Happy Birthday to Steve.......

The Sunday after we got back from Paris we decided to take it easy and relax. Our legs were still in pain from walking all over and our bodies were exausted from the non-stop fun. Plus, Steve had his football game that evening around 7pm so we didnt want him to be too tired, b/c it was the deciding game for his team...pass or fail.
We decided to go shopping because I needed tennis shoes to go horseback riding the next day for his birthday. Found a really cheap pair that look just like Nike Shocks (you really cant tell the difference from far away). We went to the grocery and then to Blockbuster to rent EuroTrip...I thought it would be funny to see someone else's vacation besides ours go horribly wrong.
So off we go to football, about 6 hours later...it was bad news from the beginning. They only had 5 players show up which meant NO ONE could take a break or sit out. And it was like 85F outside. An entire hour they played in the bnlistering heat. You could see them becoming exausted. Steve scored, not one...not two but 3 goals. Final score was 6 - 5, they won. The other team had like 8 players, so they even got to rotate and sit out, breathe and have some water. They were so tired, yet thrilled that they celebrated with a few beers. We went home after and relaxed...ate some Ben and Jerry's and went to bed early.
July 18...Steve's Birthday. We woke up around 10 am and got dressed for our adventure or horseback riding and ice skating. He's so nice, b/c I am the one who wanted to do these things...he's never been on a horse before and he hates ice skating and yet he did them on his birthday cause it was a day we had free to go. We got to the horse riding stables and it turns out it wasnt quite what we thought...it wasnt "horseback riding", but "horseback riding lessons"...you dont actually get to ride the horses at first but you get to learn all about them for the low,low price of only 18 pounds per lesson (per person). I was like "Good God for that amount I can go buy a freakin horse and teach myself". I think I almost heard Steve sigh a sigh of relief but I can be sure b/c he seemed pretty down that we couldnt go. But the lady told us we were free to go around the stables and visit the horses if we like...and as much as I love horses we did. I made a friend, a very good friend out of a horse with no name. Well I am sure he had one but it wasnt on his stable like the rest of the horses. When I say this horse was big...it is an understatement. The arch of his back was above my head, his head was prolly close to 4 feet long....but, he loved me. I pet him and spoke to him and told him how handsome he was. He liked the attention, and we realized how much so when we started to walk off. He started kicking the front of his stable and when we turned around he stopped. We walked back over and I pet him again, and he nudged me. Whenever I turned my back to him he licked my shoulder or nudged me a bit. He threw a bit of a horse fit when I left, I could still hear him kicking the stable as we made our way back through the main building. (We later named him "America" b/c of the band called "America" who wrote a song called "The Horse With No Name").
On to ice skating, which we actually got to do. The last time I went ice skating was about 3 years ago and for Steve about 10. I rollerblade all the time and I remember it was basically the same, just a little bit slippery. Our ice skating was a series of trial and error of pulling ourselves around the wall. I eventually let go and made my way, slipping and tripping every so often, but Steve wasnt quite as into it as I was. So after about 2 times around the track we got off to get some chips and drinks and have a break. Plus the ice skates kindof dig into your feet and were starting to hurt. We actually spent the next hour naming and laughing at this group of 30 kids who got on the ice as we were exiting. A Pretty little girl,named "Ice Princess" who spent her time helping others across the ice then flipped her hair and laughing as spun in circles around them. Then they was "Wipe Out", who bless his heart, was trying desperately to make it 5 feet without holding on to the wall. And he would, literally make it 5 feet and then dropped to the ice and tumbled the other few feet. I think we counted a total of about 25 wipe-outs in the hour we watched. Then there was "Look-At-Me", a 7 year old boy who was in all honesty a very good skater. He spun in circles, and went backwards, but not without tapping someone on the shoulder first and saying "Hey...watch me!" We decided that these kids didnt look like they were leaving any time soon and us unexperienced skaters didnt really fancy skating with about 50 other people, most of them being kids under 14.
That night we went out to a local pub for Steve's birthday and I met most of his friends. He was bought free drink after free drink, none of which he refused. I had a few myself but drinks here must not be as strong as home b/c I was totally fine and couldve passed any drunk test with flying colors. Steve kept asking me if I was okay which was the only tell-tale sign that he wasnt, lol. We didnt get home until almost 230am and we spent the next 1/2 hour planning our day around the city on Tuesday.
We woke up Tuesday about 1030am and didnt actually make it out the house until almost noon. We decided to go to the Natural History Museum, which had a really cool dinosaur exhibit and some really cool stuff about Earth. They had a Biology exhibit that I begged him to not go in b/c I dont really want to go to school before I actually have to. We went to Darwin's Labs and learned how they purify things and keep them in jars. It was a freaky test lab with rows and rows filled with jars of once living animals. I stared at a few, half convinced they were going to open their eyes or swim away. Everything from squid, to turtles, to birds, to plants....anything you oculd think of, every species they had a specimen for. We went to the Whale and Dolphin exhibit where we learned if you hold you nose, close your mouth and say "oh" 3 times you sound like a whale does under water. And we learned that a squeek, squawk, and whistle means for a Dolphin to jump through a hoop. Interesting, I know...
We went to Harrod's next, home of every possible designer label you can think of. We didnt stay here long b/c I almost cried when I looked at some of the prices. And I thought the shops at the Champs Elysees were pricey. A Linen jacket, beige, on SALE for 300 pounds (about $600)! That jacket wouldnt even keep me warm in like 75 degree weather it was so thin. We went to 3 different floors and pretty much just walked through. A great place for celebrities, but not for Kristin and Steve. We left, for another adventure. As we went to get on the tubes back home, we hear a man over the announcer saying "Due to an unattended bag"...thats all we needed to hear to know we needed to get a bus wherever we were going. Only problem was...so did everyone else. We waited about 10 minutes for a bus that about 50 other people around us needed to get on as well. We shimmied our way through the crowd as it neared and I got on, but the attendent put his arm between me and Steve and told him he couldnt get on. I was like "He's with me" and the attendent replied with "Then you get off too!" And with that, we both got kicked off the bus. We walked down about 4 blocks to try to get away from that crowd and see if we could catch the bus sooner than them. 15 minutes until the next bus....we waited and as it came it passed the stop right up...too full. We got a cab instead, neither of us had to say a word, we just walked to the taxi stand.
We ended up going to see "Mr & Mrs Smith" and eating at Pizza Hut (the service was MUCH better this time), because the tubes were still not working. We got back home around 12:30am and went to bed as Steve has work in the morning....and our adventures ended for the night but I am almost quite certain with out luck we will have many more to report about.