Fish, Legos, and Voigts

Hey guys,

We hadn't anticipated doing anything out of the ordinary in the week between Christmas in Clare and New Year's Eve - that's generally that span of time where you don't know what day it is and all you do is graze on Christmas leftovers and slowly get fat. 

Well, out of left field, our old Florida (and College) friends, the Voigts, reached out and let us know that they were flying up for a week in order to celebrate the Holidays with their extended family in the Detroit area. Now obviously they're one of those couples that we drop everything for, so once we figured out that a visit with them over the Holidays was doable (they had one unaccounted day in their crammed itinerary they could fit us in), we made it a priority to make it happen.

We showed up about an hour before the scheduled meet-up time with the Voigts (at the Legoland entrance) so we could grab some lunch in the Food Court.

Kris and Lindsey landed on the outlets at Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills, kind of in the middle of where we were and where they were (45 minute drive for them, about an hour and a half for us.) The wives thought Legoland and the Aquarium might be fun to check out, too (not for our kids, of course, but for the Voigts' younger kids, Jackson and Ella.)

So here you go, gang - a random, non-Disney hangout session with the Voigts. Enjoy. . .

This Food Court is pretty bad-ass - lots of options to choose from.

Kris and I got our usual Mediterranean grub, while the girls grabbed some Chinese chicken fried rice. All these portions were absolutely nuts, so no one finished their food and we consequently had leftovers to snack on on the drive back home later in the evening.

After lunch, Kris ran the leftovers out to the van, and the girls ducked in to a couple stores (where Abby tried on Mr. T-ish necklaces.)

This isn't a full-sized, legit theme park (obviously), but a 'Discovery Center' - a smaller attraction that can fit inside malls like this one.

Abby, at the entrance into the attraction.

We met up with the Voigts around 1:30pm, and had to wait around a bit for Adam's sister to arrive. Eventually we got in and went straight towards the first ride (which was a knock-off of the Buzz Lightyear attraction at Magic Kingdom.)

The queue for the ride (since it was one of those shooting rides, I didn't have a hand free to take pics/video of the ride itself, but I suppose if you were really hard-up to see what it was like you could look it up on the ol' Internet.)

Exiting out into a Lego-version of Detroit. . .

Jackson, Ella, and their cousin, checking out Detroit (which was pretty frickin' impressive.)

The Little Caesar's Arena (and, if you look closely inside, you can even see the Red Wings playing. . .)

After mini-Detroit, you exit out into this mini-attraction/food court area. There was a play area, a spot where you could get snack food, and a few other smaller 'rides,' all geared towards super little kids. It became clear to us, at this point, that this 'Discovery Center' was geared towards kids aged 3 - 8, and that our kids were waaaaay too old for something like this.

Detroit vs. Everybody

We stood around for, like, an hour here, waiting for Ella and her young cousin to finish playing in this play structure. 

Alayna got a pretzel and played around on her phone, and we spent the time catching up with the Voigts. 

After awhile, Abby and I went in to check out a Lego Movie '4D' attraction (kinda like the Muppet 4D attraction at Hollywood Studios), which was about ten minutes long and pretty funny.

Just look at all the fun they're having.

This is what Legoland thinks of when they hear 'Famous Michiganders.' 

After Legoland, we walked through the mall over to the Aquarium. On the way, the girls pleaded to pop into some boba tea place so they could get their usual Asian specialty drinks. Kris - who also grabbed one - wanted a pic with the girls and all of their teas, and Lindsey decided to photo-bomb.

This aquarium was a nightmare. It was warm, dank, and waaaay too crowded - far more people were squeezing inside than there was room for, so you couldn't really move about freely to check out fish, you were just herded on through, anxiously looking for a free spot to step off into so you could catch a break. It was miserable.

Adam, as you can tell, wasn't having fun, either. There was a little more breathing room in this particular part of the aquarium - some shallow pool where you could touch coral and starfish and crap.

(Our girls are at center, petting. . . something.)

Underwater viewing areas.

The decor throughout this walk-through aquarium was pretty cool, more on par with Sea World than Disney, but definitely not bad for the Midwest. Still, I could've done with, like, half the people in terms of crowd size.

How festive.

This area had some breathing room, too - it was some digital fish aquarium where kids could design 'digital' fish and let them swim around in the water. 

My fish says 'FART' on it. 'Cause I'm awesome.

This tank held creepy-ass eels in it, which Alayna was enamored with.

Entering the Shark Tunnel. . .

(One of the girls took this one.)

(. . . I think these are supposed to be jellyfish)

Checkin' out more sharks.

Sooo this giant head - is this supposed to be like an alien or a mermaid or what?

Once we got out of the aquarium, Kris grabbed a pic of the girls inside this. . . tube?

