Catch Up Time

It always boggles my mind that time can pass by so quickly. I feel like I just updated this blog but to my surprise it has been 3 weeks. I guess time flies when you are having fun, right??

Field Work Began then came to a grinding stop
The guys got the fields cultivated, liquid end put on and most of the corn planted until we were drenched with 3 inches of rain. It keeps raining on and off so they haven't been back to the fields yet. BUT as I type Ben is out there trying to rework a field so maybe they will be back in business tomorrow. They need to finish a couple hundred acres of corn then onto soybeans.





My First Weekend Away
I took my first little weekend trip by myself since Ryan was born 4.5 years ago. Myself, Jenn, my friend Julie, Julie's sister and Julie's mom enjoyed 3 days of scrapbooking at a Bed & Breakfast in Blue Earth, MN. I managed to get 8 or 9 pages done. Almost done with Ryan's 1 year old album. Only 3 more years to go. I think I need many more scrapbooking weekends. I had a really great time!

Here is Jenn! The photo of me scrapbooking is to dark to post.

Are you wondering how Ben and Ryan did for the whole weekend while I scrapbooked? They did great and everyone survived but this is the new toy that was purchased while mama was gone.....I wonder why they waited until I was out of town??



I have to admit, Ryan does a really good job driving his new go-kart. He hasn't hit anything yet and it is really hard to tip over since it is so low to the ground. I don't know how a 4 year old can drive so well plus manage the accelerator and brake.



Soccer
Ryan is playing spring soccer. The game has finally clicked for him. He is doing GREAT since figuring out how the game is supposed to be played. On Monday he scored 5 goals and Thursday he scored 3 goals. Very proud of him. It is fun to watch his focus and determination on the field.



Girls Only
A few of my fellow moms and I went to the Girls Only show last week. It was pretty funny. I laughed through the whole show. I truly enjoyed hanging out with these girls. It was a nice night.


Last Preschool Fieldtrip
I was able to go with Ryan on his last preschool fieldtrip. We went on a nature hike at McFarland Park in Ames. What made it more interesting for me is that the hike was guided by naturalist so I learned a few little things here and there. One of my favorite fieldtrips. Two more weeks of preschool then off for the summer. Next year.....kindergarten.

Ryan is in the front row with an orange coat on. They are listening to the naturalist.

Happy Mother's Day
We had a nice day. I made cinnamon rolls and we took them over to Ben's mom this morning. This afternoon we went and toured the new USDA building in Ames (along the interstate). Donna's department will be moving to the new building this summer. It is BIG and will be a nice place to work. After the tour we went to visit Ben's grandma. A great visit to end a nice day. I love being a mom.

Spring Time Fun

While we were in Colorado at the end March, one of Grandpa's mares had a filly. Here she is meeting Ryan.


Our chicks arrived, all 220 of them. We have 200 meat birds and 20 hens. They are so cute when they are little. They are now a little over 3 weeks old and getting fat. Not so cute anymore. Ryan does a great job choring them with a bit of help from mom or dad. Teaching responsibility early.

Ryan is dipping their beaks in water as we put them in the brooder for the first time

I took a cake decorating class in the beginning of April. It was a great creative outlet. I learned several new techniques. Looking forward to trying another cake and being more creative. The instructor wouldn't give us her cake or frosting recipes....bummer. I have to find good recipes now. This is the final product. Very basic, didn't want to over do it the first time.


Michael, Lynn and Colt happened to be home the weekend of their birthdays and my cake decorating class so we used my cake as their birthday cake. Ryan put the candles on....

Then we got 6 inches of snow. IN APRIL! I was not happy to see it snowing outside. Good thing the snow didn't stick around very long.


AAAHH, EASTER!
Ryan and I hosted an Easter Egg Hunt at our house. We were blessed with wonderful weather. We were able to be outside all morning. It was a GREAT day all around.

The Easter Bunny stopped by to hand out eggs to the kids.

Eating lunch with friends

I bought this bouncer at the end of summer on clearance. It was the first time we were able to use it. I think the kids liked it.

After our Easter Egg Hunt we headed to Washington for the weekend. We ran out of time to dye eggs at home so we did it at Grandma Mardi and Grandpa Randy's house.

