This was from the Fourth of July! The kids had a ton of fun. They started out with watching the parade in Armstrong, IA with friends. They then went to the Fairmont Aquatic park with their best bud Ellie.
After getting some sun, they headed to the park for a picnic. Here the kids are showing off their Fourth of July cookies they got to eat before playing...again!
At the end of the day, we ended up having front seats to the fireworks. Although we had to wait for several hours, the kids got to play with snap its and sparklers with the Plumhoff family.
Caleb and McKayla got to spend the week with Grandma Connie, but before they headed over to Shenendoah, Iowa, they spent some time with their Nana. Here is the after affect of Nana purchasing some waterguns for the kids. They had a blast chasing each other and getting wet. It was a really hot day, so they did not mind getting soaked!
Avery finally was baptised!!! Our friends Kevin Mortensen and Angie Collett were chosen as the godparents...good grief...makes you wonder what on earth those two will teach Avery! It was great to see them because Kevin flew in from Florida and Angie came from Ames. The family has not seen them both since the wedding. That was four years ago!
We went down to the Des Moines area for Avery's birthday! Here is a picture of Avery with her cousins Jasmine and Kherington. They had a ton of fun running around in Paul and Bridget's basement. They look like they are trying to run out of the house. I am pretty sure they will do that as they get older.
Aunt Bridget was very excited to make Avery's birthday cake! It was chocolate with chocolate frosting....mmmmm!!!! Avery enjoyed it so much that she made sure to save some in her hair and all over her face. The older siblings had fun helping her blow out the candles. In the end, Avery was eventually able to fall asleep once all the sugar got out of her system.
We took the kids to Adventureland. Boy was it hot that day! It was so hot that we started of at the waterpark where all the kids (Ken, Paul, me, Bridget, Mac, Caleb, Avery, Kherington, and Jasmine) took the opportunity to stay cool in the water. Shawn on the otherhand had the opportunity to sit in the shade while sipping water...at least that is what I remember. Afterwards, we headed to the rides. Here is a picture of the kids in the air. McKayla went on her first ever rollercoaster ride. She only wanted to go once, but to make sure that we would remember, Shawn bought a picture of her sitting next to her Uncle Paul going down the steep end of the ride...I wish I scanned it for all to see.
The next day we took the kids to the Blank Park Zoo. Nana was able to come with us, but boy this day was even hotter. All of us were sweating like crazy, but we made the best of it. I was able to visit one of my friends from high school, Keiko, who works at the zoo. She talked to McKayla a little bit and got her interested with her occupation...who knows, we may have a vet in the future! The kids had a great time also feeding the giraffes. I think they enjoyed this part a lot. Think about, how often can you say you fed a giraffe! They also had a dinosaur display...hmmm...I wonder who would have enjoyed that?!? Caleb loved how they were animated, but soon made sure to tell us how they were not real, but that it was okay!
Avery and Jasmine shopping at Sam's Club! This was cute to see the cousins hanging out. See that bottle cap? That was bounced back and forth between the two. They fought over it like it was the best toy in the world!
The cousins got to spend a little bit of time together before we had to go back to Ceylon, MN. I wish I would have made a video of the girls in their bouncers...they were maniacs. Avery didn't care as long as she had her bottle of milk. I am sure it would have been a treat to see what it would havve been like if they all were in bouncers!
My baby doll is a year old!
Payton, Caleb, and McKayla on the Tilt O Whirl
The kids got to go to Arnolds Park in Okoboji, IA. That is definately a benefit living in 45 minutes away from a tourist attraction. We originally started the day attending the Emmet Co. fair, but it did not have all the fun stuff for kids like they normally did. So, I packed up the kids and we headed off to a fun filled day at another amusement park. Caleb and Mac had fun as they were able to go on a ton of rides. Helps that they had wristbands so they could go on any ride multiple times. By the end of the day we were tuckered out and by the time we got home, Caleb, Avery, and myself took a 2 hour nap...Mac of course did not want to rest so she read instead. I love this last picture. I bought blue raspberry snow cones for the kids...definately left a mark. They enjoyed the bumper cars, roller coaster, log ride, etc.
So now what is the family up to now? Well, I will be posting pictures of the children. We had pictures taken by a really sweet and awesome photographer. She did a wonderful job. We did this for Avery's 1 year pics as well as including her siblings since we always take pictures of the kids together. We attended the St. Mary's NICU reunion. We had a lot of fun visiting the Willaerts and Seitzers before heading down to the courtyard. There we were able to see some of our favorite nurses as well as friends we made along the way. We will be going down to Des Moines one more time as my aunt from my father's side will be visiting us soon. This week we registered McKayla for school, so you can imagine the rest of our summer will soon be over, but until then, we will enjoy what time we will have. We have several county fairs to still attend, so the fun will not be over just yet!
