4 weeks until school is back in session.

I have just realized that there are only 4 weeks until heading back down to work. It has been quite a summer, with a lot of activities. After returning to Iowa from vacation in Wisconsin, we picked up Eric's cousin Alicen. She willingly came back home with us, to help out with watching the kids while we tore out our wall in our bedroom, for a new and improved closet. We ended up taking out the bathroom closet in addition to just our bedroom closet. We now have a 10'9" closet with 4 bifold doors in it. We aren't done with the walls n

ext to the doors, but inside of the closet has been mudded once, so we just need to hit it with sandpaper and do another coat or 2 of plaster. . . then paint. . . then hanging bars. . . and Ta DA we have a useable closet for the first time since we moved in. YAY!!!!! Our bedroom is a mess as you can imagine. I am hoping to maybe get some sanding done today and get another coat on so that we can at least get the inside done.

Getting the clothes hanging is going to do wonders for the state of our room at the moment. Here are some photos of our progress.

Alicen went home yesterday. . . I'm going to miss having her around, it was nice to have her watch the kids so we could get a big part of our latest project done. . .

This week is going to be pretty uneventful. I think I am planning on heading south to Orient and Greenfield for a day. I need to get come certificates lettered for the suftball baseball banquet next week. . . visit Zeke and Cindy. . . who knows what else. . .I have signed up for classes during the 26th and 27th and 30-31st for recertification. . . I have been putting them off, time to get going on them.

Milwaukee Days 2 and 3

Due to the late arrival time last at the hotel, I did not get the blog updated. So, this is what has been happening the last two days. We have done quite a bit of swimming. . .Yesterday we went to the Discovery World on the lake Michigan Pier. The activities were a little old for the kids but overall it was a neat place to visit. After the Discovery world, we returned to the hotel where Ian, Maren, and Barb took naps, while Eric, Nick and I went to the Lakefront Brewery for a tour. It was quite the show. Out tour guide was hilarius, I would recommend for those of you interested in that type of tour to go visit. . . Good Time,Good Beer. Last night we went to a Milwaukee Brewers/ LA Dodgers game. It was a good, but long, game. TheDodgers ended up winning the game in the 10th inning. 12-8. We arrived back at the hotel at about 11:15. . .TIRED!

Today was a more relaxed day, we started off with breakfast downstairs, then a quick swim in the pool. We didn't leave the hotel until almost noon, but we were in no hurry. We had decided to go downtown and find a local reasturant to try. We ended up at Water Street Brewery. As we were turning the corner to enter the resturant, we see Bristol Prebe, one of Eric's friends from BV, getting out of a nearby car. What a coincidence?! He was in town with his family to see the Dodgers play also. We ended up having lunch with his family. It was a very enjoyable time and a highlight of our day!

Next came the Harley Davidson museum. I had origionally thought that we were going to a Factory with a miseum attached, so we did end up north of Milwaukee at the Harley Davidson plant. . . however, you couldn't tour the plant with munchkins and the Museum was back in the area where we had just eaten lunch. Oh well. . . . well it was a really cool museum. Ian liked the bikes. . . So did Maren. . . Neat place to go. We are now back in the Hotel, I am doing a load of laundry, Maren is in her pack and play but refusing to go to sleep. Ian is behind me "playing quietly". Barb is trying to sleep over Maren's chattering. . .

Milwaukee:Day 1

This year we are taking a family vacation to Milwaukee WI. Vacation started at about 6:30 last night when Eric got home. The first leg of our journey was to Bellevue for an overnight stay. We hot there at about 10 last night. . .It was nice to see Rita, Ron, and Pat before continuing on the way.

Shortly after entering Wisconsin, we began to see signs of it's dairy highlights. There were dairy farms as well as cheese factories, periodically along the way. We decided to stop at the Roth Case Cheese Factory in Monroe. We had t

he opportunity to show the kids some of the cheese making process, they had a viewing hallway in the factory. There wasn't much going on other than some of the workers flipping cheese containers over. . . We tried on some cheese head hats and picked

out some cheese for the road before continuing on.