Ryan's Easter Basket

What is this??? TWO Easter bunnies came to grandma and grandpa's house. Those Easter bunnies wouldn't come close to us......

so Ryan and cousin Myles chased after them. Those boys chased the bunnies for a long time.

hunting for eggs

wow!

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids minus one.

Ryan, Myles and Izzy

Little Chase was in the house, it was pretty windy out

While we were in Washington, myself along with Mardi, my grandma and my aunt hosted a baby shower for my cousin Wendy and her little boy, Jack. It was nice to visit with everyone.

Cute picture! Jack and Izzy sitting with my dads cousin, Diane.

Colorado

Yep, we took two trips in March. Ryan is a great little traveler.
Donna, Ryan and I had to go get our Colt fix. He is changing so fast. We headed to CO!

Highlights: photos will be in a slideshow at the end.

Bailey Yard in North Platte, NE

We made a pit stop in North Platte. This rail yard is pretty cool. More interesting then I thought it would be. The visitor center is called The Golden Spike Tower. You can go up in the tower and view the happenings within the yard. If you are or have a train enthusiast in the family it is worth stopping at.

Here is the description from the Union Pacific website:

Union Pacific Railroad's Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska, is the largest railroad classification yard in the world. This massive yard covers 2,850 acres, reaching a total length of eight miles. Every 24 hours, Bailey Yard handles 10,000 railroad cars. Of those, 3,000 are sorted daily in the yard's eastward and westward yards, nicknamed "hump" yards. Using a mound cresting 34 feet for eastbound trains and 20.1 feet for those heading west, these two hump yards allow four cars a minute to roll gently into any of 114 "bowl" tracks where they become part of trains headed for dozens of destinations.

Hiking the Catamount Trail near Green Mt Falls

The first morning we were there Lynn wanted to go on a little hike. Supposely an easy enough hike for a 4.5 year old to handle. So we say "sure". Hahaha. Holy smokes, I didn't know if this 29 year old was going to make it. It was only about a mile up to the falls but it was steep. It wasn't so much the physical strain, my lungs were burning. I had not aclamated to the thin air of 7800+ feet above sea level yet. I kept telling myself "this is great excerise, this is great excerise." We made it and it was a great hike. Love being outside.

The Cog Railway

In 2007 and 2008 we drove up to the top of Pikes Peak so this time we decided to experience the Cog Railway up to 14,000 ft. It was a nice relaxing way to travel up a mountain. Beautiful scenery. Ryan enjoyed riding a train. There was not as much snow at the top as I thought there would be this time of year but it was -10 windchill with very high winds. BBBRRRRR! It was awesome weather at the base of the mountain, 75 degrees. So we walked around a cute historic town, Manitou Springs. This is where Donna found the chaps for Ryan.

We spent the rest of the week hanging out at Lynn and Michael's house. We celebrated Colt's 1st birthday even though it isn't until May 1. We wanted to see him open his gifts. He was on the verge of walking so that was fun to watch. Brings back memories of Ryan learning to walk.

We also took Ryan to his first wave pool. He wasn't too impressed. He would much rather swim in calm water. He took a couple BIG gulps of water in the wave pool. He loved the lazy river. It had a strong current so we just moved right along.

Sandhill Cranes
On the way too and from Colorado we marveled at a magnificent sight. Hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes along the Platte River in central Nebraska. I have never seen anything like it. The birds were on migration from the southern TX area to as far north as Canada. During their migration they make a six week stop in NE. During the day they feed in the cornfields then at night they fly back to the river. The fields were FULL of these big birds. Here is a nice article about the Sandhill Crane migration through NE if you are interested.

**This is not my photo** Taken from the internet. The next are mine.

We had a wonderful trip. Can't wait to go back in July.

Ben was in TX wild boar hunting while we were in CO. I have to ask my dad if he has photos that I can post from their trip.

Alabama

I am lovin it!! Basically I am just lovin the warm weather and sunshine...boy does it boost moral.

I am really tired so I am just going to give you a quick rundown of events plus some pictures. The reason for coming down to AL was to see family. Had a good time visiting them and everyone is doing well.

The first thing we experienced was Alligator Alley. Yep, that is right, 2o0 alligators in one place. It was neat though. All the alligators live in a fenced yet natural swamp environment. Ryan must have really liked it because he told every person who we ran into (the hotel receptionist, people in the elevator, waitress at the restaurant) about holding an alligator.

