFL Experience, which is taking place at the Indy Convention Center all during the two weeks leading up to the big game.  There was a lot of memorabilia from all of the different NFL teams, displayed in very clever ways.  One of the coolest things was a "locker room" featuring different players jerseys, socks, playbooks, cleats, and even favorite kinds of sports drinks and bubble gum!  Another highlight was that all of the teams had large headless mannequins on display so that you could pretend to be a player from your favorite team.  The Colts mannequins were the most popular, of course, but luckily they had at least 5 scattered around so the wait wasn't too long to take pictures!  We also got to see the Vince Lombardi trophy and a bunch of Super Bowl rings.  There were a lot of games to play and a lot of good historical information about the different teams.  The whole thing was set up like a large interactive museum.  We had a lot of fun!



Something that I forgot to mention last week is that I decided to sign up for the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini Marathon on May 5 instead of the Flying Pig in Cincy on May 6.  This will be my second time running the Mini (the first was in 2008, which Matt ran too!).  Dad is also registered (as always) and Eric has signed up to run his first ever half marathon!  We have all been training hard and on March 31st we are registered for the "Circular Logic Marathon" as a relay team.  The course is a one-mile loop through a park in Lafayette (near Purdue) and the three of us will take turns running the loop.  The relay is complete when we run around a total of 26 times, meaning that we will each run about 8.7 miles.  Our team name is "Team Road Rage."  It should be fun, and a great training race!

Okay, enough of my rambling.  Enjoy the pictures!

Gatlinburg

Let me begin by wishing a happy birthday to Grandma Seitz on January 6th and Matt's brother Rob on January 19th!  We hope that you both had great days!

On Saturday, January 14, we traveled down to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to celebrate the long weekend (Martin Luther King Jr. weekend) with Matt's extended family.  We stayed in a giant chalet on the side of a mountain that boasted something like 8 or 9 bedrooms, large living areas with televisions, Pac-man, two hot tubs, and other amenities.

In front of Cataract Falls

On Saturday we enjoyed eating at Mr. Gatty's Pizza Buffet and making a trip to the outlet mall in Sevierville.  On Sunday morning we went hiking on a couple different trails within the Smoky Mountains National Park.  Afterwards we enjoyed a great meal of barbeque pork, chicken, etc. at a local BBQ restaurant.  That evening, we explored the little shops in downtown Gatlinburg and prepared a large family meal of tacos with all the fixin's!

Matt found Nemo!

On Monday we sadly had to say good-bye to our cozy weekend home, but after check-out Matt, his parents, and I went to brunch at the Pancake Pantry restaurant and then spent several hours at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies.  I was afraid that the aquarium might be a little hokey because downtown Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge has a lot of Ripley's attractions like mirror mazes, museums, wax museums, and arcades that seemed a lot like tourist traps from the outside.  However, the aquarium turned out to be wonderful!  The best part was a long moving walkway (like the ones at the airport) that takes you through an extensive acrylic tube, allowing you to be immersed in the underwater environment with sharks, stingrays, and lots of cool fish!  Oh, and I of course loved the penguin exhibit, too :-)

Cue the "Jaws" theme

When I went to my dance class the next day (Tuesday) I was pleasently surprised to learn that there are four new students in my adult tap class, bringing our total to 7 people!

Dad will volunteering at the NFL Experience event in the "Superbowl Village" in downtown Indy during the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl.  The event will feature numerous music acts on multiple stages, opportunities to kick field goals and play games, and ride an 800-foot zipline high above the action of the Village.  Unfortunately, the zip line sold out before Matt and I were able to get tickets but my parents and Eric got theirs in time so I am excited to hear what they think of it!  As a volunteer, Dad got a couple of free tickets to the NFL Experience and he has given them to Matt and me so next Tuesday the 31st we will get to see all the excitement of the Super Bowl within downtown.  We are really looking forward to it!

