Grand Harbor Resort

For our next stop, we went to the waterpark. I think between Saturday & Sunday, the kids spent around 12 hours swimming!!!! They had a lot of fun.....

going down the waterslide with Dad and

playing on the snake.

I had a great time floating down the lazy river!

Here is the view of the mighty Mississippi from our room.

Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium

For Valentine's weekend we took the boys to Dubuque. On our first stop we saw.....

Big fish....

Cute turtles.....which I thought I wanted a pet turtle till Tim reminded me I'd have to clean out the tank. Then I decided that wouldn't be such a good idea.

Very, very, very cute sea otters..... Which came out to play & show off for us. I fell in love with them!

The worlds LARGEST lizzard.....

And Chase got to pet a Sturgeon.

A Day With Leah

Yesterday, I met Jennifer & Leah at Coralridge mall for the day. We played on the toys there, had some lunch, & went to the children's musem. Here are some pictures from the museum. Leah went grocery shopping, made me a pizza, painted a picture, flew an airplane, went letter fishing, built a house, rode in a hot air balloon, played house, & lots of other things. It was a pretty neat place & Leah had a lot of fun!

To end the day, I took Leah to Build-A-Bear Workshop, it was her first time there.

Here she is stuffing her bear & with her Bear, which she named Emmy.

Playing with Leah

My friend Jennifer & her daughter Leah were in Muscatine this weekend visiting with family. On their way out of town, they were kind enough to make time to see me. We met at the park in Wilton, Leah played on the playground, while Jennifer & I had a nice visit. I don't get to see them often enough!

Here we are on the park bench, right before they had to leave.

Here is Leah on the "tetter tot", as she called it.

Swimming Party

The Cub Scouts had a swimming party at the Muscatine Aquatic Center last night. It was the last night of Katie's summer visit, so she went with us. They had a good time & were sad when it was time to go, they said "it's 10 o'clock already?!"

Here are Carter & Katie going down the blue slide.

The boys standing on the toys in the middle of the pool. They weren't supposed to but they did anyways..... imagine that.

Chase under one of the fountains.

Now that's a pig!

We took the kids to the Mississippi Valley Fair yesterday. After lunch we walked around in the barns, looking at all the animals. We saw horses & cows.... the usual farm animals that are shown. Then we came to Big Fanny! Holy pig!

Walcott Days Parade

Today was Walcott's parade. We took the whole family. The guys rode in the truck. Us women & the kids walked the parade & handed out candy, koozies, & frisbies. We had lots of fun & the weather was beautiful!

Me & the boys. It pained Chase to take a picture with me. Carter on the other hand was very photogenic today!

Walcott Community Club always has a funny float to go along with the parades theme. This years theme was down on the farm. So Tim thought it would be funny to have the boys stand in front of the butts of these two cows. We found out during the parade, that the tails actually rose up & water squirted out. How funny!

Playing with Leah

Today I drove to Ankeny, to visit Jennifer & her daughter Leah. It's about a 2 hour drive from me but totally worth it! Leah is so much fun, she's 2, & can carry on a conversation with you so well, almost too well, sometimes I forget she just turned 2.
We went to the park. Leah played in the fountain, swang, & played on the playground. Then we went to lunch & out for ice cream. After ice cream we went back to the house, Leah swam in the backyard & Jennifer & I sat & got in a good visit. Jennifer & I have been friends for probably almost 20 years, it's always good to visit with her. I can't wait till they come here in a couple of weeks for a visit! :)

It's A Girl!

We added a new addition to our house this week & IT'S A GIRL!!!! She weighs in at about 2 ton & is almost 200 inches long. Yep, she's a big girl! We've named her "Miss Big Truck".

Here is Tim's new work truck..... isn't she pretty?!?

Jelly fish, goats, & lamas.... oh my!

Yesterday, I drove to Ankeny, to see my friend Jen & her daughter Leah. We went to Blank Park Zoo. Leah was such a treat!

Here she is, crawling through the tunnel to see the prairie "dawns", aka dogs.









There was a little park at the zoo. Of course it involved some water. So being a typical 2-year old, we had to play in it. She got "soakin & wet" & thought it was so funny!









Feeding the llamas.









Feeding the goats.









The jelly fish. I thought these were really cool. The picture doesn't do them justice. I stood & watched them for a while.... it almost looked like they were pulsating.

Gone Fishin'

We went to Lake McBride yesterday to do a little fishin'.
Here is Tim trying to catch the bass that spent the afternoon teasing us.
He almost had him. I tried to catch him for at least an hour before I gave
up. He was right there, just lookin at us..... he just didn't want to bite.

Here is one that Tim caught. Neither one of us really got too many bits.