Baby Border Hopping

With a wake-up temp below zero, I hit the road at 7:30 a.m. with one destination: SOUTH.

So maybe South is a stretch but I did end up in Iowa! Remember me crocheting that "Love's Baby Soft" blanket? Well today was the day to gift that to mother-to-be Hannah down in Sinsinawa, Wisconsin. Never heard of it? Me neither. Thank the lord for GPS that last half hour. Turns out we were "this close" to the Iowa border!

Spoiler alert for those who didn't have the insider intel: They're having a girl!

Random fact: Carter has lived with all three of these women – including the mom-to-be. To clarify: He and 2 other guys were roommates with Hannah (center), who is BFFs with his girlfriend Mamie, who has a friend Halayna (right) who is marrying Mamie's brother in May. Not confusing at all.

In a nutshell, they've all felt like extended family to Jim and me for years!

So it was nice to drive 3 hours to celebrate Hannah and Hunter's upcoming daughter. She loved the blanket, by the way.

 Then, after the shower, head down to Dubuque for a coffee date with Mamie, Halayna, and MY BOY!

We had coffee at Charlotte's where we had it maybe 5 years ago. Still tasty! But it was good to catch up with Carter and deliver a couple dozen cookies!

How do I get shorter every picture with him?

Anyway, I managed to get home safely before it was completely dark (encouraging) and in time to catch the "delayed" recap of Olympics coverage today. Worth it. 100%.

Wild Friday Nights

After reading this list, it makes sense that when Carter called tonight we were having a wild Friday night – sitting in our respective recliners, watching The Parent Trap. Because yes, we're 80 years old!

To be fair, he was just sitting home alone and catching up on his streaming TV shows. So... winter really cuts into the socializing, that's for sure! 

It was good to hear from him. His new year has been just as exciting as ours. Work and surviving winter. There a few fun things on the horizon anyway. And I hope weather cooperates.

They've gotten into the 40s down in Dubuque. I told him our high this next Monday is supposed to be -4! How can a 3-hour drive south be that much different? I guess moving south doesn't require a beach.

Two of my sisters are in Florida right now and it's predicted there could be snow in the northern parts. They're kind of in the middle. And hopefully that won't reach them. What a waste of time if you can't sit by the pool or hit the beach every day! Be nice, Mother Nature!

Alright, I better get back to my Friday night excitement. Be careful out there! 

Czech Out the New Windy City

Move over, Chicago. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, might have you beat as the Windy City!

We both took the day off and got down there in mid-afternoon. It was so windy we could actually hear it in our 4th-floor hotel room. If you closed your eyes, it sounded like ocean waves almost. All flags were definitely flying all of their colors.

We had only a few objectives to our trip. Meet up with Carter and Mamie for dinner, then all go to see Colin race at the historic Hawkeye Downs on Friday then check out the National Czech-Slovac Museum and GENEALOGY Library on Saturday. It turned into so much more.

We met up with the kids at Up in Smoke BBQ, which had a very similar (and delicious) vibe as the new place we checked out in Waupaca a few weeks ago. But they had some good, spicy sauces like Blueberry Habernaro and Chipotle BBQ. So tasty!

And by strange coincidence, the restaurant was located in the "Czech Village" which included the museum and genealogy library Jim (my partially Bohemian hubby) had already planned to visit Saturday. And lo and behold, there was a big Boho festival going on! So we were already excited to (accidentally) be here for this particular weekend.

From there, it was off to Hawkeye Downs, celebrating its 100th year. Mamie hadn't been to a stockcar-type race before so this was her very windy and cold introduction. 

She thought it was fun – even though we couldn't stop laughing at how absurd the wind was!

Plus, we got a precipitation delay that include a rainbow at the east end of the track!

To sum up the race experience...  Colin qualified 14th, finished 3rd in the heat race, and the feature was interesting. There was an accident on Turn 1 before Colin's feature where a car had issues and flew into the turn, taking out part of the fence, wall, then there were several accidents there the rest of the night. During his feature, Colin got hung in a wreck with 4 trucks on that same turn. Colin had to leave to the pits but got his truck literally taped up while they were cleaning up the mess. And got back to the race and even though he was in the back of the pack, he fought his way up to a 5th-place finish! It was pretty fun to watch!!

By the way, this was the temperature and "feels like" temp about an hour before Colin's race ended. Uff da!

This morning, we got down to the Czech Village so Jim could do some family tree research at the museum and I could watch the festival parade and shop all the vendors. Perfect situation!

Parade with lots of Bohemians in full costume.

Oh and the wind? Still here today obviously!

There was also chalk art going on. Very impressive.

When Jim was done, Carter met us so we could cross the river and head into New Bohemia.

Upon a museum worker recommendation to Jim, we went to the Little Bohemia restaurant.

After all, they have perfect Robyn-approved pun in "Czech us out."

