Rain, Rain

When we first moved to the Midwest 8 years ago, we marveled at the power and intensity of the weather that comes storming through all year long.  This was at 8:00 this morning.  

We have since grown used to the thunderstorms, high winds, and torrential rains, and can occasionally even be found chasing after the animals that are seeking refuge from the storm. 

And now we just shake our heads at all of the havoc that the storms create.  This is the third trampoline casualty on our street this month. 

And what's eaqually as amazing is how quickly storms move on, 

leaving freshly bathed land and sky behind.  

Never A Dull Moment

I don't know who those people are or what they're doing, but I do know that that is real hair plucked from a hairbrush sticking out of that man's shirt.  Ewww.

Camp Morales

It's tradition!  And once summer hit, we were ready to go.

 

 And camping always includes discovering lots of creepy bugs, 

delicious chocolate milk (I nearly cried when I saw it was from Fair Oaks Dairy Farm, which we frequented while we lived in Indiana and really is the best), 

games, lots of playing with the fire, delicious outdoorsy food, including our weird camping specialty- chocolate melted on potato chips (don't knock it till you've tried it!), 

and don't let Jason's face fool you- he lives for camping over a fire!

We did the majority of our hiking the second day, so after our initial hike through the woods 

we had lots of tent time,  singing around the campfire, snuggling and holding hands in the dark as we wandered over to the bathroom, 

 but not a whole lot of sleeping.  Too many Boy Scouts, early birds, and raccoons nearby to get any good sleep... also, sleeping on the ground shouldn't really be a thing, even with air mattresses.

 The next day we packed up our camp and headed over to check out the Devil's Backbone.

It was really hot and so buggy!  The one cave in the park was a welcome respite from both.

 And the craggy path did look more like something from Utah than from Iowa. 

With 50 foot drops all around us, the hike was a pretty unique one.  

There is nothing quite like wandering through nature together and wondering what bobcat or bear might come bounding over the hill.  Or, in my case, wondering just how close I am to poison ivy at any given time.

We waded through a crystal clear, moving creek, caught a cute little frog, then called it good.  

There wasn't quite as much to explore as we had hoped, and try as we might to always give Iowa the benefit of the doubt, there are some things that just don't measure up to some of the adventures we've had.  Like the size of this cute little balanced rock-  

But we're always glad to have taken the trips that we take, and this one did have a super fun ending.  As we were winding up the day and trying to decide how to finish it off, we agreed on (well, Daddy got outvoted) boats on the lake!

 Now that looks like summer!

 Jason manned the canoe with the little kids while I took the big kids on the kayak- first Leah, then Adam.  

The kids all thought we would surely capsize the boats and land everyone in the stinky, mossy water, but we all did just fine and started dreaming about our time on Grandpa's canoe up in the Rocky Mountains later this summer.

 

After that we hopped back in the car and headed the 2.5 hours back home, stopping by our usual northern BBQ place on the way- it's loud, it's cheap, and it's good, and no one blinked an eye at how dirty or smelly we might have been.  Good ol' Iowa.

This trip reminded me a lot of the spring break trip to Kansas City we took a few years ago.  It was fun, it was new, but it wasn't exceptional.  I don't always know what the difference is between one trip and the next (Backbone compared to last year's Maquoketa Caves paled in comparison), but I do always want to remember that we took the time to be together as a family.  And that was the best part of all. 

Our First Family 5K

We had two goals- cross the finish line together and don't lose anyone.

And we succeeded!

We spent about a month preparing for the race- some of us by running and some of us by sitting. 

There wasn't really any way to prepare the kids for the massive walls of bubbles we were going to tear through.  

 But they were ready for it!

Well, some of them.  Oh goodness, we also had a parent fail big time.  The stroller acted like a giant snow shovel, scooping up all of the bubbles and basically eating Noah and Emma alive.  Poor Noah was quite traumatized by it.  

We had to pull over for a solid five minutes to wipe him off and calm him down and coax him back into the stroller so we could actually get going on the race.

The big kids didn't mind one bit, but the competitive part of my brain (which is really, really small) was a bit frantic about getting a move on!

 We were right near the end of the pack, but that ended up being a blessing because we weren't constantly getting in the way of more serious runners (those that were actually running through the bubbles, rather than playing in them, that is).  

We got smart and took our time prepping for each chute- 

 stopping to take skyline pictures- 

and plenty of other pictures along the way- 

swimming around in bubble piles- 

dancing in bubble streets-

and giggling about bubble pants.  

We figured out how to get the stroller through the bubbles- 

and Emma and Noah were much happier in the color bubble shoots. 

 Even now, more than a month later, Noah tells everyone that he liked the color bubbles but he did not like the white ones.

Poor Noah.  He gets lumped into "the kids" category a lot, and we sometimes forget that he's still quite a little guy.  This race was not his cup of tea- didn't like the bubbles, didn't like the music, didn't like the crowds or the noise at all.  Typical Noah.  

He may be the youngest, but he's not about to be forgotten.

 Eventually we made it to the finish line!  

Again, notice Noah with his complete disdain for the whole thing.

Leah tricked us all by sprinting to the finish line- and she is fast!- and it was uphill!  

But we had to check out the foam cannons- the party after the race! 

It was like a human car wash, and it was a whole lot of fun too 

(for most of us- Noah and I kind of stood off to the side).  

And now we can say that we've completed our first- and definitely not our last- family 5k!