Jackson turns 37!

We woke up to a dreary Monday morning on the day that Jackson turned 37. He had a special breakfast request so I took him to Hardee's. Woo. Big time! We spent the morning at our hotel playing in the game room (these hotels are built for indoor, snowed-in fun like none I've ever stayed in!) where Jackson dominated Susie and me in air hockey.

Picking off his first victim

Once we were tired of losing to the birthday boy, we packed up and headed for downtown to meet Jackson's childhood friend who now works at the University of North Dakota in their athletic department. We met his friend, Ryan, at the best pizza place I've ever been to. Really. This pizza was amazing. If you ever find yourself in Grand Forks, ND first ask why and then head to Rhombus Guys for pizza. They had the paper on the table that you could draw on and they provided crayons so I drew a birthday message to Jackson. Our excellent waiter noticed it and offered him a free shot from the bar or a dessert s'more pizza. Peer pressure lead him to take the dessert pizza. It was SO GOOD. Ryan offered to take us on a tour of his area of campus and being a huge nerd for colleges how could I not insist we agree?!

Ralph Engelstad Arena

Jackson pretending to be angry in the penalty box

Panorama of the whole stadium. It was HUGE!

We are, admittedly, not huge hockey fans but seeing how large this stadium was did end up being pretty awesome. It turns out that they're in the same league as my alma mater, the University of Denver, and the one hockey game Jackson went to during our time at DU was against UND! Small world! Anyway, Ryan works more with the basketball team so we headed over to their area to snoop around. 

"Put me in coach!"

Jackson did not represent Indiana well and could not buy a basket on his birthday. It was so sad. Ryan quickly hit a three and the crowd (Susie and I) went wild. Poor Jackson.

Chillin' in the men's locker room  

I could not believe how nice their facilities were. I just kept saying that no one from athletics better ever complain to me again- ha! :) We thanked Ryan for his time and then headed to the bookstore to pick up some gear. It was also a nice bookstore. This campus was phenomenal except for its geographic location in the north pole.

We have to include this story because it made us laugh so hard. We kept passing this area called the, "Fido Purpur Arena" and speculating on what it was. We assumed, due to its name, that it was an indoor dog park. We were wrong! It turns out Fido Purpur was a professional hockey player and this is an ice rink named for him. He was the first person born in North Dakota to play in the NHL. Quite an honor in that neck of the woods. Clifford Joseph "Fido" Purpur was his name. We still think it sounds like an indoor dog park. You've seen the real hockey stadium now so you'll understand why Ryan laughed at us when we thought UND's hockey team must play in this little arena. We just were not in the know! :)

NOT a dog park

We'd had a fun day so far but that luck was about to end. The good? We made it back to the Fargo airport without wrecking our rental car. The good folks of North Dakota are not good drivers and I was just certain we'd wreck that darned rental car. We did not. The weather had gotten pretty rainy, windy and cold by now and we scurried into the airport just in time to hear that flights were being delayed. Oh no. Please don't let it be ours. It was. Poop!

Birthday dessert leftovers at the airport cheered Jackson up!

We sat and waited for an update from 5 p.m. until about 10 p.m. just to get confirmation that our flight was canceled. It was so annoying.

This photo provided some great entertainment for Susie and me

We tried to make the best of it but we were pretty happy to just get the heck out of the tiny airport once the flight was canceled so we could try again the next morning to get home.

Birthday McDonald's

I asked the hotel shuttle driver if she'd stop to get us some dinner and she obliged. Jackson ate McDonald's for the first time this year (he gave it up for New Year's) to celebrate turning 37. Yep. He's a champ. He really didn't complain at all that his birthday was spent trapped in North Dakota. What a guy! We got like 5 hours of sleep and then trekked back to the airport to get home. We made it this time and both worked in the afternoon. Needless to say we're exhausted and really happy to be back in Indiana. For now. :)