Always Do The Crazy Things

 

Our crazy times in life make THE BEST memories. I fondly remember the year this Santa bought a large playhouse for her kids because it was on sale. She stored it in the backyard shed for two months. Then,  on Christmas Eve, once her elf was certain the kids were asleep, he went to get it to put it together and found the shed frozen shut! The craziness that ensued in the following hours are some of my favorite Christmas Even memories. As are every long road trip to do something random, 4 a.m. wake up calls during a pandemic to go star gazing, and this particular night we attempted to see the Northern Lights.

Seeing the aurora borealis has been on my bucket list for years. It's now on the middle mini's list as well. When we heard there was a chance of maybe seeing the lights on this clear night, we made our way to Whiterock Conservancy. After spending nap time that day reading about where we should go, we learned this is the place in Iowa for star gazing. We gathered all the info we could, made sure the skies would be clear, and at 9:30 p.m., well past bedtime, we drove over an hour.

It should come as no surprise that we didn't see the Norther Lights once we arrived (apparently, the lights never made it this far south), but we were able to do some superb constellation finding. We got magnificent views of the Milky Way, laughed as we stumbled around in the dark, and then realized that we were cold and needed in a snack...in the middle of nowhere. 

Since we got a late start, we stopped for coffees at a gas station. The dog cried because he could see Hubs in getting our coffee and then he cried because he didn't get anything.

At this point is was 11 p.m. I think we were all so tired, everything was funny. This one decided she wanted her blanket from the back of the car, but didn't want to put the seats down to get it. She crawled over, got stuck on the seats, and was failing around, shouting, "help me! Help me! My little legs are stuck!" My sides hurt from laughing so much.

The best selfie we could manage.

I didn't go to sleep until 2 a.m. and had to be up at 6 a.m. I was feeling rough, so I ordered donuts and coffees. Kids were happy, I was happy, and well caffeinated.

This was most definitely not our typical Wednesday night, but it might be one of my favorite ones we've ever had.

A Weekend of Trees

Spending a full Saturday in December outside feels like a full weekend! We spent the day in nature, hiking amongst the now bare trees, cutting down our Christmas tree at the tree farm, and spending our evening decorating it. A few years ago, we had the picturesque experience of cutting down our Christmas tree as it snowed. While that was all fine and dandy, and it's a memory that sticks out in the mini's minds, we really couldn't have asked for a better day this year! It was warm, but crisp. Sunny, but not enough to need sunscreen. 

We fueled up for our adventure with breakfast from Buzzard Billy's. I've always enjoyed the food at Buzzard Billy's, but this year (aka: during the pandemic), we've order from them about once a month. They have a great family meal bundle that we love. Their breakfast was just as good and decently priced. Our orders included mini donuts, chicken and waffles, two omelet breakfasts, and biscuits and gravy. All of it was wonderful and flavorful.

After breakfast, we bundled up and hiked at Banner Lakes at Summerset State Park. You may remember that we attempted to hike all of the trails there this spring and failed terribly (read about that here). This time around, we did the simple river trail, walked around one of the lakes (more of like a large pond), and climbed a few of the dirt hills along a trail. We were much more successful in our hiking endeavor this time around!

A certain dog broke the ice around the edge of the lake (by digging) and took himself for a dip. Then, we had to find grass for him to roll around in because he's certain that helps to dry him off, when, in fact, it just makes him dirty.

After hiking for a good long time, we drove to Walnut Ridge Tree Farm to pick out this year's Christmas tree. This is our yearly tree place, but we love it even more since it's one of the few that actually allow dogs! Zeus was thrilled to be there because he happened upon a turkey leg! I didn't know what it was until I reached down to get the "stick" out of his mouth and realized it had legs. Besides the turkey leg, it was a rather uneventful visit. We found our tree quickly, the boys took turns with the saw to cut it down, the youngest mini insisted on pulling the cart, but had issues with it. Nothing surprising. Afterward, we grabbed a late lunch from Funaro's Deli in Indianola, Ia and came home to eat and decorate the tree.

They just had to play with the tree sap....and then wondered why their fingers were sticky.

Apples and soda. They rarely get soda, or any other sugary beverage, but they got to pick out cans to have with their lunch. It took them the rest of the day to finish them up.

Sunday's are for preparing for the week ahead. It usually takes me a few hours to go over lesson plans, tweak lesson plans, print worksheets, oraganize everything, and hand it all out to the appropriate mini/group of kids. The hardest part of homeschooling/preschooling/virtual learning is being prepared and making sure I have everything needed. It's somewhat exhausting, but I tend to pile a lot of our big days at the beginning of the week, so that our end of the weeks are short and sweet.

This scene got me. I peaked into the youngest's room as she was getting ready for bed and saw she had laid out socks in case her feet got cold while she slept.