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January

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My favorite part of our trip to Iowa was visiting the charming town of Le Claire. This little town runs along the Mississippi River and oozes with loveliness. Many of their shops and restaurants are housed in adorable Victorian style homes. In the middle of the week, the weather got warm enough for us to walk the antique and home shops along Main Street. By warm enough, I mean that it got up to the high 30's!! Of course, you have to do some shopping in 30 degree weather! We enjoyed lunch at the lovely Crane and Pelican Cafe. The cafe is inside a charming two story house with a view of the river. Then we went to a sweet little candy and chocolate shop where we tried exotic caramel dips. The rest of the day was spent browsing quaint antique shops and gift shops. It was an absolutely fantastic day.

The frozen Mississipi River in the back.

Lunch at The Crane and Pelican Cafe.

The most amazing antique and gift shop. They have a fun wine shop in the basement.

Lovely Main Street.

Outside a beautiful home shop.

A cute little alley.

Me and The Girl.

Milltown Coffee across the river.

There's nothing like a cup of warm, silky coffee by the river after a long day of shopping.

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Posted January 14, 2017

Now, looking at these beautiful pictures below, I am glad that I went to see the kids sleding in minus 10 degree weather. Two dads and four kids had a great time sledding in the sunset. After a few runs, they were even getting warm! Sledding was one of our very first activities in Iowa.

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Posted January 13, 2017

I have never experienced colder temperatures in my entire life than a week spent in Iowa. We landed into a snow storm of negative 15 degrees with a windchill of negative 35!! The temperature was definitely a shocker. But each day after that was more beautitul than the day before. By the time we were leaving lovely Iowa, it was a balmy 40 degrees! But since the temperature stayed below freezing through Christmas, we got a a white Christmas. The kids had a blast spending Christmas with their cousins and Grandparents. They were absolutely unphased by the cold. I survived the cold better than expected. There were only two times when I was in serious pain from the cold, once while I watched the kids go sledding and the other time was watching Ahgoo ski for the very first time! I'll have to share those moments in another blog entry because I'm so proud of Ahgoo on her first ever ski experience. I was so cold from both events that I thought I was getting frostbite on my hands and feet. But seeing the smiles on the kids faces made it all worthwhile. However, I must admit that I was very happy to return to warm LA.

Buzz making a snow angel.

My little snow angel.

Beautiful view of the frozen Mississippi River.

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Posted January 8, 2017

I call him "The Hulk." Sam Darnold has been incredible and SC fans have known it for a while. But on Monday, the rest of the country found out too. I watched the Rose Bowl after the kids have gone to bed, not realizing that it was going to be a three hour game, even with fast forwarding all the commercials and half time show. But it was worth staying up later than on New Year's eve for! I was in a twisted ball of fear for much of the game. There was a moment in the third quarter where I had doubts. Then, in an instant, the camera caught The Hulk's eyes and I knew that we were going to win. When The Hulk runs into a burning building, you had no doubt that he was going to emerge carrying the burn victim to safety. At that moment, I knew Darnold was going to somehow lead the team to win the Rose Bowl. I didn't know how it was going to happen, but I knew it was going to happen. Thankfully, they didn't have to go into overtime because Mr. BAW informed me that he didn't record enough time past regulation if the game was going into OT. To be honest, I don't know if I could've survived watching the game go into OT. It was an emotionally exhausting game to watch! But it was one of the best games ever to watch. Of course, winning helped. Wow, at least 2017 is off to a good start for me...and all Trojan fans.

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Posted January 4, 2017