4th of july fun: campout & carnival

This girl.  She insists she isn't tired and hates napping.  I don't push her too much to nap unless we are going to be out late or doing something fun in the evenings.  Sometimes she'll still konk out on her own though!  She cracks me up.

We kicked off 4th of July weekend with a backyard campout!  The weather was perfect.  Not too hot and no humidity.

Thank you Pinterest for this genius idea.  Peanut butter cup s'mores?  Yes, please!

The kids always have fun roasting marshmallows!

And burning them!  He loves setting them on fire over and over again.  And then giving it to daddy to eat!  Gross!

She finally decided she likes s'mores now, not just the chocolate!

Daddy set up the tent and we hooked up the mini DVD player and picked out a movie!  The kids were loving it!

They enjoyed watching "Harry and the Hendersons" (Isn't that the most perfect choice for a backyard camp out?  A movie about big foot!  Ha!)  They loved it and laughed the whole way through.

This was on the summer bucket list and definitely a first for them!  They couldn't wait to sleep with daddy in the tent!  And everyone stayed outside the whole night!  I got the big bed and the whole house to myself!  It was a win-win.  For me anyway!  Ha!

The next morning we headed up to our favorite 4th of July place- Clear Lake!  It's just not the 4th without a boat ride!

The kids enjoyed some rides at the carnival downtown too!

Her smile!  Do you think she was having fun?

Selfie while waiting for the kids on a ride!  Clear Lake is where we were married so it's fun to go there and relive the good old days!  Ha!

These two went up to ride the big slide, I couldn't believe they let Kerigan go by herself but they said she was big enough.  But then they sent her down with her brother!  She was a little terrified I think.  Ha!

I guess she's big enough to ride most of the rides by herself now.  Where has the time gone??

And speaking of going on big rides all by yourself.  This guy!!

Rode this huge big kid ride all by himself!  And loved every minute!  I have to admit I was a little nervous, but he did great!

My sweet family at one of my favorite places on Earth.

After the boat and carnival we headed the hotel to check in and Kerigan was going to nap so she'd be awake for the fireworks.  Everyone else ended up napping except my little man and I, so I took him down to the pool!  We enjoyed a good 2 hours of water fights!  I got in, got my hair wet and just had a blast with my sweet boy!

When we got back to the room, I got out of the shower and saw this.  Even Andrew laid down and fell asleep by Ga Ga!  Daddy- out in bed #1.  Kerigan and Papa- out in bed #2.  Ha.  I just had to laugh!  No I didn't nap and I ended up having to wake everybody up around 6:30pm so we could eat dinner before heading to the fireworks!  I am not a napper!  I never have been.  I hate how I feel when I wake up- still groggy and I can't seem to snap out of it.  I would much rather sleep in in the mornings and stay up late!

We had a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and sweet girl decided she loved daddy's strawberry lemonade and took it from him!  Ha!

After dinner we walked around for a while since we were a little early for the fireworks.  We always like to take the kids to our wedding spot- the historic Surf Ballroom!

Best spot to watch- overlooking the lake on a beautiful porch!  It was such a gorgeous night! 

There is nothing quite like watching fireworks over the lake, and Clear Lake's fireworks are among the best I've ever seen.  They always are.  

Little man with his Ga Ga

We always enjoy homemade ice cream after the fireworks!  Yum!

Up next- Clear Lake day 2!

little miss {four}

My sweet Kerigan.  Where do I begin your 4^th birthday letter?  I think I say this every year but you have grown so much this year, and time is just flying.  You are definitely no longer a baby and you have just grown into a 16 year old overnight.

The things you say and phrases you come up with just make us laugh (and sometimes make us shake our heads!) as you are such a mini version of a teenager already.  You've got the poses down for pictures now (how long did I wait for this moment?!) and you communicate with 100% accuracy.  Just the other night at dinner when daddy was home (which is rare as he is usually at work), you noticed that we were having a family dinner and the TV was supposed to be off.  Even though your show was on.  You are just so sweet and cherish family time.

You wear mostly size 4 and 5 in clothes and a size 9/10 shoe.  I'm not sure how much you weigh as your well child appointment is next week, but I am going to guess you hit the 40 lbs. mark.  You are begging me to move you from your 5 point harness in the car but I still want to keep you safe (and my baby!) for as long as I can!

You are not really a good eater or sleeper.  I have no idea how you can function getting up at 5:30am and not taking a nap during the day.  I have come to the conclusion you just don't like to miss out on what's going on!  You are up every morning rarely after 6:30am asking to watch a show and eat muffins.  You always go to daddy because you know I don't function at that time of day!  Ha!

You go to bed in your own bed at a good time, but you just don't know the meaning of sleeping in.  To get you to nap I have to lay with you and rub your back, and sometimes it takes so long and you just end up playing with me and giggling, so I give up!

When it comes to meal times- you could live on fruit.  You love every single kind of fruit (except bananas).  You will be offered all kinds of foods at meal times and not eat hardly anything, and then 5 minutes later you are saying you are hungry asking for fruit.  Strawberries in particular are your most favorite.

The most special part of you past year was most definitely visiting Disneyworld.  Your face when you saw Cinderella's castle for the first time is forever engrained in my mind.  I am positive that the sight of it took your breath away.

