My Geocaching Nightmare

I had a bad dream last night. In my dream, we were at a geocaching event...we were competing with other teams in northeastern Iowa to find all the hidden treasures first. In the dream, Cool Daddy-O and I were in the house of a little old lady who was no longer living in her house, but had left all her stuff there. We found the cache in a cedar chest in her bedroom and when we went to leave the house to look for our next geocache, we saw a woman vandalizing our car. She made a comment (as she was keying the car) "your car looks too nice to be a used car" and continued to scratch it. She then was able to get in somehow, and put it in reverse and crash it into a tree, completely smashing in the trunk, where all our geocaching treasure information was. We were then out of contention. I then realized that she was a crazy geocaching woman and didn't want us to win. I tried dialing 911 on my cell phone, but kept dialing the numbers in the wrong order and never did get any help. That's when I woke up.

It was the most detailed dream I've had in a while and thought I'd post about it before I forgot it. The dream was very realistic!

In my real life, not much exciting is going on. I did manage to get the house clean enough to host a group of moms for a play date / meeting about our moms group. This year, I'll be the "table mom coordinator" and I had a meeting with the table moms today to talk about the upcoming year.

I guess it's not such a bad thing that the toy room was a mess when they arrived, because now, it actually looks better than when they got here, if that's possible. We have some more organizing to do, but it's getting better.

When everyone was here, I had one of those moments when I looked up at the ceiling and was appalled by all the cobwebs attached to the ceiling. It was rather gross and disgusting, actually. I guess I should attack the ceiling with the Dyson sometime. I hope everyone else was content to keep their eyes away from the ceiling. At least the floor was clean! :)

My Ill Fated Attempt To Clean the House

Lil Sis: I'm having so much fun today!

Me: Why?

Lil Sis: Because I'm making a big mess! (loud laughter to follow)

I think I've lost control! I'm attempting to organize and throw things away today....we also call it taking control of horizontal surfaces. As I'm making progress in the living room and kitchen (slowly), the living room floor is being covered with game pieces...Memory, Go Fish, Candy Land, and a Little People fishing game. There would be another fishing game in this mix, if the pieces weren't soaking in soapy water.

Yeah, we had a wasp in the house and sprayed poison to kill it. Well, in our haste to kill the wasp, we didn't remove everything that was exposed to the poisonous fall out before annihilating it. The good news, we successfully killed the wasp. The bad news, I had to wipe down a lot of stuff that the spray dripped on. You see, the wasp was in the living room light fixture and ... well, I had a little lesson in gravity.

Fortunately, Snickers (who was also chasing the wasp) seems to be o.k. In fact, it was Snickers who alerted us to the wasp flying about the light fixture.

Hopefully we don't suffer any ill effects from spraying poison in here. I did turn off the A/C for the first time in many weeks and all the windows are open. It's a cool day and kinda nice to have the fresh air in the house.

Just last night, we moved all the games to a spot where the girls can have easy access to them, in hopes they'll play with them more often. I guess my wish has come true!

Oh, and she's still wearing her jammies! I think she's really getting into her element of being the only kid at home during the day.

It's the First Day of First Grade

The title sounds like the Veggietales song in the Jonah movie...I did that on purpose ;)

She's off to first grade. The first picture was the first day of kindergarten. This morning was much less stressful than last year's first day of school. She was a bit nervous prior to meeting her teacher and seeing her classroom the other night, but then she decided that first grade would be o.k. after all. The major change this year is a different bus number and a different driver. As long as she gets on the right bus, all will be well.

Below, you'll see just how relaxed and goofy she was feeling this morning as she waited for the bus. I asked her what she was doing...she said she's celebrating going to first grade.

So far, this morning has been better for Lil Sis too. She stubbed her toe when she got out of bed, but after she recovered from that, she's fine. In fact, we're going to watch "Jonah" (Veggietales) so we can hear the song I referred to earlier. A year ago, she was sad for a few days.

