Curesearch Walk

On May 18th, the Curesearch walk was held at Principal Park. Camryn's team keeps getting bigger each year, so there were quite a few people walking for her and in hopes of raising awareness and money for childhood cancer.
At the beginning of the walk, there is always an extra emotional part when all the names of the kids who haven't won their battle are read. such a tear jerker. such an emotional walk to know where we've been, what we're going through and what could be.

After the walk, the kids and I headed over to my sister's house for a little cookout and kid play time. it was fun to actually not have to pay too much attention to my kids since they were playing with their cousins and a few more responsible older kids. 

Easter weekend

Adam had Good Friday off so we headed to Albia for a few days. The weather was pretty nice that Friday and Saturday, so we spent a lot of time outside. The kids played on the swing set and with the dogs. They even got to feed the goats with Nana.

Nana got a new toy, so her and Fletcher went for a drive in her new mini cooper convertible. While they were gone, Brynlee and I walked next door to my grandparents' house friday to hang with her greats. 

Later that evening, my Uncle Mike came over to get Fletcher and me, to head out to see his new baby calves. There was one particular calf that he was feeding off of a cow that lost her baby. Fletcher got a first hand experience, as my (our) uncle let him lead the calf to where he needed to be. Fletcher thought he was pretty big stuff doing that.  

Saturday afternoon, we left Pops and Nana's right around lunchtime and headed next door for lunch with the greats and Uncle Mike. My grandparents enjoy the kids so much and the kids enjoy them as well. He visited over our meal and then headed for Des Moines since it was past nap time and I had a little girl who was getting very crabby.

It was a fun few days hanging out with the family that we wouldn't be spending time with on Easter. 

the last five months-august

august was packed full of fun. we had to make sure we did all the last 'summer-ish' things before school started for flether and our days weren't so open. 

one day in early august, adam's dad was up doing some things to the house (we were still moving at this point) and he heard some music in the distance. when he caught sight of what it was, he came inside to see if the kids could have ice cream. this is a very rare occasion so all three of us joined him outside to get a treat. 

in the middle of the month, my parents had my niece and nephew (brother's kids) for a few weeks. they decided to make a trip to the omaha zoo and the kids and i were asked if we wanted to tag along. since adam was out of town (big surprise), we did. we were only gone for one 30 hours, but we were on the go. we headed to the air and space museum to check out all the old planes...four kids and two adult females were bored out of our minds, but my dad sure enjoyed it. 

when we left the museum, we drove next door to mahoney state park where we were staying at the lodge, checked in and then thought we would go to the water park for a bit. this was a major hit. 

checking out the map of the grounds. there is so much to do that they want to come back. 

the following morning, we got the crew ready for a day at the zoo. 

the iowa state fair starts the second thursday and goes for the next 10 days. it's kind of tradition for us to go and do certain things every year. the kids are getting older and having more fun seeing the animals and doing  some of the activities 

camping at camp pops and nana's

my grandpa's 89th birthday. we had a family party for him and all of his kids, grandkids and greats were in attendance. 

grandma and grandpa with the greats. seven kids, nine and under...oh, the joys. 

the last five months-june

i was looking forward to june. the sun. the trips to the pool and zoo. staying up late. grilling and having summertime beverages. weekend adventures. our summer started out great, but by the end of the month, our summer took a major turn from fun to stressful.

the beginning of the month, i wanted to get the kids pictures taken. and because i'm am 'tight' with my money (in certain areas), i decided to play photographer mommy. with the help of my helpful assistant (my mom), we headed to the neighbors backyard to try and get a few decent pictures. fletcher was a ham. brynlee, not so much. i did end up getting a headache, and few that were frame-able. 

back in april for fletcher's birthday, he received a fishing pole from his pops and nana. ever since, he has really been into fishing. adam took him a few times. they also went to uncle dave's pond and did some fishing. fletcher is very impatient (inherited trait), and not quiet, so there was little catching going on.

on june 23rd, adam played in the alumni football game again. this year, he was joined by his step-brother nate, his friend iffy, and the oldest player on the team, his dad. this years game was not enjoyable at all. after the first three minutes of play, it started pouring. so hard. there was no rain in the forecast, and for the games entirety, it rained. stopping right as the clock ticked to 00:00. i have a lot of pictures of the game, but it didn't really get to watch any of it. albia lost again this year, but it was closer during the whole game. he's already signed up to play next year.

