Summer 2015 - July week one

July was a wonderfully busy month! We started off with a great play group at Bear Creek Lake. There was the most incredible wooden play area that the girls loved. Then we headed down to the lake for a dip. It was an oddly cool day but the kids didn't seem to mind a bit.

Zoey and Lenora

Then the birthday festivities started for these two big girls! I cannot believe how quickly they're growing up.

We had a Frozen in Summer party in our backyard for them on their birthday. For food we had melted snowmen (doughnut holes for the body, pretzel sticks for the arms, carrot noses, and raisin buttons). Then we played lots of water games. It was simple and so much fun for them!

Fantastic Fourth

We had a wonderful fourth of July! We started off the day at the Ward pancake breakfast. The church owns a camp that they use for girls camps just about 10 miles from our house and that is where they held the breakfast. The food was yummy and the kids had a blast exploring the camp afterwards!

Lenora playing around while we loaded up the car. 

Buckle up!

The Fourth of July cuties!

Twirling

Side note: Eliza calls this her July 8th shirt. She gets her birthday and the Fourth of July a bit confused. It's adorable!

Playing around in the creek. Eliza was in there a solid hour!

Conquering the rope bridge. 

Hazel even got up the courage and did it by herself!!

After breakfast we had a relaxing afternoon at home. We found we have another olive lover in the house! All three girls LOVE olives, but Michael and I can't stand them. 

That evening we enjoyed a BBQ at a good friend's house for her birthday. Good food and great company!

Tabitha and Lenora

To end the night we all headed over to watch the city fireworks over the speedway. It was a LATE night but even Lenora refused to fall asleep so as not to miss any of the action. Lenora really enjoyed the fireworks too and kept calling them flowers.

Kash (with Hulk face paint) and Eliza.

Mommy and Lenora with Heather and Tabby. 

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Summer 2015 - June

Summer has been off to a wonderful start. The weather here in Iowa has been amazing! Most days it's been in the upper 70s to mid 80s. About once a week we've had a cloudy/rainy day. Since the summer heat and monotony has never been my favorite, I've loved the slightly cooler temps and variety. We've been having a blast too!

The month started out with my birthday. It was a really low key birthday complete with breakfast doughnuts, yoga, an awesome birthday crown, and a day of just being pampered.

 

We ran in to a yellow motorcycle that Eliza and Lenora loved!!

One week we re-created parts of Fancy Nancy's Oh-La-La Beauty Spa. The facials were a hit!

 

Instead of just meeting up with friends at the park for play groups, we've set up a "hiking" group instead. Each week we've checked out different fun spots close to home. There are so many awesome things to do close to our home! We may not have mountains, but the beauty of the Iowa rivers and streams is really growing on us. Here's the High Trestle Trail bridge. It was incredible!

Eliza and her best friend Abe. These two are adorable together.

Hazel and Rose.

High Trestle Bridge.

Of course we've had some general silliness!

Daddy lied down after a busy day and these two decided to snuggle up as well. 

 Stream near a local park. We had so much fun here for hiking group we had to bring Kiara and Daddy back that night. Kiara loved her swim!

We've done lots of reading! Even Lenora is catching the reading bug. Gram Dot would be so proud!

We did have one really, really rainy day and had some water get in our basement.We were certainly being watched over though. I felt prompted to go check on it and caught the leak early so most of the water was directed to a bucket. AND all the water was in the unfinished portion of our basement. It was an easy clean up and an easy repair, plus we got our last few boxes unpacked - yay! The only major loss was my very first pair of pointe shoes. All things considered though, we feel so thankful it wasn't much, much worse.

Beautiful girls all ready for church one Sunday.

We've had a great start to summer! So glad we have a few more months left. 

Temple Trips

In Utah we were literally surrounded by temples. It was wonderful to have so many temples to close to us and we made an effort to attend the temple at least once a month. Looking back, with the amazingly close proximity of so many temple we really didn't take enough advantage of them! Where we live in Iowa, we are also "surrounded" by 4 different temples. The Winter Quarters Nebraska temple is the closest at 2 1/2 hours away. There is also St. Paul Minnesota (about 3 1/2 hours), Kansas City (about 3 1/2 hours), and Nauvoo (about 4 hours). While the temple is far away, we've felt it is still very important to attend regularly. We realized a monthly trip was probably unrealistic, but we have done our best to attend as often as possible and have made it about every other month.

For some temple trips, we have made them family affairs. We pack up the car with snacks, toys, and movies then head off early in the morning. One of us will do a session while the other is with the girls then we swap. We want the girls to learn the temple is important and so far they have grown to LOVE temple trip days. The Winter Quarters temple has an incredible visitor's center across the street. There are exhibits about the Pinoeers, dress ups, movies, and other hands on things. Usually they spend one of our sessions there then after we swap we take them to the mall to play or out to lunch. Here are a few pictures from our trip yesterday!

Other times we have traded babysitting with another family in the ward. We watch their 4 kids for the day while they attend the temple then a week or two later we swap. 

Our best temple trip was last month to Minneapolis. My aunt Judy and uncle Steve, cousin Sandy and her family live about an hour and a half from the temple in St. Paul. They were sweet enough to drive up and meet us for the day! It was wonderful to see them! I hadn't ever even met Sandy's husband Adam or their sweet daughter Emma. Judy and Steve were kind enough to watch all of our girls and Emma while we attended a session. Afterwards we had a wonderful lunch and visit. It was an incredibly wonderful day. We have the best family and will certainly be making another trip up there soon!

St. Paul temple

Hazel, Emma, Sandy and Eliza

Judy with our girls

We haven't made it to Nauvoo or Kansas City yet, but we look forward to when we can go. There are no greater blessings than those of family and the temple!

Last Day of Kindergarten!

Last Day of Kindergarten! Hazel had such a great year and can't wait to start first grade!