Jarred's Graduation

This Memorial Day weekend was spent over in Eastern Iowa with my side of the family.  All of my cousins and aunts were in town to celebrate Jarred's graduation.  We also had Brianna's bridal shower while everyone was in town, which worked out great!  It was so nice to spend time with all of my extended family.  Since we all live so far away, times that we all get together are rare.  Jarred is the youngest of the cousin's and he graduated this past weekend from my high school Alma mater, Prairie High School.  Henry and I attended the graduation ceremony, and then we all hung out at his graduation party afterwards.  There was plenty of things to keep the kids busy for the four hours we were there.

Spent a lot of time feeding and chasing the ducks with the bread from the party (Hannah had to taste it before throwing it)

Friendly ducks and geese.

Playing with a 3 month old puppy.

Love this picture of Brian and Brianna swinging the kids around! 

Who doesn't love a little Ring Around the Rosy??

Hannah's face after getting a little too close to my cousin Justin - priceless!!

Family picture.

Playing in the grass with my model hair.

Grandma with all of her grandkids!

Cousin pyramid.  We did this years ago when we were very little, Grandma was going to find the old one to have them side by side. 

 

Stenberg family.

Four generations.

Salwey family pic. 

ELMO!!

Saturday morning Kelly, Erin and I took all the kiddos to Sesame Street Live, in Downtown Des Moines.  Henry had been talking about it for weeks at school and was so excited.  We didn't know what to expect, or how the kids would react, but we knew it would be a good idea to meet early to let them run off some steam.  They played in some green space right outside Wells Fargo Arena, running through the freshly planted flowers, on the cement, and up and down the stairs.

Peyton, Georgia, Henry and Hannah before the big show!

Hannah handing her ticket to get in. 

Rock star 2nd row seats. 

$29 in Sesame Street merchandise later, kids were zoned back into the show after a 15 minute intermission.  

The kids did so great during the show.  They all sat still, in their seats, and were so amazed.  They loved it!!  We had a picnic lunch after in the Des Moines Sculpture garden.  The hills are huge at this place and the kids loved rolling down them. 

On top of the world!!

Rolling/scooting down the grass.  Grass stains galore!!

Friends:)  Henry was so sweet with both Georgia and Peyton all morning.  Holding Peyton's hand when we left, sitting next to Georgia during the show since she asked to sit next to Henry, and posing for pictures on cue and trying to get all three girls lined up around him.  I see trouble in the years to come:)

Henry and Georgia, arms wrapped around each other.  Too stinkin cute!! 

My monkey - climbing through the statue. 

Henry had the rolling down the hill thing down, but Hannah wasn't quite sure how to do it.  So I wrapped her in my arms and rolled down the hill with her.  She loved it!  Mommy was pretty dizzy afterwards, but it was worth it after hearing that laugh!

Though a little stressful at times, with all the people and distractions, the kids (and mommies) did great.  I am lucky to have such great friends that are as crazy as me to bring our kids to events like this.  Thank you Kelly and Erin!!



Run in with Permanent Marker

Last weekend while staying with Heidi and Nate the kids made themselves right at home.  Henry is at the age where we can leave him alone for quite awhile without having to worry about him too much, but Hannah is right on the line.  She knows right from wrong, but she definitely pushes her limits.  While I was in the shower the kids were playing downstairs.  Henry came to tell Heidi that Hannah was playing on the computer, Heidi didn't think much of it since there wasn't anything in there she could hurt.  Then Andy peeked on them and saw that Hannah had found the permanent marker....oops....

Thankfully she only colored on herself and not their brand new desk and computer!!

It took a week for the marker to finally come off - except for her pinkie toenail.  She sure keeps us on our toes!! 

Hannah's Black Eyes

About 6 weeks ago we were at the park and Hannah took a really, really bad fall.  Like a head first dive into the corner of a metal step.  Her head swelled up instantly, turning colors, and she was screaming.  With it being a head injury we took her to the ER (after I knocked on our pediatrician's door, who wasn't home since he works the clinic on Friday nights).  They checked her over and everything was fine, and has been since, but check out the shiners it left her. 

Check out her first piggy tails!!

The bruises are cleared up now, but when she gets mad and crinkles her forehead you can see an imprint where she hit the step right in the middle of her head.  Who knows - it may be a permanent war wound!!

