The end of July we headed down to Nauvoo for our annual trip with Jake's family. On the way in what seemed liked the middle of nowhere, Jake pulled over so we could switch drivers. Upon closer examination of this sign (that we've driven by several times over the years) he found this...how appropriate, huh? Crawfordsville, IA. Read more about it here if you'd like.
I think I might make these next 3 sepia tone and hang them in our still empty hallway. Cute little pioneer children if I say so.
Leah played in the little log cabin with her cousins Tava and Cael and a baby doll (or 2 or 3 or 4) forever. I think this little play time made the whole trip worthwhile for her!
Isaac finally mastered this little game (there's a wooden bear not visible in the picture that "climbs" up the rope). He also did a little stick pulling with Jake and some marble games with Grandma.
While Jake and Leah took a nap at the hotel, the boys and I ventured to a park in Fort Madison...Adam ate my keys and Isaac had a grand old time on the slide and swings.
Here we are at the temple on our way to the pageant (we tye-died t-shirts as a group earlier this week, but we didn't get a picture with everyone...and Jake hated his so he didn't wear it).
The kids thought it was so cool to touch the temple!
Adam discovered the swing at home...thanks to our neighbors-they have the swingset open for public use and we provide the swing.
Our other neighbors allow the kids to use their trampoline whenever they'd like (which is always!). Here's the older two bouncing around one day.
We finally brought home the wagon my parents bought the kids two Easters ago. They've been keeping it at their house until we had room. It's been great to use when we go get the mail or on walks.
Adam sprouted his bottom two teeth almost a month ago.
The boys and I will often go outside in the afternoons while Leah takes her nap. Here's Isaac showing off some cool stunts on the trampoline. (His face in the second picture is hysterical!)
Our little garden is doing fairly well. We definitely needed to water more, plant earlier, and probably add a little fertilizer of some sort. We have two watermelons growing, and hopefully will get nice and big and be tasty once harvested. The cucumbers look great-we planted a kind that's supposed to be great for pickling. Yum!
We spent a day at Pump It Up (an indoor place with giant inflatables). Adam hung out in the stroller and the other two bounced and drove around.
Just a few cute pictures of the kids outside...as usual. The weather has been wonderful lately (for a change!) so we've been outside quite a bit.
After dinner one night...this is quickly becoming part of Adam's daily routine. He takes a little catnap around 6:30-7:00 and Jake loves it. I clean up dinner, the other two play or watch TV, and Jake and Adam take a nap.
Random, but I walked into the pantry the other night to find this...what I'm calling a suicidal fly. Yes, it's a live fly that landed on the fly swatter-by choice! Strangely, I never thought to kill it. It's gone now...flying around our house somewhere driving me crazy at times, I'm sure.
And lastly...two of the neighbor boys start school tomorrow (the rest are too young) so for an official end to summer they played in the mud. You can see Leah's feelings about being one girl of 8 boys of our immediate neighbors. We have the best neighbors, all with two boys ranging from 2 to 6 in age. I'm sure there will be lots more of these pictures in the future. (The neighbor behind us is pregnant and didn't find out if she's having a boy or a girl...Leah is hoping for a girl I think!).
