adventureland family day

We decided to pack more fun into our summer so we headed to watch our cousin play softball the night before our family trip to Adventureland!

We can't go to Ames and NOT eat at Hickory Park

Cousin pic by Cy!

We had a cousin sleepover and the next day headed to Adventureland!

These two had so much fun riding rides together!

This was Kerigan's favorite!  She wanted to ride again and again.

When your little sister begs you to go on the kiddie rides with her

But that's ok because daddy makes up for it by taking him on the big roller coasters!  And he must always sit in the back.  It's faster that way!

However, then my girl decided she wanted to brave this one...

Somehow, she met the height requirement (when did she get so big!?) and Daddy took her.  She loved it, but decided it was too "jerky"- some of the coasters are like that at Adventureland.

Fun in the silly mirror room!

On the Outlaw wooden coaster!  There's my photo bomb back there able to ride by himself!

He loved it and wanted to go again, so Kerigan and I waited for him!

There he goes!

It was a picture perfect day weather-wise, but almost too cool for the water stuff!  But these two still had fun on the old saw mill!  We only got a little wet!

They decided they still wanted to brave the waterpark

Their favorite things at pools these days are these climbers

I think once you master the monkey bars it's a challenge to try them out over water!

She made it!

Andrew loves the wave pool

They said the structure was too cold to play on!  Probably because it was out in the open and not under water!

Trying to warm up!  Ha!

So it was back to the rides after a short water break...

Andrew begged daddy to go with him on the newest, scariest coaster, the Monster.

Look at Andrew's face!  He loved it!  Daddy?  Not so sure!  Ha ha!  I have to note here that he convinced me to ride with him next.  Apparently I scream really loud (doesn't everyone?)  I really didn't want to- ha ha!  But he can pretty much look at me once with those big brown eyes and I melt.  

Then these two got all sweet and wanted to ride the Underground coaster together

So I took them while Daddy recovered from the Monster- Ha!

On the way out we had to stop for a bucket of cookies.  Because, why not?

Then the kids begged to ride the train before we left

We had the best time!

After Adventureland we headed to Ga Ga's for the rest of the weekend.

The next day we saw Cars 3 with Ga Ga!

Such a fun little family weekend adventure!

june catch up

Here are a few more things we did to kick off our first summer month!  Strawberries and watermelon just scream summer!

This is "Grandma" Jean.  She is the sweetest lady in the world.  My parents and she and her family have been dear friends for years, ever since I was born.  They all had a place at the lake together and we had so much fun growing up with Jean's family. 

 She's in a nursing facility now and she loves it when we come to visit.  The kids had to introduce her to snapchat!  Ha!  She is 91 years young!

To relive their lake days... mom had to sneak in some Jose Cuervo!  Ha!

Then we had some more people to visit!  Our friends were in the hospital with their little guy Parker. 

 He was just having a little surgery and wasn't contagious so the kids could go visit too!

We love this family so much!

Then of course, we had to do some furniture shopping!  For some reason my kids don't mind coming here- must be because of this big chair, and free cookies!

This coffee table is genius, right?  They wanted to buy it!

Then poor Andrew had to have some cavities filled- I texted this picture of him to my mom and she sent it back with the words on it!  Ha!  He was not thrilled.

He wanted me to take a picture so he could see what it looked like!

My sweet girl helps me remember to water the flowers... because my thumb is any color but green!

Just a trip to the gas station and had to pose by this- ha!

We had the car stuffed with garage sale items as we headed back to our old town to have a garage sale with our friends!

These two got to catch up- and can you tell they were happy about that?  Lily's mom Ashley used to babysit Kerigan and these two have been friends since they were 2!

These three got to have a sleepover while Angie and I prepared for the garage sale.

Sweet Piper was SO adorable playing with all the toys I brought to sell.  She was obsessed with these princess playsets and she didn't have to twist my arm too much for me to just give them to her!  Ha!

Then we continued on down the road to Ga Ga and Papa's and this girl fell asleep like this.  Ha!

They helped Papa wash the cars!

I'm not sure why but they just love doing this!

I mean, look at his face!  He's really putting muscle into it!  Ha!

That night this guy had a birthday party

Our nephew Jayden's birthday always lands towards the beginning of summer and it's a perfect reason to celebrate!

Sweet girl loves bowling!

When grown brothers get lost at a birthday party.  Ha! #nevergrewup

Kerigan just loves her big cousin Evelyn

Like father like son

Then the next day we celebrated Father's Day!

When my dad passed away I was so sad that my kids would be short a very special grandpa.  But I can't say enough how much Jim has stepped up to fill that role for them.  He loves them like they are his own grandkids, and I could never thank him enough for that.  We are so blessed!

This guy is a pretty special daddy too!

It was such a beautiful day so we went to Reiman Gardens on the ISU campus

They were having this amazing display of trash and garbage made into sculptures.

Love this pretty girl so much!

This guy too!  

These displays just blew us away- they were so cool, but a little bit sad too at the thought of all the littering that goes into our oceans.

Here is an example of what this penguin looked like up close

Who knew the world's largest Gnome was right here in Iowa?

Look at all those nets that animals get caught in!

We loved having Ga Ga come along with us!

This was a gorgeous day and the best way to spend Father's Day!

When we got home the kids gave Daddy their special card they made

All of his favorite candies!

Baseball season ended mid-June for the kids

Kerigan just loved her first experience with T-ball and can't wait to play softball next year!

Super proud of her!

Celebratory last game dinner! 

Best friends #9

This guy had his last game too.  He worked so hard this year but decided he doesn't like the competition part of baseball.  He has some anxiety about getting hit by the ball and just didn't love playing.

This mama is bummed about that because I loved watching him.  I know with more practice he could be a great pitcher and player!  He had a really good time pitching.  But I realized I can't force him to play next season so we will see how he feels then.  Always proud of my little man, no matter what!