Speaking of the Super Bowl (which is also Eric's 22nd birthday!), I have to work that whole weekend so I will see very little of the action.  However, seeing as the Patriots will be competing in our city for the Vince Lombardi trophy, the only thing I care about is that they LOSE.  Oh, and I believe that the child in the video below echoes my sentiment:



That is all for now!  This post has taken me entirely too long to write because I am trying to type around this:

Ever tried to type with a 16-pound dog in front of your face?  Not easy.


Until next time,
Stacey, Matt, and Thor

Ay yi yi!

In case you all are curious about my rekindled love for tap-dancing, here is a video of my classmate Shena and I dancing to "Ay yi yi, It's Christmas!" by Ricky Martin at our holiday recital.

Oh, and I am aware that it is darn near impossible to hear us tapping.  Big stage + only two sets of tap shoes = not much noise!  There are actually three of us in the class so maybe when Jeanie joins us for the end of the year recital, we will have the "oomph" we need so everyone can hear us!  You can look forward to a performance of "Black Horse and a Cherry Tree" by KT Tunstall in June :-)

Enjoy!

New Year's Resolution

Happy 2012 from the Draper family!

I usually do not make New Year's resolutions, but this year I am making an exception.  I plan to update this blog at least once per month, which may not seem like a lot compared to how often others update theirs, but I am taking baby steps here.

Secondly, I will be training for and completing my third half-marathon.  I plan to run the Flying Pig (Half) Marathon in Cincy on Sunday, May 6th.  I am really bad with keeping up with my running if I don't have a set goal, so here it is. 

Matt's New Year's resolution:
Help more with the dishes!  There was another one as well, but I will write it into my next post.  I can't remember and Matt is sleeping right now.

Since Matt and I both are trying to turn over new leaves (so to speak) in this coming year, we had to ask Thor what he plans to do as well.
He just gave me his best sad puppy-dog eyes that said, "I'm perfect already!  Why do you want me to change?"

We had an enjoyable Christmas seeing lots of family.  I had to work December 23rd but was off for the 24th, 26th, 27th, and 28th.  On Christmas Eve we traveled to Northern Kentucky and spent a couple days celebrating with Matt's family.  The "first" Christmas on the 24th was spent visiting with Matt's grandma and grandpa Draper, uncle Mike, parents, brother Rob, and Rob's girlfriend Leanne.  Good food and fun was had by all.

After celebrating at Matt's grandparents' house, we went to his parents' house and opened presents with them, Rob, and Leanne.  Then it was off to bed!

Matt and I went to church on Christmas morning, followed by lunch and a get-together with his mom's side of the family.  We did a "Bad Santa" style gift card exchange and we ended up with one Best Buy and one Outback Steakhouse giftcard!  Not to shabby :-)

After some visiting and board game-playing, we got on the road and headed home to replenish our duffel bags with clean clothes and to rest up for an early start on a road trip to Michigan on the 26th.  Thor stayed in Kentucky with Matt's parents for an extended vacation while we were out of town.

We left Indiana at a little before 8:30am on the 26th and arrived at our destination in Michigan at just a little after 1pm.  We had a great time on the 26th and 27th with Grandma and Grandpa Ward, the Schlauds, and the Roelofs!  We opened stockings (once again, Grandma, thank you!); took family photos; played pool, foosball, and board games; and just had a nice time visiting and catching up.  As all the cousins get older, it becomes harder and harder to get everyone in one place at one time.  We missed my cousin Justin and his wife Abbey, however.  They were celebrating with Abbey's family while we were in Detroit.

In other news, we have a new addition to the Draper clan.

Meet our new baby chinchilla--Obi!

Sadly, Matt's chinchilla Chewy passed away in mid-December, leaving our other chinchilla Ewok lonely and friendless.  On January 3rd, however, we found a new friend for him in little baby Obi!  The two are not living in the same cage just yet (there was a bit of a power struggle when we first introduced them!) but we hope that they will be a little more accepting of one another soon!

That is all for now!  We hope that you all have a safe and happy start to 2012!

Love,
Stacey, Matt, Thor, Ewok, Obi, and Taco