Basketball Road Trip to Ames 2015

My mom and I have been planning a road trip to Ames for a while.  My cousin (1st once removed as this chart taught me) play basketball for the Oklahoma State Cowgirls!  Prior to heading out on Saturday morning, I decided to make a shirt quick for the game. Yay for my silhouette and having orange heat transfer vinyl on hand!  I think it turned out pretty good.

 My mom and I headed out just after 10am.

 We stopped at the Top of Iowa welcome center just across the border.  It was a great big barn and it had all sorts of cow themed stuff inside!

I need to get these chairs!

 Ames has a cute little Main Street with a bunch of shops and eateries.  We walked around and did some shopping to burn a couple hours.  My mom even found a great deal at one of the antique stores.

 I grabbed a couple of cupcakes at Cupcake Emporium as well.  They appeared on Cupcake Wars a couple years ago, but were not nearly as good as Nadia Cakes.

 We stayed on a snack these and got a dish of gelato to share at a little chocolate shop.

 Next, we hit up a local vineyard and winery for some free samples!  We ended up getting three bottles, so it was a successful trip! 

 We went to Hickory Park for dinner, you may remember that Jimmy and I went here on our trip to Des Moines in 2013.  All the food was awesome again, especially the onion rings!

 We even got to see my "little sister" Emily!

 A snow storm was in the forecast for Ames. We were hoping it would hold off until we left, but it didn't.

 Heading in to the arena!

 There was a big crowd there to root on Kaylee and the Cowgirls since this is the closest they play to Nebraska.

 It was a really fun and competitive game to watch.  Kaylee is #54, on defense below.

 It came down to the very end!  The cowgirls went up by 1 with just a second left on the clock and won!

 We hit the road right away, because there was snow most of the way home.  I-35 is known to be a treacherous stretch during snow storms.  Luckily it wasn't too windy to try the drive.  It was a VERY slow drive home.  It took over 3 hours just to get to the MN border and another 2 hours and 15 minutes to get home.  Not a fun drive, but we did it as safely as we could!

It was a fun trip and I hope we have another chance to see her play!

Adventure Home

We woke up early Sunday morning to head home from Nebraska.  We don't usually stay for breakfast, but did this year.  Bacon, eggs, toast, and orange juice later, we were on the road.  It may have been a bit early for Parker still!

Our first stop was a visit to the house my great-grandpa Emory lived in for many years.  Parker got his middle name from him.  The house hasn't been occupied in a while so it was starting to look pretty beat up.  It bums me out, but it happen a lot in small rural towns.

Our next stop was just to get a picture with the town sign!  We passed a little town with the same name as the street we live on, so I couldn't resist getting a picture!  I even had to scrape off some snow! (There is a name on the sign, but then the internet would know where I live.  You can probably google that stuff, but it doesn't need a picture!)

A little further on our drive we detoured through Plainview, NE.  This town was the setting for fictional Hawthorne in the movie Nebraska.  It was fun to see the streets from the movie.  The town sign was on display in the window of a local cafe.

That was our last stop for a while.  Parker entertained us by singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" over and over again.  This is a pretty big milestone for him.

The final stop on our adventure home was Hawkeye Point.  Looks riveting, right?  It just happens to be the highest point in Iowa!  My parents have been driving by it for 30 years, so it was time to stop!

Parker was more than happy for the chance to stretch his legs.

They have signs pointing to the other state high points and their elevations, but at least a few of them aren't correct.  Not sure if that was intentional or not, but its the thought that counts, right?

They also have a display of license plates sent to the original land owners over the years.  There isn't much else...

Other than the amazing view of Iowa!

After a quick lunch we were on to the final stretch.  Both of boys were snoozing by Mankato, a sign of a great adventure!

One Last Christmas

We hit the road this weekend to celebrate Christmas with my dad's family.  We headed out Friday afternoon and made great time!  Parker was a phenomenal traveler, as always.  I think having him forward facing makes it even easier!  We didn't have to break out the iPad until after dark!  He didn't take a nap nor sleep at all in the car and he still had energy when we arrived at 10:30.

 Then he woke up at 6 and climbed onto the air mattress with us!  We weren't getting him back to sleep so we were getting up.  We had a quick breakfast before running some errands and helping my grandma prep for dinner (which is the noon meal in Nebraska).  I even got a selfie with her! #grandmasfirstselfie

 We opened presents quick as well since my grandma wasn't able to come on Christmas day.  Parker even ripped one of the gifts open himself!

It was a great spread as always.  Four different soups, sandwiches and all the fixings.

Jimmy took a snooze after lunch while the rest of us played cards.

The cookie thief struck again too, but he has expanded to giant brownies!

It was such a fun day with a great group!

Nana even roped Parker into helping with dishes.

We ended the night with some relaxing tunes from Parker on the organ.

We has quite the adventure home too, but that will have to wait for the next post!

Stir Crazy?

These photos are from a few weeks ago and I totally forgot to share them.  We were getting a bit stir crazy before the holidays.  It was kinda warm, but that melted the snow and make it all muddy and mucky outside.  We finally got some snow on Christmas and the day after.  That following Saturday was going to be warm enough to go enjoy it!  Parker loved pushing his new sled around.  He isn't keen on riding in it yet, but we will get there.

 He was all smiles, until he did a face plant!

 We also got popcorn Stir Crazy!  Jimmy got a Stir Crazy Popcorn Maker for Christmas from his parents.  It was accompanied by this awesome picture of him and his dad 30+ years ago watching the corn pop.

 Now it is Jimmy's turn to show Parker how to do it.  If only Jimmy had a pair a sweatpants like his dad's!

The weather is warming up again this weekend, so hopefully we will have more fun outside.

Second Day of Preschool

I promise not to write a post abut every day of school, but a proud mama has to boast a bit! School was cancelled on Wednesday due to brutally cold weather, so he didn't go again until today. He only whimpered a little on the way out the door and had NO tears for the bus driver!  Then he had an awesome day at school based on the sweet note we got from his teacher.

It must have been a blast because he even fell asleep on the bus ride back! Hopefully that means he is already comfortable with this new routine!  Both Jimmy and I are so proud of how well he is doing already!

First Day of Preschool!

Parker started preschool today!  This day seemed a long way off when we first started talking about it, but it came, and we survived!  We got him a little backpack last week and I made a little name tag with felt and fabric paint.

 The weather was not on our side.  It was probably the coldest morning of the winter so far and the optimistic SpongeBob ad wasn't helping...

 I just bundled him up in lots of layers to stay warm!

 Our daycare lady walked him to the bus.  He was already a bit skeptical!

 It was a bit traumatizing to be put in a strange vehicle, by a strange person, but he calmed down pretty quickly.

 Once at school, the teacher comes out to get him off the bus.  All transfers are hand-to-hand, which eases my nerves a lot.

We got a call from his teacher mid-morning and again in the afternoon.  He had an amazing day.  He cried a little when I left, but was fine once he got to the table in his classroom.  He transitioned well between activities with no fussing or crying at all.  I am not surprised how well he did, but I am very proud!  He is such a big boy now!

We went to his favorite place to celebrate his big day, Perkins!

I Rock! 

Pancakes!

I am so excited for this next step.  I think the addition of an organized classroom environment is going to help him gain new skills.  2015 is going to be an awesome year, it will only get better from here!