Green Eggs and Ham

I've been on vacation!!!  And that means I don't sit at my desk looking for better things to do, like blog... because I have lots of other things to do that require me elsewhere.

SO...  in review of my vacation.  Let's start with St. Paddy's day!

We got up early, because that's what we do and Robb made the traditional St. Patrick's Day green eggs and ham.  Meri wasn't too thrilled with it.  She claimed on FB that this was posed.  

It wasn't.

Robb, Meri, Leon and I headed to Des Moines and met up with the other pipers for them to practice and warm up a bit before we hit the pubs.  Since some basketball tournament was in town and the big St. Paddy's day parade was put off until Friday due to that, only three pubs had hired them.  They preferred to have drunk sports fans rather than drunk Irishmen in their pubs Thursday...  Go figure...  

We met up with my BIL and his family at the first one and we got to meet my nephew's new girlfriend.  

sister in law with Leon

Also got lots of peanuts at this one! 

It's typically my favorite pub for free snackin'.  Leon loved it too. He doesn't like peanuts, but enjoyed peeling them at my feet when he wasn't dancing to the bagpipe music.

From there we headed to the next pub where the kids and I decided to ditch Robb.  There was so much construction downtown and all the usual parking lots had a parking ramp or office buildings being built in them that there were absolutely NO places to park.  

So I took the kids to a local walking bridge and grassy area and we went on a walk.  

And then a potty break at the Embassy Suites.  Leon wants to stay there for 2 days.  Ok...  We'll do that some time.  Travelocity, here we come!!!

Meri and I wore matching shirts and I'd had Leon's waiting for this day since the after St. Patrick's day sale LAST year.  

I think Meri just liked the shirts because of the wings on the back.  She feels closer to Daryl Dixon now from the Walking Dead...

I got this shirt for the boy for $1 last year.  He loved it.

Then we drove around the block seven times until Robb came out of the pub and we went to the Iowa capitol building for band pictures.  

Three spouses and/or friends, me included, were asked to photograph the day and take a lot of group and individual shots for the band's web page.  done!

Then since Robb doesn't like to be away from his band whilst wearing the kilt, he sat in the car and relaxed while Leon, Meri and I enjoyed lunch at Zombie Burger.  

We brought him out some food when we finished.  I love the decor in there!  So fun.  Wish I'd taken some pictures of their zombie movie posters.  

On to the last pub!!!  

Meri and I got our faces painted there, but Leon refused.  

Half way through the band's performance, 

he changed his mind and we had him done too.  

The artist remembered him from last year.  But he'd just done a simple design then.  THIS year he got elaborate with his face plans.

Half way home he wanted to wash it off, but we wouldn't let him until his dad had seen him.  I think it was just the tired that was talking tho...

Once Ryan got to see him, Leon took it upon himself to clean his face thoroughly.  I later found large wads of sodden toilet paper on the bathroom counter with a roll of tp sitting in a puddle nearby on the counter.  What a mess!  BUT his face was mostly clean, meaning that he only looked partially Martian and just a faint shade of green in the gills.

What a fun day!  But exhausting.  Meri and I ran over to see my bestie and show her all the photos and our face painting.  We couldn't let all that art work go to waste!

Judging from past experience, you're as worn out as I am now, just hearing about the one day so far.

More tomorrow.