Drew's Faithful Feet

This past weekend we drove over to Geneseo for a visit with Heidi and Nate, and to participate in Drew's Faithful Feet, a charity event in Geneseo in memory of Devon's little boy, Drew.  Devon, Julie and I all lived in Mayflower freshman year at Iowa and have a lot of fun memories.  It had been a year since I saw Julie, and over 3 years since I saw Devon.  It was such a great event that Devon did a great job organizing.  Her and Dan have been through so much in the past 2 years and her faith is inspiring.  I am lucky to know her and was so glad to be able to reconnect and watch our kiddos play together!  And such a small world that Heidi and Nate live in Geneseo, which means more visits!

Nate and I made good time on the 5K, Heidi and Andy walked it with the the kids, and we spent time together after the race at Devon and Dan's catching up.  The weather was absolutely beautiful and the kids played together so well. 

Hannah playing with Julie and Blake's son Colin, who is just 3 months older than her. 

Loving the swingset in the backyard. 

Friends playing house together.

Henry playing with Hayden, who just turned 4. 

Hannah kept ordering Colin around.  'Sit here Colin' she would say.  It was too cute! 

Blake watching the boys play together. 

Devon, Julie, me and Jill.  All Iowa Grads who go back a long way!!

Playing peek a boo with Colin in the house. 

Crazy to think that the last time these kiddos were together they were just This Big!

We hope to make this an annual event.  Good time with good friends and family. 

Cruisin'

And we are back!  Andy and I were fortunate enough to take a 9, yes I said nine, day vacation down to Florida and the Caribbean.  We left on a Friday night, flew into Orlando, and then drove down to Fort Lauderdale the next morning in time to board the World's largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean's the Oasis of the Seas for our 7 night cruise through the Eastern Caribbean.   

We stopped in the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Marteen.  Each place seemed to get better and better.  And the ship was just amazing.  We had never cruised before, but can safely say it will not be the last time. 

First stop was Bahamas.  We took a self guided tour through downtown, then caught a taxi over to Paradise Island to enjoy the beach for the remainder of the day.  Each beach we stopped at I would enjoy my sun time while Andy enjoyed his ocean time.  It was the perfect mix. 

Then we spent a day at sea before we stopped at St. Thomas - which was just beautiful!!  The views were just unbelievable.  Much prettier than the Bahamas. 

We snorkeled at Coki Beach in St. Thomas.  Quite the workout, but well worth it. 

We got back to the ship in time for our first of two formal nights. 

View of our nicely made up room.  We had a Stateroom Attendant who cleaned our room for us twice a day and always left a nicely folded towel animal in our room. 

 The next day we sailed over to St. Marteen.  We took a taxi up to the popular Orient Beach.  We rented some chairs, got some island drinks, and enjoyed the beautiful views.  I got an ocean side massage, while listening to the waves.  Not a bad deal!

Eating lunch at an ocean side restaurant. 

The last two days were spent at sea so we took in all the ship had to offer.  We saw Hairspray the musical, watched an ice skating show, several other musical events, a comedy show, a lot of karaoke, and hit up the midnight pizza place a little too much.  We worked out two times, which took a little getting used to with the ships movement. 

We rock climbed.

At dinner in the main dining hall each night except for one.  We were lucky enough to receive a voucher for one of the upgraded restaurants during our stay.  The food was delicious every where. 

Spent time in the different neighborhoods on the ship - my favorite being Central Park.

Dinner at Chops Steakhouse.  Awesome, awesome food.

Spent a lot of time on our balcony watching the different shows on the Boardwalk Neighborhood below us.

Zip lined.

Spent a little too much time at the casino.  Our new favorite was the automatic blackjack machine.

We could see the Aqua Theater from our balcony so could watch the nightly water shows whenever we wanted to. 

Enjoyed views like this.

And mostly did a lot of this. 

It was so nice being disconnected from the world for over a week.  Of course we couldn't stay disconnected from our kids for that long, so brought our iPad along so we could Skype with them a few times while we were gone.  They didn't seem to miss us too much - maybe we will do this more often!!

A huge shout out to all of our family that helped us with the kids while we were gone.  We owe you big time, love you so much, and are so lucky to have you in our lives.