Dukie Dukies

Guest post from Brett...

It's about time I got back on here and posted something. So three months after the fact, here are some pictures from my trip to see the Miami University Redhawks take on the Duke University Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium. One of my besties Brian Edwards (Ed) drove down from D.C. to attend the game with me.

Here's the calm before the storm. The ~8 rows behind the advertisements is the student section that didn't quite get as crazy as seen on TV.

Introductions for the Miami players.

Tip-off

The Miami U. student section, there was a dozen or so fans.

The corridor outside the gym was decorated in Duke images and memorabilia.

The final score (it wasn't that close, Miami hit a couple 3-pointers in the last minute to break 40)

Duke student section

Duke player introductions (and Coach K!)

The Blue Devil surfing on the bandies

Outside Cameron Indoor, you'd never know it was one of the all-time best program's home court

Recognize any of these names?

There was a bit of a Duke b-ball museum with all of the trophies and nets from previous teams

The student section (about as crazy as it was the entire game)

There it is...the trip of my lifetime. Thanks to Carl Pfeiffer for hooking us up with the tickets.

Hopefully I'll get back someday (although it won't be for a job, at least not anytime soon!)

Play Time

Okay, sorry for the ridiculous amount of posts this week, but there was so much to share and I couldn't fathom organizing it unless it was by day and event. So, bear with me, this is the last one until at least this weekend:)

One of our presents to Owen was a marble run. Him and Brett had a blast putting it together and watching the marbles go all different ways.

And Bean had a lot of fun playing with her new kitchen:)
Some things the kids have been up to:
-Owen has become quite good at spelling his own name and is even starting to write it
-Maddi's first 2 teeth came up on 12/26 (bottom front)
-She also learned to shake her head no the week of Christmas. She can't use it in context yet, but it's really cute and I vividly remember Owen learning this too!
-And, just tonight she clapped for the first time. It was great!

New Year's Day

On New Year's day we headed up to Northern Chicago to the Botanic Gardens. They had a Winter Wonderland event going on.

The greenhouses were beautiful.

I LOVE this ball of poinsettias.
They also had a lot of fun topiaries.

A big dinosaur

Ankylosaurus

Swans

The next room was even more tropical.
They even had bananas!

The last greenhouse room was full of cacti. They are my favorite. Not sure why, but I've always loved them. And there were so many unique kinds here.

A cactus topiary in the shape of an aardvark

A fan cactus

The guy in the middle is over 25 years old and the little ones around him are his offspring.
These little lithops were so interesting!!!
After the greenhouses we ventured into the train rooms.

The first one was gingerbread themed and had these neat candy swags on the wall.
Owen was beyond thrilled to see the trains.
The next room was a huge space with all kinds of little scenes set up with trains running through them. The wonderful part was that all of the foliage around the tracks was real and painstakingly planned and placed. And, all of the buildings were made from scratch too. Some really talented people were involved for sure.
Some of the scenes depicted places in Chicago. Here is the bean and Pritzker Pavillion.

Union Station

There were trains above too.

A Frank Lloyd Wright building

To cap it all off was a really cool scene of the Chicago skyline. This photo doesn't do it justice but the hand work in this was amazing.
They even had an old streetcar going above the city.
Jelly seemed to enjoy the trains too!
The last room had one big train in the middle which Owen loved because he could walk (or run) around and chase it as it went around the track.

Afterwards there was an activity room where Owen got to make a snowflake and a wire covered in cranberries and seeds for the birds. I was shocked he made either thing, but he was quite proud!!!
It was such a wonderful day out as a family:)