Sweet baby girl

She's ADORABLE, as you can see. I'm not biased or anything- he he. My sister, Cindy, gave birth to her on HER birthday, July 22nd. You ROCK sister of mine! Happy (late) birthday, I love you soo much!

What to do in IOWA for fun...

WELOME to the SOLON BEEF DAYS. Of course, we HAD to attend the festivities. Anything with BEEF in the title sounds like fun, right?? Randy entered the Haybale throwing contest for a whopping 5 buckaroos. I bragged that I would enter for the WOMEN but glad I didn't once I saw the guns on those girls. I would have been HUMILIATED. They started the men out at 7' and increased in increments of 6". I must say, Randy still has some STRENGTH from his football days! He threw clear up to 10'6"!! I didn't realize I had my camera on me until his last throw:

The winner threw an astounding 12'6", a new record. If you know Randy's competitive nature, don't be surprised if you see us practicing in the backyard for next year. Jon and Theo were great to console him after his loss.

The deck is DONE

After a few weekends of digging in the MUD, a little work here and there (ok, a LOT), I present our FINISHED deck project for the summer.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

I think it turned out pretty nice, and now we have extra storage for all the yard stuff. Randy says I'm not allowed any more projects for THIS summer.

Sweet 4th Fun

This year's 4th of July was one of the most fun in a long time! It started with Cooper and I running in the Dylan Campbell Benefit 5k - he was a trooper and we finished in about 29 minutes (under 30 sounds good to me) I realized that since I've been running alone I don't haven anyone to get me motivated to pick up my pace - which means I was sucking wind trying not to let the old man behind me pull ahead at the end - if anyone ever wants to RUN... call ME.

Here we are L to R: Kristie, Melissa, Heather, me and Rivka - thanks for the fun time, ladies!

Then it was off to the Coralville parade to bask in the sun. Donigan's mom had popcorn so Cooper wouldn't leave her alone once he figured that out, she was a good sport about sharing. That town knows how to throw a parade! Yes, there was plenty of salt water taffy, but we also scored cloth grocery bags, sparklers, free movie passes, discount massages, a t-shirt, beach balls, and ice pops. By the end of the parade Rivka and I were as bad as the kids next to us, pleading for someone to throw us goodies.

The Boyer's were nice enough to invite us over for a BBQ that afternoon, so after a quick nap we picked up Randy and headed out. Coop had to share when Kate decided his food looked better than hers. Luckily there was plenty to go around.

















After my reluctancy to give in to the popsicle with a nice white polo shirt, Jessica reminded me that they're easy to bleach and - after all - it was the 4th. I also believe he would have heisted Megan or Claire's if he didn't have his own.

We went downtown to watch some fireworks but tired boys and loud noises don't mix, so we lit some sparklers and headed home - hope you all had a wonderful 4th, too!

Utah Fun

Cooper is smiling in his car seat... he didn't realize how long he would have to stay in it!

24 hours of driving to get to SLC, but it was worth it! Randy and Cooper amused themselves by coloring when we stopped to eat.

And, of course, you have to make LOTS of STOPS to let everyone run around for a few minutes (and rest their backs because if you have to listen to SOMEONE say their back hurts one more time you might lose it). This is our stop in Nebraska at the Pony Express where the boys rested and I picked up some AWESOME mosquito bites - ouch.

We called the parents and told them we could drive no further than the SL valley, so Sunday night my parents hopped in the car and surprised us at Cindy's house - yea! Too bad they didn't tell anyone they were coming because by the time they arrived we were all asleep and no one heard their cries in the driveway (where they spent the night). Don't feel too bad, the mafia ride has plenty of room (how many bodies in the trunk??). Cindy is due next month - doesn't she look great!!

Off to Gateway for a little fun in the fountains... but wait - is this an Iowa reunion? Here comes Jessie, Kasey and Amy who just happen to be doing the same thing :) How serendipitous

That night we enjoyed a great BBQ @ the Thompson's and caught up with Kristie and Julie with their cute families. Unfortunately I left the camera case there... so no pictures of our fun time at the Hogle Zoo, Greg's superb dutch-oven dessert, the drive-in movie at Redwood, or the day at the swimming pool. Let's just say that much fun should never be crammed into 2 days. Thanks to Cindy, Greg, Trevor and Tyler for a great time!

Next it was off to Layton to visit Jane and Dan. I totally stunk at badminton, but beat Randy so that's all I cared about. The Richards are fierce competitors, they make it look easy. Next day was a mtn. bike ride up the Temple Quarry trail at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. It's a constant climb that follows the river... so beautiful! I highly recommend this trail, you can hike as well as bike if you're a little intimidated. Here we are at the top.

And our SWEET babysitter at the bottom with Cooper - no bike trailers welcome on the terrain.

Thanks to Dan we dined on his homemade LASAGNA... mmm, good and watched RAMBO that night. But Jane and I snuck away to enjoy a little Alfred Hitchcock, the boys didn't even miss us. Then it was Friday - bbo hoo - thanks to Aunt Ruth for breakfast, and Grandparents Clark for lunch, and finally good ol' Denny's in Salina where we met up with Harold, Bonnie, Jess and Sierra who drove from Saint George to meet us.

Thanks to the family for our impromptu trip and how much fun we had! It makes me wonder if we could endure the ride next year... I think I need a little time to forget about sleeping in the car before I commit. Love to all!

Fleeing the Floods

Randy came home from the hospital on Friday and said, "Let's get out of here and drive to Utah." I thought he was a crazy man but with all the flooding, his week of vacation, and with our previous plans foiled, I caved and we left @ midnight. Twenty-four hours in the car with a baby is a small price to pay for the fun we've had this week. Too bad I left my camera at the Thompson's so half of the fun is not documented :( I'll post pics and tell of our adventure when we come home.
For all of you in Iowa, stay dry and we'll see you soon!

Is This Done Yet??

We started with a great idea (my idea since we moved in 2 years ago, but didn't want to push until I got my deck stairs) to put a patio below our deck so we would have more room outside to entertain, play with Cooper, etc. I thought it would be simple to dig out the grass and lay flagstones. Was I WRONG! Randy decided that since we're doing the patio we should dig underneath the deck, lay gravel, and enclose for extra storage - another great idea! But after a day my hands hurt from digging out all the CLAY that plagues North Liberty's soil. Nothing like throwing your dirt into the back of a truck, only to have it STICK to your shovel because it's not just dirt - what fun :) Our last 3 Saturdays have been devoted to our project and I'm happy to say we have made progress. The dirt is gone, replaced with gravel under the deck, the grass has been removed and the patio is (almost) done. Stones are now set but there are a few joint issues to deal with. Here are some pics of our adventures in the backyard courtesy of our fab neighbor, Molly. (Who was also nice enough to bring us out SODA and CAKE in the middle of a hot, humid day.) I'll post a final picture when it all looks beautiful and I'm hoping that will be soon :)

Poor Cooper was a pretty good sport through all of this. We let him crawl around in the mud/sand until he couldn't take it any more and was ready for a nap (halleluja).