Yee-Haw!

Homecoming for mine and Aaron's Alma Mater was this last weekend. It's amazing how much one grows up in four years. Time is so relative. Four years seemed like such a long time as an eighteen year old. It seemed impossible that I would become a teacher after the whole experience. I learned a lot of life lessons in college: it is okay to not be remarkable, your value as a person doesn't collapse because someone doesn't like you, you're still a nice person if you stand up for yourself, and group projects are the worst.

 We decided to go this year, mainly because I was wanting to see a friend of mine who still lives in Abilene.

Things that went well on the road trip for Ollie: fruit bowl* and a tractor that plays "Old Mcdonald."  Things that did not go well: playing National Geographic videos on my phone**, reading one of my books out loud, and nap time.

We got to Abilene and decided to walk around the Hardin-Simmons campus. I was washing our hands in the bathroom when Ollie decided to stick his head under a stall to say hello to the occupant.
That was a good time to leave the building and go to the duck pond and visit the grave of Dam-it.

Fritz on Sundays

The dog was so named because he kept sneaking into the kitchen.

Hardin-Simmons had some inflatables set up for the kids and Ollie had such a fun time in the bounce house. We had to peel him away from that only to have him get attached to the game, "Plinko."

He also did a lot of this

We had dinner with Aaron's parents*** before going to Eula to stay with Aaron's grandparents, Nana and Grandad. You know how you build up something so much in your head that when you revisit it,  it never really lives up to the hype? That is not the case for the tacos we had at Los Arcos. Seriously I was obsessed with these tacos in college and I will be thinking about them until the next time we visit Abilene.

I was extremely tired, as I did not get much sleep the night before and we traveled four hours that day. We made Ollie a pad in our room and he slept great in it. I could not go to sleep, however.  The culprit:  the cord for the light on the fan was not connected so the fan couldn't work without the lights on. Because the fan wasn't working, I could hear all the exciting conversations about sports in every small town in the surrounding area. I was so hot and frustrated Ollie slept on.

We finally came to the conclusion to take the light bulbs out of the fan and I was finally able to get some sleep, only to be awoken a couple hours later by Aaron informing me our son blew out his diaper. We didn't bring any extra pajamas but had an outfit that worked anyway. Ollie joined us in bed afterward.  Somehow my two year-old  took up most of the bed.

In the morning we had an amazing breakfast**** and Ollie played on his great-grandfather's tractor before we went to Hardin-Simmons. Aaron and his dad were in the Cowboy Band and they had a meeting that morning. Ollie was more entertained by playing outside.

We went and met my dear friend and her family at the zoo. It happened to be "Boo at the Zoo," so all of Abilene was there. We spent most of the time chasing our kids but it was still nice to see her for about an hour before we left to go to the homecoming game with Aaron's parents.

Ollie had fun running around and into people on the crowded stands. He played a fun game with grandmommy where he would point to a number on the bench and she would sing that number. He was brave enough to give the mascot a hug and I couldn't get my phone to open the camera in time.***** Fortunately the mascot was super sweet and let Ollie give him another hug. We had to leave in the middle of the second quarter because it was Ollie's nap time.

He slept a lot better on the way back .


*That came back to haunt us.
** I know what kids like
*** They are also alumni, and graduated with the same majors.
****Would you expect anything less from a country grandma?
***** I am horrible under pressure