Day at Grandmas House

Boone Band Festival

Adam plays the bass clarinet in the Boone Municipal Band and they have a Saturday concert where they invite other municipal bands from all over to come and play all during the day. Adam's parents like to come up and watch the bands, so we make a weekend of it. It was almost too hot for Hannah and Mommy!
Close-up of Adam's section

Watching the other bands perform

Roger is a friend from church, his wife also plays the clarinet in the band. He humored Tyler by playing with him for part of the afternoon.

It was great to go out to eat afterwards and then home to air conditioning! Tyler stripped down to his pull-ups before bed and had to show Grandma how he races (or crashes) his cars

Tyler Time

One day it rained and then got hot, but Tyler still wanted to go play in the puddles and get muddy. He complained that his hands were dirty, so I gave him a bucket of CLEAN water to rinse them off ...mere seconds later he had turned the bucket into his own brew of mud, sticks, rocks, and grass!

One happy/messy boy!Digging into the first sweet corn of the season!

Working on his big brother skills

Waiting patiently (or not) for dinner

Taking little sister to the park for the first time

Stationery card

Introducing Her Birth Announcement

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Finally got the baby announcements ordered. Sorry - didn't have the time to make homemade ones this time.

4th of July

Here is how we spent our 4th of July weekend in Knoxville with Adam's family

Cousins played in the sprinkler and the waterslide

Tyler and Hannah cuddled on the couch while watching cartoons

Quick family photoHannah got some quality time with her Papa Haselhuhn

Tyler's first sparkler - he wasn't too impressed

brothers and their sons

sunset before the fireworks

Jacob & Tyler

4th of July Parade in Plesantville

Swimming at Camp

We got invited to join the camp staff at the Iowa 4-H Center for their pool party before their 4th of July break. I took the kids so Tyler could swim with the staff and everyone could see Hannah - and I also got to see several returning camp staff, familiar faces, and old friends again.

It was a really hot day. Hannah tried to stay cool in the shade while Tyler swam.

A couple of very patient camp staff spent some of their precious free time to help Tyler swim. Leslie was one of these wonderful people!

Going down the BIG water slide

Hannah and I got a photo with Abbie Parker.
She is the new camp director who took over for me when I left.

Hannah had had enough of her car seat so we found her a spot in the shade where we could keep an eye on her and the breeze would cool her off while I tried to convince Tyler to get out of the pool so he could go home for a nap.

Tyler Time

With a new baby at home and both sides of the family here to visit, everyone was working extra hard to give BOTH Hannah and Tyler lots of extra attention.

Adam found a bike trailer at a garage sale recently, so he hooked it up to his bike and took Tyler for a ride to the park and to see the trains on the track in town. Tyler was really excited and told me all about his trip when he got back.

Tyler wore his new helmet for the first time - had to be just like Dad!
He got the helmet free at a kids safety fair in town this past spring.
Don't they look cute!
"A funny thing happened on the way to the store..."
I needed something from Medicap on Saturday when both of the grandparents were here to visit and I thought Tyler needed a chance to get out of the house (Mom needed a break from loud toddler noises), so I asked the grandmas to run the quick errand and maybe take Tyler to the park for a little bit to run off some energy. Medicap was going to close in 15 minutes, so they left quickly not even bothering to take Tyler's backpack.
Well, the park was fun - but while they were there they heard the train whistle and Tyler's loving grandmas decided to leave the park and take Tyler over to the Scenic Valley Train Museum in town to see the train. One thing led to the other and they noticed a train was about to depart, so they decided "what the heck" and bought 3 tickets for the dessert train. I have to mention here that the tickets were $25 EACH and there was no discount for kids! Only a grandma would give in to a toddler's love for trains like this! They did a quick potty break before boarding the train (good thing because they left his backpack of emergency stuff at home - I am just glad they at least took their camers!). Mom said Tyler kept saying over and over "I'm so excited, I'm so excited!" He is one LUCKY kid! Here he is below enjoying his "lunch" on the train - cheese, crackers, and grapes while enjoying the scenery.

Here is the dessert part of the trip - the grandmas got cheesecake and Tyler got ice cream!

Tyler was by far the youngest kid on the train and I hear he made quite an impression on the older passengers. He was mesmerized with the train tracks and kept saying things like "watch out there's trouble ahead!" and other things from the Thomas the Train shows he watches.

Grandma Janelle making sure Tyler doesn't fall over the railings.At one point the dessert train had to wait for and then pass the other scenic valley train on the tracks. Oddly enough Tyler was right there on the open air part of the yellow train car exactly one year ago almost to the day. A photo of that trip is below.

Train trip June 2010The exciting experience + food + the rocking motion of the train during nap time = too much for Tyler. He fell asleep in Grandma Linda's arms before they got back to the station and eventually back home. We thought they would never make it back. Good thing they texted us to let us know what they were up to. Tyler talked about this train trip for days afterwards! The Grandmas decided it was well worth the expense to see him so happy!