George Strait-April Date Night

Way back in November, John and I decided right before tickets went on sale to get tickets for George Strait.  We figured it would be a wonderful date night idea.  So we got tickets for just the two of us.  Not long after, we discovered that there was a bunch of us that all got separate tickets so we decided to all ride down together.  We wanted to get a limo but it was going to be too expensive for the amount of time actually using the limo so we ended up renting a 15 passenger van and hired some friends to drive us and pick us up!  It was the perfect arrangement.  

The crew!  

Me and my honey :)  I just love this guy

Our seats were decent.  Not on the floor but in one of the first few rows of the 100 Level.  The concert overall was okay.  It was his farewell tour and was happy that we went since I have always wanted to see him.  Ronnie Dunn (from Brooks and Dunn) was his opener and I really enjoyed that part because I knew all the songs.  With George he has so many older songs that I think I only recognized like half of them.  I think I was mainly dissapointed because he didn't sing "I Cross My Heart" which is John and my wedding song (and it inscribed in his wedding band).  Oh and when he came back on for his encore he sang a song that really isn't well known and the crowd totally died down.  So I guess that is my honest review of his performance.  Super glad we went, had an awesome time, loved spending time with my honey as well as our friends and was happy to finally see this guy in concert! 

Odds and Ends

Just some random thoughts I have been having these days

1.  The House Situation
Well our wonderful home has been on the market for a whole week now.  We have had four showings and another one tomorrow.  Not great but no too bad. We have had a lot of positive feedback.  The negative stuff is "the yard is on the small side" - which is true (one of the reasons I like the new house) and for the older couple who viewed the home wasn't much a fan of the stairs (it is a split level home which means stairs are included).  Those two negatives are things completely out of my control.

Elsie on the front porch of the "new"house.

One of the best things about having the house on the market is that we are staying on top of the house work and the house is pretty much picked up and pretty clear of clutter which makes me so happy! We listed that we only needed 2 hours notice for a showing-I didn't want to miss any opportunities because I wasn't ready. So now I leave in the morning with the dishes done, everything piked up and put away, and the floor swept/vacuumed.  In fact, John and I now make our bed every morning.  I just love crawling into a made bed each night! So a clean house makes me happy.

When we put the house on the market I was so worried about someone wanting to see the house after we put Elsie to bed.  The though never crossed my mind that someone would want to see the house during nap time.  Well yesterday that was the case.  So Elsie and I went to Ankeny (30 minutes) away and I knew she would fall asleep so I just sat in the car and read until she woke up and hour and a half later.  Crisis averted!

2.  Books on My Nightstand
I wish I had more time to read.  I feel like I have so many books started but none finished.  Here is what I have been reading or plan to read.

• Outliers: I picked this book for last months Non-Fiction Book Club.  It was really good and really intersting.  It was a pretty quick read.  At least when I was into it.  I flew through the beginning and then crawled through the second quarter of the book.  Then flew through the rest.   I definitely recommend this book if you are looking for soemthing in the non-fiction department.
•  Little Bee:  This is the new book chosen for this upcoming regular book club.  We chose it because it happen to be on a list that I pinned on Pinterest.  Looks and sounds interesting.  Can't wait to start it. 
• Peace is Every Step:  This is this months pick for non-fiction book club.  This is  a super quick read.  I am already half way through it and I have only picked it up to read once.  
• Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence:  I haven't opened this one yet since I have eight weeks before our little puppy comes to live with us (it's still not born yet) but am looking forward to getting some good tips. 
• 7:  An Experimental Mutiny Again Excess:  I am really anxious to start this one but I figured I should get through some of the others first.  

