Fishing

Grandpa Jim had been wanting to get the grandkids on a pontoon boat for awhile, and last weekend we were finally able to make it happen. We were able to do some fishing, play on the beach at the lake, and just hang out and have good time. What a great way to spend a hot summer day!

Sprinkler

Last week, Drew had a couple of friends over to play for the afternoon. Being that it was 90+ degrees and lots of humidity, the sprinkler seemed like the perfect fix!

Green Gum

Don't ya just love gum!?

Race Day

Ok, so every year we go to Okoboji on the same weekend; race weekend. The third weekend in July plays host to a marathon, half-marathon, 10K, and triathalon. Jamie and his brother Brad always do the triathalon and I enter one of the running races. I ran the half-marathon last year (my first one), but decided my motivation factor was running on empty this year so I just did the 10K.

Being that I am a photo freak, (an inherited trait from the Johnson side of my family) I always have my camera with me for events like this. Well, last year when I got home and looked at the photos from my race, I noticed that there were no photos of me. In fact, one of the photos had two runners in it, neither of which were me, and another photo was of sky only. No people, not even a cloud, just the clear blue sky.

Now comes this year. I decide to joke with last year's "photographer" about their picture taking skills, and we agree that we will let someone else have the camera this year. So, after my race, I was all excited to see how the photos turned out. I had to crack up when I noticed that one of the pictures, again, wasn't even of me, and the other one was of my back. Must have been that I "zoomed" by, my immense speed not allowing for the "money shot".

Oh well, there is always next year....

Molecule in Action

More pics of the Molecule....

King of the Molecule

What in the world is the Molecule, you ask?? Well, it is the ridiculously large "water toy" my children conned their dad and I into before we left on our annual Okoboji trip. I must say, it did provide hours of entertainment and with kids our ages, (3-8), it offers a nice alternative than trying to water ski.

We discovered the molecule has many different uses--you can be pulled behind the boat at warp speed as Jamie and I did at Uncle Matt's amusement, you can tie it to the dock and simply lay out on it, (which I will NOT be showing pictures of), or you can watch the kids play King of the Mountain on it. Now when I say kids in this sentence, I actually mean Jamie and his two brothers. Sure, they let the little ones on there to make it LOOK like they were playing with them, but they were out for blood! (or at least bragging rights!)

Either way, we had another great year at the lake and the kids can't wait to go back again next year--

Sexy!!!

Here's the post I promised you Uncle Matt!!!

Aunt Diana's in Trouble

Maddi is definitely a girly girl, and she LOVES make-up. I am ok with lip gloss, and what little girl doesn't like having her toes and fingernails painted.

Enter Aunt Diana. Diana is probably the best aunt in the world, especially to a little girl who knows her parents won't let her wear make-up. These pics came about when Maddi came up to me and said, "Look mom, I have a-scara on!" As she batted her eyelashes at me, I figured out she meant mascara, applied by the ever popular Aunt Diana. She also got "sparkles" on her cheeks, AND glittery lip gloss.

Almost more than a little girl could bear---and for sure more than her dad could!!!

Packing (in the mind of a 3 year old)

As we were getting ready to go over to the Quad Cities to stay overnight with Uncle Brad and Aunt Penny, I had mentioned to each of the kids to go pack an overnight bag. This was Maddi's take on the whole "overnight" bag.

I found, laying in the middle of her floor, a suitcase filled with all of her dress-up clothes. Not one item in it was for her to actually wear or sleep in. Never mind that it didn't even all fit in the suitcase. She was bummed when I let her know we would have to "condense" a little. She was just sure she would need all of the things she had packed!

Happy 4th!

Ok, so it's not really the 4th anymore, actually it's the 6th--of August! Yikes. You'd think I would have learned from my last blog where I scrambled to post six times in one night. Tonight will be another one of those nights--just so I can get caught up.

Back to the 4th...for the past several years now a large group of us gather at one of the city parks for a 4th of July breakfast. We all bring various items and someone even fires up a grill to make pancakes, eggs, and even sausage and bacon. Our "breakfast spot" just also happens to be right by the parade route so it works out great--we eat, then watch the parade, then go home and collapse for a few hours before we all meet back up together again for pre-fireworks dinner and games, topped off, of course, by the fireworks. It's a long day but tons of fun!

The Bunny Hop

Maddi finally got her first bike! She was so excited to get her bike, and she will tell you all about it if you ask. "It is pink, I got it at Scheels, and it has bunnies on it." It is actually called the "Bunny Hop" bike and she is very proud of her pom pom like handle bars and bag on the front that she can carry stuff in.

Right after we got it home she wanted to ride it. She was a little apprehensive going down any sort of slope (not hill, SLOPE) so I had to pretty much hold her handle bars the whole way for her. Other than that she does pretty well for never riding a bike before.

Way to go Maddi!!

Silly Girls

We had the Cupp family over for dinner one night (and another friend's son Morgan) and Maddi and Abby went up to Maddi's bedroom to jam out to some CD's. Before long, they came downstairs and told us that after supper they wanted to show us the dance they had been working on. Being the good parents, (and good brothers and friends) that we are, we of course obliged them. I mean, who could pass up the opportunity to watch a 3 and a 4 year old dance to Hannah Montana?? So the brothers and Morgan (who has two younger sisters of his own and is probably quite used to this) sat on the couch and the parents watched as well as the girls carefully placed their "dance floor" (aka-a sheet) so they could boogie down.

