Things We Miss - Part 3 - PLACES

So I've written about some of our favorite businesses and events, now it is time for places. When we first moved to Iowa we weren't sure we'd find any "cool" places like you find in Colorado. Turns out we did find a few. I'm not sure if they are still there, with all the crazy flooding we were lucky enough to just miss out on, but here they are.

1. Nauvoo- Okay so this isn't even in Iowa, but we will never live so close to it again. We took full advantage of living so close to it by going there 5 times. We loved it. I've already blogged about that though.

2. The Bike Trail- My favorite place in Boone. There was a perfect 6 mile loop I loved to run. I rarely saw many people on it. It went through a gorgeous park and through some wooded areas. The foliage was so thick it was like running through a tunnel of trees. I saw deer there often. Good 'ol Drake and I had some good times on this trail.

3. The Ledges - Just 10 minutes away was the Ledges State Park, probably the prettiest place in all of Iowa. It actually had some impressive rock and curvatures in the land (okay so maybe not so impressive if the Colorado National Monument is your childhood playground, but amidst all the corn fields, it is pretty impressive.) It has a stream running through it that the girls' LOVED to play in more than anything. They would constantly beg to come here. It was the perfect depth for them to play in even at a very young age. We went there for summertime barbeques almost weekly. Sadly, I'm sure this place is all underwater right now. It will dry out though.

4. Kate Shelley Bridge, Des Moines River - We floated down this very shallow, slow moving river (usually) a couple times. Mostly girls' loved to play on the "beach" as we called it. It was fun to watch the trains go by overhead and sometimes the conductor would lean out and wave while blowing the big train whistles.

5. Mt. Pisgah - Click on the photo to learn what Mt. Pisgah is. We only went there once, but it was a very peaceful and special place. Many people died there and there are unmarked graves. We learned about "divining" and it really does work. When you walk over an area of land that has been messed with (like there is a grave there) the metal rods cross in your hands - it has to do with the earth's electromagnetic fields. That is what I am doing with the metal rods in the next picture. It is a little freaky, but totally cool. You can also see ruts in the ground where the wagons went by.

Those are some of the special places in Iowa we miss.

Just trying to keep up

Okay so I've not been the schwammie on blogging lately! I'd take a picture of the inside of my house to show you why, but that would be too embarrasing. Nothing is where it should be, including furniture. There are open boxes everywhere, "stuff" all over and toys sprinkled sporadically around the house to add to the chaos. The baby wants to be held ALL the time lately, if he is asleep my mischevious 2 year old decides to iron the carpet or some other crazy shenanigan and poor Miss B is neglected anyway what with her demanding younger siblings. I'm trying to say I haven't gotten very far with unpacking and it is driving me crazy. I'm craving some organization and it seems so far away still. Then there is the fact that I am so behind on some of the things I've been meaning to blog about. I want to finish up writing about our little Iowa then move on to more recent things. I will get around to it soon.

Home at last!

KC here. We're finally in our new home. It's been a long journey to get to this point but it's been worth it. It has been an emotional roller coaster. We're excited for the future and all the opportunities that it holds.

More Adventures

We've been having so much fun on our little "forced vacation" that I have to document these most recent adventures.

Cousins



Our kids love their cousins. Miss K LOVES cousin Megan. They have all been having a great time!

Circus




We really went to the circus to hear my nieces Cammie and Elise sing the national anthem at the beginning. That was awesome! The circus part wasn't so cool as I remember as a child, but the girls loved it, so it was a success.

JUCO



One of our favorite passtimes growing up was the annual Jr. College World Series. It was just as much fun as it ever was.

Future Vet Clinic



This is the location of KC's vision of a future vet clinic someday. Does anyone know where it is?

Cemetary



We were able to go to the cemetary on Memorial Day. It was a tradition in my family to go to the cemetary in the little town where my Dad grew up on Memorial Day. Now we go visit my Dad. It was good to be there.

And the best for last...

Coolest Hike Ever

When KC was a boy, the Colorado National Monument was his playground. One day after school he decided to go exploring and he discovered a natural land bridge. He hadn't been back until yesterday. He wanted to show it to me so we ventured out to see if we could find it again. We did! It was so much fun and probably one of the best things I have done in a long time. The best part: no trail, no traces of any other human being and just feeling like we were the only people in the world for a little while.

Check out the video, I'll post it soon.

Fun GJ Adventures

We've been taking full advantage of the fun things there are to do here in our old hometown (and on the way to it). Here is the run down.

Omaha Zoo We have gone to this zoo every year for Miss B's birthday. We love it! The girls love it too. My favorite is always the gorillas, Miss B liked the sharks, Miss K the giraffes, and KC the rhino.

Miss B a little unsure about that big rhino poo

Colorado Hiking We missed the mountains in Iowa and couldn't wait to get back into them as soon as possible. We spotted a collard lizard on our desert hike.