3.  So Over Summer

Even before this week and was really looking forward to fall.  I just love this time of year (beside the fact that it is SUPER busy at work and John is practically non-existent).  But now that we have hit this heat wave and am SO looking forward to cooler weather.  This week has just been no fun.  We dot' play outside because it is so hot and disgusting out which means Elsie and I are both getting restless being inside all day long.  I hope this fall is beautiful with 50, 60 and the occasional 70 degree days.  I can't wait to be able to run in the evenings because right now it just isn't happening.  At least next week it is only supposed to be the eighties vs. nineties.  As you can see from the picture even Elsie is ready for cooler weather.

4.  When They Get Quiet, Start Worrying

The other night I was making dinner and I knew Elsie was right around the corner on the other side of the peninsula in the kitchen.  I saw she was going for my purse but didn't really even think there was anything in but my wallet and keys.  Boy was I wrong.  I heard her get really quiet but thought she was just concentrating on taking the stuff out of my wallet and then putting it back in.  Once again I was wrong.  A minute later I peek around the corner and found her covered in lipstick with her paci in.  I had no idea either of those things were in my purse.  Let's me honest, I never wear lipstick so I am not sure what it was doing in my purse :).  All I could do was laugh!





  



5.  Mornings typically go pretty smooth around our house, mainly because of this guy.  John is so great in the mornings.  He gets up and showers, then if Elsie is awake he will get her out of bed, change her diaper, and get her dressed for the day.  Then they head downstairs where John makes her eggs and fruit every morning.  Then he makes him and me egg sandwiches and his lunch and occasionally my lunch.  It is so nice because then I can get ready without having to worry about that and get us all out the door by 7:15 am.


6.  Back in July I took this picture of Elsie and Allie on this rocking horse.  Well, this past week I was looking through some old photo albums of my parents and came across one of my sister and I on the same horse.  Just a fun/neat comparison.  I bet we are similar in age too. 

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

August Date Night-Iowa State Fair and Dierks Bentley Concert

Two weekends ago John and I spent the afternoon and night at the Iowa State Fair for our date night.  We aren't huge fair people, although this will probably change now that we have a child but up until this point, we only go to the fair when we have a concert at night.  Lets look back a little at the previous years...

2007-No Fair-we were getting married

2008- No Fair-No Excuse :)

2009-State Fair with the our good friends Adam and Ruth and Marc and Amber.  We had tickets to go see Gary Allan!  

2010-State Fair with our good friends RAndi and Joe and Marc and Amber.  We had tickets to go see Sugarland

2011-No fair-I had tickets to see Sugarland but they ended up cancelling the concert because the night before they had that big storm in Indiana and their stage/set collapsed.  We did end up going to the Minnesota State Fair with my family that year instead. 

2012-No Fair

2013-Well here we are this year.  We had a great time walking around the fair and enjoying one of the best concerts ever! 

The one thing I look forward to enjoying the most is "Pork Chop on a Stick"  It seriously is the best ever!  I had a pork chop on-a-stick at the MN State Fair and it definitely did not compare the ones at the Iowa State Fair-so it was the first thing we did when we got there. 

After that we spent some time in the Craft Beer Tent sampling a variety of yummy beer.  

I loved the little 5oz cups :)  Then off to check out the "Biggest Bull". 

Then on to the "Biggest Boar"

We ate some more food including:  Ribbon Taters, Deep Fried Pickle Dogs, Mini Donuts, Corn Dog, Lemonade, and Bacon-wrapped Smokies on a Stick (which were terrible and we agreed was the worst decision we made). John also got some ice cream in Ag Building. 

Also in the Ag Building we visited we had to visit the butter sculptures.  This year it highlighted the 100th Anniversary of Lincoln Highway-if you remember from my trip to Idaho we live along the Lincoln Highway and I love learning about the history of it.  

And of course the classic "Butter Cow"

We also came across this window display which immediately reminded us of Elsie-She is obsessed with peppers right now and will go to the fridge begging for "peppas".  I think if she saw this she would go nuts :)

We walked around for a little bit more before heading to the Grandstand for the concert!  