 {fletcher and cousin kate}

after the game weekend, we stayed in albia until monday morning and then left from there for our family getaway to kansas city. we were headed to great wolf lodge for a few days to relax. we did a lot of swimming, arcade game playing and cub club crafting. one afternoon, we escaped to crown center and explored a bit. we went to fritz's, a dinosaur exhibit and the crayola store. 

     

                  

              

and this happened. this was a big decision for us to make. at the time, it was the right thing to do but as time went on, we realized that by moving away from everything we have and the things that were currently happening with our family, that we would stay put and deal with the consequences. at this point, things are going well with the final decision to stay. there may be more to share about this in the next few weeks. 

the past five months-may

i've blogged a bit since may, but not nearly enough to keep updated with all that we did or happened. i will {attempt} to get caught up. no promises this time, but i already have two scheduled, so i'm already making progress. i'll start with May and work my way to the current happenings in our lives.

MAY

fletcher had his last speech session of the 2011-2012 school year. we also found out that ms. diane2 would be leaving us and that we would be getting a new SLP. i did not do well with this info, and actually shed a few tears over the news. 

happy mother's day from the hubby and the kids. adam made me this garden box that i've been wanting for the last three years. 

my sister and i decided to take an eight hour (one way) trip to minnesota for our cousins graduation party, with five kids, 5 years and younger. we got some strange looks, but we had fun and the kids were pretty good, most of the time. 

the kids did a lot of playing. 

and one final thing to note, daycare boy had his last day here on may 17th. it was nice having him, but it's nice to just have my kids to worry about and be able to go and do what i want, when i want. 

great wolf lodge

in june, we went on a little family vacation. adam and i had been planning this for a few months and last minute, i decided that with things going on so close to the travel date, we would scratch st. louis and head to kansas city. there were tons of things on my list, but with adam just having a few days off work, we really just wanted to relax and have fun. i decided that we would go to great wolf lodge for a few days and drive into kansas city one afternoon. 

we arrived around 3:30 that afternoon, just in time for check-in. however, i went in to do a quick task of getting our room keys and i waited in line for over an hour. since we didn't want to go to the water park before eating dinner, we just walked over to cabela's and roamed for a while, before heading to chik-fil-a (judging may begin now, please keep your comments to yourself). after we ate, we went to wal-mart to get some breakfast food for the next morning and then went back to our room to get a good night's sleep so we were ready for the waterpark the next day. 

brynlee is our water baby. she loves water and pretty much has NO FEAR. fletcher, on the other hand, took a bit to convince him he was fine, once he realized he wasn't going to sink to the bottom. we had to do a little bit of tough love to make him realize that, but once he did, we all had a much more enjoyable time in the water. 

he was just tall enough to go on one of the water slides with an adult. the first time with adam, he was holding on pretty tight. once they came down, he was all about going again. adam finally had to hand him over to me so i could take him. brynlee enjoyed the lazy river and the fountains the most. she also wanted to be in the deeper water, where she couldn't touch. 

when we were leaving the waterpark that first morning, little boy wasn't happy. he wanted to stay. he made it very obvious to all those around, what he wanted to do. so against his will, we went to the room and and got ready to drive downtown for some lunch and a little exploring.

our first stop was to get a bite to eat. we went to fritz's railroad restaurant at crown center. little boy is into trains, so i figured this would be a fun place for him. we call and order our food from the booth and then a train comes around the track at the top and delivers what we ordered. such a fun place...and loud! after lunch, we went to the free dinosaur exhibit and the kids played with the hands-on activities. we went to the crayola store and we colored and i enjoyed browsing the shelves. 

after naps, the kids and i went to cub club and fletcher got to color a pillowcase and brynlee got a violet color sheet. we were just coloring away, when a visitor came in the room. we got to meet violet. little boy wasn't sure about her and brynlee just stared, but no tears and we got a decent picture with her. 

when we got back to the room, we decided to go back to the waterpark. we ended up checking out the outside pool, where there were fewer people and brynlee could go on the baby slide. we spend about two hours in the water before going in and getting ready for supper. we wanted to see the great clock tower show and to meet oliver, so we were kind of in a hurry. 

after we met oliver, we went to the northern lights arcade. we all played a few games, before calling it a night. the following morning, we suited up again for a quick dip and then packed our stuff to head for home. it was such a fun time. i wish we would have stayed another day so we could have made it to the zoo or did some other activity. 

thanks for the memories great wolf lodge. until next time...