September 2015

Well... We started off the month sick, and we ended the month sick again - but in between?  September was a great month for us filled with adventure!

The biggest of which was probably our trip to College Station!  The last time I had been back to A&M was four years ago when Charlie first started working on the renovation of the Kyle Field football stadium project.  It was so much fun to be able to go back for the grand opening!

Charlie went down the week before the rest of us to help the team with the final inspection of the stadium.  It was five grueling, hot days of making sure everything was perfect, but I think he'd admit it was totally worth it for the chance to be a part of this historic event.

We were incredibly fortunate that Ashley, a friend of ours, was able to tag along with us for the adventure!  Man.  She was awesome!!!  She drove down with me and the kids Friday morning, jumped right in with helping to wrangle the kiddos, and stayed back at the hotel in the evenings with the kids so Charlie and I could actually have fun past 6pm.  How did we get so lucky?

"Second Mom"

We met up with a friend of mine from A&M days and her son in Denton for lunch and a run around at Chick-fil-a, and then we caravan-ed together down the rest of the way to College Station.  The trip was rather uneventful aside from some traffic, and we arrived late-afternoon just in time to meet up with Charlie and grab some ice cream with some more sweet friends.

Then we headed over to Sbisa.  Anyone who knew me in college, knows that Sbisa is practically holy to me.  It's the cafeteria on the north side of campus where I probably spent 3-4 hours a day, Monday through Friday, eating, studying, laughing with friends, and most importantly, falling in love with Charlie.  Man, those were good days.

what was I thinking bring them to a place guaranteed to have no chairs with seat belts???

Eating dinner at Sbisa was one of my top priorities for our time that weekend, because it was our first visit since we left that we were actually there on a day the cafeteria was open.  I'm thankful we went, but I was really disappointed that in the past decade it's undergone a complete renovation, and is nothing like the cafeteria that was once my home away from home.  I know I was being ridiculous to halfway expect to see Linda, our old favorite student ID card swiper, sitting at the counter at the door, but I was crushed at just how utterly foreign the place was.  The long, long banquet tables?  Gone.  The food venues?  Unrecognizable.  No trays anymore even!!!  Like all organic things, of course things are going to change.  Even sacred-traditioned A&M isn't immune.  I just wasn't prepared for that one, and I have to admit, it stung a little bit.

After dinner we parted ways with our friends and went to check into the hotel and get our Littles in bed.  I'm still so terrified about our kids sleeping in the same room together - they had only done it twice before this trip, with a 50/50 success ratio.  We were able to hang out in Ashley's room next door though and put the kids down in shifts, which was extremely helpful.   That, and bribing Bruce, of course, to not be loud and crazy when it was his turn to tuck in.  After the children were nestled all snug in their beds, with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, Charlie and I snuck off for an exciting evening of fun!  

We were invited to go to a party hosted by the structural engineering company to celebrate the opening of Kyle Field.  I'm always so terribly awkward at gatherings like that, but we arrived well into the come-and-go party and the atmosphere was pretty light-hearted, so it was great.  Then, as midnight was approaching, we headed over to Kyle Field for Midnight Yell Practice.  It was nice being able to park in the construction lot behind the stadium so we didn't have to battle too much traffic, and we had VIP passes that let us onto the field for Yell.  It was nice to have such prime "seating" (no one sits anyway, but I don't know what you call it when you don't even have a chair?) but we were a little bummed that we weren't able to get one of the Red, White, & Blue-OUT t-shirts that people in the stadium received for the 9/11 tribute, also commemorating First Yell and Kyle Field's grand opening.  Oh well, the trade-off was worth it.

with Earl Santee, Populous Senior Principal and Lead Designer for Kyle Field

We made it back to the hotel around 1am, just as Ashley was combating (like a champ) a major hotel catastrophe involving Bruce, who had woken up because his pooping schedule was off-kilter, and Abby who was awakened by Bruce.  Both kids were crying, and could be heard from the elevators, and by sheer "coincidence" we walked in just as it was all crashing down.  And all three adults were needed for the rescue.  They both went back to sleep thankfully, but Abby woke up a bit later and laid in bed with me, playing with my hair, for TWO HOURS before finally falling back to sleep around 4am...  Needless to say, 6:30 came early the next morning...

Saturday morning we spent on campus and then had lunch at the Blue Baker, another favorite local sandwich shop.  There was no way Abby was going to nap at the hotel, so we headed back to campus to walk around, take some family photographs, and cross our fingers for some stroller naps.  Great success on all accounts!

 

 

having fun with the Century Tree

Showing Bruce the "Live Oak" tree that's eating its placard

 

Bruce was really interested in Sul Ross' treasure... 

