July 4th week: Ankeny and a special visit

Well, here we go on memory lane... this will be the first of several posts about last July 4th week and the fun we had! First we will start with the roadtrip down to Oklahoma. Why were we going to Oklahoma you ask? Well, Momma Susan's 50th Birthday was on July 2nd and we decided to plan a surprise party for her with Ben's dad and sisters. So, we started off on our second roadtrip of the summer. This roadtrip would be approximately 1750 miles roundtrip starting at home, stopping in Oklahoma City for a couple of days, heading up to the Tulsa area for the big surprise and staying there a few days, and then heading back home. Off we go!

Three times now, we have stopped in Ankeny, Iowa for food (just north of Des Moines). There is a McDonald's there that has a big indoor playground and pretty good house deals on food. These are some boys that Greyson really took to on this trip. Funny how he is starting to venture out on his own more and more.

The best of the drive down was staying the night at my mom's best friends' house. (Did you follow that?) "Aunt" Karen and her two girls lived near us at Fort Hood, TX when my family was stationed there. She has two daughters, Sarah and Kristen, that were about the same ages as my sister and I and she and my parents traded babysitting quite a bit. When the four little girls were together, we played and fought like sisters and were mistaken as sisters a lot. We also refered to as the "stairsteps" because when we stood side-by-side, we looked like a set. Aunt Karen and my mom have continued to stay in close contact ever since then. They live outside of Kansas City and in a good spot for us to stop. Not only did we stop to say hi but they also fed us and gave us a place to sleep for the night! Thank you so much!!

Aunt Karen's third daughter and two of her granddaughters playing in the yard

Aunt Karen and Greyson playing in the sprinkler

Sarah's three girls and Madelyn, the "new" stairsteps

Uncle Bill grilling dinner for us

Madelyn's First Day of (Pre)School

Okay, I give up! I will get all the past-due posts done, but I just can't keep putting off the most current ones! This is such a big milestone that I can't make it wait....

Madelyn started preschool today! I know she was in daycare preschool before and that it isn't kindergarten yet, but this is something she has been looking forward to for a LONG time. Madelyn and her closest friend, Lillian, are in the same class. We ended up driving up to the building at the same time, so they walked in together. It was so cute!

Of course, I had to bribe Madelyn to have her picture taken. She is NOT interested in having pictures taken. Actually, she hasn't been for over a year now. I don't really know what that is about. But I asked her, "If you could have anybody take you to school today, who would it be?" Of course, either not understanding the question or trying to be sweet, she answered with a smile, "Momma!" I said "ohhh, thank you, would you want someone else to come though?" She answered, "Aunt Christina!!" So, she let me take these pictures for Aunt Christina to see as she went to school this morning. Chris, I hope you don't mind being put of my bribe!

Madelyn dropped off great. She refused to put on her nametag, of course, and went straight to the sand table (of which she has mentioned several times since our short visit last week) and started playing there. I said goodbye, gave her a kiss, and left. No drama... so nice. When I picked her up though, I could tell that she was in a pretty "fish out of water" mood. That will probably fade away over the next few days though. She talked about the teacher reading a funny book and eating snack and the teacher saying that she needed to wear her nametag because she was afraid of getting "mixed up". I can't believe how fast my little girl is going up....

Available now: June Pictures!!!

You can see them on the right side of the blog or go here. Enjoy!

Downtroden and heavyladen

Believe me, my intent has not been to neglect this blog. In fact, I have 9, yes 9, posts waiting to be finished! A couple of them date all the way back to July 4th weekend. You, see, I have this thing about having to put posts up in order. I know, it is silly, but it seems wrong to put up a post about Madelyn's birthday, which was a couple weeks ago, when I haven't put up a post about Momma Susan's awesome birthday, which was a couple MONTHS ago! Ahhh! I'll tell you what is slowing me down. First, I have this backlog of pictures that need to be sorted and tagged. Jointly, Ben's family (including Ben and I) took over 1000 pictures on our trip for Momma Susan's birthday. There are some really good ones (really great ones too!) but there are a lot of stinkers that need to be purged. Then, since then we have taken almost another 1000 pictures too. The joys of having a new camera. And I have been procrastinating.... So, now I am starting to feel the pressure of getting it done. I need hardrive space (yes, I predicted this problem) and I definitely need to get the events of the last couple of wonderful summer months recorded. So, yes, I will be working on getting my 9 posts done and published. However, heed this as a warning - they will start at July 4th weekend. and work their way to the present. There is some good stuff in there, so don't miss any of it!

MN State Fair 2008

The Great Minnesota Get-Together is one of our favorite things of living in Minnesota! We have so much fun going every year! Ben and I have gone almost every year we have lived here. If you know Ben, you'll know that it must be special if he is willing to take a day of vacation to go. We choose to do that though because the weekends at the fair are CrAzY!!! The streets are jammed packed and it is a feat to move from one venue to another.... not us. So, we usually go on Tuesday and love how the crowd is a little more subdued. Ben's and my favorite stops are the arts & crafts building, the agriculture building, the diary barn, the baa barn, the moo barn, the oink barn, and the crazy-looking chickens, This year's visit we were "forced" to cut back on our annual favorites to give the kids some fun too! So, we added the Little Farmer Hands farm and Kidway to the mix. It was all fun!! Ben even got to do his favorite thing this year - the sky glider!!

Btw, if you want to read a great commentary about the fair and see some truly awesome pictures, go to Tracy's blog.

My little farm hands

Feeding Greyson's love of trucks and tractors


A stop by Kidway - Madelyn LOVED it!

What do you do when your legs get tired?

Petting the sheep

Checking out a month-old cow

The highlight of Ben's day - the Sky Glider!

PS - I know that this post is about 3 months late, but better late than never is what I say!

How we spent our weekend

BEFORE:
DURING:

AFTER!!!

Don't they look great!?! The bamboo boards are just beautiful. It took A LOT more work than we were expecting but I think it was worth it.