Colorado and Kansas

We headed west for Thanksgiving stopping first in Colorado and then over to western Kansas. I got to meet my Colorado cousins in person for the first time. It's easy to see why Bodie says so many good things about them - they sure are fun. We ate an enormous Thanksgiving meal followed by a fun day of basketball, visits with Uncle Jim and Aunt Rosie, and an adventurous day at their super cool zoo.

The giraffe exhibit was incredible, you come (literally) face to face with dozens of giraffes. I would squish my face into the fence, dangling the lettuce out and grunting at each giraffe as they came near. When they gobbled up lettuce from my hand, I usually fell over or took off running - but then quickly returned for the next round of giraffe encounters. Check out the picture with the giraffe eating lettuce OFF OF Bodie's head! Simply awesome. They also have the most impressive variety of bears my parents say they have ever seen in a zoo including a HUGE grizzly who looked like he was getting really close to hibernation.

For those of you who follow this blog, Colorado Springs is where Bodie fell off of Dave's shoulders and fractured his skull three and a half years ago, http://piantanidafamily.blogspot.com/2011/04/colorado.html. While quite a while ago, my mom was a bit nervous about "returning to the scene of the crime," especially repeating a family basketball game. There Bodie is, shooting a basket - not on my dad's shoulders this time. Fortunately, we all remained intact and we had a wonderful time.

We then traveled east to my nana's family farm in western Kansas. She is the oldest of seven kids and they grew up in a small town called Scott City, Kansas. The family farm and ranch have remained in the family and my dad refers to it as a HUGE playground; I'd have to agree. Harvest season is over so we lucked out and got to play with our family - farmers work incredibly hard, so finding down time was a treat.
We stayed with our fun cousins in Garden City and packed in ten times more fun than we could have ever thought possible. My Uncle Luke has a rock star collection of cars and hosted a ton of cousins, aunts and uncles at his "shed" for a party for us. Uncle Luke and I have several of the same cars, the only difference is mine are about two inches in length and say Matel on the bottom. Oh, and it's not just a car shed, it's got tons of toys including a basketball hoop so I had some down time to practice my shot (I'm getting closer!).

Cousin Chris and Uncle Bob let us play with their "toys" and Uncle Bob took Bodie out to do donuts in the field in the ginormous tractor. My mom said she felt like a tiny petite flower next to this equipment - I guess that's a good thing. I felt like an ant, (yes, that tiny speck under the 120 foot sprayer in the picture on the right is ME!)

And I'm told no Kansas trip would be complete without something outrageous, so we checked out the World Record Holding Largest Hairball. Yep, I said hairball. Here's the proof. Surprisingly, this massive thing was actually bigger - it's lost some density over time. But in it's glory days, it was 55 pounds and 37 inches in circumference. Yikes. Of course we took a photo!

Thanks to all of our amazing family for such a memorable trip. Looking forward to doing it again!

Ringing the Bell

Today I attempted to teach our boys about giving and kindness. It didn't exactly go as planned.

I signed us up as volunteer "bell ringers" for the Salvation Army. We went to our assigned local grocery store at our assigned time and got our red aprons, red collection kettle, and the famous gold Salvation Army bell.

Now for safety. I had a one year old and five year old on the curb of a busy parking lot, (no, none of this was well thought out when I gleefully signed us up). At the last-minute suggestion of a friend from Idaho - I'm convinced God contacted her directly - I brought our red wagon and strapped both boys in, put a festive Christmas blanket on their laps, and labeled it with a sign that said, "Santa's Back-up Sleigh."

Bodie joyfully put reindeer antlers on his head. I put an extra long Santa hat on. Gates happily threw his Santa hat on the ground along with his shoes, socks, and jacket; it was 45 degrees with an impressive wind.

Knowing it would be tough for two little guys to sit in a wagon for ninety minutes,  I sweetened the deal, telling the boys that every time we got five donations they could have a chocolate kiss. I envisioned crowds flocking to us, pulling every last dime from their pockets, praising the boys for their efforts as they stuffed their faces with chocolate kisses.

We attached our kettle to the stand outside the store and began ringing our bell. From the first ring of the bell, the traffic pattern of people going into the grocery store drastically changed. People walked 50 to 200 feet out of their way to AVOID us and go in the other door. We were like human repellant; a giant anchovy in the middle of an otherwise delicious pizza.  

To make matters worse, I had done some pretty good build up with the boys about how wonderful it is to give and how when you give, it makes others feel good and they want to give too. My pep talk did not include, "People will not make eye contact, pretend they didn't hear you shout 'Merry Christmas,' and walk face first into the glass of the exit door just to avoid you," (true story, it happened SIX times!)

Fortunately Bodie was committed to earning a chocolate kiss. He shouted Merry Christmas over and over and over again. Gates rung the bell, ate the bell, dropped the bell and rung it some more and after 90 minutes, we rallied 16 donations.

So here's what I learned...

• I will forever make eye contact with the Salvation Army bell ringers - whether I donate or not, I can always be kind,
• While writing a check would have been easier, there is no substitution for experience,
• Wagons (and inspired friends) are life savers,
• I never want to be a perfume sample sprayer in a department store, and
• I am a glutton for punishment because we have a second shift on the evening of the 22nd...Bell Ringers, Take Two!

Batman!

While I've never actually seen an episode of Batman...or a Batman movie...or a real Batman comic book...or basically anything other than Batman clothing, I love him. I dressed up as Batman for Halloween and then requested a Batman birthday party. Lucky for me, my parents obliged and we celebrated in full Batman style.

We had a Batman cake, wore Batman masks, and then played Shoot the Batman discs in the Joker's mouth, knock down the Penguin's cups with Batarangs, Batman Batman Joker (Duck Duck Goose), Batman/Joker (Red Light/Green Light), Sleeping Gotham City (Sleeping Faries), Freeze Dance to the Batman theme song, Batman Says (Simon Says), and whacked a Batman Pinata. Like I said, we celebrated in FULL Batman style.

Thanks to my awesome friends for helping me celebrate, I had a blast!