Schmidt Family Vacay in Anita

Our annual Schmidt Family Vacation was this weekend.  Each year we pick a weekend and Deb picks a new place within a short drive of us all to meet up (though Heidi and Nate always seem to have to drive the farthest!!).  A few months ago I introduced Deb to VRBO,  a vacation rental by owners website.  Though there aren't a ton of options in Iowa, there are some, and this year we decided on a house in Anita, Iowa.  We loved the idea that we could rent a house that we could all stay in together, versus staying in a hotel and all having our own rooms.  It ended up working out great, and may even be the best trip out of all since we started this over 5 years ago. 

We all met there on Friday afternoon, in time to catch some rays the HUGE wrap around deck.

We knew it was going to be hot - and hot it was.  Luckily it was only an hour drive for us, so we were able to pack full the truck with all sorts of toys, including a pool and hose for the kids to cool off in. 

Each room had a robe in the closet - the kids put them on and played dress up.

The house had plenty of room for us to stretch out.  The boys even had their own play room! 

The kids all got along so well.  It was so fun to watch them play together.  They loved playing pretend, their favorite being pretending to sleep on each other.  Hilarious!!

Saturday morning we checked out the local Mud Races.  It was quite interesting, especially the people watching...

Saturday night Dale and Deb treated us all to a nice dinner at the Redwood.  Food was great, but service was terrible.  We waiting over an hour for our food - the kids did surprisingly well during the wait.

Hannah lovin on Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt.

Kids being silly!

I was able to set up my camera and get a great family picture!  Love that Nate is holding Hannah!

Pulling Grandma around the yard. 

Around the campfire making smores!

The boys playing softball.  It finally cooled down a lot this morning so we spent the entire morning outside. 

We checked out Anita State Park beach.  The kids built sand castles and played in the water. 

The family next to us shared their floaty with us - Camron and Henry had a blast.

Hannah pulling Grandma around.

We played a lot of inside games including chess and Banagrams. 

Henry, Grandpa, Camron and Andy went fishing on Friday night. 

The funniest part of the trip was this morning.  We were playing Banagrams outside and one accidentally fell under the deck.  With some serious Schmidt Family team work we stuck some electrical tape to a smore poker and pushed it to the edge of the fence where Jill had small enough fingers to poke them through and get the A!  It was hilarious!

Great weekend spent with great family. 

Baby Girl Turns 2!

Hannah turned 2 yesterday!!  Hard to believe, but she is growing up.  We had her birthday party on Sunday, and though it was 90 degrees and extremely humid, the kids had a blast. 

We blew up pictures of Hannah from our recent family photo shoot and placed them around the house.  Our photographer did such a great job capturing all of Hannah's different expressions!

The big hit of the party were Hannah's cake pops.  I ordered them from a place called Urban Sugar and they were SO good.  The flavors were red velvet and butter pecan.  I had her decorate them in pink and red with an 'H' and a '2' on them for Hannah.  Delicious!

The boys were boys like usual.  Heat not slowing them down one bit.

Hannah and Grandma jumping in the bounce house.  Hannah is on outfit number 3 at this point.

Feeding Papa a meatball was pretty humorous.

Hannah loving on her Aunties.

Henry giving his 'girlfriend' Ava a ride on his Gator.  Ava kept telling her mom how excited she was to go to her boyfriend's house and Henry's cousins kept calling her his girlfriend - it was pretty cute!

The kids all jumped into the pool with their clothes on.  It was so hot they dried off pretty quickly. 

The bounce house turned into a slip n' slide.  They had SO much fun sliding from side to side!  Thank goodness we had no injuries....

Opening her presents.  Much more engaged this year compared to last year.  She loved opening each present and wanted the toy opened right away. 

Giving Aunt Heidi lovin for her presents.

Testing out all of her new toys with her friends.

Saying goodbye to Grandma Deaner and Papa.

Cousins having so much fun in the bounce house/slip and slide!

Friends having cocktails on the front porch.

Playing in the backyard in the shade.

Great day, great family, friends and fun. 

 

Henry's 1st Field Trip

The summer program started at daycare a few weeks ago.  Now that Henry is in preschool, that means field trips every Friday!  So he had his first trip, on a big, yellow, school bus.  I wasn't able to be there for the pick up at school, but was able to sneak away from work to meet him at the park and see him play for a bit and then load the bus back to school. 

If I would have known how emotional Henry was going to be when he saw me, I may not have come.  I didn't tell him I was going to come, since I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it.  So he was very surprised when he saw me.  His excitement soon turned to tears, which then made me cry and luckily I had my sunglasses on.  I am such a weeny mom.  Here he is lined up with his friends waiting to load the bus.

As soon as I told him it was time to get on the bus he went right away.  I was nervous he was going to cling onto my leg and insist on coming home with me.  Such a big boy climbing into the bus all by himself!

Sitting by the window waving goodbye to me. 

Sitting on one of the teachers laps trying to hold back his tears.  I mean if that doesn't make you cry then I don't know what will - right??

Hard to believe he is already riding school buses!  He is growing up too fast!!  I love that daycare does this each Friday.  Henry helps us pack his Toy Story lunch box each Thursday night, and really looks forward to the bus ride and day at the park.  We are so happy with Kids Company and am so happy we decided to make the switch here last March. 

Maybe I'll try another visit in a few weeks to see if we both hold up a little better emotionally....

Hannah Tubes Round 2

It has been about 14 months since Hannah's first Tubes Surgery and things have gone very well with her health since then.  She's had drainage now and then, but nothing a few drops didn't handle.  That was until her tubes started coming out.

