Let Winter Begin!

The cold weather seemed to come early this year - it's never a good thing when you hit sub zero temps in November! As winter wore on, our lives continued to be busy. Concerts, activities, clubs, work, birthdays, Christmas/Holidays, day trips. As I write this post, we turned the calendar to March, the sun is shining and the temps are in the mid 50°s. Spring is in the air!

Here is a snip-it of our activities through the winter months...

November started with a huge accomplishment - Maddie got her license! 

She was so excited to pick out the keychain that she would be using (from her vast collection!) 

We had the opportunity to listen to the Moline High School Symphonic Orchestra & Band perform some Broadway pieces. Simply said - amazing! Click on the videos below to listen to the pieces. Will played the bass trombone (back row). (included are pictures from a 1st concert that was held in October)

A few days after getting her license, Maddie and Kaitee drove out to see my parents for a surprise visit. 

It was a dreary, rainy day...so the girls picked up flowers to give to my mom.

Matt headed to the West side of Iowa for a couple of work stops. He came across this Lewis & Clark Memorial in Sioux City, IA. This particular monument is a memorial to Sgt. Floyd, who was the only member of the group to die during the expedition. He visited the monument as the sun was setting and commented on the serenity of the visit (overlooking the Missouri River). My grandparents lived in LeMars for most of my growing up years - I'm shocked that we drove by this monument and never stopped.

Kaitee had her fill of Broadway Musicals throughout the winter months, thanks to our local venues. One evening, she attended a Harry Potter movie with Will - the special thing with this event? The Quad City Symphony played all of the music during the movie. They both really enjoyed their evening.

A few days later, Matt & Maddie visited the Festival of Trees to attend her art display (she had 2 pieces of photography that were chosen for display).

Mid December - Celebrated my birthday at work with a yummy cake! We celebrated with extended family (at Spinner's Pizza) but no pictures were taken.

A special treat for Matt - Taco Bell brought back their Enchirito for a limited time. Evidently it was his all time favorite menu item from Taco Bell. He was so excited and *may* have over-indulged a bit during those couple of weeks. 

Maddie & Will - having some fun at work one evening...

 

We purchased tickets to attend two Iowa Hawkeye basketball games during their season - one in December, one in February. 

We headed to Iowa City early in the day. We planned to hit some of their Goodwill stores, grab lunch at Cheddars and then head to the basketball game. 

this is what typically happens during Matt's family selfies...

It was a fun game - Iowa beat SE Missouri State 106-75. Two of our favorite players had career highs that game too!

Basketball season continued with Pep Band for Will. He loves playing at the ball games!

Matt and I found out that one of our favorite restaurants (just across the street from our house) was closing on Christmas Eve. We were able to eat lunch there 2x before they closed their doors for good. This picture shows our sadness/disappointment. 

Just after Christmas, the girls & I headed to the Chicagoland area for some shopping and Lou Malnati's for dinner. 

We headed over to Mom & Dad's for dinner and cards one evening. Our time with them is always valuable (and not often enough).

We realized that we had a Saturday completely clear of commitments so we headed north along the river to shop at some Goodwills and eat lunch at Manny's. Will opted to stay home since he doesn't care for the shopping part of the day.

Maiden voyage for my KitchenAid Mixer - I made treats for the twins birthday (they took the cookie bars to work). I LOVE MY MIXER!!!

Maddie & I headed to my parents to help them set up their new computer. After working on that for a bit, we headed to Happy Joe's to grab a late dinner.

Maddie has set a goal to get out and walk every day. She has done a great job of sticking with the goal, thus far! Here she is with Matt - walking at Browning Field.

Just short of his 17th birthday...(1 day shy)...Will got his license! WooHoo!

I decided I would start working on puzzles since I got the large puzzle table. I've done a handful this winter and really enjoy doing them!

We heard that Will was going to be "Scoopie" the Culver's mascot at work one evening, so we had to stop to see him in action! 

Will was able to go to State with Moline for Chess. He was an alternate and was thrilled to go - he even got to play a few games throughout the weekend. Ironically, he played more Spikeball than Chess (which he loves to play!).

