John Deere Pavilion

Across the river in Illinois is the John Deere Pavilion.  Every month they have a little craft, and the girls have enjoyed going.  This last month they had lots of little activities for all the kids to enjoy.

The girls doing the tractor pull.

Driving the remote control cars.

Enjoying the animals in the petting zoo.

Driving the John Deere Gator.

Playing the sand boxes with the trucks.

We put our names in a huge drawing to win a basket of John Deere stuff.  We actually won!  We were all pretty excited.  We're saving the big Gator truck and a couple of the books for Brayden's birthday, but they've all enjoyed the other items.

Summer Randoms

This summer we've kept fairly busy, especially compared to last summer, when it wasn't very often that we left the house. Here are some of the random things we've been up to:

The girls had swim lessons for a couple of weeks.  Always a highlight of the summer.

This is where you could usually find Brayden during those:

 

We've gone to lots of parks.

Brayden has learned the art of sliding.  He loves slides!  He can turn himself around and go down on his tummy, with a little help go down on his bum, and then loves to try and climb back up.

Emma got glasses. 

 Molly got a haircut, then glasses.

 We've gotten wet in the backyard.  Brayden was having fun in the sprinkler until he got sprayed in the face, then he was pretty content just to hang out in the shade on the porch.

We've made weekly, sometimes more, trips to the library.  Both girls finished reading programs from two different libraries this summer.  Molly has read over 150 chapter books, usually 2 or 3 day.  Brayden's favorite thing to do at the library is crawl through the bookshelves.

My friend Becca visited from Ames for a couple of days, and her husband ran the local Bix race, so I got to observe that with her.  Always love when we get to hang out (and go shopping)!  I like to believe that our boys will be best buds as they grow up, even if they don't get to see each other too often.

We went to a local water ski show.  That was pretty amazing.

Even Brayden was pretty chill and captivated for the most part.  The girls enjoyed throwing rocks in the river during the down times of the show.

Then last night, but friend's husband got some free tickets at work to a barge party across the river.  We really weren't sure what that was all about, but she invited me to come along with her.  We figured out they were promoting/celebrating the work some company does is cleaning up the river. We got some yummy food, toured a barge, listened to some live music, and got to see lots of cool things up for auction.

And amidst the fun, we've still had plenty of opportunity for chilling out at home, practicing piano and doing workbooks, and enjoying (or trying to survive) our time together.

New car

Today we said goodbye to the first car we bought as a married couple, almost exactly ten years ago. Our little 2002 Kia Rio, bare bones as it was, has served us well. Even with no power stearing, power locks/windows, or air conditioning, it's been a great little car. But, it's been in the shop a lot lately and getting expensive to maintain, so we took the plunge and traded it in for a cute little 2006 Toyota Corolla. We feel good about the deal we got, and hope we can get as much if not more out of this new one than we did the Rio. 

Saying goodbye:

And saying hello:

Brayden 9 month pics

Can't believe this guy is 10 and 1/2 months!  We just absolutely adore this kid around here.  He is so much fun, so happy and friendly, he brings us so much happiness. 

Mississippi River Museum

At the end of June we went up to Dubuque and went to the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium.  We didn't really know much about it, or what to expect, but we got a free Groupon so thought it was a fun family thing to do.  It was so much fun!

The Groupon included both of the iMax 3D/4D movies they had playing.  That was interesting and a little underwhelming.  I really don't see the big deal about them, but the girls thought it was cool.  After that we headed outside and watched a Lumberjack competition.  That was probably the highlight of the whole thing.  Then we finished up by going through the Mark Twain exhibit and touring through a big boat.

They had a bunch of these turtle things everywhere as different characters.  David was happy to find a Spock turtle.

The girls stearing the Mark Twain steamboat. 

Sailing on a raft.

The girls being turtles in the big turtle exhibit.

Inside a big fish.

They had a little raft in real water that you could pull yourself down and back...maybe 50 feet long.  The girls thought that was pretty cool.