Play, Retirement Ceremony, and Volleyball

Road Trip #2:  Western Iowa

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Melanie was performing in a Christmas play in Macedonia, IA.  We asked Scott's mom if she would babysit the little kids so we could go to the show.  Friday morning we headed to Des Moines and did all of our Christmas shopping.  In the afternoon we drove the remaining 2 hours to Scott's Mom's place, ate a quick supper, then said good-bye to the kids and drove to Macedonia to the play.  It was a variety show with puppets, singing, dancing, and a lot of silliness.  We enjoyed it a lot, and enjoyed Melanie's solo and stage antics as well.  I am glad that Melanie is involved in her local theatre, because it means that Scott will willingly go to theatre events with me!  Saturday morning we headed back home.  Saturday night, Lance and Cousin N made a road trip our way, picked up Scott, and headed to Iowa City to go to a Hawkeye wrestling duel.

Road Trip #3:  Kansas, again.

The next week, we headed to Kansas once again.  Scott's brother, Lance, is retiring from the military, and we went down to attend his retirement ceremony.  Grandma and Grandpa Fender were also there, as well as Audrey and Seth--it was great to see them for the third time in 3 weeks!  One of Dorothy's friends volunteered to come over and watch Laurel and Nicolas while the rest of us went to the retirement ceremony, and we were very thankful for that, as keeping the littles quiet the whole time would have been a hopeless task.  :)

Lance and family receiving certificates, etc., at the retirement ceremony.

We returned home on Friday, then on Saturday morning I attended play practice at church for our Christmas program.  NCAA Div I Volleyball Regional finals were taking place that weekend, and Iowa State University was one of the host schools.  My dad had gotten a number of free tickets to the Saturday finals, so I headed out Saturday afternoon with my dad and brother, picked up one of my former co-workers in Des Moines, and went to a volleyball match in Ames!  Stanford was playing Florida, and I think this was one of the better volleyball matches I have ever seen!

Karch Kiraly, my volleyball hero, was the tv announcer for the match.  In all my years working in the volleyball world, I have never yet met him in person.  This is the closest I have ever gotten to having my picture taken with him!

I bought an enormous 'Clone Cone.  My brother ate at least half of it, and I still had a bit of ice cream gut.  :)