Spring Break 2016: Day 4, 5, 6

I’m still recapping my Omaha trip. If you missed Day 1, 2, 3 click here.

Tuesday started day 4 of vacation. Reese and I talked about Starbucks and he said he didn’t know what to order there, but he knew he wanted something. Helllllooooo you’re talking to the queen of coffee. So I asked what he liked…you know, hot or cold, chocolatey or vanilla, and we took a trip to Starbucks. I got my iced coffee and he enjoyed his Vanilla Latte. Now that wasn’t too hard, was it? 😉

As soon as we got back to the house, my aunt and I hit the road for my grandpa’s house in Iowa.

Around 1:00 or so, I wanted a salad. A grilled chicken salad. While we were driving my aunt mentioned something about wanting an ice-cream cone, so we ended up stopping at a dairy queen and I was pleasantly surprised by how good their salad was! And get this…Tuesday, March 15th happened to be FREE CONE DAY. What the what?! We all won!

We got to grandpa’s right around 3:00 in time for a Dr. Phil episode. I spread out on the couch eating grapes while gramps sat in his beloved chair and we watched all the crazy play out on Phil’s show.

Later that night we went to dinner at a local Tavern and while it was taco night, I ended up with a grilled tenderloin. All I got was a tiny piece of meat and I was still hungry so when we got home…

…I made some popcorn and we all munched while watching updates on the presidential race. Gramps enjoyed some leftover birthday cake.

Ohhhhhhh how I love this guy. I was so happy we got to come down and see him!

On Wednesday we woke up and were lazy all morning, so come lunch time my aunt made grandpa a lasagna and I laughed because it looked SO GROSS. Word to the wise…don’t buy Stouffer’s lasagna if you want to eat something that actually looks yummy. If you don’t care, then by all means!

Later that afternoon, we did what gramps does during the afternoon. He sat in his chair and read the paper while I continued on in Candace Cameron Bure’s book. With more of the news in the background of course.

That night my cousin Dani (who’s basically the older sister I never had) and her husband, and their little boy Tommy came to eat. So we went back to the same tavern for dinner…because when in small town Iowa, you have limited options. This time I got a grilled chicken breast and baked potato.

We came home and I got a picture with grandpa. And it’s a shame I don’t do something with my hair because ew.

I posted this picture on Instagram. FOLLOW ME @mollymiddleton01. Tommy pooped his pants right before this picture and it was hilarious. Nonetheless, I still got a picture with him (and gramps in the background) so it’s my new favorite.

I had to grab another selfie with grandpa while I could.

We hung out, chatted and then all went to bed.

Thursday morning we woke up and grandpa had his cereal. We said our goodbyes as we were going back to Omaha that day.

We stopped by my other aunt and uncle’s house to say goodbye and my aunt gave me this drink to try. I’m a fan. Have you had it before?!

And then we stopped at our Dairy Queen again. And here’s the deal with that.

My aunt did something to her knee to where she could barely walk, so she wore a knee brace down. When we went into the DQ on Tuesday the lady behind the counter asked if she could pray for her. She said yes and we left. Well, the next day my aunt woke up feeling  100% better and said we were going back to her! So we did. And she had her pray for some other stuff going on in her life. And it was so refreshing to see!

Thank goodness for people like Bev from DQ.

When we got back, I quickly showered and headed over to my uncle’s house for some corned beef and cabbage because #stpaddy’sday

And then I went out with one of my other cousin’s and her parents for happy hour.

We came back and they had this appetizer made. I found it on Pinterest and am totally going to re-create it soon! Sooooo good!

My uncle has his famous drink that he makes and when we got home he got to it!

I had one of his drinks and a drink that my cousin made. Trust me…you won’t have to worry about an alcohol deficiency when in the presence of my family!

My cousin and my aunt just cooking away and spoiling me.

Steaks, kale salad, and sautéed mushrooms and onions. DELICIOUS. I want it again!!

We sat around the table for a couple hours after dinner talking, laughing, telling stories, and all of that. I ended up going home around midnight and went straight to sleep. All of these events were wearing me out!! But it was so much fun!

Tomorrow we’ll be wrapping up and coming home. Come back to see! 🙂

Friday Favorites: Another year closer

Happy 2015. This means i’m one year away from graduating college and I may be hyperventilating or something because what? Who wants to become an adult??? 😉

However, I know it happens to the best of us. Today during Friday Favorites with Andrea, Erika, and Narci i’m going to show you what I am glad about though.

Friday was the last day that we had our family in town for Christmas, and I was so glad we got to spend a little bit of time together even if it was getting ice-cream in the middle of winter. And even if I can’t have any ice-cream. It’s tradition every time my uncle from Virginia comes into town.

Just in case you needed the reminder.

Sunday my dad called in his troops (his kids and wife) to help him move offices. I went sporting my new everything…rain jacket, water bottle, yoga pants, yoga bag. I’m so glad I have a family who loves me and gets me cute things for Christmas 🙂 Excuse my “just-finished-yoga” look.

Eeeeeeek! A week from this past Monday the Bachelor comes back on…i’m so PUMPED! I’m excited about Iowa being pictured on national television and about seeing how the good ol’ country folks take to having a bachelor. It’ll be interesting to see how Chris handles the whole situation. I would never have put an Iowa man on a reality tv show, but i’m glad they did and i’m sure Chris will represent. Are you going to watch on Monday?!

If you were looking for me on Tuesday you would’ve found me at the office with hot coffee in hand…yes I said it! Hot coffee and me in the same sentence. I think i’m progressing away from cold coffee and 30 degree weather, which now means i’ll be glad that the baristas won’t give me super weird looks all the time!

