A Night Out with Friends!

This past weekend I had a rare treat and went out to see a show with a group a friends. A night out! Wow!!

Scott was in CO skiing so I was dateless, but my good friend Gwyn came along with me. It was so super fun. I hope this is the first of many fun nights!

We started the night out at Americana, a really fun restaurant downtown. They had all sorts of fun drinks on their menu. I had my first Moscow Mule! I think part of the fun is that you get to drink it out of a cool copper mug. We also got their "small plates" for dinner, which are like appetizers you can eat for your meal. It was super yummy and I can't wait to go back, even though it is pretty rare I get to go out for dinner at a place other than McDonalds. :o) 

 The above photo is our proof that we actually made it out together without kids! The lights are really weird in the theater so that is why it turned out so blurry- but still nice to have the documentation! 

We saw Book of Mormon and it was really entertaining. I loved the music, energy and the dancing. I know people said it was shocking and yes, I knew what it was about but I was still pretty shocked. It took me a while to absorb it and now I think I am ready to start listening to the soundtrack again.

It was a fun night and I had a great time! Thanks again to my friend Skippy who organized it all- lets do it again soon!

Birthday Party!

 

We celebrated Michael's 3rd birthday with a family party on Saturday. It was really low key, with BBQ from our favorite joint (and family tradition--we have stopped there for a take out meal while bringing both boys home!) and homemade sides. Michael had a great time running around with his cousins and everyone else had a good time visiting with each other.  In hindsight, I maybe should have had some activities for people to do but I was amazed at myself for just getting invites out, my house cleaned, and food organized!

 

Michael was so funny when all eyes were on him during the singing of Happy Birthday! He's too cute! 

 

We had Scott's brother and sister's families stay with us Friday night and we got all the kids out to the park on a chilly Saturday morning. It was so fun to see them all playing together even though they are all different ages. It was a special weekend, for sure. 

 

Here's Scott's whole side of the family! I'm thinking this is going to end up on someone's Christmas card? I give props to my mother in law who seized the opportunity to take a picture while everyone was here and looking nice! (it is rare!)

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We also had a little birthday party for Michael's friends Thursday night at Jester Park. It was also a little chilly and I think we just caught the tail end of the nice fall weather, thankfully it wasn't raining. It is such a perfect setting and our favorite place to go. I wanted to have something for Michael but just couldn't justify spending lots of money to rent a place out. It was a really good time and turned out just how I envisioned it!

Michael had been talking for months about his birthday and everything he wanted to have with it- cake, candles, balloons, friends, presents so I just didn't want to let the poor guy down. We'd go to the grocery store and walk past the bakery and Michael would say, "Is that my birthday cake??" when he saw all the cakes in the display case.  I feel like this is such a sad time for me personally and I hope that Michael doesn't feel the same way too. I don't want him to go through his whole life never having a fun birthday celebration because his mom was too sad to throw him one. I did feel moments of sadness as I was preparing but I also think that working towards a small goal of something happy helped me push through some of those hard days before Trace's anniversary of his death. It was so nice to see all of our friends who came out after work on Thursday and all of our family on Saturday that it really warmed my heart and gave me energy to keep going. You guys are the best. :o)

Happy Birthday, big guy!

Cy-Hawk Game

Hi friends...welcome to the post where I declare my love for all things Cyclone football. :o)

We beat Iowa!!!!

Woot Woot!! We beat the Hawks!! Just like last year!!!

Okay...I think I have it out of my system.

I'm not sure if this is a critical flaw in my personality or if I just take rivalries too seriously but it feels so good to beat Iowa. It feels so good to win. I love waking up in the morning knowing that all is right in the world of in-state rivalries.

I'm not going to lie, the game was ugly. But an ugly win is still a win and that is beautiful.

We had an absolutely beautiful day and had so much fun. We went to the game with Scott's parents who also invited their friends and their sons. We all got along great and spent the morning noshing on awesome treats and brats, visiting and playing some killer bags.

 

We got to the stadium 62 minutes before kickoff and had a fun time just taking in the sights and watching the place fill up. Usually we are super late and miss pregame so we were proud of ourselves. I was worried about the crowds getting in to the stadium and I also wanted to limit my interaction with any Hawkeye fans so I think it was a good call. 

 

The band always wins!!

Seriously, the band did win this game. We were pretty close to them and could hear everything and they were lots of fun to watch. We are so far away from them at Jack Trice that we can't hear them very well. :o( I heard from lots of Hawk fans around us how great they sounded and how awesome it was we had so many tubas. :o) 

The band played at Muscatine High School the night before and we went to watch them. It was a blast! It was so neat to see a college band on a high school field up close. They had a lot of alums in the band...that is good recruiting for sure! It brought back lots of memories from my time in the ISUCF"V"MB.

 

 

Our good guys in white. 

 

A bright spot in a sea of black and gold. For reals-- take a look at these funny pictures: 

It was a great game! I loved at the end how the team went over to the band and sang the fight song with them. Good job, boys!!

Even better was just the fabulous day we had also. Nice weather, nice family, friends, food and FOOTBALL!!!

Go Cyclones!!

Friends Okoboji Weekend

I figure I better get this up before summer is unofficially over tomorrow...wow! I feel like with the start of school, the start of football season, and my mums blooming--we are in fall mode!! 

We headed up to Lake Okoboji for a weekend with friends-it ended up being a nice, centrally located meeting place for everyone. The accommodations were awesome and I give my husband huge props for getting everyone together and in the same place at the same time---no easy feat! 

The weather was cool and rainy so we didn't do a ton of boating but we had a good excuse to sit around and catch up with each other (except for the night that I laid down with Michael to put him to sleep and I didn't wake up till the next morning--I was tired!). We had lots of delicious meals all weekend, thanks to taking turns preparing and cooking the different meals. I just thought everything was perfect and I had a great, relaxing weekend. 

We hit up the historic Arnolds Park before heading home on Sunday. Michael had a blast with his new little friend! He is at such a fun age and he really loves "cardboards" (carnivals). When we arrived he was all excited because he thought grandma and grandpa were going to be there also since the last time we went to an amusement park they were there. He is so funny!

All the kids got along wonderfully and it was such a relief!! We had prepped Michael on how he needed to be a big boy and be good and my worries were totally unfounded because he did great. I am always worried when he is around younger kids but I think he has maybe turned a corner and played really nicely with the other kids. We brought along a little bag of matchbox cars and they were a hit. Luckily we had plenty to go around! 

 Here's the whole crew! We had people from Minneapolis, Mitchell, Kansas City, Des Moines, and Arizona. Pretty crazy, right? 

Thanks for the fun weekend guys! We can't wait to do it again next year. :o)