I was so excited for our concert.  I know I mentioned this before but we had AWESOME seats.  We were in Row 1 center stage in the Grandstand.  So yes there were all the seats on the floor but we had a clear line straight to the performer.  Nothing obstructing our view.  We also had 4-5 feet in front of us between our seats and the little fence which means I had plenty of room to dance ;)

Although I was excited for the concert I was excited to be spending time with John :)  I just love our monthly date nights.  

The opening act was Justin Moore and he was REALLY good too!  Definitely enjoyed his performance. 

The out came Dierks.  It was such a good show!  So much fun and of course he know how to entertain the crowd!  I never sat down and never stopped moving!  

I just had to take a pic of this.  During his perfomance of "Home" he asked everyone to take out their phones and light them up.  The whole grandstand was lit up! 

I was so sad when it was all over.  I will seriosuly see him again the next time he comes around.  Hopefully, that will be sooner than later.  

Our Weekend-Not as We Planned

Well once again, our weekend did not go even close to how we planned.  We spent most of last week grocery shopping, packing, and making food as we prepared to go to a cabin in Wisconsin with some of my friends from high school.  We both took Friday off so we could leave early and head north and getting up there in the early afternoon.  Well, Thursday night when I got home from the Taylor Swift concert John told me he thought Elsie felt warm.  So I ended up getting her out of bed, changing her pajamas (I had laid out a set with pants) and taking her temp.  Sure enough she had a fever :-(.  This made me pretty bummed out.  I kept going through difference scenarios through my mind about how we could still end up going up to the cabin.  In the morning when she woke up we took her temp again and once again it was high.  She maintained a fever throughout the entire day on Friday which mean our weekend plans were officially spoiled.  SO SO SO bummed.  Especially because I don't get to see this group of friends as often as I would like.  Oh I did find out that a couple other kiddos at daycare were sick with fevers over the weekend something was going around.  

So this is pretty much what our Friday looked like.  Elsie slept and snuggled a lot!  We even took a nap together in my bed because she did not want to sleep in her crib-not like her at all!  Oh and we watched a lot of "Mouse" aka Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  I was a little productive with the day though.  I sorted through all of Elsie's 2T clothes and washed up the fall/winter clothes and got them in her closet ready for the fall.  

Saturday was another day of cleaning and organizing. Because Elsie was feeling better and didn't have a fever we got out of the house a little in the morning and went to Hobby Lobby to get some supplies to make Piper's birthday banner and find some replacement glass for a frame I broke.  

The best day of the weekend was definitely Sunday.  All summer we have talked about biking on the High Trestle Trail.  We originally planned to bike it on Memorial Day but that is when we were all sick.  So we jumped on the opportunity of our newly cleared schedule.  We were out the door just shortly after 7:30 AM (the positives of having and early rise) and met John's parents for breakfast.  After breakfast we drove over to Madrid and caught the trail there.  It was such a beautiful morning.  We all stated out in long sleeves but peeled off a layer halfway through.  I was a little nervous to see how Elsie would do since the last time we biked didn't go well (at St. Croix State Park) but my fingers were crossed because this is a relatively new trail.  

This trail opened in April of 2011.  It is a 25 mile trail and is designed to hook up to other trails to create two 100 mile loops that goes through central Iowa.  It is built on a former railroad bed that was operated by Union Pacific.  The bridge that this trail was named for is a 1/2  mile  long bridge that crosses the Des Moines River Valley.  It is 13 stories high and is one of the highest trail bridges in the world!  Right here in Central Iowa :)

The bridge was about 2.5 miles from Madrid so we stopped and took a few photos. 

After our fist stop we continued on to Woodward which was another 2.6 miles.  Once in Woodward, we turned around and headed back towards Madrid.  We contemplated biking to the Creamery but it was another 2.5 miles each way and didn't want to press our luck with Elsie.  She was doing soooo good in the bike trailer.  On our way back we stopped before crossing back over the bridge at a little picnic area to have a snack and take some more pictures. 