The best part of the day (despite what Abby's face might lead you to believe), was when we ducked into this large bar/restaurant a short walk away from the aquarium. Apparently there was like a two-hour wait time for a table, but the whole place was empty. We soon realized that this was because they only had three people working that shift, so we just sat at a table and Adam and I made trips up to the bar to grab beers whenever the need arose. Eventually, a server was able to bring over a few appetizer and we killed a couple hours just sitting around and catching up.

Afterwards, the Voigts hit the road, seeing how they had to fly back home to Florida the next morning, so we let the girls hit up a couple more shops that they don't have at the mall in our neck of the woods. Alayna stumbled upon a K-Pop album section in some random store, but didn't end up getting anything.

After an hour or two of shopping (and not buying much) we headed back towards the parking lot, and, along the way, Alayna grabbed one more tea for the road.

So there you go, folks - a short, impromptu reunion with the Voigts. Next time will probably be down in Florida, doing the Disney Parks in the Summer of 2024.

- Brian

The Cannonball's Quinceanera

What's up, gang

The Cannonball turned 15 today, which is absolutely insane when you think about it.  I know it's been a hot minute since we had to endure the horrors of her arrival, but it sure as hell doesn't feel like it's been a full fifteen years.  

We kept it simple this year because we were pretty busy this weekend - I was asked to photograph Kris' cousin's wedding down in Detroit on Saturday and we had to leave bright and early for that clusterf***.  So Alayna asked for a mall outing with a group of her closest friends, followed by a sleepover, so we started all of this yesterday, since we have to be in bed at a reasonable time tonight.  Pretty straight-forward, and super easy on us.  I'm sure next year - when she turns the Sweet Sixteen - we'll be on the hook for much, much more.

So yeah.  Here's our kid turning 15.  Check it out. . .

Her friends Cristina and Lexi put together this 'friend collage' (for lack of better turn) for Alayna and put it in some hand-decorated frame for her.  Pretty thoughtful lil' gift, as far as teenage girls goes.

Kris had the girls do gifts shortly after they got back from the Midland Mall, where they had spent the majority of their time hitting up the Starbuck's in Barnes and Noble and shopping at like Spencer's and whatever.

She was pretty amused.

Cristina, the Cannonball, and Lexi

Opening up Tobi's gift.  Lexi's holding a frozen ice pack to her the side of her face because she had her wisdom teeth extracted, like, the day before or something.

The gang had all gone out to see this in the theaters recently, and Alayna was obsessed with it.  She's generally not into superhero genre at all, but she was floored by this movie.  They were walking around in Target while out at the mall and she saw this shirt and was like, 'That's awesome' and her friend was like, 'Cool, there's your birthday present.'

The framed creation from Lexi and Cristina.  Plenty of teenage girl inside jokes here.

Alayna requested some blacklight body ink for her sleepover: we have a series of LED lights in the basement, and, while not technically traditional black lights, they function the same when put on the right setting.

Throw in a few glow sticks and you're good to go.

Kris took all these pics.  These ones are so blue'd out you can barely tell what you're looking at.

Singing along to numbers from that Six show Kris and all the girls went and saw down in Detroit.

Dance party ensues. . .

Abby's high-kick is significantly above what the other girls are capable of.  You can thank Pom for that.

The Cannonball

Abby

Later that evening, doing the cake thing.

Just like her mom, Alayna prefers cheesecake over a traditional one.

These variety cheesecakes - featuring sections of different kinds of cheesecakes - are all the rage among my roommates.

The next day, after all of her friends had taken off, Mom and John swung by to drop off a card and some cash to the Birthday Girl.

Not sure why Mom's losing her shit here.

Alayna requested Fuji Sushi for her birthday dinner (she loves sushi.)  I was adamant that I had never tried this particular Japanese restaurant out before, among all of the ones throughout town that Kris and I have frequented, but was told otherwise.

Abby, mid-sneeze.

It's sooooooo cool having dinner with your family.

Kris and her damn selfies. . .

The girls always get these Japanese pop bottle thingies whenever they eat at some Japanese restaurant where they're available.  You have to like press down on the cap and it releases some ball bearing into the pop below.  Not sure how or why, but that's what it does.  The Japanese are weird.

Perusing the menu.  Kris, Alayna, and I all got signature sushi rolls: Kris' was awesome, mine was okay but I wouldn't get it again, and Alayna got two large rolls and was still hungry afterwards.

Abby got some kind of a chicken udon noodle/soup meal that she was insistent on (I guess she's had it before.)

(Photo courtesy of Abby.)

For desert both girls opted for fruit ice cream dishes.  Alayna got some coconut ice cream that was served in a chilled coconut husk and topped with whipped cream and drizzled chocolate.

And Abby's was the exact same, just with pineapple instead of coconut.

- Brian