Hannah's left tube fell out about a month ago.  One night I saw a bright green piece of plastic in her ear embedded in drainage.  I freaked out not knowing what it was at first, but then realized with some calming from Andy that it was indeed her tube.  They make them brightly colored for a reason.  We called the Dr. and they said to give it a week, and we would come in to see them to decide next steps.  Sure enough, she had an ear infection already.  So we put her on oral antibiotics.  Took her back in after a week long fussiness, and she had an ear infection in her other ear, and that tube was on its way out.  So we made the decision then to sign her up for her second surgery and put the tubes back in and remove the adenoids as well.  I did not want to deal with ear infection after ear infection again like we did the first time she got tubes.

The surgery was on Andy's 30th birthday.  Lucky for him, he was in an all day meeting at work, so my mom came over for the day to stay with me and Hannah.  They put her in a tiny little gown, put a bracelet on her ankle, which was traumatic for Hannah, took her blood pressure, and then came to explain the process to us and took her away.  15 minutes later they were done, and 10 minutes after that she awoke from the anesthesia.  We were able to take her home shortly after that. 

She was groggy for about two hours after we got her home.  She sat on Grandma's lap and watched several episodes of Elmo.  Then she just got up, and started running like her normal self like nothing ever happened. 

Hopefully this set stays in a little bit longer and we have no more ear problems with our little girl!  But overall, it was an easy process and everything went as well as it could. 

Hannah Movin on Up

Hannah turns 2 years old in less than two weeks!  That means moving up to the 'Little 2's' class at school, which takes place on July 7th.  She is definitely ready for the move.  A few things she has been doing lately that are pretty hilarious:

• Last week before bath Henry was going to the bathroom (standing up), and I asked Hannah if she had to go to the bathroom.  She said yes, so I took her clothes off and she walked over to the toilet next to where Henry was standing.  I didn't get to her fast enough and sure enough she peed, right there, on the floor.  She doesn't know any better since she sees Henry go to the bathroom standing up!  That's gotta be confusing for a girl with an older brother.
• The second she poops she comes and tells me.  I'm thinking potty training in the very near future.  In the Little Two's class they start taking the kids every 2 hours, so it won't be long!
• She copies everything Henry does, and I mean everything.  She said every word he says, and then Henry yells at her "Stop Repeating my Words HANNAH!". 
• She takes toys from Henry and runs away from him so he will chase her around.  She will eventually throw the toy on the ground while giggling and running. 
• She knows her letters!  No joke.  You point to an A, ask her what letter it is, and she says "A, Annabelle!'.  At school they spend 'circle' time going over all the kids names and the letters in their names.  She knows them all. 
• She points to all H's she sees and gets so excited and yells 'H - Hannah!'
• Her big girl bed transition is going well.  She gets out of her bed and plays after we leave the room, but eventually falls asleep.  I'll go in her room and she has all her babies, books, stuffed animals, diapers, wipes, you name it in her crib. 
• She only wants her mom.  Her dad can not to anything.  Can't change her diaper (lovely for poopy diapers), change her clothes, get her out of the bath, put on her clothes, you name it. 
• Last weekend my dad stayed with her while the girls went out shopping.  Hannah did not want him laying next to her while she went down for her nap.  She actually took a purse and hit him in the head with it and yelled 'NO!' at him. 

This girl is not slowing down anytime soon.  She sure does make things exciting around our house. 

We Did It!! 12.4 Miles!!

I talked my sister Brianna into running the Dam to Dam, Iowa's Distance Classic 20K race back in March.   We started training in April, and actually did pretty well training for the first month, but the past month was not as impressive, so I was a little worried for race day.  The big day was yesterday - and we finished!!  My goal was not to walk at all - and I reached my goal.  I finished in a shocking 2 hours and 12 minutes. 

I had my phone with me so I could stay in touch with Andy, and document the race on the way.  Here are some pictures from the big day. 

Mile 4 - Still sporting smiles and feeling great!!

Love this picture of Bri!

My favorite part of the race - mile 8!!  Andy was so awesome and brought the kids out to cheer me on.  They missed us at mile 3, so chased the route down to mile 8 and waited for us there.  Love seeing them - and it was great motivation for me. 

Brianna ended up leaving me around mile 9, but we both finished strong!! 

It was pretty chaotic at the end of the race, so we took the kids a block over and let them run around at the sculpture garden.  Both kids loved wearing my medal, especially Hannah.

I'm definitely sore this morning as I sit and type this, but not as bad as I thought I would be.  Sign up again in 2013??

Boating at the Res

My dad randomly bought a boat last summer, at the very end of the year, so Andy and I were unable to go out for a ride on the reservoir.  The kids went on it though on a weekend Andy and I were away, and Henry had not forgotten the trip, nearly 9 months ago.  So this past Sunday, we broke out the boat for the season.  The kids had a blast.  They splashed around in the water and Henry got to fish. 

Sitting on the boat with Grandma Deaner.  Henry did great with his life jacket, didn't complain once, but Hannah on the other hand was terrible.  She wanted nothing to do with the thing.  So that was a little bit of a challenge.  We finally got her distracted and she forgot about it. 

Fishing off the back of the boat with Papa.

He can cast all on his own!  Such a big boy.

Check out that tongue.  Pretty funny - he does it a lot when he is concentrating hard. 

Hannah LOVED jumping off the back of the boat. 

Splashing in the water.

Andy driving a boat for the first time. 

The kids played in the sand while Andy practiced his docking skills (check him out in the background).  I think it took only 10 times, but he finally lined it up right and got it on the trailer!