Ryan and Kali (my cousins little girl) at Alligator Alley

Ry's favorite part, holding a baby alligator

On to playing with a python

I got in on the fun

Feeding of an adult alligator....yikes. Glad there is a fence between him and me.

We went to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo too but it is a small little zoo. Ryan could feed some of the animals but most of the animals were being lazy so I didn't take many photos. I wanted to take Ryan Adventure Mini Golfing but that didn't happen because he didn't want to leave the beach.

Our family that we were visiting live a few miles from the coast but I had to take the opportunity to stay right on the beach. Ryan and I stayed in a hotel on the Gulf of Mexico. We literally walked out our door onto the beach. I don't know who enjoyed themselves more, me or Ry. We hung out on the beach for several hours every day and I still had to drag Ryan back to the room at supper time.

This is what Ryan did with the majority of his time on the beach. He would race waves into shore. He says his favorite part of the beach was when I took him out to deep water and the waves would knock him over. Just about knocked me over a couple time too.

Bad mom, I bribed Ryan into stopping at the Outlet Mall. I told him we could go to Lambert's (the place where they throw really yummy hot rolls across the room and you have to catch them) if we stopped at the mall first. I am so glad we stopped. I found rack after rack of $1.99, $2.99 and $5.99 clothes. Since Alabama's winter temps are long gone all their winter clothes were on major clearance. I bought Ryan a lot of clothing for next winter.

Sad to go back to cold Iowa weather but looking forward to being home again. We miss Ben too.

A weekend of Basketball **EDITED to add more info**

I never would have guessed that I would be watching 6 basketball games last weekend but I did.

My little cousin, Payton (and her family) traveled up to Ankeny from southern Missouri so she could play in a basketball tournament. Payton is on the Missouri Valley Magic basketball team. I knew Payton was a very talented athlete but she rocked this basketball tournament. It was really fun to watch her play.

Her team played two games on Saturday night, won a game and lost a game. Ryan and I both went to these games plus many family members. I think Ryan enjoyed watching a basketball game. Afterward, we all went out to eat and got to visit a little bit.

On Sunday, Payton's first game started at 8am, they would continue playing games until they lost. I woke up not feeling well but I knew I could make it through the 8am game so I headed back down to Ankeny. Well I didn't back home until 4pm. Her team won the 8am game, won the 10am game, won the 12pm game and were heading into the championship game at 2pm. Of course, I was not going home with all the excitement in the air. So glad I stayed......THEY WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. It was an awesome nail-biting game too. Not only did Payton's team win the tournament, Payton received MVP of the tournament. I couldn't be more proud of that little girl. We had 22 family and friends attend her games throughout the weekend. She picked the perfect time to shine! Payton has the dedication and determination to be star, she is going to do big things in her life. I am privileged to be one of her biggest fans as she takes this journey.

Down the court with no one around

Family in the bleachers

Ryan and his great grandma

So Payton went home with a plaque and I went home sick. Still battling the bad headache and cough. Had a good weekend though.

***here is the newspaper article that was prepared*** A much more elegant review compared to my mumbo jumbo.

Local 4th grader is MVP on State Championship Missouri Valley Magic basketball team

* - removed last names

Ten-year-old Payton * (front row far right #4), daughter of Pat and Jeff * of West Plains, Mo., is a member of the Missouri Valley Magic, an AAU club based in Springfield, Mo. The girls on the team are from all over south west Missouri. Payton is a shooting guard on the team that won the Iowa State Championship 4th Grade tournament in Des Moines, Iowa the weekend of February 28 and March 1. They played two games on Saturday and four games on Sunday winning the Championship game 35-32 on a last second three point shot against the two-time defending Iowa State Champions. During the tournament, Payton was the team’s leading scorer and lead the tournament in steals. She was voted the Most Valuable Player and to the All Tournament Team by the opposing coaches. The Magic will play about 65 games this year over the central United States with the goal of qualifying for the National Championship tournament in June. Payton is a 4th grade student at West Plains Elementary. Pat * and Jeff * were both raised in and around Washington and graduated from Washington High School. Payton’s Grandparents include Eileen and Harold * of Washington and Sue and John * of Brighton.