Trip to Columbia, Missouri

 Natalie has narrowed down her college search to a few schools, and one of them is Mizzou!

Somehow, we all stayed healthy and were excited to visit Missouri! (First time for three out of four Bailey's!)

I knew when I saw Cincinnati from my window, I should keep an eye out for familiar towns. Oh look!  There's Greensburg (bigger town in the distance) with Milroy near the wing where Route 3 does a little S curve. My Uncle John and Aunt Ann lived in both cities at one point. If I had been on the other side of the plane, I would have seen Rushville where my mom grew up!

One of the reasons Natalie wants to go to Mizzou is because she really wants to be in a tornado warning at some point in her life (weirdo, I know). So when we landed in St. Louis and she saw the tornado shelter sign at the women's bathroom, she was ecstatic! 

We hopped in the rental car and drove the hour and 45 minutes to Columbia, Missouri. Next stop, Mizzou!

Todd gave me a card for Valentine's Day. While we were at the Waffle House. Because everything else was so packed that we couldn't get a reservation.  And I left his card at home! But we had a great Valentine's Day dinner of waffles and bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches!

 

Natalie wanted to recreate a photo from the first time she went to Waffle House in Atlanta.

 

It was a memorable Valentine's Day at the Waffle House in Columbia, Missouri! One for the ages!

 

After dinner, we drove around campus and passed the ZTA house! Awwww! My girls!

 

On Saturday, we got to attend Mizzou Day on campus. And Nat got to meet her idol, Truman the Tiger! I mean, he's not as cute as Aubie, but I would definitely consider him one of the cutest Tiger mascots out there!

 

In the morning, we attended an information session for parents and students before going on a campus tour. We visited the Quad and the beautiful Jesse Hall, built in 1895.

 

Also on the quad are the Columns. These columns were attached to the original Academic Hall that burned down in 1892 when an electric chandelier shorted.  Now, freshman students run toward Jesse Hall on Sunday before the first day of classes, and run toward the city in the opposite direction on graduation day.

 

Mizzou also has a really cool indoor pool and lazy river! It feels a bit like a German Hallenbad or a Thermenwelt!

 

At Mizzou Day, they pay for the entire family to eat lunch at one of the dining halls and I thought the food was very good! I know UMass gets consistent high marks for their dining halls but I actually thought Mizzou's food was better. I think these guys thought so too!

 

The one dorm that Natalie seemed most interested in was Johnston Hall - mostly because it's really big and in a super convenient location on campus.

 

Eeek! If I went to Mizzou, I would have been in their prestigious school of Journalism, or the J-School as they call it there.

 

Mizzou's campus is really very pretty. It reminds me a lot of Auburn.  I think one of the coolest traditions at Mizzou is that they founded the Homecoming tradition! According to the Mizzou website, "The Homecoming tradition at Mizzou was started in 1911, when the MU football coach and Director of Athletics, Chester Brewer, invited alumni to “come home” to Columbia for the annual football game against the University of Kansas."  Now, they celebrate Homecoming for an entire MONTH!

 

In the afternoon, Natalie and Todd went to an academic information session, while Grant and I went to a cat cafe. It was SO cute! These little guys really wanted to check out my LV purse!

 

I think some of these cats had a little too much catnip!

 

This little one was quite content to just let Grant put him while he napped.

 

This little one might have been our favorite. Most of the cats at Bertha's Beans Cat Cafe are up for adoption! Grant wants a cat so bad, but his dad is allergic (wah wah wahhhhh....)

 

 Natalie at Memorial Union Tower on the Mizzou campus. It was dedicated in 1926 to students who had died in World War I. In the 1950s, the names of those who died in World War II were also added. When you walk through the archway, you must remove your hat and only speak at a whisper out of respect and tribute.

Natalie, the future International Affairs major at the International Center!

Todd and Natalie came to pick Grant and I up at the cat cafe, and we drove back to the hotel so we could catch the Auburn basketball game on TV.  We drove by the football stadium which Mizzou is expanding! It will be completed in 2026, just in time for the stadium's 100th anniversary.

Mizzou is great and all, but let's watch Auburn Tiger basketball beat up on Bama, shall we? (Mizzou did it's part on this day by beating the Georgia Bulldogs!)