They were not shy. They bounced and jumped around for the whole song, showing us their moves. The boys were cracking up, which of course made the girls get into it that much more. They put on quite a show and the best part was that they were truly having a great time just being silly!

Adventure Racing 101

Okay, so in the midst of all the rain and bad thunderstorms we were having in early June, we had another adventure race planned on June 8. We have done 1 other of this type of race with our friends Josh & Deana Kerschen and Todd & Tina Davenport. This time we even convinced our friend Jason Cupp to do one with his brother-in-law. Let me just preface this all by saying that when we signed up for this race, we all had visions of bright sunny skies, maybe even a little hot and humid (but hey, anything is better than the 50 degree weather we had at our last race in March, right!?), and overall, a fun, shorter race than our last one which was around 14 hours. (This race was supposed to be around 6-8 hours).

So anyway, we decided to drive over to the race the morning of since it was just over in Boone. While packing the night before we realize our cooler has a leak in it and so I decided I would run to WalMart in the morning before we left. There I was, 4:30am (yes, am) looking for a cooler in WalMart. I grabbed one and got home with time to spare, thinking boy, I am efficient! And, I even got the cooler with the little cup holders on the top. Won't Jamie be proud...Wrong!! Not only were my cupholders overlooked, but I actually got in trouble because I didn't get the cooler that has the wheels and can be pulled! Not just Jamie, but all the guys on our team agreed with him that I definitely bought the wrong cooler. I didn't know it at the time, but this was definitely a sign of the way the rest of the day would go...

As we are driving over to Boone, it is about 6:30am, and we are caught in the middle of such torrential downpours that we can't even see the other van we are travelling with which is right in front of us. Wondering if the race will still even be held, we call the number we were given and Tina politely tells the race coordinator who she is and tells her about the conditions we are driving through, and asks about the status of the race. The response given to her was, "Yes, it's still on. It IS an adventure race after all!" Okay, so not only did they already think we were a bunch of wimps, they even knew Tina's name. We couldn't wait to check in and have them already know us by "the team who called in to ask about the race".

So, we are finally at the race waiting for it to start. The first thing we have to do is run up a huge hill (it is a ski slope in the winter) with one leg tied to our partner's leg. Ok, so far so good. We hop on our mountain bikes from there for some single track mountain biking, and it all goes downhill from there. Because the trails were so wet and muddy, what should have been a 45 minute bike ride, ended up being a 3 hour/push/pull your bike through the mud fiasco. At times we were in mud so high that it would be up to your thigh. No exaggeration--needless to say, I was very frustrated at this point. When we finally made it through, our next checkpoint got us to some canoes that we had to forage to the water, then get in and paddle. The minute we get in the water, the safety patrol people tell us we need to get out of the water because we are now under a tornado watch. AWESOME! Back out of the water, forage the canoes about 1/4 mile (those suckers were heavy) and then decide what to do from there.

We are now at the point where a little discrepancy comes in to play. The women, being the rational, sensible (mothers!) of the group, decide that a tornado is just not the thing for us and we want to quit. The guys, being the more adventurous, "won't let a little rain bother us" types, were not quite on the same page as us...A few little spats here and there and the girls finally got their way, and we decided to call it a day.

To be fair to the guys, the storm ended up blowing over and missing us, (we owe the guys big time) and in all reality if the early part of the race hadn't been so crappy, I probably wouldn't have needed to be such a big baby. I was in such a horrible mood and let's be honest, Hickory Park restaurant in Ames was calling my name by this point. We are planning another race for this fall if it works out...it can't be any worse than this last one, right??

Flood

After Lars' graduation, we decided to go take a drive out to the Coralville Dam and see what all the recent rain had done and how close the water was to going over the spillway. I must say, the power of that rushing water was truly an awesome sight. Not awesome as in cool, but awesome in that just by watching it, you could see the pure power and raw force it possessed. Little did we know at the time what the following days and weeks would amount to...

Fast forward about a week and a half and we are in the midst of the worst flood seen in this area's history. Not only were the 500 year flood plain parameters surpassed, but new territory was chartered and no one was even able to comprehend what it would all mean. News stories were filled with pictures of sandbaggers everywhere, any time of day, wherever help was needed. It was truly an inspiring time of community togetherness. Some people were lucky enough to have sandbagged and not need it, but too many others sandbagged to no avail. Driving up and down the Coralville strip after the waters receded truly looked like a war zone. It was so dusty and dirty, and you could see the water lines on the outsides of these buildings, leaving behind their story of just how high the waters had gotten. Restaurants, I believe something like 18 in all, destroyed in mere hours. Several other types of buildings like banks, office supply stores, Walgreens, hair salons, hotels, carpet stores, all in complete ruins.

So now the cleanup process begins, slowly, to rebuild the damage that was done.

Graduation Day

Ok, so I haven't posted forever, but tonight is the night I am going to get all caught up. There has been plenty going on around here to warrant some blogging, so lack of posting ideas is not my excuse. Anyway, here goes...

On June 5th, Lars graduated from preschool! He can now officially be called a kindergartener (at least at sunday school anyway), and he is very proud of this status. The ceremony was fun; his teacher, Miss Dorothy, made a slide show set to music of all the fun activities they did over the last year. All of the students were then called up one by one to receive their "diplomas". They were also given a DVD of the slide show, and given a carnation to give to their moms. They got to keep their tassels and t-shirts as keepsakes and then we all had cookies and punch afterwards.

I can't believe Lars is going to be in kindergarten! The same little boy that decided to "show up" 7 weeks early and had feeding tubes and CPAP machines is now heading off to the big guy school--way to go Lars!!!