Luckily I happened to have a penny in my purse to add to the stacks

and for some reason, Bruce really needed to make a pirate face posed with the 12th Man

extended family photo!

Charlie's company was having a tailgate party, so we joined up with them in the early afternoon, took a sneak peek tour of the stadium, and then went back to the tent for some dinner.

Afterwards, we all piled back in the van to go back to the hotel.  We passed the parent baton to Ashley again, and Charlie and I left for the football game!  I'm not much of a football fan, but there's no way I would've missed this date night!  We were only planning on staying through the halftime show, but after a gold star check in with Ashley, we went ahead and watched the third quarter, too - especially since the hotel shuttle wasn't making runs until the top of the fourth.

The second night in the hotel was better than the first, but still pretty sleepless...  We got packed up pretty early in the morning on Sunday and made the drive back to Norman.  Great trip, great memories!

We were so happy to have Charlie home for the rest of the month!!! Although he's still been extremely busy at work, it's been nice to have him around in the mornings and evenings again!

We headed to Perkins the following weekend to celebrate Charlie's mom's birthday and to go to the State Fair!  With Charlie's connections at the fairgrounds, we were able to get free admission and VIP parking again this year, which was amazing.  We didn't get the free ride bracelets this year though, so we just went on the ferris wheel and then enjoyed other parts of the fair.  A carnie convinced us to let Bruce and Abby play the duck game after she promised one of the guarantee-win items was a sword... you can't say no to that!  And of course we rounded out the evening with some much anticipated fair food.

The new kitten for Uncle Willie at K's house!

Ferris Wheel!

Then, this past weekend, Abby turned two years old!  And we had a dog party to celebrate!

digging for dog bones in the sand box

why I still make "smash cakes" - the only way my kids know how to eat cake is with their faces...

what is wrong with my kids???

baby clothes don't last long around here...

 

Other Highlights and Kidbits for the month:

We went to Chick-fil-a's Pirate & Princess night!  And Bruce won the costume contest for best-dressed pirate!  Woo-hoo!  Who would have thought?

 

 

They had fun activities like making treasure maps!

 

B: "Treasure!!!"

We went to the Touch a Truck event at the county fairgrounds!  Bruce really wanted to see the street sweeper most of all, and Abby was enamored by the trolley!

we walked over to the Farmer's Market afterwards - Fall is coming!

Bruce is full swing in preschool-mode.  He's been going for about six weeks now, and still loves going every morning and is happy when I pick him up!  He has to go sit on the "purple pillow" usually about once or twice a week for rolling around when he's supposed to be sitting for circle time, or not doing the exercises in PE.  Except for the day he wouldn't stop spitting, (ugh... don't get me started on this new habit...) usually it seems like he's still within the realm of "normal" preschool age-appropriate behavior, so I'm not too worried!  And he's having fun learning some letters and sounds, but not at all enjoying having to practice writing them...

I don't even remember going to the dinosaur museum this month... but the time stamp says we did!  Ha!

When he's not at school, he's pinging off the walls at home.  That boy never slows down!  He's latched on to Blackbeard lately, and wants to learn everything about him, and is working on perfecting his Blackbeard costume.  We're getting close and should be ready for Halloween next month!

His favorite way to play with his pirate toys these days is to make "sets" to sell.  He'll get a few guys together with some weapons or accessories, then he'll tell you that it costs something like "thirty hundred dollars" and will let you know it'll arrive in approximately "two hundred business days."  That boy.  OR, he'll insist on making all the guys "how they came" - meaning - he wants to switch hair, hats, coat cuffs, earrings, beards, scabbards, swords, etc. - so that they look like they did when we first got them.  This can be a lot of fun, especially for someone with my personality type!  The problem comes in when we're missing certain items of importance...

Abby continues to grow her collection of babies.  If she gets anymore, we might have to apply for a daycare license!  When she's not mothering her babes, she's chasing chickens in the coop!  She has gotten so brave with them!

And then there's this:

Oh my goodness this girl has gotten so stubborn lately!!!  Whenever we're asking her to do something she doesn't want to do, she'll immediately lay down and tuck her arms under her belly.  Do you know how hard it is to pick up someone in this position???

Nope.  Not getting in the bath.

Nope.  Not coming down.

Nope.  Not going to put on a diaper.

Nope.  Not coming inside.

Even so, she's still the sweetest girl around.

And two years later, she's still needing to hold my hair.

too bad all this sickness has made the nuk resurface... we had been doing so well!!!

Now that we're all on the mend health-wise, we are ready to bring on Fall!  I'm not as crazy about Pumpkin Spice as everyone else it seems, but I am most definitely ready for Autumn adventures!