Nick's new BFF is the Guy

Just a suggestion, but if you have a "fog-colored" car, you might want to turn your headlights on when the visibility is reduced to less than 1/2 mile due to fog. I think I saw more than a dozen cars without their headlights on on my way to Ames this morning, and at least half of them could be categorized as fog-colored - white, silver, or the pearly-tan-grey color that is only available as a car color.

I would also suggest following traffic laws and not passing in a no passing zone, not tailing me when I'm already going 5 over the speed limit and using your turn-signal, but that's a whole 'nother entry...

Steve LOVES his new rope frisbee!!

Can I just say how much I love grocery shopping at Fareway?? I had forgotten how great it was, because Aaron and I had gotten into the habit of going shopping on Sunday afternoons, when Fareway is closed, so we normally went to Hy-Vee. For lack of a better description, Hy-Vee has been pimped out to college students here in Ames and I'm not a huge fan of going there.

Friday evening I went to Fareway. It took me a while to get my bearings and figure out where everything was, but once I did, it was great!! The prices are so much better than Hy-Vee (yes, I'm cheap!!) and it was so nice to have my groceries carried out to the car for me!! I think we'll definitely be making an effort to shop on weeknights or Saturdays more often...

100-Calorie Packs

So you've seen the pictures of sunsets and us eating and laying around at the pool, but what did we really do on our trip?? Well, that pretty well sums it up.

The eating started shortly after our arrival in Phoenix. Matt and Ashely hadn't eaten dinner yet, so we headed over to a Waffle House at about 1AM. I ordered a chocolate chip waffle and was asked, "1, 2, 10 or 20?" I went with just one... Our server had huge hot pink hoop earrings, a blue tooth phone, but no front teeth. It was an interesting experience.

We spent most of our days in Mexico laying next to the pool, eating, drinking, sleeping or some combination of the four. There was a swim up bar at the pool that you could bring your own food and beverages to, so we would be sitting in the pool while we ate lunch. There were also some of the most comfortable, cushy chairs next to the pool, perfect for reading and napping.

On our trip home, we spent another night in Phoenix. We had Pizza Hut for dinner, which has never tasted better!! Although the food in Mexico was amazing, it was nice to have something we were used to again.

When we got home on Sunday evening, we were greeted very enthusiastically by the dogs. They were jumping all over like there was a stranger in the house and if one of us wasn't petting them, they were whining. There was also a lot of licking and running around. After about 30 minutes, when they realized we were staying for a while, they layed down and slept the rest of the night. It's good to be a dog-mom...

Matt, Ashley, Aaron and I (all Gateway employees) were very worried about how things were going at home... ...but luckily the ocean has a very calming effect and we soon forgot all about it!!

We saw dolphins!! It was super cool, but not easy to catch on the camera. (There's one on each side of the boat)
The whole group (minus the photographer) at a local taco stand. The food there was amazing!!
Sunset. Enough said.

Don't we look great in sombreros?? We didn't think whoever got stuck next to us on the airplane home would appreciate the "largeness" so we didn't buy one...

The stray dogs ran amuck, but this guy was by far the cutest. We were waiting for the rest of our group outside the grocery store when he came up and started pawing through our bags hoping for some food. We gave him some ham and water before we left.
This is "Mexi-Steve." We saw him playing ball on the beach and it totally made us think of Steve The Dog.

After dinner one night. We were full of smoked chicken at this point...
Aaron modeling the "Lucidore" mask we got for my brother Justin. Very intimidating. Very tough.

13 blueberries, 2 blackberries, 2 apples, 1/2 banana

As I'm writing this, there are approximately 31 hours until Aaron and I leave for vacation. "Leave" is defined as the minute we get to step foot outside of Gateway tomorrow afternoon. It should be great, and just thinking about it makes me smile. We get to spend 8 glorious days with weather in the upper 80's, never more than an elevator's ride down to the ocean. This is unofficially our honeymoon. I say unofficially, because there are 3 other couples going, so it won't be the typical honeymoon scene.

We are so thankful that we are able to go on this trip. Matt and Ashley have provided us with a place to stay, free of charge. My brother has agreed to stay at our house all week long and take care of our dogs, for only the cost of gas money to and from Ames, much more affordable than kenneling the boys. My parents have agreed to take us to the airport and Aaron's parents have agreed to pick us up, so we don't have to pay to park our car all week. We'll have a kitchen available to us, so we won't have to eat out all week, making our expenses very low while we're there. Aaron has something like 7 weeks of vacation to use in the next 2 years, so he's able to take almost a week and a half off from work. And I have one last Spring Break, that will be spent in the company of my husband. Yay!!

I love Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs

Blizzard Warning remains in effect through 6 PM this evening... A northwest wind of 25 to 35 mph with gusts around 45 mph will continue through the morning along and west of Interstate 35. The high winds will combine with the current and previously fallen snow to produce patchy blizzard conditions in open areas...with zero visibility at times. Only light additional snowfall amounts are expected through the day. However...the strong winds will cause significant blowing and drifting snow...with drifts at least several feet high...especially on north to south roads. Travel is not advised and many roads across the warning area remain impassable.

This is why we're not planning on leaving the house anytime soon. We talked to Aaron's dad, who lives on our road to Ames (R38) and he said he hadn't seen a snow plow go by yet, and he'd been up since 5:30 AM. That's not a good sign...