Life, Love, Laughter: A September to Remember!

Time to get caught up! How could I ever miss one of the best months of the year....a September to Remember!!!One of the first things we did was took a nice family vaca on Labor Day weekend! It is our annual tradition to hit up Adventureland with my cousin Kim and her family. This year we switched things up a bit and headed up North to Minnesota to Valley Fair! We were all SO excited for a weekend adventure and some rollercoasters!
We headed up on Saturday morning and our first stop was of course the Mall of America for some shopping, lunch and to catch some Hawkeye Football on TV!

Late that afternoon we got acquainted with our hotel which was perfectly located between the MOA and Valley Fair! Great job Kim! I swear she always finds us the MOST amazing hotels!! We were all looking forward to some cold drinks and pool/hot tub time!! We did just that! We ordered pizza and had it delivered to the outdoor patio by the pool and relaxed and caught up! All of the kids were having a blast and the trip was off to such a fantastic start!

Sunday morning we awoke, had breakfast and were all thrilled to head off for a full fun day at Valley Fair! Some type of tummy bug struck Brad and I both over night but we were on a mission to not let it destroy our day!

Every single day I see how gentle and loving these kids are with each other and it continues to melt my heart. He was so happy to have her along and she was just loving every minute of watching her big brother this day.

The first roller coaster rode and barely any line = PERFECT! The kids and Dads wasted no time!

We walked by 2 times and Brad had his eye on this game, I could see the twinkle in his eye and before I knew it he said, 'I've got to win Dylan something.' And bam, he was off to do just that!

4 out of 5 shots from NBA 3 point range, WTG DADDY!!!!! Dylan got the cutest little blue monkey you have ever seen and he snuggled with him the entire trip and he still does to this day. So super sweet! Daddy made one little boy very happy this day! Thanks Daddy!

The kids area 'Planet Snoopy' at Valley Fair is out of this world and I mean jaw dropping compared to Adventureland! Which had we never been here we would have never thought anything different of A-land because theirs is pretty cool too! Well Welcome to Planet Snoopy, the cleanest most amazing place for kids!

Morgan is such an amazing cousin for these Holub kiddo's! How many 16 year old cousins will be such a trooper to squeeze in the little semi's for a ride with their cousin?! Well Morgy did! And she was tiny enough to fit! We still laugh about this one!!

There was a snoopy bounce house that was amazing and Dylan LOVED it!!! Unlimited jumps for him!

It was a bit hot in the sun on this day so when Kim found this awesome place in Planet Snoopy that was air conditioned it welcomed a bit of a break and more time for the boys to run their hearts out indoors all while in the a/c!

These foam balls were everywhere and there were air guns etc all over where you could launch the balls, throw the balls and do many wild and crazy things with them! Or you could be like Collin and Brad and throw them at each other as hard as possible and still not get hurt! Kids will be kids!

Too much fun! Planet Snoopy also offered a very nice family area that was its own building. It had a huge room with changing stations, several family bathrooms, a fridge for those needing to store milk etc for their wee ones and this very nice little quiet room with bean bags and a TV for some quiet time. We took a few minutes in the air, got cooled off and away we went!

Pit stop for another ride! Dylan wasn't much for rides this day which was a bummer because there were SO many for little guys like him and miss Danielle. But it's ok, more for the big kids ;-)

They had this funny little band trompsing around VF! What a fun summer job that would be!

The sun was hot and Soak City was a great destination for some water fun!! The lines were very long and the place was packed so we took a quick tour and that was about it

The long awaited ride of the day was the Renegade!

A traditional old wooden style roller coaster......

This ride did not disappoint, it was knock your socks off, throw your tummy for a bunch of loops kind of fast.....

And they loved it! Brad gets all giddy when he walks into a park like this, I love it! So fun to watch him scramble from roller coaster to roller coaster hopping in line with the kids and giving a big 2 thumbs up when the ride is over. He vows he is getting too old......nah, I don't buy it! Each year he gets more stoked to try it a few, or 10 more times!

We had such a great day at Valley Fair. It was more than we expected! Where will next year take us on our Annual Adventure....hmmm, I guess we will just have to wait and see!

Monday we headed home and I would say it was more than a successful weekend with the Aarhus family!!! The backseat was mighty quiet.....I think these Holub kiddo's had a great weekend too!

