4th of JULY

Pop Its!

Getting ready for the show!  It gets chilly when the sun goes down.

So happy to be with the family to celebrate 243!

One more day in Iowa. 

Connecticut - phonics training

This was my first trip away from the kids.  I went to a three day phonics institute with Teacher College Reading and Writing Project.

I went to the Des Moines airport after church to find out that my flight to Chicago O'Hare was cancelled due to bad weather there.  There was nothing anyone could do to get me to Chicago.

So I woke up at 3am Monday morning to try again.  

Success!  I got to Hartford and took my first Uber ride to the middle school in North Haven, one hour away.  Ouch!  I ended up missing three and a half hours.  It could have been worse I guess.

The training was great!  Learned lots of great things.  It was also fun to explore Connecticut after training.

Monday we went to New Haven to see Yale University 

and Milford to see the Long Island Sound.  It was so pretty at sunset.

 The hotel never looked so good after such a LONG day!

Tuesday after training we went to Guilford and Madison.  

The seagulls in Connecticut seem bigger than in Texas.

 Wednesday after training we had to head to the airport.  

The way home was actually worse then getting to Connecticut.

My flight to Chicago was delayed  by 45 minutes making me miss my connecting flight at O'Hare.  I got to the airport as my plane was taking off.  So, I got on a huge bus and went to a huge rental car lot since the next flight was July 4th at 9:30pm (24 hours later).  There were no rental cars anywhere until I got to the last car rental place in the long line of companies.  Alamo had a one trip car for a two day rental that I could drive to my parents and return to the Des Moines airport on Friday.  

Eeek!  The price wasn't cheap but didn't have many other options.  So at 10:30pm I started a five and a half hour drive to Newton.  Really nice car though.

Jimmy flew in on the third as well so my dad picked him up since we would no longer be at the airport at the same time.  I was just glad I would be with my fam for the fourth of July.


The kids were able to have some fun cousin time while I was away.

Christian got to play Risk with Grandpa .

Aunt Jess helped everyone make a tie-dye shirt.  So cool!  Thanks Aunt Jess.

IOWA

We started off with cool temps and lots of cousin time.

We lost one of Grammy's old rings outside by the swings.  Thank goodness Grandpa has everything. He pulled out a metal detector and we found the ring!  Lot's of other buzzes happened too and the kids were begging for a shovel.

Two full double rainbows.

 We went to Uncle Matt's house to celebrate Sinclaire's 5th birthday.

She's died and gone to cat heaven!

We were keeping our eyes on a couple nests.

Then this happened.

It wouldn't be summer in Iowa without lightning bugs.

It did warm up enough to go to Maytag Pool.  Ok, the water was cold but they love the water slides.

We got ready for Toy Story 4 by watching Toy Story 1, 2 and 3 on the drive.

But Joy the movie theater pig was an added bonus.  She put on a show after the movie.

Then we headed to Iowa City and Cedar Rapids for the weekend.

Bean Boozled anyone?  You can't tell if you are getting a yummy flavor of Jelly Belly or a very yucky flavor.  They look the same.

Mini is game.

We watched lots of trips to the trash can.  Michelle and I each tried and both got Stink Bug!  Yuck!  I was really hoping for toasted marshmallow.

We even got Jason to eat one at work, rotten egg.

 We played Bean Boozled again at Aunt Missy's with Bella and Lydia after Emerson opened her birthday gift.  Thank you for the unicorn goodies!

Then we went to see Office Evolution and downtown Cedar Rapids.

We also got real food.

On Saturday we went back downtown for their fourth of July, Celebrate America, parade.

Ok, it's hot now.

 They all ended up with lots of candy but the hockey people handing out frozen ice pops were the stars of the show.

So much fun!!!!

We headed back to the farm so I could spend Sunday packing for my trip to Connecticut for a phonics training.   And we wanted to make it to church.