After Auburn's great win over Bama, we called it a night but got up early the next day to run around the campus a bit before the women's basketball team took on the Oklahoma Sooners. But it was incredibly cold outside, so we didn't spend long here at the Columns!

And we didn't spend very long with Thomas Jefferson. His statue is here because he was the president who facilitated the Louisiana Purchase, and therefore eventually making the University of Missouri the first public university in the new territory (and first west of the Mississippi). Mizzou's establishment didn't happen until 12 years after his death, however.

And even stranger, the Jefferson family gifted The University of Missouri the original grave marker of Thomas Jefferson in 1883 when Congress purchased a new gravestone for his actual grave at Monticello.

Back on the inside (where it was MUCH warmer) at the Student Center, Todd ran into his namesake, Beetle Bailey! (His nickname in college was Beetle!) Mort Walker, the writer of the Beetle Bailey comic strip went to Mizzou, and often drew likenesses of the Mizzou campus into the early days of the comic when Beetle went to "Rockview University." Beetles's friends also were apparently modeled after some of Mort Walker's fraternity brothers. I didn't realize he also was the writer of Hi and Lois, which was one of my favorites as a kid - and it was later revealed that Beetle was Lois's brother!

Finally, it was time for the main event - Mizzou's women's basketball team was taking on number 16 Oklahoma!

It was a fun game, but in the end, Oklahoma beat Mizzou, 82-66. Boooo. At the end of the game, the players and cheerleaders all gathered together and sang the alma mater! (Not in this picture, I only got a video of that but wanted to share that I thought it was cute!)

We couldn't leave Mizzou without one last Bailey family selfie!

When the game ended, we hit the highway and drove to St. Louis. On the way there, we passed a bunch of billboards that read M-I-Z-Z-O-U!

Until next time, Mizzou!  See ya in the summer!

Tampa, Florida

We got some pretty cheap tickets on Frontier, and the kids ACTUALLY had two weeks off of school this year (due to the holidays falling on Wednesdays) so we went to Largo for the week after Christmas! Of course, my mom wasn't even there... she was on a cruise with her sister!  

Here I am, at the bad drop, ready to fly to Florida.

When they were little, the kids always loved riding on the people mover that takes you to and from the airside gates at Tampa International Airport. Some things never change!

Cory came to pick us up- and he literally had just bought this new car! Only the best for us!

Cory dropped us off at Mom's house where we were staying for the week (even though she wasn't there). While we were there, we noticed this finally happened! Cory seems very displeased.

The evening that we arrived, we met up with my brother's family and went to the Holiday Lights in Largo Central Park. Of course, everyone just wanted to play on the workout equipment! Natalie and Greta are getting a workout in before we see the lights!

Grant and James are getting stronger too!

The whole display was so pretty. I spy with my little eye both of my kiddos!

The next day, we met up with three of my dearest friends from high school - Heather, Brian and Bethany - and we had a mini little Largo High School reunion at Crooked Thumb Brewery. It was rainy out, so they had the garage door down but we had a great time catching up and playing Jenga.  Heather, Jack and Reagan flew all the way in from Geneva, Switzerland (remember?) and just happened to be here when we were also here! (Brian and Bethany live here).

Bethany is pretty sure this is going to fall at ANY. SECOND. Jack seems pretty confident it won't.

Had to send this one to our friends Kern and Dorothy.

Oh, there I am! OF COURSE I AM. I'm always here.

The fearless LHS foursome! Heather, Brian, Bethany and me!

Then we had to send this one to Mikey. We got 3/4 of the gang back together!

It's the whole gang! Reagan, Heather, Natalie, me and Grant, with Brian, Jack, Todd and Bethany behind us!  A good time was had by the entire gang!

The following day, we went to Busch Gardens! The day started out ok but eh. It wasn't the most fun we ever had, unfortunately.

They did have all of the Christmas stuff still up- which was really pretty!  We got there very early so we could hop on some coasters VERY quickly.

Oh so pretty!

We basically ran over to Iron Gwazi after we got our wristbands for jump-the-line, although it didn't apply to Iron Gwazi of course!  And then we waited, because the ride broke down and they had to run an empty car through like, 5 times before anyone could get back on. Annoying.

We took this picture before we knew how insane this ride was going to be. I absolutely LOVE roller coasters, but this roller coaster was the craziest thing I have ever been on. That first drop is WILD. It took my breath away, and the whole ride was so crazy, that I thought I wouldn't be able to get my breath back! 

