As fast as it came..... I feel it was over in a blink of an eye! We had a fantastic summer! We did pretty much everything we 'planned' on doing and even a couple extras! The sun was HOT and the pool was cool and that was just what we wanted for our Summer time fun days! Here is a little recap!
Danielle turned 4 at the end of June, I cannot believe it our little peanut is 4! We had a great time celebrating with just the 4 of us, she fully knew it was her special day. Brad's family came over the Sunday before her special day and spent an afternoon with us having lunch and cake, it was a quick throw together but it was a perfect day for our precious girl!
Uncle Tony does his best job getting Dylan all riled up, it doesn't take much and Dylan just soaks up the attention leaving us belly laughing the entire time!!
Isn't this the sweetest picture ever, Danielle sure does love her Uncle Nick!
Then this same weekend before her birthday we headed to Des Moines to celebrate with my Dad! We got up early and headed to Des Moines for the day. The first stop was the Downtown Farmer's Market which we all LOVE! It was going to be a HOT day, so we were very glad we arrived before 9am and were able to beat the heat! We met my Dad and Keeley and made our way thru the market, stopping at our favorite booths and scoping out a few new ones as well!
Market Beauty!
We got our favorite finds, Dylan took his little rides on the barrel ride and we stopped to plan our day! Our day we decided we either needed to be in the water or in the air conditioning. With the forecast of 99 degrees for this day we opted for some indoor fun at a place we had never been...The Science Center! It was perfect walking distance from the Market just a few streets over, so we stopped at the car for a drop off of Market items and headed over to the Science Center for an afternoon of indoor fun!
The theme of the exhibits was, 'Going to Mars', and we were so excited to pretend to be astronauts this day for a trip to Mars! But first up we sat and watched a presentation on Reptiles. Dylan enjoyed touching a Box Turtle, Snake and Lizard, creepy!
Next up was our trip to Mars! They had all kinds of exhibits that were very cool depictions of what the planet is really like. One exhibit was a 'Walk on Mars,' where you strapped on a harness and tried to walk on the planet as your weight pulled against you. Brad took this head on and we enjoyed watching him try and walk, which he quickly figured out it was much easier to hop! Dylan was too little to try this, but he enjoyed watching Daddy try and walk on Mars!
Next up we went inside the planet and looked at not only the surface of Mars but the climate and even a look at the telescope and what feedback it provides from the planet.
The Science Center also had an upper level with a Rainforest type exhibit with more Animals and even a Weather Forecast Center!
We then went into the 'Toying With Science Area' for the hands on exhibits! We had fun generating power by controlling water flow with magnets, making and shooting rockets, padding an egg to protect it from splatting when dropped from several feet and playing with building blocks too!
We then ventured downstairs to a child play area of all out door environmental learning. They had a Market, Fishing, Planing of crops, Bubbles and more. Lots of fun!
We had a full afternoon at the Science Center! It was a great time and definitely a place we will re-visit again as their exhibits do change every few months. Dylan loved going to Mars, just ask him, he will tell you he has been there!
For the later afternoon we headed to Dad's house to finish Celebrating Danielle's birthday, a little early, with airplane rides off of the deck, presents and even a short siesta on the couch!
We had a great weekend celebrating and we celebrated more on her actual Birthday too! Treats for her daycare friends and a yummy birthday cookie that night!
Such a good big brother helping her loosen her hands for opening presents!
Kisses for the Birthday girl, melts my heart!
Happy 4th Birthday Danielle!
We had some special visitors the beginning of July! My Mom and Sister came here for 2 whole weeks to visit, it was SO nice having them around and the kids absolutely loved the extra snuggles from Grammy & Britni!
We celebrated the 4th of July with our traditional Fireworks watching on the 3rd at Ellis harbor. We packed a picnic for dinner and headed down after work securing our spot and relaxing with the Hahn and Eddins family's and Aunt Britni too!
We love gathering with friends and family celebrating our Independence Day! It was another HOT summer day in Iowa so we spent much of the 4th relaxing indoors with Grammy!
We crossed one more 'to-do' off our Summer list when Britni was here and ventured to Lost Island in Waterloo! Grammy had a fun day of shopping with Danielle while we ventured to the water park. It was yet again another upper 90 degree day and even in the water it was HOT! We had a super fun day of water slides, lazy rivers, ice cream and more!
Dylan was a riot this year and was able to do more of the bigger slides with an adult. He did with all of us the Roller Coaster Slide and OMG we were ALL screaming, even Brad! He started screaming, then laughing and my butt was way off the raft I was scared to death he was going to fly out! Thankfully Britni was in front and then Dylan and then Brad and then I was in the back. Brad had his legs wrapped tightly around Dylan but my lord, LOTS of laughs this day!
It was SO nice to be able to spend so much time with my Mom and Sister this summer. We had a great visit with them and always when they left it was very hard to see them pull away. We are counting down the days until we will see them again! Our time with them is so precious, even as busy as our days seem, we always slow down and soak up the minutes with those we love the most.
