Hot Days of Summer

What do you do with two active boys and an infant when it is hot out (not humid though...thank God!) and you don't have air conditioning?

Here is a glimpse of some of the things we have done this summer.

First, find a local bowling alley that does have AC. We did a lunch and bowl special at a nearby bowling alley and had a blast. This was the first time the boys had bowled, so it was neat to see them get excited over knocking over pins (yes we did have the bumpers up!). Silas caught on very quickly and was able to pick up his ball and bowl all by himself by the end. He actually won our 2nd game. I guess that doesn't say much about Kurt and my ability to bowl! Nathan, well, he lasted one game and then he was pretty much done. Oh well, he still had fun!

Daddy helping Nathan bowl.
Silas bowling all by himself.

Daddy's so talented he even bowled holding onto Nathan!



Next.....here is some outdoor fun, as always. We had just gotten done eating popsicles and Nathan was an absolute mess, so I undressed him down to a diaper. Well, Silas didn't want to be left out, so he decided to take off his clothes too. Here are some pictures of them playing in their diaper and underwear!






Last, thank goodness for free and wonderful spray parks in our town! I took the kids here and we had such a wonderful time.





Here is the whole park. There's also a playground right beside it that we played in. Not a bad view of the mountains either!

Vacation- Part 3.....Catching up with Friends

I was very thankful this vacation home to be able to see some of my friends that still live in the area. It is so nice to catch up with different people and see where life has taken each of us. Here are a few people I enjoyed visiting.

Here is my friend Ellen with Abby. It was so nice to spend an afternoon with her and have her meet Abby. We enjoy one another's company and so it is always a blessing spending time together.
I had a playdate with some high school friends. Here is my friend Jessica with her youngest.

This is my friend Wendy with her youngest.

Here are the three of us at Jessica's house. I can hardly believe we've been out of school for almost 15 years, as it seems like just yesterday we were running track together, playing softball, going to homecoming and prom or having sleepovers. Time seems like it has slipped away from us! Thankfully I enjoyed such a good time with these friends as it seems like although we don't see one another often enough, we can catch up very quickly. I also loved seeing both of their children and now seeing them as moms also. What a fun season we are in as we can laugh about motherhood and where our lives have taken us!


Here are all of our kids! I'm surprised we got this good of a photo!

Here is my friend Hillary on the left and her sister Kerensa. We grew up living literally right next door until her family moved in 3rd grade. We kept in touch through the years and were in each other's weddings. She blessed me by driving all the way from Des Moines (31/2 hours) with her 3 year old to come see me. We decided to meet at the pool so the kids could play while we talked. It was so much fun. Thanks again Hillary for such a wonderful time!

Hillary with her son Sam.

Here our Hillary's, Kerensa's and our children as we ate after swimming.


Here is my grad school roommate. What a pleasant surprise to be able to see her in Iowa. She is from CA and we were roommates at Univ of WI-Madison and we were able to see her last year when we went to CA. Well, her and her husband have now moved to Iowa City so he could further his education in dentistry at Univ of Iowa. We were able to see their house and then while Josh went to school, Alison and her new baby Emily came out to eat with us. What a delight it was to catch up and see how life has been for her in transition. She's been such a blessing to Kurt and I and I'm so thankful to have her in Iowa to visit for a few years. Plus, now she'll have some Hawkeye blood in her....he, he!

Alison and her daughter Emily with Abby and I.

Vacation - Part 2

Yup, time has already gotten away from me, but here is the next part of our vacation photos.

After Iowa, we headed to Chicago for a week trip to spend time with more family. We were able to enjoy lots of quality time with Grandma Aichele, Uncle Keith, Aunt Stef and our cousins. We also got to see some relatives that came from Cincinnati to visit. It was nice to catch up while watching the kids play together. We also enjoyed a day at the Brookfield Zoo and lots of time in different pools!

Here are some pictures of our time in Chicago.




Silas with cousins, Ashlyn and Anna while we were mini golfing.

Uncle Keith and Silas.

Silas and cousins petting the goat at the zoo.


Grandma Aichele and Silas

We took some family pictures while in Chicago. Here is Grandma Aichele with the Aichele grandkids.





Here are the Aichele cousins.


Here are some cousins dead tired after a long day of running around and swimming.



Grandma Aichele with Abby.

Vacation_Part 1

I have no idea how many posts I will do on this, so we'll label this one as Part 1 and we'll see how far we get.

We had a wonderful time on vacation! We were wondering if we made the right decision to tackle this long of a vacation after we already visited the ER the first day of our vacation, but I'm happy to say that everything is fine and the rest of the time was safe and fun!

We started our vacation in Iowa. We were able to spend a lot of time with my sister Paula and her family as they were already there when we got there. My other sister and her family came during the weekend and so we had a packed full house of lots of little kids for a few days. Thankfully, the weather was amazing, so the kids got to play outside in water a lot and enjoy being free to run on the farm. Other highlights for me was being able to spend time with high school friends and get to know them as parents and see our children play together. I also got to see a friend that I grew up with, as she made the trip from Des Moines just to get together. We hung out at the pool and had a blast. I even got to take her boy down the water slide...very trusting of him!

We got quality time with Grandpa Shippy, which means time on the tractors and good food from Amma Shippy. The adults and older grandkids enjoyed many nights playing games around the table....sometimes rather late! That's our competitive spirit! It was a joy to see my grandparents and see them with my children. It is such a blessing to spend so much time with them. We also got to attend a family reunion on my mom's side and see some aunts and uncles and catch up. We had many different visitors come by including my aunts and uncles on my dad's side and a great aunt and uncle that came and visited. It was such a joy to spend time with so many different friends and relatives and the time flew by so quickly!

My aunts and uncles on the Shippy side enjoying time together.

My Aunt Jill with Abby.

Kurt with the boys on the 4 wheeler.







Grandpa Shippy taking the boys on tractor rides.




Grandpa and Nathan

Great Grandpa and Grandma Conklin with Abby and the monkey that grandma makes for all of the grandkids.


Grandpa Shippy and Amma with all of the grandkids.

Tackling Uncle Kurt.

Grandpa Shippy playing soccer with the grandkids.

The cousins enjoying quality time together eating great grandma's waffle cookies.
Water fights at the farm.
My wonderful sisters.