September also brought a very special birthday!!!!! No way could our little man be turning 6, well yes, I just pinched myself and yes it is really happening! We were SO happy to have Grammy back near this very special day and she took Dylan on a weekend of fun!

First up was Mom's Barnes and Noble Book signing! She has done a few of these near her home in PA but this one brought her back to Iowa and us, we were so excited!

Meet my Mom....the Author.

Her bestie Lisa came down from Iowa City for the event! Her and I hung out and chatted during the event before an evening wind down and nice dinner out!

There were several authors in attendance. Mom had a line at one point of people waiting to speak with her, curious about her book and her choice of Naturopath Medicine. She sold 10 books this night, yay Mom!

The next morning happened to be Dylan's very first soccer game of the season! Grammy got to come and watch...and she had a very big surprise for Dylan afterward!

After his game we made him close his eyes in the car while we drove to a very special place....Chuck E Cheese! Dylan loves it here, mostly playing the games and eating pizza, you know the place where a kid can be a kid! To say he was surprised is a bit of an understatement! Great idea Grammy!

The kid is seriously lethal with his arm strength...yikes!

And yep, he's a baller! Nobody can distract this lil guy from gettin' his game on!

We had such a fun afternoon at Chuck E Cheese, just a very special day with Grammy for a Special Guy's Special Day! Grammy took Dylan to Target and let him pick out whatever he wanted for his birthday! Grammy even made Mommy go to a separate part of the store while they shopped so I wouldn't see what he got, sneaky sneaky!! Thank you Grammy for coming to visit over Dylan's Birthday, it was a visit that we will NEVER forget :-)

Dylan was one special guy and had a few birthday celebration this year. The first started the Friday before his birthday at school where we took this amazing cupcake cake! And it talked!

The day we celebrated his birthday we let Dylan choose the entire day. We started out at soccer in the morning followed by Dylan's lunch choice destination, Pizza Hut!

We got our bellies full and had a goody bag in the car with something special in it, a new football! Dylan then decided we needed to stop at Thomas Park to toss the ball around and play a bit, great idea Dylan!

We then headed home for the 2nd half of the Hawkeye game, rested up and got ready for a fun dinner out at the Olive Garden, YUM! Dylan had also one the birthday cake from Kathy's Pies and the flowers from Pecks on KHAK's birthday giveaway that morning on the radio! He was SO excited to add something else special to his birthday celebration!

Making a very important wish....

After Olive Garden we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Holub's house for more presents and fun! They also were in the middle of working on their new addition so Dylan had fun running around in the new room too!

And playing with his Uncles is always a big hit too! Dylan sure loves being wild and crazy with them and it doesn't take long to get him there either!

Dylan has been begging for a 'friend' party for his birthday with friends from school. Beings this was our 'first experience' with this we really searched and thought long and hard about what to do, plus not knowing what the weather would be like for mid September that ruled out outdoor festivities....without taking a chance.

We opted for a Bowling Party and what a great choice Dylan made!

We reserved our very own party room at CRBC and it was perfect! We invited all of the boys in Dylan's Kindergarten class and all of them were able to come except for 3. 6 was the PERFECT number!

We had our own party room AND along with the room came our very own helper....she was a GIFT! She was amazing! Brad and I got a sitter for Danielle so we could have all hands on deck for the boys and we thought we had it covered, boy were we wrong! The helper we really needed!

You know with this many boys there are potty breaks, and need this and that breaks and need more to drink breaks...and a couple that just decided to get up and try to wander off! 6 year old boys are busy!

But they are so very cute and fun too! Dylan and a few of his best buds, Wesley, Quinn, Sam, Dominic and Eli must have 'wandered' off!

A couple of the boys had never bowled before and were a little timid. That is where Daddy came in REAL handy! He got them pumped up, showed them a few skills and of course big high fives were a MUST!

We had pizza and bowled and then cake and gifts and we bowled some more! This was Dylan's 3rd birthday cake of his 'birthday celebrations' this year, boy he must be pretty special!

The boys were all very good and listened to us and were very polite. They sat and watched Dylan open his presents and were just as excited as him I think to see what was inside!

It was very fun to get to know his school friends a little more. A few we had not had play dates with yet, so getting to meet their parents and put faces with names was a must! What a great opportunity to do that. These are the boys Dylan will grow up with for many years to come, we were so happy they came to his Birthday celebration....and we are pretty lucky parents to have such an awesome little guy to celebrate!