the list:
- the zoo
- the Beach (museum, that is)
- the insect zoo
- "our" hill (i.e. where we started dating and where Ian proposed)
- Tuttle Creek
- Konza
- Tallgrass Brewing Company
- So Long Saloon
- Daylight Donuts
- The Chef
- Call Hall
- Tad's Sno Cones
- Grandma's
We took a night stroll at Jardine. The pond is beautiful and full of frogs, which are fun to find and watch. At night, they shut off the fountain so it's really peaceful sitting by the pond, listening to frogs, and enjoying the beautiful evening.
Board games at the Haydens' also turned into a really fun unlisted evening. Ryan has a large and eclectic board game collection, which he's accumulated through garage sales, thrift stores, and online board game trading. Raceway 57, Scotland Yard, and Carcassonne kept us up late into the night. We both especially enjoyed Carcassonne and added it to our Christmas wish list!
Even though we didn't make it to the outdoor attractions: "our" hill, Tuttle, and Konza, Fox, Ian, and I did go to Ian's professor's farm to watch the sunset. This is where Ian and Fox were building a dry-stack stone wall for a fire pit for their professor. Her family has a beautiful home and an incredible view and the sunset was gorgeous — we took lots of photos!
On the list was a Daylight Donuts run. We went around 8 a.m. — if you go too late there isn't much selection left, then drove home and enjoyed them on the picnic bench outside our apartment.
We also checked off Sunset Zoo, and after waiting for five years, we ended up picking one of the hottest afternoons to visit. It was still lots of fun, and the zoo, although small, has a variety of great animals and is done well. There's even a petting zoo, where Ian met a one-eyed goat he dubbed Uno.
Our final completed item from the list was visiting Grandma on the farm. My biggest regret from college was not taking advantage of living so much closer to family. I got really busy with homework and activities and I know I missed out on some great times hanging out in Grandma's kitchen learning to make amazing food and enjoying time together. Squeezing in a visit right before our move doesn't make up for lost time, but I'm thankful we could make it work during a busy time of moving. I'm also very thankful I have such an amazing Grandma — I see what love is when I see the way she takes care of Grandpa. We spent some good quality time with Grandma and visited Grandpa at the nursing home. He's still doing about the same, but for a person suffering from Alzheimer's, that's a good thing.
As I've mentioned before, our move was unnecessarily stressful, but we finished moving out and cleaning the apartment just in time. We have some great friends that helped us with the whole process — Ben and Storm came over to help load up heavy things, Chandra helped clean, Britni and Joe are letting us keep the bulk of our things in their attic and extra bedroom so we didn't have to rent a storage unit and/or a moving truck, and Karen housed us for a couple days as we tied up loose ends.
If you notice our move-out date and the few days we spent with Karen, you might realize we left town on my birthday. A four-hour drive isn't the best way to celebrate a birthday, but Ian's family met us at my parent's and we had a little party with pizza and a yummy cheesecake Micki made. It was a welcome relaxing evening with our families after all of the moving stress!
And just four days later we were on a plane to the Philippines. We don't mess around when it comes to keeping busy!