Pool days were a big hit this summer. We hosted a couple of pool days at our home with the Hahn and Eddins family's and those we enjoy SO much! We also ventured to the big pool a couple of times and those days are fun too! There is no place better to be on a HOT summer day than in the water. Our kids are water babies for sure and they never turn down the opportunity to jump on in and cool off! Danielle also participated in Aquatic Therapy with her Physical Therapist this summer and that was a big hit, she showed great progress in the 8 sessions. We cannot wait to enroll again!
The end of July tragedy struck and a very close family friend of Brad's passed away from a heart attack leaving behind 3 beautiful little girls, a 10 week old son and a beautiful wife. Nick Brecht is greatly missed by all who knew him and his smile that would light up an entire room. Brad has many fond childhood memories of Nick and his family since he was just a tiny boy in diapers, Brad and I use to vacation with them at Lake Rathben the first 5 years we were dating. Their families are long time very close friends and no doubt and angel earned their wings the day we lost Nick. RIP Nick, please forever protect your family and beautiful wife and children.
We Celebrated a special Birthday the last weekend of July! Sometimes in life curve balls get thrown your way and the only thing you can do is try your best to catch that ball and run with it. We celebrated Monica's 30th Birthday this weekend and had a blast doing just that! The Eddins family invited us all up to Kirsten's family cabin in Guttenberg, so Friday morning we packed up and headed out for a weekend on the water! We were so excited to relax, have some cold beverages, let the kids be kids, hang on the water and catch up with our fantastic friends!
The first stop was literally trying to get out of town! Ragbrai went thru Springville on Friday the 27th and this is the bikers crossing Hwy 151 on Springville Rd. It was crazy the amount of bikers, thousands of them riding thru our town of 1,075! Incredible!
We arrived at Casa de Smith / Eddins! We got all of our things situated and headed into Guttenberg for lunch at the Riverview Cafe, yum!
The afternoon was spent relaxing and getting situated and preparing for our Birthday celebration for Monica that evening at Old Man River! Kir made reservations for all of us and the kiddo's and we headed into Clayton for a fantastic dinner at one of my and many of our favorite places!
The remainder of the evening found us watching a little of the Olympics, putting the kiddo's to bed and catching up around the candle light on the deck! We had lots of laughs, told stories and relaxed in great company!
Saturday morning came bright and early for most of us, Brad was tuckered out and slept until 10AM, yea, that is a first in probably 10 years! We had a yummy breakfast casserole and the kids got up and were anxious to get their swim gear on to prepare for a day on the water. After breakfast we loaded up coolers, kiddos, sand toys and headed out on the boat for a nice ride and then made a stop at the beach!
Danielle LOVED the boat ride!
Everyone was excited to get a spot at the beach! We were all anxious to get our toes in the sand!
After a few hours playing at the beach, building sand castles, playing with the beach ball and football it was time to head back to the cabin for lunch and rest time for the kids. They were all pooped out from water and beach fun!
Baby Sloan loved her first boat ride
Brad really loved being on the water and right up front with Captain Mike!
These guys are kids at heart, finding some time to play a round of football!
Quiet time also means finding a quiet place for a little coloring.
Saturday afternoon and evening we had some drinks, made a fantastic meal of beef and chicken kabobs, cheesy potatoes and drank some yummy wine. It was really the perfect weekend with great friends celebrating and remembering what is really important in our lives, not only our families but also our friends who are family to us also. We pick up where we left off last, get the kids together for play time and we enjoy each others company. We thank especially the Eddins/Smith family for hosting all 13 of us for this weekend of celebrating. Happy 3-0 Mon, I hope this year brings many fantastic blessings for you and your family!
This Summer we have also taken some time for family time too at a place I really enjoyed when I was a kid, the family pond between Monticello and Prairieburg. We went with my Uncle Bill, cousin Kim and her family a few weekends ago for a day of picnicing and fishing. Dylan had been fishing several times but had yet to catch a fish. Well it took no longer than 2 minutes for him to have his line in the water this day and he caught his first one! He was SO excited!!
Digging for a worm with Daddy
Seriously 1 minute later and he has his first fish! A little bass!
Movin' across the pond
Thank goodness for Kim de-hooking the fish when Brad was across the pond, no way will I touch a fish! HA!
Dylan just loves being around his big cousin Collin
Enjoying a beautiful summer day on the water!
Delay's Pond
On the way home we went past Brad's Grandparents old farm to show Dylan where his Great Grandma use to live and where his Daddy spent his childhood days! Brad was pretty upset as we were leaving because just since we had been there about a year ago it had went downhill as far as upkeep. Just 14 years ago his Grandma sold it and it really use to be well kept up and now the new owners don't do it justice, it was a little hard for Brad to see.
We had a lot of fun this summer doing many of the things on our 'Bucket List' for Summer 2012! Summertime is the very best time for exploring, trying new things, spending time and summer days with friends and family and soaking up as much sunshine and enjoying nature that we can! It went by way too fast as every day seems to now a days! We've still got more fun to be had in August, so stay tuned & enjoy these beautiful warm sunny days, I know we sure will!~
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