Hawkeye Basketball!

For my birthday, Matt & the kids gave me money to purchase tickets to an Iowa Hawkeye basketball game. I was super excited about going to a game since we hadn't been to one in a few years. 

We printed up their home schedule and narrowed it down to a few games to choose from. We found a day that worked for everyone (why not make a full day of it, right!), had all of the kids request the day off from work and purchased the tickets. 

Unfortunately, the game time (against Penn State) was TBA up until a few days before the game. We didn't know if it would be an afternoon or evening game. Not that it really mattered in the long run - just helped us to know how to plan our day.

We found out that tip-off was set for 3:00, so we hit the road around 9:00 - allowing us to do some shopping and eat lunch before heading to the game.

After lunch we headed to the Hancher Auditorium parking lot to catch a campus bus to Carver Hawkeye Arena. This service is a great one to utilize - free parking and minimal walking (esp in cold weather!). We pulled into the parking lot around 1:45 and waited for 10 minutes for the first bus to show up. We boarded (went from our warm van to the warm bus) and waited a few minutes for other passengers before heading to the arena. 

When I bought our tickets, the choices were very limited. It was hard to find a group of 6 seats together (even splitting us up within a few rows of each other). I was thrilled to find 6 seats together in the middle of a row. Even better - these seats were in the VERY LAST ROW!! Most people would question this, but not me. My uncle purchased his season tickets - every year - as the very last row in the arena! This meant that you had no one behind you AND you had quick access to concessions, bathrooms and the exit. Besides, there really aren't any bad seats in Carver Hawkeye Arena. 

When we exited the bus and headed in through the north doors, I stopped to look at our seat assignments. Section JJ. I looked up at the section in front of us...Section JJ! Sweet!!! This meant we would be one of the first ones out at the end of the game! 

We used the restroom, and found our seats. What a beautiful view!

I noticed "Hawkeye Elvis" down on the floor and half-joking asked if anyone wanted to get their picture with him. Kaitee and Alex piped up and said that they would like to! So, I sent Matt down with them to snap a picture. I love that my kids were willing to do this!

Holy Cow!! He's really tall!

Alex came back up to our seats, but Kaitee and Matt explored a bit. 

We took our family selfie and settled in to enjoy the pre-game festivities.

The Hawks played great and ended up winning the game 68-51 in front of a sold out crowd.  Here we are celebrating the win and clapping along to the Iowa Fight Song. 

We left the arena and got in line for the bus - luckily we were the last ones to board the first bus. They pack as many people onto the busses for the trip back to the parking lot. It is a bit crazy and not for the faint of heart or those who deal with personal space issues. That's was why it worked nicely to be the last ones on.

Once back at the van, we headed to dinner. We drove to Cheddars so that we could redeem our gift card (from the mess up on our order from the last visit). We didn't have to wait at all, which was really nice considering it was dinner time on a Saturday night! It was all in the timing though, as there was very little standing room in the lobby as we left the restaurant that evening.

What a wonderful day! We were so pleased with how well everything worked out - a great basketball game, wonderful food, the sun was shining and no snow was flying! We had fun shopping at the local Goodwill shops and we all had a wonderful time together.

Maybe in the near future we can look into Flex passes and go to multiple games. That would be a lot of fun!

What a wonderful birthday gift! Thank you to my family for giving this day to me!

Maddie & Will - Sweet 16!!

The twins are 16! How did that happen??

We celebrated with family the Sunday before their birthday (the 19th). Dinner and cake at Spinners Pizza, with family - a great way to celebrate!

Will loves turtles so we surprised him with a cute little turtle on his cookie cake.

Maddie's favorite movie is Up. They couldn't recreate the movie due to copyrights, but we asked them to put a bunch of balloons together and we printed a small picture of the house. The balloons were a bit bigger than I anticipated...but the idea is there!

Maddie had some issues with her candles...

On Wednesday, we started their birthday with Hurts Donuts. We put some candles in them and sang, before sending them to school. After youth group that evening, we sat down as a family so the twins could open their gifts. 

Will received 2 sets of Percy Jackson books, stickers for his laptop and water bottle, Swedish fish and a "Gone Fishing" t-shirt.

Maddie received a necklace, pair of earrings, a belt & sweater vest, a dvd, bag for her camera and a sweatshirt.

For the kids' Sweet 16, Matt & I give them a gift of an event - quality time spent together with them.

For Will, he loves fishing, outdoors (wildlife), hiking (most of the time) and camping. Matt & I decided that we would gift him a weekend of camping (most likely staying in a cabin) at a state park. We will find a park that has some great trails, a fishing pond or river and a fire pit (can't camp without s'mores, right!). His only request is going to location where there is a Bass Pro shop &/or Cabela's. He wants to get lost in those stores for a few hours!

We revealed their 16th birthday gift to them via an etch-a-sketch in their gift box. Unfortunately, Will's etch-a-sketch deleted a bit so we had to explain his gift to him. 

For Maddie, we debated on two trips. First trip would be a day (or two) of Goodwill shopping all around the area as well as eating at her favorite restaurants (most likely Lou Malnati's and Texas Roadhouse). We ended up choosing the second option - tickets to a worship concert (most likely Hillsong). To see her face as she read her Etch-a-Sketch...I knew that we made the right choice! 

Now the planning begins for a camping trip (Will), a worship concert (Maddie) and a weekend of shopping (Alex - yes, we still need to celebrate Alex, 2 years later!). 

The big milestone with 16th birthdays is driving. Due to scheduling conflicts with the school, both twins didn't get in to the driving program until 2nd semester. Unfortunately, this means that they won't receive their license until November. Until that time, we (by "we", I mean Matt!) will be doing lots of practice driving with them as they work towards their 50 hours of permit driving. Here are some pictures of their first day driving on the school practice range with Matt.

Happy 16th birthday, Twinsees! We love you and are so excited to see what this 16th year has in store for you!