The first weekend in February, Matt & I drove to Indianapolis to drop off his old work truck at the Indy warehouse. It was a great weekend to get away together. The drive to Indy was quiet (we had to drive separate vehicles since his truck was staying in Indy). We hit a few Goodwill stores, shared great meals and visited a few parks, cemeteries to letterbox. It was a wonderful weekend with Matt!

Here was my view for 5 hours!

You know that you've crossed the border when you see firework buildings!

We delivered the old work truck to the warehouse and decided on Five Guys for lunch. We sent this selfie to the kids. A few of them weren't happy with our choice (they wanted to be there as well!). 

After shopping at a few Goodwill stores, we drove to Holliday Park and admired The Ruins (all the while, listening to the Iowa/Illinois basketball game - Iowa won a very close game!)

We stopped for a scoop of Graeter's Ice Cream - super yummy. 

After our ice cream treat, we drove downtown to see the Capital Building, Soldiers & Sailors Memorial and the Indiana War Memorial & Museum. 

We ended our day at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Yet more upset kiddos at home, LOL.

Sunday morning, we headed to Crown Hill Cemetery to hunt for some boxes. We ended up finding 11 boxes that morning! If you ever have a chance to visit this cemetery - stop and explore. It is a beautiful cemetery. 

This poignant statue is placed in the children's section of the cemetery. It really makes you stop, think and feel.

As we left Indy, we pulled into the Indianapolis Speedway to see the museum that is inside the race track. While neither of us are race fans, we loved seeing the speedway and are glad that we stopped, even if only to snap a few pictures. 

I took a screenshot of Google Maps to show that we were actually parked in the Speedway!

We hit the road for home, stopping in a few cities to shop their Goodwill stores (sadly, the stores were a bust for the weekend) and ate dinner at Tyroni's in Peoria. We sent this picture to the kids and they all knew...and were disappointed. It was the perfect ending to our weekend getaway. 

Valentine's Day Dinner - we have been celebrating Valentine's Day with a family dinner since the kids were old enough to eat solid food. As the kids have gotten older, it is harder to coordinate a time when everyone is home to eat a weekday dinner together. We rarely eat the dinner on Valentine's Day, this year was no different. We had a 30 minute window of time to eat dinner (everyone getting home from work and then out the door 30 minutes later for youth group). It was nice to sit down as a family and enjoy the time together. Nothing fancy (heart shaped pizza), sparkling grape juice, and Dairy Queen ice cream cake. 

At the end of February we attended the second Iowa basketball game (against Michigan State). It was a sold out Carver Hawkeye Arena and the game was AMAZING! Iowa was down 91-78 with 1:43 left in the game. Iowa ended up scoring 23 points in the last 1:43 to tie the score at 101 each! IT WAS NUTS!!!! Such a fun game to be at - one we won't forget soon! Maddie took the video at the end of the regulation play (just after Sandfort hit the 3 pointer to tie the game) and Matt's video was taken at the end of the overtime (when we won the game).

This ESPN statistic shows the probability of which team would win the game - at any given point in the game. Iowa had a large advantage throughout the first half and it slowly diminished over the second half. With 2:03 remaining in the game, Iowa had a .2% chance of winning the game. Crazy!!!

Matt & I finished out February by driving Kaitee to Chicago to see Les Mis. We dropped her off at The Cadillac Palace Theater and then drove to the northern suburbs for lunch and letterboxing. We did a lot of city driving (definitely not a fan). It was wonderful weather (proven by all of the shoppers on Michigan Avenue and out on the bike path along Lake Michigan) and we enjoyed our day together. After we picked up Kaitee (she LOVED the show), we headed home, stopping in Naperville for some Chicago deep dish pizza at Lou's. A great ending to our day.

Winter is starting to fade into Spring - some of my Spring flowers are starting to pop up! Spring Training is in full swing (see what I did there?!?), March Madness is about to kick off, the birds are singing in the morning, vacation planning has started, and the days are growing longer. Another few weeks and we will put the winter gear away for the year - always a wonderful thing!