Visiting Our Old Stomping Grounds in Ames

We got a special treat today!!!!  We went up to Ames, the home of Iowa State University, Kevin's and my old stomping grounds.  It has been several years since I had been back and it was awesome.  For lunch we went to Hickory Park which is the most famous place to eat in all of Ames and has some of the greatest BBQ and ice cream sundaes.  It was so weird to think back on all the countless times that I had eaten there and now I had my two kids there.

Addison gave her grilled cheese sandwich a thumbs up.

My most favorite thing about HP is the David's Delight sundae with vanilla ice cream, butterscotch sauce, chocolate sauce, malt powder, whipped cream and a wafer cookie.  They are now serving a single serving so I couldn't help but get some since I've come all this way.

Harrison liked the food as well but he especially liked the ice cream as well.

After lunch the boys went to work a bit on the rental house and the girls brought the kids to Iowa State's Reiman Gardens.  It was started while we were in school, but has expanded it a huge facility for loads of people to enjoy.

We first checked out the butterfly house.  This was a huge room behind Addison where the butterflies were hatching.

Inside the butterfly "house" you weren't allowed to touch the butterflies and you couldn't bring in strollers so it was a bit difficult carrying Harrison and keeping Addison from trying to grab any of the hundreds of butterflies all around us and try to take pictures at the same time....yikes!

We did see lots of different colors and sizes of moths and butterflies, but none of them thought they should come along with us which was good because the lady told us that if any do get out that they have to file a claim with the USDA or something crazy like that.

Next we walked through the children's garden which had a dinosaur dig site where kids could dig up fossils.  There were so many fun things to see that it was hard to keep Addie moving because she just wanted to play.

Harry even joined in the play.  

Throughout the flowers and hedges and other floral displays in the gardens there were dinosaur statutes and Addison wanted to pet them all.  Especially this one that had baby dino eggs next to it.  It's hard explaining to a 2 1/2 year old what a sign says when they can't read it for themselves that you aren't supposed to touch the dinosaurs.

Jack Trice stadium is a place Kevin and I spent a lot of time in the fall during tailgating and football games from our freshman year in college to alumni years.  They put up a new sign on the back of the score board with the new Iowa State logo on it (which really makes it look like we are trying to be like Ohio State), but it looked pretty sharp.

After a long day, the kiddos were pretty tired and got to bed early but we got them to sit still long enough to get a picture with Grandma and Grandpa Dea.  We had a great few days with them, but had to say good bye until they come in December for Christmas to visit us.