My partially Bohemian husband and son ordered the ghoulash. They said it was very delicious!!

My Boho Boys before we left town.

We got home around 6:30 tonight and we're a bit exhausted. Lots of driving for Jim and lots of windy fresh air for us both! Too bad we both have to sing in our church choirs in the morning and can't sleep in. Guess that means I need to turn on my electric mattress pad and hit the hay soon! 

Home, Sweet (but Chilly) Home

 

My whirlwind of life in the past 13 days has finally come to a slow stop. And I am home, sweet home in Wisconsin Rapids. Though temps are a bit chilly compared to Iowa and Missouri! The photo above is what greeted my when I walked through the door yesterday at 12:40 p.m. (Thanks, hubby!) But then I had to work a half day and shoot and edit softball pictures. So I had no time for bloggage.

Last time we checked in it was Easter Sunday night. That evening my sisters and I decided we'd check out of our VRBO early enough on Monday that we could join a Clydesdale Tour at nearby Grant's Farm. So packed and gathered up the tons of snacks we didn't have time to eat and made our way there a little after 10 a.m.

It was amazing. Such unique history and interesting details about how and what it takes to be on the official "Budweiser Hitch." 

First of all, if you want to be the biggest guys on the hitch, you have to be 19 hands high (at the shoulder) and the others have to be 18. You see I'm a bit short of qualifying for the hitch.

The fun part was spending some up-close and personal time with a few of the horses. Raptor seemed to take a liking to my hairspray. I should tell my hair artist that the expensive hairspray she sold me does not hold up to Missouri winds (see any previous photo from this trip) or horse saliva. 

We also each got a chance to carefully groom WolfMan. And by careful I mean don't touch near his lower leg because if his foot goes up, it must come down. 

And based on this horseshoe size, we did not want a hoof connecting with our human hooves.

Got a group picture though so that was cool!

We hit the road after that with a destination of Cedar Rapids again. Since we did our side trips to Swedesburg and Hannibal on the way down, we didn't have too many pit stops to make. So we got to the "other" Rapids at 5:30 p.m. and were able to join the kids for dinner at Chili's next door at 5:45 p.m.

Although full from dinner, Carter and Mamie have a favorite frozen yogurt place that we somehow ended up at hours later. Yum!!

I left around 8 a.m. Tuesday morning so I could get home during my typical lunch hour and work a half day. Pretty much no traffic so it was a smooth "commute" home. I can tell you my alarm this morning was a rude awakening. But it was worth suffering through after such a nice long weekend with loved ones!

Tonight, though, may require an 8 p.m. bedtime just to catch up! Just gotta get through choir practice, then I'm off to bed!

New Beginnings

Pretty appropriate that our dinosaur-obsessed little boy got to drive a "dinosaur truck" from Bluejay Drive to his new home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 

Yup, he and Mamie arrived Friday night with the U-Haul and somehow got everything in there – including some of the big stuff (dining room table and chairs, coffee tables, etc.) that have stayed in our basement for the past two moves! We've got some space back!

Why Cedar Rapids? Well, just like their moves to Denver and Raleigh, they researched areas for things like quality of life and safety – and interesting things to do. This time, they also prioritized being able to comfortably afford the cost of living there. They've learned the hard way.

I'm just glad it's just a little over 4 hours away! Same as going Up North to see family. No biggie.

So while they moved south, I attended a dance recital at the Performing Arts Center in town. A couple of senior moms were paying me to go. And I saw a handful of other dancers I knew, too. Let's just say I took a thousand pictures and leave it at that.

From there, I went straight to Stevens Point to celebrate another new beginning – our friend Marigene's retirement party.

While Marigene is my golf partner, Dar is her real-life partner – and Jim and I just adore them both.

Looking forward to having her at my golfing beck and call during her retirement. Ha!

Stayed up super late editing dance photos and continued this morning. Pretty much a low-key day until our next new beginning for the summer: Couples Golf League at TriCity.

It's I think just a 6- or 7-week league so I'm glad our first opponents were our friends Craig and Sara. Fun to golf with people you know. There's like 22 couples signed up so there's a chance (even though between hubby and me we do know a lot of people) that we'll be playing against strangers (aka new friends) in the coming weeks. Should be fun!

Only thing is that we got home at 8 p.m. and I feel like the weekend was gone in a blink of any eye. 

I still gotta get that petition going to add a day between Sunday and Monday. Who's with me?!

Have a great week, everyone! 

Walking Tour

As promised, here are some pictures from the Dubuque river walk and some of the amazing and unique murals you may see while walking around town. Oh there's a ton more I missed, I'm sure. But we had ice cream and it was melting! Enjoy!

Julien Dubuque sounds like a French name but no France cities here??

No filter!

TV cameras. But we don't know why. Probably some Discover Iowa show. Ha.

And my favorite non-mural signs, of course...

It says "Field of Creams." We were in Iowa, after all!