Weekend in Iowa

We headed West for a few days to help Caleb’s parents paint their kitchen cabinets. While we were waiting for the paint to dry, we did all the activities involving motors that we could find (and some without)!

{Not pictured: The golf cart. The kids must have logged a combined 50 hours on these things!}

{These guys caught us dinner!}

{While the boys were fishing, us girls went to get our nails done!}

{We spent an afternoon at Uncle Dennis' pond, which is a dream for these kiddos!}

{We went hiking through the state park in search of the perfect place to take fall pictures. We stumbled upon a very tall fallen tree that Caleb thought we should climb as a family. Higher than it looks!}

The weather was perfect, the activities were abundant, and the Internet worked well enough for the kids to knock out their first ever school day in Iowa! 

We did a thing...

 For eight days.

The kids have been itching for a dog lately, so rather than taking the leap, I signed us up to foster shelter dogs. Chocolate Chip (CC as we called him) was our first foster, and he was the sweetest 10-month-old pup who loved to play, snuggle, go for walks, and sleep in our beds. The kids immediately took on all responsibilities of feeding, walking, and taking CC out to potty. And when it was time to bring him back to be adopted by his forever family, they all did a great job of saying goodbye. He set the standard high for what a foster dog experience should be like!

{He resisted his crate for overnight sleeping, so we caved in and let him sleep with the kids (and us) during his stay. He slept soundly, didn't chew anything, and was accident free!}

{CC loved to snuggle!}

{After he got over his morning crazies, this cutie would nap away the rest of the morning. Good boy!}

{We took him to all of Mason's baseball games. It was raining during one of the games, so he just snuggled under blankets and slept for the two hours we were there!}

{We took him for walks every day, which was enjoyable after he stopped wrestling the leash with his mouth.}

{We all enjoyed our time with this chill guy!}

And then this.

 Week two of tumbling, and our flipping maniac did this. On her own!

Doing her thing.

Camryn has been working so hard by herself at tumbling this summer, and we have finally gotten back to the gym after a seven-month hiatus. This was her first day back and only her second time ever trying this flip. Now she has a taste of what it feels like to land a back handspring and she is determined! 

Her coach pulled me aside after her class and begged me to put her in gymnastics. He said she has the perfect build, natural talent, and he thinks she could do great things with how young she is. But, alas, Camryn is only interested in the tumbling portion. Coach Kyle said he will make sure she gets her flip fast if it means she might get her feet wet in gymnastics. Time will tell... 

September Bits

 The things that rounded out our month.

 {All kinds of baseball. Mason's bat was hot, and so was his team. Unstoppable!}

{Free entertainment. These two put on a very elaborate--and equally long--dance performance. We had ticketed seats and cookies to snack on during the show!}

{Harvesting the crops. We planted a red bell pepper plant in the spring, and this is the closest we came to growing an actual red pepper.}

{Switching out the flowers. Fall is not my favorite, but if we must leave summer behind then I guess some autumn planters will soften the blow.}

{Enjoying the last of the warm weather. With a bike ride and an afternoon at the park. Perfect!}

{Perfecting the messy bun made famous on Tik Tok. Because if it's on Tik Tok, it must be learned.}

{Getting ready for fall. Cam and her pal made tie-dye pumpkins at the local art shop.}

{Kidnapping hijinks. Looks like Barbie and friends bagged a couple of unruly passengers. Pretend play is a great excuse to have to eat two bags of fruit snacks...}

{Adults-only shenanigans. Our previously scheduled neighborhood basement bar crawl was canceled this spring, so we came up with an alternative way to unnecessarily expose all the local friends to a covid outbreak. Introducing the patio crawl. Our patio was the last stop on the crawl, and happy to report that no one required contact tracing as a result of the event.}