Highlights of the 2008 Iowa State Fair

Kids 5 and under get in free at the fair. We just had to take a picture of Big Sis with her first admission ticket...purchased in advance at Fareway, of course.

The Butter Cow....only at the Iowa State Fair. We had a butter Shawn Johnson this year, too.
The Little Hands on the Farm exhibit lets children explore the life cycle of crops grown in Iowa. They plant and harvest a garden vegetable, pick an apple, grow corn and soybeans, feed the corn to a cow, milk a cow, process their soybeans into biodiesel fuel, drive a pedal tractor, shear a sheep, gather an egg, sell all their produce and earn a dollar to spend at the store on the way out for a little snack. I think the girls went through this exhibit more times than we could count.




A new exhibit this year featured butterflies. For a $3 admission fee, I was able to teach Big Sis a lesson in butterfly reproduction. Where else can you photograph 2 butterflies mating in your daughter's hair?










The girls went down the slide with their cousins holding them.

Lil Sis and I stood around a long time waiting on this little guy to hatch. I took a 5 minute video before this one and then gave up and started over. You can hear how excited the onlookers were when he finally broke free. All week long, new life entered the world at the Animal Learning Center.

Here's a cute little lamb. The vet said the sheep haven't given birth yet during the day. They seem more comfortable delivering during the middle of the night. Here's a cute piglet. Big Sis was quite intrigued by a sow that had just given birth and watched the vet help deliver the placenta for quite awhile. You can be thankful I didn't take a video of that (kinda gross).
I missed the delivery of triplets by a few minutes.
Here's the big bull. There were 2 children brushing him while we were there. He seemed quite happy with the brushing. Based on the t-shirts they were wearing, I surmised they were relatives of the owner of the bull. They don't let just anyone in the pen with the "Super Bull".

Here's the Big Boar....the biggest big boar ever. He was so big, I couldn't get a picture of his whole body.
The last day of the fair is known as extreme Sunday. Cool Daddy-O and I had tickets for the grandstand show, featuring Garrison Keillor and Suzy Boggus. The performance lasted 3 hours and was very entertaining. Instead of taking a break during intermission, Garrison sang a song about urination and invited people to leave as they needed to. He asked the rest of the audience to stand and sing. We joined him in "America the Beautiful", "Home on the Range", "Old Man River", "The Iowa Waltz". He closed the show with another song with the audience. Immediately following the show, there was a cool fireworks display. I had fun experimenting with the fireworks setting on the camera.

Well, I think I'm caught up now. It's hard to capture all of the fair in one post. We went two days with the girls and two days without them. We saw everything we wanted to see, but didn't see everything. It was a record year for attendance and we can't wait for next year!!

Daddies and Daughters Week

On our first full day in Colorado, we drove from Loveland to Fort Collins. We went west on Hwy 14 and drove near the site where dad lived at a camp for about 2 1/2 years (1944 - 1946). Dad was amazed by everything that has changed over the years. Towns turning into cities, old bumpy roads becoming smooth 4-lane roads built for speed. We even had to slow down for the cattle that roam freely in the area.

We continued west through the Poudre Canyon and drove to the spot that inspired us to name Lil Sis.

We then re-entered civilization and drove on I-25 from Loveland to Colorado Springs. I was unable to set my cruise control during that drive. Even though the speed limit was 75 mph, the right lane moved at about 70 mph and the left lane moved at about 73 mph the whole way.

We drove south of Divide to visit my cousin at Rocky Mt. Mennonite Camp, located at 9000+ feet elevation. M gave dad a tour of her cabin, the kitchen, and dining hall. My cousin took this pic of my dad and me. We also had a picture taken with my cousin in it...that's not unusual. What's unusual, is that the photo was taken by a young Amish woman. (It is against the Amish belief to have their picture taken, not sure if they're supposed to take pictures with a camera, or not.) There were two sisters from an Amish community here in Iowa, that were volunteering at the camp for a week. It was fun to talk with them.