Dinosaur Journey in Fruita Miss B loved it, Miss K got scared and kept covering her ears so she wouldn't hear the roaring.

Moon Farm in Fruita This is such a unique place KC and I both remember from our childhoods. There are little huts and houses with different themes from all over the world, antique collections, pony rides and other quaint displays that all seems unchanged since we were young. The girls had a great time. Check out these natural riders we have here.

Mike the Headless Chicken Festival in Fruita Kind of a random thing KC was interested in doing. Yeah, there really was a Headless Chicken, his name was Mike and he lived in Fruita. Now there is a festival for him!

Hanging out with good friends. Loved this picture. Our friends blog describes it much better than I can. Check it out here.

Just for cuteness

Big Changes

So, there are a million things I need to blog about. I'll start with our 3 major changes then I'll tell you about our recent fun adventures. Next, I will finish up our 'Things we we will miss' series. Whew!

1. So first things first. Introducing, my hot doctor husband! He is so super awesome. I actually shed a tear or two when he graduated. I know all the hard work and dedication it took for him to get this far and I am so proud of him.

2. Goodbye Iowa. Okay, maybe another tear was shed. Iowa has been so good to us and we will miss it (we already do!). We've left behind some of the dearest friends, and that is hard.

Here is everything we own in the whole world right here. It may not be as organized as I would like it to be, but at least I know everything is in there.

I took this picture while driving the Camry, following KC in the moving truck. Going over our beloved Colorado mountains. We drove through a snow storm!

3. Miss B turned 4!! I am now the happy mother of a 4 year old, 2 year old and a baby. Doesn't that sound SO much easier than a 3 year old, 2 year old and a newborn? I think so! Life is going to be smooth sailing from here on out, right? We had a big birthday party with tons of cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Something we've never done before living so far away. It was a BLAST and Miss B loved it. She wanted a Giselle cake. Aunt Katie made it, isn't she so talented? It was so yummy too.

Stay tuned for an update about all the exciting adventures we've been having on our little Colorado vacation the past few days!

Craziness

KC here. It has been crazy around here. Graduation, packing, etc. Just thought I'd share a few pictures. Above you can see all of us with the Gentle Doctor statue. Below you can see where the 107 graduates of my class will be going.

Things We Will Miss - Part 2 - Events

1. The Iowa State Fair (America's Favorite Fair!!) We have gone to the Fair every year since 2003! It is so much FUN!! Seriously, the biggest, best fair ever.
Highlights include:

• High Divers
• Sea Lions/ Tiger shows
• Fried ANYTHING on a stick
• Enormous animals
• The art building - WOW
• llama shows
• horse shows
• famous butter cow (and last year a butter Harry Potter!)

2. Pufferbilly Days. Our town is very proud of their train heritage. Pufferbilly Days is like a week long party.


3. Endless Summer Parades. There are parades for everything out here. They all have a TON of candy too. So much that by the end of the parade, unopened candy litters the streets and nobody wants it!



4. The Iowa Caucus. It has been interesting to see the political process happening in Iowa. We get so much attention because of the early Caucus here. We met with Mitt Romney several times. Everyone on the political spectrum was here in our small town campaigning at some point. I suppose we won't really miss this that much, but it was neat to experience it as much as we did. Here's Miss K telling Governor Romney she is 1 year old.

Things We Will Miss - Part 1 - Commerce

This is Part 1 of a 5 part series about things we will miss when we move. Feel free to skip it, it is mostly written for our own remembrances.


1. The local library. It is small enough that the librarians know our children each by name, and sometimes when we go we are the only ones there, but big enough to have any book you could ever want, a fantastic storytime storyteller and a children's floor fully loaded with all the Thomas tables, lego tables, puppets, etc. that you could ever want. We have loved going there at least weekly, more frequently in the winter.













2. The Dutch Oven Bakery, here in town. It is the kind of place where you hear things like, "we'll just put it on your tab", or if the debit card machine isn't working, "don't worry about it, you can just pay it next time." There are always a group of old men or women there on Saturday mornings when we go. The small town feel is only part of why we love it. The other part is the cream cheese Danishes. Yes. Oh my goodness, awesome. KC goes for the pudding filled Long Johns, the girls like the apple fritters and chocolate donuts.











3. The fast food joint, Culver's. I'm not really a hamburger kind of girl, but I do love this place. Especially the frozen custard. Butter burgers are pretty good too. I guess we'll have In-n-out, but we went there and I didn't really get the hullaballoo. Shocking, I know.




4. And lastly for today, we will miss the local movie theatre. It's $3.00 per person, new movie every week (not old movies), and always family friendly (most of their business is the youth). The scary story about someone hanging themself inside it was slightly intruiging, but mostly just creepy. The perfect recipe for a hometown theatre.