And watching you get to meet the characters that you love so much took MY breath away and brought me to tears, sweet girl.  I had dreamed about these moments since the day you were born.  You are the girly girl, princess-obsessed daughter that I always wanted.  You just eat this stuff up!  You were so in your element at Disney, and I loved every single second of watching your dreams come true.

You adore being a girl and everything that comes with it.  You don't want to wear anything unless it's a "pretty dress" and you love to do girly things with mommy like shopping and getting pedis.  Any time I need to go to the store you want to go with me.  I love that you are my shopping partner!

This was another moment I had dreamed about- watching you in your first dance recital.  You did amazing and I was so proud of you.  I see many more years of this in our future, and I can't wait!

You were so happy because you got to attend dance camp this summer with your friends.  You all had a great time!

Your personality just shines.  But you are becoming a little more shy and need lots of encouragement to try new things.  You aren't always sure of yourself at first.  You visited the ocean this summer (your 3rd time seeing the ocean) but this time you were old enough to want to try to keep up with your brother.  You were a little apprehensive about going too deep into the big waves.

But it didn't take too long for you to get brave watching some of the other kids and decided you could do it too!

Then you had a blast and never wanted to get out of the water!

You just take baby steps in your own time and then you are so proud of yourself when you accomplish something!

This was taken your first day of swimming lessons this spring. You have done 2 sessions and are doing amazing!  You can now jump in the deep end and go under the water with just your floaties.  You have gotten more and more brave in the water and your teacher is impressed!  The other day you asked me "Mom, are you impressed?" and I realized I use that word a lot!  Ha!

At the lake this summer you watched your brother jump off the boat into the lake and you so badly wanted to try it.  But this was your face when you got to the edge... you just grinned at me and decided not to.

And that's okay baby girl!  It's not a bad thing to question things you aren't sure about and don't feel comfortable doing.  I hope you will always keep that with you and remember that when you really are a teenager and getting pressure from people to do things you know in your heart aren't right.

You love Jesus.  You know about Him and you want to know more.  You have been going to Awana Cubbies this year and have asked lots of good questions.  The other day you told me "Mama, I love God!"  And it just made my heart happy.  I hope you also always continue that love and continue to grow in your faith.

This was your first year of preschool and it just amazes me how much you learned in a year.  You can write your name.  You know all of your letters and almost all of their sounds.  You will go to 4 year old preschool this year and it will probably be your last year before Kindergarten.  You are so smart and while I want to keep you in preschool another year, I think we'd be holding you back from learning more and doing what you love.

You love your friends and being social.  You would play with your friends every day for hours and never be tired.  You just love to play with all your princess toys, castle, and all your dolls and dress up clothes.  You have such an imagination and you will play by yourself and make your toys talk to each other for hours.  I love to listen to you!

Kerigan, you are just the light of our lives.  You are a joy to be around.  You always make us laugh, and you love to laugh.  Sometimes even when you are crying you will start to giggle.  You love to give hugs and say you love us.  You love your brother and give him lots of hugs (and some scratches too!) but mainly you two adore each other.  We just couldn't imagine life without you in it.

Our four year old little mermaid, we love you to the moon and back!  I can't wait to see how much you will learn and grow this year!

summer road trip {homebound: country music capital}

Hello from the Country Music capital of the world!

So we took a different route on the way home as well so we could go through Nashville.  Somewhere I've always wanted to visit.  It was another long, 10 hour day, but we got to Nashville right around dinner time.

We had just enough time to tour the Opryland Hotel before we ate, and it was amazing!

It was just a gorgeous place, like a greenhouse with beautiful plants, waterfalls and rocks around every corner.

The kids had a blast exploring!

Every time you turned around there was a waterfall or something.  It was like a maze! 

Those are some of the hotel rooms- how pretty to overlook such an amazing greenhouse!

The best part was, after a long day in the car, it was so nice to have them just let us park in the area where cars check in to stay there.  It was a 20 min parking zone but the parking attendant told us to take up to an hour and we'd be fine!  

An hour is about all you need to explore a hotel (even one this big!) so we just had a great time and then headed to dinner.

This was the entrance going into the lobby

My surprise place for the kids for dinner... The Rainforest Cafe!  They were so thrilled.

Andrew wanted to go around and take a picture by every animal, ha!

This was such a nice break after our long car drive!  If we had more time, we would have stayed another day or two in Nashville.  I could see that there was a lot to do there!  We want to go back and visit again sometime and stay longer!

We drove a little further to our hotel for the night and went straight to bed.  The next day was our last day on the road and our arrival home!  I didn't take any pictures!  We were just glad to be home and see daddy and relax at home for a couple days before our next trip to the lake for the 4th of July!  Ha!

We loved our summer road trip and were so glad we got to see some things along the way that none of us had ever seen.  I love planning vacations and finding the best routes with fun things to do!  If I had my way I would road trip across the country for the whole summer!  I just love to see our country!  There are some amazing places and I love showing my kids what it's like outside our little state of Iowa.  We always say that we love traveling and seeing other places but we are always grateful to raise our kids in Iowa.  There's just something about the midwest charm! 

We are glad to be HOME!