After a delicious supper, we were on our way back north toward Longmont. I was tired of the interstate, so we headed north on Hwy 67 toward Denver. It was a beautiful drive. Traffic was very light and we were able to enjoy the twisting curves and beautiful views. We arrived in Denver around sunset and drove straight north through the western suburbs. It would have been faster to jump on interstate, but it was more relaxing the way we went.

Had I been traveling alone, I would have stopped at Whole Foods in Lakewood. I'd never seen one, much less been inside. Maybe on my next trip. It looked really cool from the outside, though.

We eventually wound up exactly where we needed to be, without even consulting a map (I got lucky and found the right road). The mattress was exactly as I'd remembered it from our vacation last year. I slept very well and woke up early, ready to drive again.

On Thursday, we drove through Boulder, Nederland, Central City, hopped in I-70 for a bit, and then drove north through Granby, Rocky Mountain National Park, and ended up visiting the shops in Estes Park.

By this time, I was missing Cool Daddy-O and the girls!!!! Since we had completed all of our goals in Colorado, we decided to drive about 5 hours and spend the night in Nebraska. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and ended well, however, driving through severe thunderstorms in northeastern Colorado is not something I want to do again soon.

By the time we hit the Nebraska border, I'd never been so happy to be in Nebraska. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful evening.

The drive home the following day was uneventful and I was able to spend the evening eating out at our favorite pizza place and our favorite ice cream shop.

Cool Daddy-O kept the girls busy while I was gone. In fact, he told them they were having a contest to see who could have the most fun. Considering I was homesick most of the time, I think the girls had the most fun.

Colorado is my favorite place to visit and vacation, however, without my little family there to experience it with me, it just wasn't the same.

All that aside, I'm very thankful I was able to spend time with dad, helping him live out a dream to return to Colorado again and enjoy looking out the window as we drove through farming and ranching country, large lots with feeder cattle, enormous dairy farms, newly constructed wind turbines, lodge pole pines and Colorado blue spruce, snow capped mountains, and everything in between.

Driving Across Nebraska

We made it in 12 hours! Didn't need a radio. Just listened to an old farmer comment on all the trees, the crops, lay of the land, condition of the road, and how even though we kept stopping at rest areas, we kept passing the same semis over and over again. It was kinda fun! There was so little traffic today, that the trucks we passed repeatedly became our "highway buddies".

Tomorrow we're off to reminisce some more near Fort Collins and then will drive to Divide to visit my cousin. I'm sure I'll hear how things have changed since 1948 and what life was like back then.

Now, I'm Going On Vacation!!

The past week has been excitingly chaotic. On Wednesday, we began our little family vacation by going to the zoo in Omaha where we met up with friends. We then spent two nights in our capital city and attended the Iowa State Fair. We had a blast! Most of our time was spent experiencing "Little Hands On The Farm", the "Butterfly Pavilion", and the "Animal Learning Center". We highly recommend all three activities for children of all ages. Lil Sis and I watched a chick hatch. We have the video, actually. I'll post pictures at a later time.

We had so much fun at the fair, that Cool Daddy-O and I returned on Saturday while the girls had a slumber party with g-pa and g-ma.

On Sunday, we attended a family reunion. Following the reunion, we were talking about our little vacation and my sister-in-law asked how we liked staying in Iowa. I told her it was fun, but we would have rather gone to Colorado. My dad immediately said he'd love to go if someone would take him. He's 82 and recently widowed and loves Colorado. He even offered to buy gas, lodging and food for anyone who would take him. After I realized he was serious, Cool Daddy-O and I had a little conference outside. He had an awesome idea and we're going with it.

Dad and I are leaving in the morning and we're driving straight to the front range. We'll spend time sightseeing in Colorado for 2 days and then we'll drive home on Friday. Cool Daddy-O is going to spend the rest of the week at home, half working, half vacationing and having fun with the girls.

