family night

I packed a little picnic and decided that we should show Joel Eli's favorite park (the one with the maze). I thought it would be fun to take Eli's bike and go for a long walk. Well......Eli wouldn't ride his bike, and Noah wouldn't ride in the stroller. We had fun anyway with Eli in the stroller and Noah on shoulders, and we ended with an ice cream treat at the DQ.

What we did in Iowa

We had a lot of fun during our week at Grandma's! Noah kept saying, "Go that way. Go back to Grandma's" all the way home. Thanks for taking such good care of us, Grandma and Don! We loved Grandma and Don's swing on the their big front porch. We even watched a thunderstorm one night.

We celebrated Matt and Noah's birthdays. The kids had a blast trying to break open the pinata.

We played with our friends, Jake and Chase.

We went to Adventureland with Jennifer, Rich, and the kids. Eli's favorite ride was the "underground".

Grace and Eli had a lemonade stand. They had a few customers, but I think they drank most of it themselves.

Jennifer and I took the kids to the movie Space Chimps one afternoon, and Joel, Don, Tyler and I went to a late movie that night. I don't think I've been to two movies per years since the birth of Eli let alone two in one day!

Noah turns two...

almost a week ago!! We celebrated at the lake today. He also had a party last weekend when we were in Iowa. I'll post pictures of our fun week at Grandma Cathy's tomorrow.

trying out his new fishing pole

nice outfit!

Noah got an early b-day present from Auntie Jen and Uncle Craig last night. He has been carrying his new glove and ball everywhere!! He asked for them the minute he woke up this morning and again after nap. Tonight he was running around like this saying "I'm a hawkeye player" (he's still a little confused).

Go Redhawks!

Noah still calls them the Hawkeyes. Can you believe that the Redhawks have been playing for 2 months, and this is the first time Craig and Jen got our whole family to a game???? My mom, Craig, and I took the kids for a day game on Craig's birthday in May, and Eli got to go with Jen and Katelynn on Monday night. This was Joel's first game. Monday night, Jen taught Eli all about baseball: how many players are on the field, how many outs, how many strikes..etc.

Tuesday night, he learned the most important thing about baseball: how to eat sunflower seeds (which kept him very busy for a couple of innings).

Noah just ate Jen's snacks and then sucked on a lemon for a while.

Attack of the cheese puffs!

I just had to pass along my favorite picture from the weekend.

fun at the pool?

We met Jack and Ella at a cute little pool today. The first half hour was great. The kids had fun going down the little tunnel slide and playing with the water toys in the shallow end. Then, Eli decided he needed to go hang out in deeper water which eventually led to him crying (for a long time) about not being able to go down the big kids' slide (they don't let you wear lifejackets on the slide).

Kids fishing derby

The resort on my parents' lake held a kids' fishing derby on Saturday morning.

Everyone gathered at the resort at 8:30 to get bait and to find out a little about the derby. Dad, Joel and I took the boys out fishing for about an hour. We went back to the house for a snack, and then Joel, Dad, Eli and Zach went back out.

We went back to the resort at noon for pizza and pop. All of the kids (about 130) got a 12 pack of pop and lots of prizes. It was a fun morning!!! THANKS GRANDPA STEVE!

fabulous 4th

The great weather, parade, slip n slide, swimming, floating, fishing, family, boat rides, campfire, fireworks, birthday party, and squirt gun fights made for a great weekend!

Did I forget to mention...

that we are now proud co-owners of a fishing boat???

a lazy summer day

*sleeping until 9:00

*still eating breakfast at 10:30

wearing pajamas past 11:00

*gotta love the pj's he picked out for the hotest night of the summer!

In his defense, I know a few other family members who are not big fans of air conditioning!