Taking Advantage of the Weather!

This past weekend and this week has been a RAINY mess! Finally after storms and tons of rain we got a nice day on Tuesday... so of course we had to get out and take advantage of it! We picked up Parker from school and invited Cooper and Nicole to join us at the park for some fun! It was in the 60's and SUNNY! :) It was beautiful out! We didn't stay too long since it was already almost lunch time... but while we were there Avery ran into a friend from preschool and we also got to meet a gorgeous GREAT DANE (a.k.a. Scooby dog)! The kids had a blast as usual and then we headed home to have lunch and take a nap! It was a great break from all the rain! Here are a few pictures from the day.

Update from last week! :)

Again we have had a busy week!!! Does it ever slow down??? I am pretty sure the answer to that is NO! :) We did our normal activities through the week... a visit to the library, a trip to the park, walks, etc. Then on Friday night we had a BBQ at our house! We invited Ryan & Candi and the girls (we owe them tons of meals still!) and Brad & Nicole and the kids and Ross. Nick and Brad (mostly Brad) did the grilling since Nick, Ross and Ryan were messing around in the garage with Nick's truck. It was yummy... cheeseburgers, brats, potato salad, deviled eggs, watergate fluff (a.k.a. green fluff, right Candi?), baked beans and chips! We had fun chatting while the kids played together! Afte dinner Hallie and Reese and Owen put on a puppet show too! - - not much of a show, but they had a good time!! :) - - unfortunately I have no pictures! :(

Saturday night we went to our friends Shawn & Lindsey's for dinner. The kids got to make their own pizzas and we had pizza, lettuce salads and fruit salad! Again... yummy! :) We hadn't seen these friends forever... so it was so nice to catch up! - - THANKS again for dinner guys! - I did manage to get a few photos!! :)

Then Sunday we mostly hung out around the house... Nick got called into work and worked from 9:45am - 8pm! So the boys and I had a nice LONG afternoon nap and waited for Nick to get home to take us all out for ice cream! It was a bummer having him gone all day! :(

Playing at the Park

Today was another GORGEOUS day! It was in the 70's and sunny! What a great day for a trip to the park! We invited Cooper and Nicole to join us too! We grabbed the kids' lunch at McDonalds (Wednesday is their cheap day for happy meals) and then headed to the park to play! We ate our lunch at a picnic table there and then headed straight for the climbing equipment! They had so much fun... they got a little rowdy in the sand... but you know boys! :) They wanted to take our new magnifying glasses to the park to look for bugs (a bug hunt) too... so that was pretty cute to see them with their magnifying glasses... I got a few good pictures!

Thanks for joining us Nicole and Cooper we had fun! :)

Trip to Keokuk

Last weekend we headed to Keokuk for our annual visit! My grandparents are winter Texans... so they don't get back here until April and each year we make a trip down to visit them once they have returned. We got to leave Thursday night and spend the whole weekend with everyone! My dad's entire side of the family all live in that area (siblings and parents). Lucky for us... my cousin Mitch was in town visiting so we got to see him too! Mitch lives in Ohio!

Friday morning we all (us and grandparents) went into town to eat breakfast at HyVee (a tradition for my grandparents)! We got to see my Great Uncle Mark, Uncle Merlin, Aunt Marlene, Mitch, and some other family friends. It was nice to visit with everyone and catch up!

This picture BEST describes our time at HyVee... hehehe! The boys LOVE Uncle Merlin (a.k.a. BERLIN)!!!

After breakfast the boys, ladies and I did some shopping and then headed back to the house. Owen and I spent some time outside playing soccer! - he LOVES soccer! The Wilson guys and Nick got in a game of golf over in Carthage, IL... it was GORGEOUS out! - -except they all came home looking like lobsters!!! They got a little burnt! :)

Here are some random shots with some of the family...

Grandpa doing what he does best... hehehe!

Then Saturday Matt, Nick, the boys and I all headed back into Keokuk to visit with some friends we grew up with... Chris, Kevin and Kathy! We all ate at Pizza Hut (kids too and Kathy's Mom and niece) and then took all of the kids to the park for a bit before it started raining. We got to meet Kevin's wife and kids and Chris' girlfriend and her son on this trip too! Afterwards we all went out to my grandparent's house and played pool and ping pong! It was lots of fun... even if there were 17 people in the basement!!!!

The weekend went by too fast... we had so much fun getting to spend time with everyone!! We are looking forward to seeing everyone again on Memorial weekend! :)

EASTER 2009...

We had a VERY busy Easter this year!!! We started out celebrating with our Easter party at daycare on Thursday! We dyed eggs, had an egg hunt outside, got presents and made and ate treats. Here are some fun pictures of our day!

Then we headed back to I.G. on Friday after Nick got off work to spend the weekend with family! We took the boys to the egg hunt at Moorehead park on Saturday morning and they got tons of eggs as usual!! They got to see the Easter bunny too! We saw some friends there too... which was great! :)

Then we went back to Nina Wilson's for lunch, presents and naps and ended up rearranging her living room! :) It turned out nice and we helped her move some things downstairs too to give it a fresh look! :)

After some playing and bubble blowing at Nina Wilson's for awhile we headed over to Nina and Papa Hamann's for another Easter Egg hunt!!! After the hunt the kids all opened presents and played outside and then we had a nice Easter dinner that Jane made!

Then after all of the festivities on Saturday night we headed back to Waukee! My brother came over and went to the Easter service at our church Sunday morning with us... and then out to brunch with my at the Radish in Grimes. It was a GREAT Easter this year!!! We enjoyed getting to see everyone and spending time with everyone even if it was a quick trip! Hope everyone's EASTER was as HAPPY as ours!! :)