Yes, We're Still Here

It's been an embarrassingly long break from blogging. It's not for lack of content or desire to share, but sometimes life gets in the way. Thanks to everyone who asked/checked in on us. I will do my best to get caught up. We'll start with some miscellaneous fun stuff and then will get some posts up to cover some of the events and activities from our summer and fall.

He's growing like a weed, but his feet aren't that big yet. (Those are Dave's shoes.)

Attacking the bag in the boxing room at our Y.

'Tis the season for hot chocolate.

One of Alex's most recent Lego creations.

Iowa Vacation Part Three

The final leg of our Iowa vacation involved three fun stops.

We broke up the long travel day by stopping at the Fort Custer Maze after a few hours on the road. It's a huge maze with eight stations that you have to find to fill out a card with stamps. We found seven in a little over half an hour, but the last one was a challenge. We were a little hot and tired when we finally found it, but the place was really fun and worth the stop.

The second stop of the day was one I had been wanting to make for a long time. It was so monumental that it will be getting its own post.

Finally, we arrived in Iowa City, our final destination, to visit our dear friends Jeff, Melissa, and their family. Dave and Jeff have known each other since they were three years old. It is always great to see them, and it's pretty special to see the kids playing together. If only we could do that more often!

The view from one of the corner towers

Getting our stamp at Station 7

Off to find the next station

Let's go this way!

Iowa City sculpture fun

Climbing with Audrey and Olivia

It might not look like it,
but this was a spaceship exploring the solar system

Having way too much fun!

Iowa Vacation Part Two

Next up in our Iowa trip was some time at Lake Okoboji. Beautiful water, miniature golf, an old time amusement park, and more. We had a lot of fun. We also discovered that parents in their 40s should be careful in what they choose to ride at the amusement park. Also, we didn't get a good picture of it, but Alex had bunk beds in his room, which thrilled him immensely!

One view of the lake from our room

Alex loves mini-golf

My two pirates!

His first Pez: Star Wars, of course

Exploring the docks with Mom

Attempting to play volleyball

The Tipsy House was both the first and last thing he did

Mirror Maze

The view from the top of the Ferris Wheel

Riding the mini-coaster (not the larger one in back)

He had to ride the carousel many times

He had far more fun than I did in the spinning apples

Big slides are always fun!

Alex and I are riding in the blue carriage

See no evil

Our last morning on the dock

Iowa Vacation Part One

We spent our time between school and summer camp traversing the state of Iowa. There was a lot of family fun time, adventures, and so much swimming!

First up was a visit with the grandparents. Alex played games with Grandpa, read books with Grandma, and had a great time sleeping and playing in Dave's old bedroom. He found lots of amazing treasures in there, including a Vikings football helmet that somehow made its way home with us. We made two trips to the amazing City water park (sadly, no pics to share from there) and visited the fantastic public library. 

Vikings fans!

Serious game playing

Height comparison

Ready for the gridiron

Climbing this tree is a must every visit

It took a while, but Alex decided to join in the joke contest.
(He's in the red shirt, second from the end in the line.)

Awesome book sculpture outside of the library

School Pictures

Yesterday was the last day of the school year. So, I thought this would be a good time to catch up on some school pictures from the last few months.

Working in the garden

Painting a sail for the end of year breakfast

Pretending to be seeds opening...

...and closing

Washing the animals as part of the end of year clean up

Back flips

He will climb a tree any chance he gets.

Posing in front of the colorful backdrop at Rites of May.

He secured the rope for climbing up the slide.

Popsicles for the last day of school 

Use the Force

Star Wars has become a bit of an obsession around the house lately. On Friday, which was a day off of school, Dave and Alex decided to take the plunge on something they'd been discussing -- making our own light sabers. I wasn't quite sure how that would work, but they found some great materials at the hardware store and made some amazing light sabers. We are still working on the color technology, but the results are pretty outstanding! I particularly like the effect we were able to get in the photos when the two light sabers hit each other.

Science!

One of the many fabulous things about Alex's school is the exposure they get to science. The father of one of his classmates brought in a 60X microscope from his lab and did a demonstration for the kids and then left the microscope for the classroom to use for a few days. As you might imagine, Alex loved this!

They looked at a spider, orange peels, paper (i.e., Alex's Star Wars picture), and many other things. Here are some related notes from the teacher's report of that week's events.

What did you notice about the spider placed under the microscope? (tiny hairs, six eyes, pointy fingers, "freaky")

What did you notice about the orange peel under the microscope? (gooey, little animals, half a pyramid, giant globs and holes)

Overheard at Meeting:

Alex:  A microscope helps you see inside things, and it allows us to see cells.