A Quick Visit from Grammy Q

Our first visitor of the summer was Grammy Q! She came for a quick visit at the end of June, and we we packed in the pool, a date night for Jason and I, 

 lots of games of checkers, 

 and an overall catch-up on the Morales ladies.  It is just no fun living so far away from so many of our favorite family members.

We're so glad that she's coming back to visit for Emma's baptism in August!

Fourth of July Celebrations

The Fourth of July is one holiday full of traditions that we have down pat.  First up- the Des Moines Symphony Yankee Doodle Pops concert.

Always a favorite, even when thunderstorms threaten to cancel the concert and we all got squishy wet in the grass of the capitol lawn.  It's a night that we would hate to miss!

  

 My babies!  :) 

We usually share our square of grass with a few dozen friends, and this year was no exception.  We even squeezed a few into our car with us to share the evening!  Sarah and Ben and their family are people we knew we'd be friends with the moment we met them, and we were glad they could come! 

The night went by quickly, and eventually the lights went up and the concert started, 

 and finally the fireworks commenced!  Someone seemed a little trigger happy with the 1812 Overture canons this year, which confirmed our decision to leave the pup at home for the night. 

What a wonderful way to celebrate the Fourth!

On the actual Fourth of July we started the day out with our church breakfast, then I finally let the kids open Grandma's package.  I laughed out loud when I saw it contained the very same sunglasses Leah had been asking me to take her to Target for for the last three days!  Thanks Grandma!

Laney says thanks, too.

In the afternoon we headed over to our favorite lake with some friends.  

They have a kayak and a paddle board and we always love to put them to use! 

 Leah and Adam won the award for most time on the water! 

I wasn't sure how Laney would handle the fireworks that night- she's experienced several thunderstorms in her little life and hasn't freaked out, but I didn't want to leave her alone, just in case.  That combined with Emma feeling under the weather and Jason took the three other kids to a friends house for fireworks while I stayed home with sleeping Emma, not at all concerned about the fireworks Laney, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.  :)  I was pooped and it was a great ending to a great day.

Happy Independence Day!

Cucumber Boats

When I was a little girl we carved boats out of cucumbers from my grandma's garden and spent the afternoon sailing them in the little pond water feature that was tucked in the back corner of her farmhouse.  It was a fun and simple tradition, and one that we've recreated before.  Thanks to the beauty and accountability of the blog, the kids requested that we make cucumber boats again this summer.  So we did!

First we carved, 

then we headed to Des Moines

except... the water wasn't flowing in the city creek we had chosen for our boat races.  Oops.

  We found a bit of running water, but nothing strong enough to really get the boats going.  

 And boy was it hot!  So we switched to Plan B- the stone park that Noah had also discovered via a blog book and wanted to explore.  Twenty minutes in the wrong direction and we were eventually there!

 Except there wasn't any moving water there, either.  Boy, my memory was failing me!  Still, we tried to give our cucumber boats a ride in the fountains.

  And even though our boat racing efforts failed, it didn't stop us from having fun!

 And neither did the heat!

 The girls tried to stay dry, 

 The boys, not so much.   

  Eventually everyone was soaked and cooled off and happy.  

Despite the failed cucumber efforts, we still had fun! 

Here's to another shot at recreating cucumber boat memories...kind of!

Summer Vacation

Our summer vacation looked like this this year- 

We decided back at the beginning of the year that we were going to stay home this summer, and even though it hasn't been the most exciting summer we've ever had, we've stuck to it and stuck around Iowa this summer.  

I often quip that winter is the time to leave Iowa- summers here are fantastic!  Also, Jason works with corn, and corn really likes the summers too.  That makes travel a little bit tricky, and so over the years we have learned to enjoy being home in the summertime.

And we have had a whole lot of fun because many of our favorite people have come to visit us this summer.  It's a different kind of vacation, but it has been a memorable, wonderful one!  I'll write a post about each of our visitors, but first, a few snapshots of summer at home. 

One day we picked up Mickey bars!  A great reminder of a great vacation.

Laney has been torturing the kids with her chewing, 

and they've been torturing her right back!

We've been smelling the flowers

and occasionally practicing the piano- 

and doing far more toy playing and imagination exploring and all around lounging than we've done in a good long while, and it's been great!

Even though it's been so tempting to hop in the car and have a summer adventure or two, this summer, there's been no place like home for us.

Chasing the Light

I have so many posts to catch up on, but I'll start with a silly pup who loves to chase spots of sunlight around 5:00 every afternoon.  

 And she just can't ever catch them!

 So close!  And so confusing.