Justin turned 11 today!! We braved the rain and went to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio , just a couple of hours from here. We were glad we did, because the rain vanished as soon as we got there. The first thing we did was go straight to the famed Millenium Force, the fastest and tallest roller coaster in the world! Even though the park had just opened, we found ourselves in line for 2 hours. I would do it again, but I'm not so sure about Justin. He seemed a bit surprised to find that he was still alive after the ride. We spent the rest of the day riding various coasters and water rides, with a few other rides thrown in for good measure. We also saw a couple of great shows, most notably a group of highly energetic drummers called the Krash Test Dummies that we only saw by accident. I think they were worth the price of admission all by themselves ... they were great!

We took a very skeptical Justin out to a Middle Eastern restaurant, Talal's, in Dearborn for dinner tonight. After much persuasion, we convinced him to forgo the pizza and accept our recommendations. Justin ended up raving over the melt-in-your-mouth lamb shish-kabob just as much as we do! We stopped off at Masri Sweets to pick up some baklava on the way home. Yum!

Justin and Mina and I all went to Super Saturday at Putt Putt today while K and Layla went to the playground at our local park.

We went to the Toledo Zoo today. While we were there, a polar bear tried to eat our Layla! K had held her up to the window so she could see, and when one of the bears noticed her, he looked straight at her and charged right into the window! K said his heart nearly stopped ... who would think those big old bears could run so fast?!

After the seals and polar bears, we made a big sticky cotton candy mess, then visited the aviary, followed by the monkeys! We rode the carousel and played at the playground before visiting the excessively lazy wallabies and koala, then finished our visit in the petting zoo with the deer. Most animals are still being kept inside due to the cool weather. Even though it is June, we still need sweaters some days!