This past weekend was the annual ISU celebration, VEISHEA!! It's always a good time, whether you can "go out" or not :) There are tons of family activites and we've had a lot of fun the past 3 years we've celebrated with Cade. His favorite, and the biggest activity, is the parade. We have had "our spot" the past 3 years and we love it. I could complain about the unruly kids that stood RIGHT in front of our chairs and stole candy that landed in our personal spaces, but I won't because the last 2 family events we've had (see Easter Egg Hunting and Cade's First Recital) have had someone or something "ruin" things and I'm not ruining this memory :) Let's just say next year, we're putting our chairs in the middle of the street and working our way back from there :)
The day starts bright and early with a pancake breakfast that starts at 8 am. We usually try to get to campus as close to 8 as possible, park our cars, set up our chairs for the parade, then fill up on all-you-can-eat pancakes for $5. Actually, I don't know if it's truly "all-you-can-eat" but you get to go back at least once and you get anywhere from 2-4 pancakes in one trip and that's all that I can eat! Cade even got seconds! We hit up some booths and tents set up on central campus on our way back to "our spot" and this year I answered a trivia question correctly to win a Cy tattoo for Cade. Woohoo!! The parade was great (about 1 1/2 hours long), even though this year they only had 3 real "floats" among all the entries! Must be budget cuts, haha! My mom, Cory's parents and the Otts joined us, so that was awesome! Bridget and I had to humor ourselves with our "teacher talk" to the rude little kids in order to refrain from blowing our tops :)
After the parade we visited some of the open houses. There was a petting zoo and a cow milking exhibit through the Pre-Vet college and of course Cade got to participate in that. He didn't know what to think about actually milking the cow, but he did it! To kill some time while we were waiting for the food lines to shorten (next year, we're getting our food BEFORE the parade ends!) we decided to see what the Psychology Club had set up and actually had some fun playing the games and doing the experiments they had set up. After lunch Cory, Cade and I stopped by the ISU spring football game/practice. The weather was GORGEOUS and it felt so nice sitting in the sun!!! This year, my ritual of buying a blown glass pretty from the Gaffer's Guild didn't hold true, but I hope to take time to visit them next year. I have some really cool, unique vases that I got 2 years ago (Cory broke the things I got last year before we even got home!)
After we left the game, we headed back to campus to hit up the carnival. We parked by the horse barns and saw that they were giving rides so of course we (I) HAD to have Cade do it!!! He did really well...not scared or apprehensive at all! At the carnival this year, he could actually go on all but one of the rides all by himself! Of course, I couldn't ride anything (*tear) but Cory did go on the swinging boat with him - the one he was TERRIFIED of last year - and this year he liked MOST of it. Mostly, just the first half :) He wasn't "scared" persay, just didn't like the feeling in his stomach. Overall, he LOVED the carnival of course, and like always, his tickets didn't last as long as he would have liked.
We finally got him convinced that we needed to go and we met up with my mom and sister at Applebee's for dinner. After a late lunch, day of snacking and time in the sun, Cory and I were only able to split an appetizer sampler. Not surprisingly, Cade got a full kids' meal and finished most of it :) It's also not surprisng that all of us were ready to CRASH when we got home and without a nap that day, Cade went down very easily! All in all, we love VEISHEA and can't wait until next year. We're definitely taking notes to better our experiences each year and we're creating some pretty cool family memories and traditions!
The day starts bright and early with a pancake breakfast that starts at 8 am. We usually try to get to campus as close to 8 as possible, park our cars, set up our chairs for the parade, then fill up on all-you-can-eat pancakes for $5. Actually, I don't know if it's truly "all-you-can-eat" but you get to go back at least once and you get anywhere from 2-4 pancakes in one trip and that's all that I can eat! Cade even got seconds! We hit up some booths and tents set up on central campus on our way back to "our spot" and this year I answered a trivia question correctly to win a Cy tattoo for Cade. Woohoo!! The parade was great (about 1 1/2 hours long), even though this year they only had 3 real "floats" among all the entries! Must be budget cuts, haha! My mom, Cory's parents and the Otts joined us, so that was awesome! Bridget and I had to humor ourselves with our "teacher talk" to the rude little kids in order to refrain from blowing our tops :)
After the parade we visited some of the open houses. There was a petting zoo and a cow milking exhibit through the Pre-Vet college and of course Cade got to participate in that. He didn't know what to think about actually milking the cow, but he did it! To kill some time while we were waiting for the food lines to shorten (next year, we're getting our food BEFORE the parade ends!) we decided to see what the Psychology Club had set up and actually had some fun playing the games and doing the experiments they had set up. After lunch Cory, Cade and I stopped by the ISU spring football game/practice. The weather was GORGEOUS and it felt so nice sitting in the sun!!! This year, my ritual of buying a blown glass pretty from the Gaffer's Guild didn't hold true, but I hope to take time to visit them next year. I have some really cool, unique vases that I got 2 years ago (Cory broke the things I got last year before we even got home!)
After we left the game, we headed back to campus to hit up the carnival. We parked by the horse barns and saw that they were giving rides so of course we (I) HAD to have Cade do it!!! He did really well...not scared or apprehensive at all! At the carnival this year, he could actually go on all but one of the rides all by himself! Of course, I couldn't ride anything (*tear) but Cory did go on the swinging boat with him - the one he was TERRIFIED of last year - and this year he liked MOST of it. Mostly, just the first half :) He wasn't "scared" persay, just didn't like the feeling in his stomach. Overall, he LOVED the carnival of course, and like always, his tickets didn't last as long as he would have liked.
We finally got him convinced that we needed to go and we met up with my mom and sister at Applebee's for dinner. After a late lunch, day of snacking and time in the sun, Cory and I were only able to split an appetizer sampler. Not surprisingly, Cade got a full kids' meal and finished most of it :) It's also not surprisng that all of us were ready to CRASH when we got home and without a nap that day, Cade went down very easily! All in all, we love VEISHEA and can't wait until next year. We're definitely taking notes to better our experiences each year and we're creating some pretty cool family memories and traditions!
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