We got up early this morning to get ourselves ready to head to Detroit to attend the 2009 North American International Auto Show at Cobo Hall. Unfortunately I had to shovel the driveway first - that isn't fun at 6:45am. Oh well, it was worth it.

    This year we decided to take Tyler, Samantha, and Drew with us, so we took Jayden over to Grandpa Jerry & Grandma Gail's house and started our drive. Although the temperature was at least double what it has been the last few mornings the roads certainly didn't show it. They must not be salting yet, because on our drive down we passed 8 cars either in the ditch or spun out along the road. Fun!

    We got to Cobo and enjoyed the show. You could tell attendance was way down though because there was plenty of room to pretty much do whatever you wanted inside. Aside from the kids being tired of walking about 5 minutes after going in, we had a good time looking at the exhibits and figuring out what we could buy next (assuming somebody else was paying, of course!).

    After the show we climbed aboard the People Mover to head to Greektown and eat at PizzaPapalis. The kids each got to make their own pizzas, along with a root beer float to drink. Tara and I split a deep dish pizza. After eating we treated the kids to a giant 10" cookie (which seemed to be deep dish too). Once we overate, we got back on the People Mover and rode all the way around the loop (yes, past Greektown once again and then back to our stop).

    We finished up our busy day be heading back to pick up Jayden. The roads hadn't improved much as evidenced by the 7 cars we saw spun out and wrecked on our way back. We escaped unharmed however, so we were able to breathe a sigh of relief on that count.

North American International Auto Show
	Tara helping Drew pick the right country for a driving game, with Tyler and Samantha looking on.
	Tyler working on drawing a picture on a computer tablet while Sam patiently waits for her turn. All three of the kids got a turn - the results can be seen in the next picture section.
	Drew enjoying being in a Pontiac Solstice GXP.
	Sam standing in front of a 2010 Buick Lacrosse. I'm not sure if it has the option to seat six or not (doubt it, though), but I would take one. Very nice looking car.
	The new Chevrolet Camaro.
	The Chevrolet Orlando. A seven person "minivan" that they will be selling soon.
	Another Chevrolet Camaro. This is probably the package I would get (like the colors, the headlights, everything).
	The new Chevrolet Cruze that will be sold in the US soon.
	The rear 3/4 view of the Chevrolet Volt. This would be a great commuter car for me to drive to work.
	The front 3/4 view of the Volt. Many people are disappointed that it doesn't look like the concept, but I actually like the production version better.

    Volvo had a display where you could "design" a car. The kids each took a turn, although only Sam attempted to even draw a car. Here is what each of the kids came up with.

Kids Drawings
	Drew's picture (I helped with his name).
	Sam's first picture (she had a better mouth drawn, but hit undo by mistake - the drawing program wasn't the most user friendly).
	Sam's car picture.
	Tyler wrote down the names of all of the kids at the show.

    And now for pictures form our after show activities...

PizzaPapalis
	Tyler giving me the peace sign before we ordered our meal.
	Sam sitting patiently waiting to eat.
	Drew putting the sauce on his very own hand-made pizza.
	Tyler spreading the sauce around on his hand-made pizza.
	Tyler loading up the cheese.
	Drew spreading his cheese around.
Please click here for page two of the photos