Wednesday, October 24, 2012

OSU Weekend

We had so much fun the weekend of OSU vs KU here in Lawrence. We had a nice-sized posse of Pokes come up for the event. Oliver got to witness his first college football game - at least until the end of the 1st quarter when it started POURING and the much-delayed nap time reared its ugly head!

Matt, Oliver and I went to the little pep rally before the game to welcome the players to the stadium. The band, cheerleaders, Pistol Pete, and some very friendly OSU grandparents (not ours) were on hand for the occasion, and Oliver was wide-eyed and taking it all in from every angle! He was VERY interested in Pistol Pete....until we tried to get him to take a picture with the big guy, and then, well, he was not so interested in getting so up close and personal!

Also before the game, we hoofed it over to local watering hole the Wheel to meet up with the other Cowboys in our group, and the Three Musketeers (Noah, Charlie & Oliver) had fun wreaking havoc and running amok (Amok, amok, amok! - Name that movie!) amongst the crowd of orange and black that dominated the outside of the Wheel. All in all, it was a very successful weekend, with a win for the Pokes, and a win in the FUN category. I can't wait to take Oliver down to Stillwater to fully immerse him in Cowboy Country, now that he can (and does quite often) say "Go Pokes"!
O not quite the fan of Pistol Pete he thought he was!
Pistol Pete is still a little too close for comfort.
Hooray for big smiles!

Trouble comes in threes!

Monday, October 8, 2012

XOXO

Hi!
Another lunch hour, another blog update. So much has happened here in the last couple of weeks. I traveled to Baltimore for work, and then Matt met me for a weekend of fun in D.C. First stop to kickoff the weekend part was to spend a night with Uncle Steve and Aunt Rudi  at their beautiful home on the "bog" outside of Baltimore. Truly serene. And, Matt got to experience his first crab feast. And by crab, I mean the WHOLE crab. Not just the piddly legs. I think Steve & Rudi were in awe of his cracking prowess. I bet you would love to see pics of all 4 of us, wouldn't you?! Yeah, me too. Doh!
The Harrises were too kind in dropping us off at the metro station the next morning so we could ride into D.C. After checking into our exquisite hotel (The Willard), we hightailed it out to view as many monuments as we possibly could in a 24 hour period. It was awesome. Unfortunately, my sister was out of town, so we were not able to meet up with her while we were there, but it definitely gives us another reason to go back soon. My cousin Flagg is there as well, so, having so much family there means we definitely must go back. Being the historical nerds that we are, Matt and I love our nation's capital city and could visit a million times without tiring.
Okay, warning:  From here on out, there will be no nice, smooth segways from one topic to another in this post. The lunch hour only holds so much "hour" to check off the to-do list! :)

I did miss the little man while I was away, but he was kept very entertained by Grammy and Grampy Coles. Thanks a million to them for rescuing Matt from single-daddom and letting him slip away for a great weekend.

As this post's title might suggest, we have had a down-right love fest going on at our house lately. Oliver is all about giving hugs and kisses to us. Okay, okay, not just to us. Pretty much to everyone - His stuffed animals, his race cars, his friends Charlie and Noah, I think I even saw him kissing a soccer ball. Hey, no complaints here. I love this cuddly phase!

The weekend before this past one, we had a block party at the end of our street. It was kind of the block parties to end all block parties. A fire truck with real live fire men stopped by for the kids to get a tour of. Oliver was too scared to go up into the truck (until, of course, it left, then he cried b/c he wanted to go on it). There were 2 bounce houses that O made full use of, an Oliver-sized basketball goal (he's obsessed with "shooting hoops" these days), and, last but not least, HORSES! Two, very large, very gentle horses came by and Oliver was not too scared to ride them. So cool! I'm not sure how our neighbors are going to to top this year's next time!

This past weekend we headed out for our annual trek to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin. I think I love it more than Oliver does. It is so much fun to get outdoors for quality family time and see other families enjoying themselves as well. And, this year we got to pumpkin hunt alongside the Clothiers, Griffiths and Whaleys. There were hay mazes to run through, cows and chickens to see, and jungle gyms to climb on. Throw in some kettle corn (it really is crack), and it was a pretty perfect 1.5 hours spent on a sunny Sunday in October.
OSU vs KU is in Lawrence this coming Saturday. There will be lots of photos to post of Oliver's FIRST OSU football game (or KU for that matter)!
Enjoying our time at the Newseum.

Oliver's first horse-back ride. And, it was on our street!

Oliver, Charlie & Noah at the pumpkin patch