Apparently, these two 42' tall towers are representative of the bands of coal found in the limestone in the area.  And the metal squares on the bridge represent the support cribs in the historic coal mines. 

The river is so low right now.  Barely tricking by under the bridge.  

We got back to the truck shortly before noon.  It was such a great morning!  So relaxing and the trail was beautiful!  

After biking I had planned to run down to Des Moines to do some returns and pick up Elsie's 18 month photos.  Well at the last minute we decided to go as a family which was a perfect choice.  We headed down to Jordan Creek, made our returns in the mall and then walked around the little "LAke".  Elsie loved looking at the ducks and geese.  We ended up eating a late lunch (2:30PM) at a yummy Italian place called "Bravo"  I had a delicious salad, soup, and a raspberry mojito which was delicious!!!  We sat outside on the patio and it was so relaxing.  Then we did a little more shopping, bought some new bedding for our bedroom and headed home.  It was just before 6:00 PM when we pulled in the drive-what a long, wonderful day out and about.  

Although I was bummed about the weekend and how our plans were spoiled, Sunday turned out to be perfect! :)

Our June Date Night-I Mean Date Day

On Saturday June 1st, John and I spent literally the entire day together!  It was so nice.  John and Elsie came with to my race in Des Moines, we went to look at a camper-too beat up inside to consider, and then made our way home where John's mom took over watching Elsie while we cleaned up and got ready to leave again.  John and I were taking off to Madison County, IA to check out a winery we hadn't been to yet, cleverly named Madison County Winery.  It was about an hour driver there but was really nice to just sit and chat a little bit (which is the whole purpose of these monthly dates right?).  When we arrived we saw that there was a party bus with a bachelorette party.  Thankfully, they had already done the tasting so they were just lounging outside enjoying some wine.

We had the option to sample 5 wines for free or pay like $2 for all of them...of course we did all of them and also ordered the cheese plate with yummy Havarti and Smoke Gouda cheese. Oh it was so good.  The wine was okay.  I would have to say that there are some wineries we go to where I want to get a bottle of all of them but this place I was very content walking away with one bottle to take home and that was the "Strawberry Blonde".  I ended up getting a glass to sit outside and drink as enjoyed our cheese and John got one of the beers (they also are a brewery but I didn't get to trying any of them because the wine was enough ;).

As we were finishing up our tasting another party bus showed up with another bachelorette party so it was nice to get out of the building and sit outside.

After enjoying our wine, beer, and cheese we stopped at one of the famous "Bridges of Madison County."  At one time there were 19 bridges but now only six remain.  The ones we stopped at was the Imes Bridge which is the oldest bridge built in 1870 and then renovated in 1997.

After the stop at the bridge we made our way to one of our favorite restaraunts:  The Big Steer where we met up with some friends Marc, Amber, Darren and Kari.  We have made it an annual tradition to get to The Big Steer at least once a year for as long as I can remember.  The food as always was delicious and we made it there early so they didn't sell out of prime rib before we could get it (that happened once and it was horrible! haha).  After dinner we had plans to check out the horse races at the racetrack but I was not dressed for the weather and it was really chilly!  So we headed inside to the casino, played a few slots, and hung out.  

It was such a great day with John and of course with our friends we met up with later in the evening!  

Happy Birthday John!

On June 8th, John celebrated his 35th birthday!  We had such a wonderful day at the zoo and then in the evening we grilled out at my parents and had some friends over for cake and a campfire.  It was a nice relaxing evening and I hope John enjoyed the day as much as I did.

Couldn't resist this photo opportunity :)

I am so happy to be spending another birthday with this guy! He is an amazing husband and a wonderful daddy!  

Elsie is so lucky to have a daddy like John.  No one can make her laugh like he can!  

He even shares his birthday cake with her :)

I absolutely love watching him with her.  I sure snagged a wonderful husband and partner. 

I hope your 35th year is as good as the last!  I Love you John and Happy Birthday!