Happy Birthday to my Dad

My dad is celebrating a birthday! He is 66 years old today.
I am putting his age in print, because for a little while today, my parents thought he was 67.
Keeping track of your age seems to get harder every year!

Hope you have a great day, Dad! Wish we were there to sing "Happy Birthday" and share some cake and ice cream.

Nov. 2010

our dog and our van

We sold our van a couple of weeks ago. We sold it to friends of ours, which we were glad about, since we were sort of sad to see it go. We might walk down the street and visit sometime. Mindy said we could.

We made a lot of memories and traveled a lot of miles in our van.

Our dog really loved our van too. She got to go almost everywhere in the van with me. And liked to sniff the fresh air out the window.

The night we cleaned and vacuumed the van, Mandie had to sit in her seat while we cleaned. I could hardly bear to tell her that it would be her last time to sit there.

(Sorry for the blurry picture. It was dark and in the garage. Meggan was vacuuming under the seats. And no, she didn't get glasses--they are fake.)

So if you think you see us in our van, go ahead and wave. 

Mindy and her family are friendly and will wave back. 

But you won't see a cute dog hanging out the window.

Eagle Watching

UPDATE:
The first eaglet could hatch today!
Many are watching--notice the number of viewers.
Click the link at the bottom of this post.

Below is a link to a live webcam of an eagle's nest in Decorah, Iowa. I think it is amazing that we see eagles on a regular basis in Iowa now. My kids tire of hearing me talk about it--about how I never expected to see an eagle as a kid. About how I didn't see an eagle until I was an adult. About how amazing it is to see an eagle. About how awesome eagles are. The kids like eagles, but they think I'm little obsessed.

They told me it was a lie when I claimed to have a pet eagle. But there is a large eagle who hangs out about 3 miles from our house on a road I drive multiple times a day. I call him Baldy or Pate (short for Patriot). I feel a special attachment to him. He flew really low over the windshield of my car one day, when I scared him up off his road-kill deer. Sorry if that was offensive. I took his picture one day, but only with my phone so it's not that great.

Anyway, take a look at this awesome-ness.
  I wonder if she ever has a strange feeling of being watched...

Click on the link below:
Decorah, Iowa eagle nest-- live stream

Music, Music

In the past month, my two younger children have been "extra" musical. :)

Meggan's piano teacher had a fun event for her studio students in late February. She spent the month of February having them work on duets with another student, then scheduled a performance at a chocolate shop in Ames. Parents came to listen and enjoyed snacking on some fine chocolates. Meggan and her duet partner did a great job!  It was such a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Right before we left for spring break, Ryan had solo contest. He played a clarinet solo he had worked on for weeks and received a I+ rating from his judge! (That's the best rating, for those who don't know.)
Way to go, Ryan!

Spring Break 2011--Houston

We all went south for spring break.
Three of us went to Houston, while the remaining three + the dog stayed with the grandparents in northern Missouri. Everyone had a great week! The spring-like weather helped so much!

Byron, Brandon and I went to Houston to visit Byron's relatives.

They were so hospitable and made a lot of effort to pamper us. I considered staying for a very long time.
(I couldn't help but want to stay! My clean laundry was left folded on my bed at Aunt Norma's house--what more could a girl want in life!)
These dear people were our hosts:

We had a great time seeing the sights of Houston, dining on delicious food with good company.
Three Carson men:

We enjoyed 80 degree weather, sunshine, blooming flowers, and green grass.  We loved getting a chance to be outside in t-shirts!

We visited the Houston Museum of Art and saw a huge exhibit of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings.

We went to NASA's Johnson Space Center and saw spaceships and "behind the scenes" work.
We're pretty sure that there was some stuff they didn't show us at NASA, since the stuff we saw didn't look very "high tech". This computer is really old. Rather surprising, since its NASA:

 I was also surprised to see that they use sewing machines at the space center:

We went to Rodeo Houston, which lasts 20 days and is the largest in the world. They raise tons of money for scholarships, youth programs, and charities every year.
I thought it was funny to see Brandon and Aunt Norma texting at the same time:

We saw lots of fun things like the calf scramble, where a bunch of calves and kids are turned loose in the arena. The kids are supposed to catch a calf, which is pretty difficult. Even if they do manage to catch a calf, it's about impossible to keep ahold of it.

There was never a dull moment and we loved every minute of it--bull riding, calf roping, barrel racing, bronc riding, etc.

Zac Brown Band was the entertainment after the rodeo. (We had to choose which night to go--Alan Jackson and Brad Paisley were playing the other 2 nights!)

He and the band were amazing and sang all of our favorite ZBB songs.

This picture shows that there were ALOT of people there:

Then after the show, we left ... at the same time as all those other people... and waited in this ridiculously huge maze of people to get on the bus back to the parking lots:

It was well worth it though. We had a wonderful time!


Ellyn, Ryan and Meggan stayed in Missouri with the grandparents and also had some nice weather. They enjoyed sewing, crafting, fishing, a cousin ballgame, a cousin sleepover (three girls and a lab slept sideways in the same bed).

Since we've been home, it has not felt like spring. We are looking forward to warm and sunny days in the near future!