Father's Day

For Father's Day, we decided to go camping! Since it was Kendall's first time and we didn't know what to expect and it was supposed to rain that night, we camped in our backyard. We set up the tent, made a fire, grilled hot dogs, and made smores. Kendall had a great night--only woke up once like normal. Makes me all the more excited to camp over the 4th of July! Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Setting up the tent

Kendall inspects the setup and approves!

Hanging out by the fire

Kendall tried so hard to stay awake--she hates to miss anything. But after so much excitement, she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. Good night little lady! :) Watch the video here

first steps!

This week Kendall started taking her first steps! She's still pretty wobbly but so proud of herself! She will be running soon! :)

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Baseball game

Kendall went to her first baseball game a couple weekends ago. After a first inning of crabbiness, she ate and life was great again! And she discovered a new favorite game... take off Grandpa's hat over and over and over again! Thanks Dad for being such a good sport and playing along :) Oh, and the I Cubs won! Great night!

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Mystery solved

I’m sure all of you, like Tim and me, have been dying to know what this post in our yard is all about. Boundary marker for our property? Old road marker for wagon transportation once upon a time? Coordinates for the imminent attack on our house? So many possibilities!!

After talking to our neighbors, we now know that it was the railroad marker for the tracks that used to go right past our house. It was a north/south track that went to Kansas City (which is about 295 miles from our house).



Not as exciting of an answer as I was hoping for, but still cool to have on our property. As you can see, Tim and Kendall are very relieved and happy to finally have the facts!

Capmgrounds!

Last weekend (I know—I’m behind in blogging), Tim and I checked out a couple of the campgrounds that are within 10 miles of our house! Both were very nice, and we can’t wait to camp in them one of these weekends. Union Grove State Park in particular caught our eye. The campground itself is closed right now—flooding possibly?—but the rest of the park is great! A whole little community lives around the lake in cute little houses and cottages. Reminds me of lakefront properties in Michigan. I would love to own one of those houses some day and have the lake right across the street!

Anyway, on our way out of the park, I spotted this waterfall and forced Tim to pull over so that we could take a picture.

Attempt 1

Attempt 2

Attempt 3

Not that bad of a picture I guess, but you can't see the waterfall at all

Finally, I just gave up and took a picture of the waterfall...still blurry, but oh well. :)

Getting big!

My little baby is quickly turning into a kid! She has discovered the cupboards in the kitchen and wants to empty them, she wants to eat baby food instead of drinking a bottle most of the time, and wants to drink out of a cup and hold the spoon I'm using to feed her! Here's my big girl enjoying the swings :)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9pv_DP8h-8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Mother's Day!

This year was my first Mother’s Day with a child not in my belly, and it was a great one! Unbeknownst to me, Mother’s Day kind of started on Thursday for me. Tim and I were planning on going to Ames on Friday to watch Titus graduate, and I was trying to make plans on when we would be leaving, would I leave from Ankeny, etc. And Tim was refusing to make plans! He just kept saying, “let’s see how tomorrow goes and then we can decide.” Ah! I let it go and decided just to wait until tomorrow and try to get past my overwhelming need to plan ahead.

So Friday comes along and the morning begins as it normally does. Tim gets up, showers, puts on his Hawaiian shirt (after all, it’s Friday), and leaves with Kendall for work. I got a text from him later in the morning asking what time I was planning on going to work out over lunch. I gave him a detailed itinerary of my lunch plans including times and places (again, showing my need for organization and planning) and asked him why he was so interested. He said he just wanted to talk over lunch because he missed me—Aw! J

When it was almost time for lunch, he emailed me and said there was a present waiting for me at Greenburgs and I should leave slightly early to pick it up! What?!? I was too excited to wait another 10 minutes, so I left immediately for Greenburgs. When I got there, Tim and Kendall were there along with a potted plant that Kendall had drawn on, a balloon, and a beautiful necklace. They took me to Olive Garden for lunch, and I took the rest of the afternoon off. What a great family I have! Thanks for the wonderful surprise!!

I now know that Tim had planned this a while ago and even our daycare was in on it. They had bathed Kendall, fed her well, and put on a cute outfit to get her ready for the surprise. J Very memorable first Mother's day.