The temperature is heating up and that means it is time for some summertime fun! We can hardly believe that June is well over half over and there is so much MORE fun to be had! We have taken the kids and had some fun days this past month or so!
Visiting family at Walnut Acres Campground in Monticello!
Fresh air makes me sleepy!
Little Nix is such a trooper, Dylan loves him!
Dylan loves spending time with Collin & Morgan
Paying our respects to those who are gone but never forgotten
And the best part of summer is POOL time! Big pools, small pools, crazy sprinkler, we have fun with any and all of these! The kids have loved being in the water, they are water babies for sure!
The first weekend in June we visited my Dad in Des Moines. First stop was the Des Moines Farmers Market, and can you say AWESOME! Our family is huge fans of Farmers Markets, we frequent the one here at home. This market tho offers SO MUCH MORE and the huge plus is that it is put on every single weekend thru the summer!
It was amazing walking along and seeing thousands of people coming together to support local vendors. If you frequent the Market you typically become fond of certain vendors. We found a few this day that we would frequent at this Market, we plan on going back that is for sure!
Danielle was so relaxed sneaking in some early morning snuggles from Grandpa!
Adorable! This vendor is a favorite for sure!
While these may not look very appetizing in picture, trust me, they were! Homemade fresh cabbage rolls in a light Mexican type sauce....YUM-O! The amount of food was just amazing, there were all kinds of food vendors and lines blocks long to visit the favorites! We had a very fun morning here and the downtown Des Moines Atmosphere was booming with locals coming to Market. There were vendors from closer to us even, Vinton and Iowa City. One of our favorite vendors at our Market, La Reyna from I.C, I was surprised to see was at this market as well selling their yummy Guacamole! We can't wait to visit again soon!
Fishing with Grandpa has become a favorite for little Dylan and Brad. We found ourselves back at Banner Creek State Park fishing again this afternoon! The spawn was close and we saw all kinds of baby fish up right on the top of the water. They were bait stealer's this day, but it was still a blast!
We ventured to Des Moines for the University of Iowa Children's Hospitals special Dream Night at the Zoo. This is an event put on only by 180 Children's Hospital's and Zoo's in the World! We are fortunate enough to have this very special even in our area. And child with a life threatening illness or children that stayed in the NICU at UIHC is invited by invitation only to this event. We arrived just before 6 and were amazed to find this
long line, literally thousands of people long! It wrapped around the parking lot and as long as it was it actually went very fast, we didn't wait longer than 20 minutes probably which was great! They had entertainment keeping the kids entertained in line. Jugglers, Acrobats and magicians!
They planned literally a Dream Night for families. They catered dinner even and there was NO charge for anything, it was fantastic!
Dylan loved touching the creepy, slimy reptiles.....
We took a Train Ride around the Zoo...
Took a little bit to play on the Zoo Playground...
Visited every animal there was to see....
the Lions were our family favorite....
it was SO hot this day the tigers needed a little extra vitamins from the Zoo Keepers to keep them hydrated....
there were lots of arts & crafts for the kids....
and even tattoos....
matching Zebra's....
and the Med students brought human body parts to hold and feel, a brain, a heart, lungs and more....
and a special Souvenir for the kids on the way out! It truly was a magical evening and we were so happy to experience this. We feel so fortunate to have our kids with us today, this evening opened our eyes even more to how truly blessed we are.
Summertime fun is truly about spending quality family time having fun with the kids and so far we are doing just that!
We are looking forward to getting our toes wet many more times this Summer! The smiles these fun times bring to the kids faces are truly priceless!