New Years Eve brought me and two of my best people together. They’re awesome and i’m glad I got to third wheel on New Years with them 😉

In celebration of the NEW YEAR and it being my birthday month, I went shopping. I bought new work clothes, decoration for my office, and made some returns. I was a little productive and i’m glad i’ve got some of those things done. You’ll hear more about the holiday on Monday 🙂

So, i’ll see you then! Happy weekend! Try not to freeze wherever you are!

September 11, 2014

First of all, I just want to say that I have a heavy heart today for those affected 13 years ago during the 9/11 terrorist attack.

I still remember this picture like I saw it for the first time yesterday. I was in second grade when this happened and our bus driver made an announcement that after school we shouldn’t play outside. In fact, my neighbor’s sister was on one of those planes. It’s just horrific and sad.

But, on a brighter note! G TURNS 94 TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eeek! I love me some G-Paw!

This my mom’s dad. He owns his farm in Iowa. He is so succesful. I wrote about it a little this summer. He was in World War II and he always tells us the story about the time he got shot in the butt. So funny. He’s 94 years old and goes to coffee every morning, drives himself places, and still gets around on his own. He’s in such good spirits. This picture is him standing by a memorial for WWII veterans with his name on one of the plaques.

This is a picture of my grandpa and grandma. Aren’t they just CUTE???

Grandpa will be goofy with us whether he wants to or not 🙂

Grandpa always makes it hard to say goodbye at the end of summer.

This is our 3 generations picture 🙂 We look nothing alike!!!! Everyone tells me i’m a carbon copy of my dad.

Grandpa still likes to play cards with us. This time we were the winners! He’s so good at cards too.

Grandpa has the funniest sense of humor and he is always a blast to be around. I told you, we talk on the phone every week. It’s true, about 20 minutes every week we play catch-up.

He’s just an all-around genuine person. This is him and my dad shucking corn one summer.

Here’s grandpa and 2/6 of his kids. (My momma is so purdy isn’t she???)

This is grandpa and all of his grandkids at the oldest grandkids’ wedding.

  

Of course I had to get my own photo shoot with him that day.

Here we are comparing noses, because my mom has the worlds biggest nose and she definitely gets it from my gramps!

Gramps is the only living grandparent I have left so I try to cherish every moment we get together.Like eating frog legs, going to the fair, helping him pick out a bed, just some fun little things.

He’s testing out his new bed here, y’all. He stayed there for a looooong while.

Another sad goodbye 😦

 

Can’t wait to see him next summer. And i’m so jealous of my mom and sister for getting to spend his special day with him today. Next year we get to go to his birthday party in september because it’s the big 9-5!! Wahoo!

So here ya have it, a special day, for a special person. Love my grandfather.

Iowa 2014

Our most favorite part of summer besides getting to sleep in and do nothing all day long is definitely our annual trip over the border and through the country to grandfather’s house we go!

After not being home from Alabama for very long and being tired of sitting in a car, we only decided to go halfway the first day and then halfway the next day.

6 hours to ol’ Joplin, MO for night 1. While this was my view in the passenger seat the whole way….

And two days later we are at the farm! Ahhhh, how could you not love coming to this place?

And um, only in Iowa do you see a semi carrying chickens or hens or whatever they are. Honestly, I was still raised in the city so I can’t tell chicken apart. But I thought this was cool, I definitely knew I was in the country.

The majority of our days were spent playing with doggies from my Aunt and Uncle’s Dog Farm. Need a puppy? You can’t resist these cute faces.

Some early farm mornings called for mother/daughter coffee time.

You know when most of one side of your family grows up in Iowa you’re pretty much related to everyone…so one day we went to A cousin’s house and picked veggies from their garden.

One of our first mornings there we made a trip to Dutchman’s store, owned by the amish.

It’s a pretty neat place. Told you, amish folk. Most everything is in bulk and very cheap, we go straight for the blueberries!

We got fresh peaches from a fruit stand off one of the highways and I made a fresh peach pie. And pumpkin pie requested by my siblings. See, grandpa is enjoying the peach pie.

On the first Friday of every month his little town has a fish fry, and of course we go every year.

One of our favorite things about Iowa is that since few people live out there we can drive on the highways when we technically aren’t allowed. Well besides that, in Iowa you can have a permit at age 14. COOL. So, Ryan got to drive some.

Morgan took some senior pictures with our uncle’s corvette in front of a corn field. Because why not? That totally goes together.

On Sundays, grandpa always goes to his favorite chinese restaurant (of which I have to wait ’til he gets home from to have our weekly phone call), so we tagged along with him…and had his favorite frog legs. Ryan tried them, but I don’t think he was too impressed. He was happy he got $10 from our cousin for eating two of them.

Morgan and I cleaned grandpa’s cars for him. Seriously…93 years old and still move around like it’s nothin’, i’m so impressed.

Rick celebrated a birthday, of which it took 4 people to make his “camo” cake.

And all he really wanted to do is sleep.

The day before we left we went to the Sweet Corn Festival to eat some chicken and ride the rides. It’s been years since we’ve done that. And look grandpa even came too 🙂 Now is he not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen??

The next day we had to pack up to say our goodbyes, which is never fun.

But we are always thankful for every year that we get to travel over the border and through the country to grandpa’s house and visit him part of the summer. Gramps is truly my best bud.

Go to Iowa if you haven’t been…it’s so out of the ordinary and very county. I love me some mid-western folk.

And check it out:

Looky what I found…

“Colore of Life”. So fun to see this at one of the jewelry stores.

See you back here tomorrow for some #FoodyToosdy

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

🙂