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!

An Activity Filled Mother's Day

We traveled to Ames today for lunch. We realized as we were leaving that we would be arriving at Hickory Park at 10 minutes til noon. Not good. We drove through the parking lot and determined we could go have fun for a couple hours and come back later. We picked up some bagels for a snack.

Just to be nostalgic, we drove by the dorm where I lived. The semester just ended and we saw a lot of overflowing dumpsters. The red bud trees were in full bloom and beautiful. I think the Iowa State campus is at its height of beauty in May. In this photo, you can see Lyon Hall, red bud trees, and an overflowing dumpster (in the far left).

We also attempted the three geocaches we hadn't located VEISHEA weekend. We STILL can't find them. However, after I got home tonight, I figured out the coordinates for the mystery cache I was trying to solve. Now I'll just have to go back there again some day.

Our lunch at Hickory Park was delicious as always. The girls opted to get nickel candy instead of ice cream. So, they had dessert for 30 cents.

To add more to my Target story from yesterday, I noticed that 2 of the items I purchased were in this week's sale ad. I received $2.14 credit. We then spent just under $3 on drinks and received a coupon for $2 off the hair color product I buy with the receipt. Gotta love Target!

Snickers is sitting on his "roost" on the back of my chair as I'm typing. He's keeping my neck quite warm. He continues to make nice improvements.

Pyramids .... in Iowa?????

I ventured out on a solo geocaching / shopping adventure this afternoon. Out in the "middle of nowhere" I found this.

It was part of a "virtual cache". There are 3 pyramids on the edge of this rural cemetery. I also spotted a fox sitting in a pasture, however, it ran away when I slowed down to take a photo.

As I continued on my back roads journey I spied some train engines.

I used several coupons at Target today. I ended up saving $23.98. I think that's my personal best coupon experience. I also was able to find a wind proof/water proof jacket at 63% off. All in all, I'd call it a good day!

Big Shoes to Fill

After a cloudy start this morning, the blue skies prevailed at last. We drove to Pella for the annual Tulip Time celebration. We scouted out a cool spot out of the wind and planted our chairs between a huge tractor and a wagon full of spectators. The parade was complete with Dutch costumes, marching bands, awesome floats, and a martial arts entry complete with a broken leg. I didn't see it happen, but I did see a young man that landed on the ground after jumping to kick a board. His leg was bent between his knee and ankle. I was a bit squeamish at this sight. His fellow participants quickly picked him up and carried him away. Not sure if they should have moved him in such a manner. Within 10 minutes an ambulance was nearby and he was taken away for treatment. A few minutes later, we saw another ambulance picking up someone else. I bet the ER was busy today.

The Squirts each ate a corn dog and Cool Daddy-O and I had brats or Sinterclaas Sausages as they're called in Pella. For dessert we had funnel cakes and for a mid afternoon snack, the girls shared cotton candy.

After our snack, we set out on a 6 stage geocaching expedition. The clues took us to the stage on the town square, then to Central College, then to the VerMeer Mill (windmill), and finally toward Lake Red Rock. Cool Daddy-O spotted the cache and then gave the rest of us clues to find it. We found three other more simple caches today also. We found our first travel bug and will place it another cache soon to continue its travels. We found and logged our 21st cache today.

We enjoyed a delicious supper at Pizza Ranch in Pella. I think it's Big Squirt's favorite place to eat. She loves the chicken and mashed potatoes there.

The girls were asleep within a few minutes of hitting their pillows tonight. I think we'll all sleep well after spending the day in the fresh air.

A chilly, windy, fun day at the zoo

We were very glad we saw the outside exhibits at the zoo on Thursday. Friday was chilly with a brisk north wind. Cool Daddy-O took the girls to their favorite exhibits (Desert Dome and Kingdoms of the Night) while I spent time watching the gorillas and orangutans. I had a blast. I think the rest of the family had fun too.

One gorilla pulled a big stick out of the icy pond. He seemed to be having fun with it. Another gorilla was eating the ice he found. They had just been released into the outside part of the exhibit when I arrived. They were a lot of fun to watch. It seems they're performing at times and interact with visitors.


Here's Big Squirt posing with a shark in the aquarium.

Fun at the Zoo

We've gone west! We had a nice, fairly quiet journey and spent a couple hours at the Henry Doorly Zoo. We visited the zebras, sea lions, elephants, giraffes (in their winter enclosure), and watched some fairly active gorillas doing interesting stuff. We ate at a cool pizza place near our hotel and now the girls have jammies on and are getting ready for bed. Tomorrow, we're going back to the zoo for the day. We did the outside stuff today as the temps were in the 60's. Tomorrow we'll focus on the inside displays because it will be in the 40's outside. Fortunately, we'll be dodging the snowstorm this time.

Our original plan was to go to Minneapolis for the weekend. We'll do that some time when it's warmer outside.

Signing off from the Cornhusker State...