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47

Yesterday we celebrated my 47th birthday!

The day got off to a bit of a rocky start. The only real plan I had was visiting the Missouri Botanical Garden, but we had rain. We watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and some M*A*S*H while we waited to see if the weather would clear…and it did!

I even got to see the two flowers in the Daylily Garden that share my name (“Along Came Amanda” and “Amanda’s Little Red Shoes”) in full bloom!

We had meal vouchers left from Combo Breaker, so dinner was birthday burritos from Chipotle while we watched A League of Their Own:

And Bunny made me an awesome tiramisu for dessert:

The Fab Five completed my Lego Animal Crossing collection with the Creative Houses set, and I put it together while we watched some Doctor Who:

The celebration bled into today…the one thing we couldn’t do yesterday as a result of the weather was stop for donuts, because it was too late in the day by the time we got there. So after church, we went to the Donut Drive-In, which, as an added bonus, is a historic Route 66 location! I had the best apple fritter I’ve ever eaten!

And I stopped for my birthday coffee at Starbucks…I love how the employees go the extra mile to make your day a little more special!

A birthday wouldn’t be complete without Animal Crossing…Roald didn’t come to my party, but I did catch up with him later, and Chickadee paid my island a visit, too!

This is 47, and so far, it’s pretty great!

Mani Monday

I loved how Holo Taco’s “Picnic Party Taco” looked on my mani last week so much that I just had to use it again! This time, I wanted to go for a bubbles on the water look, so I applied it over “Never Tide Down.” It’s just as fun and summery, but a whole different look! I’m sure you’ll be seeing this topper again this summer…I think it’s my favorite one in my whole collection!

Patterns in Nature: LightForm by HYBYCOZO

I’ve already shared a look at Patterns in Nature: The Art of HYBYCOZO, the summer exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Garden, by day…now it’s time for a look at LightForm, the nighttime presentation!

First, my favorite sculpture…I loved how colorful it was in the daylight, but it’s even more stunning lit up at night!

Not all of the displays are that colorful, but there is one that changes colors:

My second favorite of the displays has colorful inserts, and makes quite a show on the ground, too!

This one is super reflective during the day, but at night, you lose sight of the mirror for all the lights:

It’s fascinating how pronounced the negative space in each sculpture is as the sun goes down!

I love looking at this one from different angles:

This one also looks cool from different perspectives:

Some of the displays are meant to be spun…this isn’t one of them, but it was already moving when we walked by, so I took a video because it looked really cool!

These look light something straight out of Tolkien, which is appropriate because they line the walkway in the English Woodland Garden:

The displays on the Central Axis never disappoint!

This is a really cool exhibit, and I love how different it is in the light and the dark…definitely one of my favorite summer displays the Missouri Botanical Garden has hosted!

Old Chain of Rocks Bridge

On Wednesday, we took a walk across the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge that connects Madison, IL with St. Louis, MO over the Mississippi River.

The bridge was built in 1929 and was part of old Route 66. It was open to vehicular traffic for about 40 years, and in 1999 became a pedestrian bridge. At about a mile long, it looks like it goes on forever! I guess you don’t usually think about how long bridges are when you’re zipping across them in a car!

But if you look closely, you’ll notice the most remarkable feature of the bridge…a 30-degree turn that was added to the design to make the waters below easier for boats to navigate.

It’s a truly impressive bend…I can’t really imagine actually driving across it!

One of the reasons the waters of the Mississippi are tough to navigate at this point, besides the eponymous “chain of rocks” under the water, are the two “castles” (originally water intake towers) adjacent to the bridge.

There are a few references to Route 66 along the way:

It is an outstanding example of engineering!

There are gates at each end of the bridge that are presumably closed from sunset to sunrise:

We walked from one state to another…and back!

This was our first Route 66-themed field trip for this year’s summer school…I have a few more planned that I’m also really excited about!

Graduation Gallery

Now that all five of the children have had one form of a graduation or another, I updated the photo gallery on the wall going up our stairs to reflect their achievements. Here’s a look at the pictures I chose:

  • Turkey–BS in Mathematics, UMSL, 2026
  • Bunny–BA in History, WKU, 2025
  • Moose–Belleville West High School Class of 2024
  • Ladybug–Veritas Academy High School Class of 2025
  • Chickadee–Veritas Academy Junior High Class of 2026

10 Years of Combo Breaker Family Photos

I didn’t know what a huge part of our lives Combo Breaker would become back when we went for the first time in 2016, but we still took a family photo while we were there, and we’ve taken a similar photo every year since. There are two less images than there should be, since the event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021, but we took four pictures at the old Pheasant Run, and this year broke the tie, with five at the Renaissance in Schaumburg.

These pictures rival our Christmas and Easter photos for the ones that mean the most to me every year…Combo Breaker has become a huge part of all of our lives, and one of the top events on our yearly calendar!

Markel Family Combo Breaker 2026 Getaway–Day Seven

Last Monday we had to get all of our stuff packed in the car so we could head home…but first, Chickadee and I had one last Red Bull toast:

It was hard to say goodbye to the place we had called home for almost a week!

I had one short detour planned for our trip home…we stopped by the Umbrella Sky Project in Elmhurst. It was the first time we all got to see the umbrellas in the open position, and the first time any of us had seen the installation in sunlight instead of clouds and rain!

Just like we did on the way up, we stopped at Wally’s on the way back:

And of course we had Portillo’s for lunch:

We even stopped at a Jewel in Normal…it’s funny to me to see one so far outside Chicagoland!

The rest of the trip was quiet, and soon we found ourselves back home, with our memories of Combo Breaker 2026 fresh in our minds!

Mani Monday

To celebrate the beginning of June, this week’s mani features the sunniest, summeriest combination I could think of…Holo Taco “Box Office Bomb” topped with “Picnic Party Taco.” Totally ready for fun in the sun!