monday...

well, once again it's monday & i'm completely wiped out!  after returning home a week ago from hawaii we took off once again {this time 3 kids, an aunt & cousin along} to ames on friday afternoon.  planning to leave about 4 quickly came & went.  between dan's work & my battery going dead in my car, it ended up being more like 5ish!  this made for a whiny collin & evan, who had been expecting to get to swim when we arrived at the hotel.  but, they were pretty good, we've discovered lydia is a horrible traveler & that she can houdini her little shoulders right out of her car seat harness if it's not tight enough!  saturday was an early day to get everyone out to hilton coliseum.  collin was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but once he saw some of his friends he was definitely more at ease.  it turned out to be a lot of waiting, so dan headed back to the hotel with evan, lydia & payton to let them swim & get lunch.  carol & i waited around for collin to get finished with his judging & then a little more waiting to let the public view the inventions.  i heard several people in passing comment on the cookie dispenser & made sure to let collin know what i had heard.  unfortunately, they don't hear any results for a few weeks.  the rest of saturday was spent swimming & then supper with friends at a really cool place called legends that was on the 7th floor of an apartment complex.  it was right off lincoln way & we were able to see the isu campus all around. then back to the hotel, where we swam until about 10 & the kids {& adults} were completely wiped out!  we've also discovered lydia has absolutely no fear of the water {this is bad, very bad!} & jumped right off the edge of the pool before anyone could grab her.  she had some floaties on, but dunked under, cried for about 1 minute & was ready to get back in the pool.  we had a good weekend away with the kids, but were more than happy to return home & hopefully get to stay put for a while.  now, back to my un-ending pile of laundry!