We made one last stop before getting to Milwaukee. . . this was a short stop for lunch in Beloit. Ian made friends with another 3(ish) yr old that was on the play equipment. . . It was a fairly short stop, but the kids appreciated it. We arrived at the hotel in Milwaukee at about 2pm. . .not knowing that check in was at 3. Luckily they let us have access to the pool!. . . All we have heard since Ian found out about vacation was " I want to to McWaukee to go SWIMMING!!!!" So, while waiting for access to the room, we went swimming. The pool area is very cool, there is a

6" pool for the kids, complete with a slide and those mushroom looking sprinklers. The kids poo

l is EXTREMELY COLD, due to the heater failing. . .This afternoon we went to the Old German Beer hole. It was very good! Rounding off the day was a stroll along the river walk and yet another trip to the pool. Wat a full day, but fun start to the vacation. Tomorrow is not yet totally decided what is going to have on the agenda, but we are planning on going to the Dodger/Brewers game tomorrow night. (Coincidentally the Dodgers will also be in Milwaukee for a series against the Brewers, kind of like the Dodgers were

playing the Rockies during our last vacation to Colorado)

Yard in Bloom!

I took some pictures while we were enjoying the outdoors today. We were busy getting ready for the trip today. Washing clothes, packing, and making mental notes(yes I know I need paper) of the things I can't forget, were just a few of the things on the agenda. We made a trip to DM to get the oil changed and while we were in there, had lunch with Eric. . . The kids were a handful. . .

We had our first harvest of beans tonight. We blanched them and then bagged and froze them. 3 qts so far. While we were in the harvest mode we went and picked about two gallons of rhubarb and stuck it in the freezer.

I am a little apprehensive about our upcoming trip. The kids can barely handle a day in Des Moines without a need for the next day to be a make-up day. (On sleep and restful activities) Maybe having 4 adults to pay attention to them, will make the trip easier (HOPEFULLY)

I am assuming that Nick will have his laptop in tow, so I will make an attempt to update at least once while I am out. . . that and could I make it a week without Farmtown?! We'll see. . . Enjoy the pictures

Still a slacker. . . SORRY!

Summer is in full swing. Over the past couple of weeks we have been keeping busy with little trips to Des Moines, Back home to Elk Horn and Walnut, an ICubs game, and a family gathering to Lake Icaria.

The kids are doing an OK job handling all the traveling. We will see just how well they maintain that attitude when we head to Milwaukee next week.. The days that we haven't done anything are spent catching up on sleep that they didn't get the day before, mowing the lawn, or attempting to maintain a semi picked up house. . . as for the house right now, I am lacking immensly on the ambition to keep it up. I will get around to it later. . . . ha. Anyway, I am going to throw some pictures on here and give a little blurb about why I put 'em up. To the right you see one of Maren's dirty little feet. the toes are obviously in need of a pedi ( she has had one since this picture and is currently sporting some silver tootsies) Maren is obsessed with her flip flops. Eric and I have decided that between the flip flops (or Bop bops as she calls them) and her baby doll, she is always having an issue. We are hiding her baby and flip flops every once in a while, just so we can escape the drama!

The rest of the pictures are from the ICubs game that we attended last Friday. ITAGroup was sponsoring a family night out for their employees, so we took advantage of the opportunity. By doing this we also found out what we will be in for next weekend at the Dodger game. For the record, we made it through 6 innings of the game before deciding that enough was enough. The kids got hats and shirts as you can see. It wasn't too bad of an outting for Maren's first baseball game. Maren seemed more intersted in the baseball game than Ian.

She also spent quite a bit of time playing peek-a-boo with the guy siting behind us.

- - -By the way, Maren's reaction to the mascot was the same with the Easter bunny!- - -