Lil Sis and I cried when I told her the plan. Big Sis begrudgingly said it would be o.k. for me to take grandpa on his vacation. Cool Daddy-O has promised lots of fun going to the park, playing with play dough, painting, a slumber party in the living room, and swimming in the little pool if it gets hot. They're pretty excited about the whole deal now.

We're calling it Daddies and Daughters week. I hope to be able to post daily from the road about our adventures. I won't be able to include pictures, but I'll describe things best I can.

For the first time in a long time, the backseat of the Accord is "empty" and void of any signs of children. We moved the Britax seats to the Civic, so the girls can ride in style this week.

Gotta get packing...more later from the road!

No, I'm Not On Vacation...Yet!

Edited on 8/11/08 to add the photos previously described.

Oh, Man! I've read about people having problems uploading photos in blogger before, but, until now, I've never had a problem. I have cool pictures, too! Bummer!

My first non-existent picture is of Lil Sis sitting on Cool Daddy-O's lap with her eyes closed at a restaurant in Amana. We met my dad, brothers and their families there for breakfast on Saturday. Since only 3 of my immediate family members had their eyes open, we didn't have to pay for Lil Sis. We had a very nice waitress who understands shy 4 year olds. There were just too many people there, and she was overwhelmed with all the attention, I guess.

We did enjoy some yummy family style eats: fruit, toast, pancakes, sausage, bacon, fried eggs, fried potatoes, coffee, juice, milk. Too bad Lil Sis missed it. Poor Cool Daddy-O was stuck holding her the whole time. Big sis complained about the flat pancake (she's used to the fluffy pancakes I make). The girls had been up very late the night before and we had to wake them early to get to Amana in time for breakfast.

This weekend was the annual tax-free holiday in Iowa. All clothing and some select other stuff (like diapers) isn't taxed on the first Friday and Saturday in August. On Friday, I took the car to the dealer for some routine maintenance. I rode the Honda mobile to the mall and hung out for a few hours. I bought some good stuff at Target and I've been so busy since then, I haven't even unpacked all the bags.

The most fun things I bought were new cell phones for Cool Daddy-O and I. We both have new numbers and they're actually easy to memorize.

My next grouping of pictures includes one of Lil Sis standing by a baby zebra (her favorite zoo animal). We spent Sunday in Sigourney where there was a big celebration for the local John Deere tractor dealer's 10th anniversary. There were inflatables, a petting zoo with camels, goats, llama, baby zebra. There was also a monkey show, but we missed that part. The food was provided by Cookies BBQ (an Iowa company), chips from Hy-Vee (Iowa based grocery chain), and music by the Oak Ridge Boys. The only bad part was the 95 degree temperature with high humidity.

We managed just fine. Our next picture shows Big Sis spraying me with water. We carried the spray bottle with us everywhere and regularly sprayed the girls. During the Oak Ridge Boys performance, Big Sis was putting ice in the spray bottle and spraying me. It was AWESOME!

Today, the girls had swimming lessons and Big Sis had "reading camp" at a local college. In the afternoon, I filled up the little pool on the deck. The girls spent 4 hours there. I had grand hopes of doing some organizing of new purchases, etc. but I ended up sitting in the shade programming numbers in Cool Daddy-O's new phone. I did spend some time with my feet in the pool. That was nice.

Big Sis's big swimming lesson accomplishment today was holding her breath under water and blowing bubbles. She also was able to move from one side of the pool to the other today without the noodle while wearing the flotation cube thingy around her waist. Lil Sis was able to blow bubbles under water today. She's afraid of holding her breath under water, but she was moving around in our pool today holding her breath with her head above water. All in good time. She's getting more comfortable with the water...it's just going to take her some time.

Well, hope you enjoyed my non-existent pictures....I'll try to upload them another day.