But we survived and then went to see the gorillas!

This was pretty much what our whole day was. A 240 minute wait for Cheetah Hunt. Yes. That's a 4 hour wait. To say the least, we did NOT ride Cheetah Hunt. We actually had been in line for it for about 30 minutes when yes... it broke down. We waited another 15 minutes or so before we just called it quits.

I don't do heights very well- I can roller coaster all day, but this kind of thing was an absolute NO for me. But these three rode the Serengeti Flyer together!

That thing is really tall. No thanks! They loved it! (My favorite ride of the day was Montu, of course!)

But no one loved waiting an hour and a half in line for dinner. Ugh. At one point, I think they napped over here!

Our last ride of the day (they only rode 5 but I only rode 4!) was Tigris, which was pretty awesome - and a bit terrifying since it goes forward AND backwards. We also rode Cobra's Curse earlier in the day, but I didn't get any pictures of that. The lines were SO long and everything kept breaking down.

The holiday decorations WERE really pretty at night though. Ugh, Busch Gardens, we expected so much more from you! It was so disappointing.

The next day, on New Year's Eve, we drove over to Tampa so Natalie, Brie, Greta and I could do a little shopping at Sephora with gift cards the girls got for Christmas. We met up with Cory at his office (and got to meet his nice coworkers) and then the boys went out for lunch. Notice all the food on the table. This has become a joke in our family now... "How about we order 100 boneless chicken wings?" HA!

On our way home, we snapped a pic of this hilarious billboard on Ulmerton Road. That they are, Largo. That they are.

Maybe my favorite night of the week (well, other than when we saw someone get hit by a car on 66th Street North and had to call 911 on our way home!) was New Year's Eve, where we all met up with my brother's family on Pass-A-Grille Beach to watch the last sunset of 2024. Good riddance!  The boys played a little football before the sunset.

The girls enjoyed our sub sandwiches!

The foggy sunshine made for a great photo of Hattie and Brie!

I LOVE that there is a beer called Florida Man! 

Ahhh, now that's a beautiful sunset!

Todd, Natalie and Greta waiting for the sun to set on Pass-A-Grille Beach.

And as the sun finally set, the gang was (mostly!) together with their feet in the water, wishing 2024 a good riddance!

Me and James and Hattie wanted to take a sunset selfie!

Hail, hail, the gang's all here! I love that we were able to join in on this great tradition that my brother and his family do every year!

The Bailey family was definitely ok saying goodbye to 2024 - here's hoping 2025 will be a lot better (Narrator: It was, in fact, NOT any better.)

The boys needed to lay down after the sun finally set. The fog was pretty thick at this point!

Awww, all the girlies, ready to ring in 2025!

When we got back to my mom's place, we had to turn on CNN to see Andy and Anderson do shots on the hour!

Fireworks are legal in Florida so there were plenty of these going off.

We had sparklers that we bought at Publix - Happy New Year!

Back inside, we got noise makers and head gear and rang in the New Year with Andy and Anderson, who were having a grand old time.

And on New Year's Day, we went over to Cory and Brie's house for a little Hoppin' John. YUM!

It's still funny to me that my son is taller than my brother! You can see where Grant gets his ability to make ridiculous faces!

And for Christmas, my brother and his family got us a gift card to Guppy's in IRB! So that's where we went the day after New Year's Day. Indian Rocks Beach is still kind of a mess from Hurricane Helene, but it was so important to us to go down and support the local businesses.

So after lunch at Guppy's, we went to Clearwater Beach to get a drink at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill. This Frenchy's location had closed in August for renovations but then was further damaged by Hurricane Helene, and had only just reopened around Thanksgiving.

For dinner, look who we found! My mom finally arrived home from her cruise! We ran over to Finley's for some food and drink.

On our last full day in Florida, Todd and I went for a walk, knowing we weren't going to have sunshine and warm temperatures when we got home. I found this two headed palm tree in my mom's neighborhood!

And for dinner, we joined my mom and Aunt Sara for some delicious Cuban food at the Columbia! I haven't been there in FOREVER. It was awesome. It was so good to see them both, even if it was only for (not even) 48 hours! It's always so sad to leave the warmth of Florida.

Until next time, Tampa Bay!