Weekend in Iowa

My cousin got married in South Korea in April. Obviously, I couldn't go to the wedding so when I heard they were having a reception in McGregor, I decided I should go. I haven't seen my cousin in years and the rest of the family for a very long time. Plus the rest of my immediate family was just out this summer for a trip I was unable to attend. I found some cheaper tickets and decided to bring Patrick with me since he wouldn't be missing any school. 

So, Friday morning, Patrick and I boarded a plane headed for Iowa. He was really excited. The last time he was on a plane he was 6 months old. The ride did not disappoint. He was staring out the window when we took off and kept saying "We're blasting off! We're blasting off!" It was pretty cute and entertained the other passengers. 

The rest of the flight was a breeze. He got to watch a movie on his Kindle the entire time (with breaks to look out the window of course). 

After Grandma picked us up from the airport, we drove to their house to pick up Grandpa and Aunt Becca and Jonah and Cora, then we headed up to McGregor. We got there just in time to go to bed. 

The next morning we had breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Henkes at the apartment.

I think this is adorable because none of my kids are small enough to have baths in the sink anymore.

A couple cute three year olds.

After breakfast, we headed down to the river for a ride on Grandma and Grandpa Henkes' boat.

Patrick liked looking out the front window and climbing down into the cabin. It was a nice morning on the river. 

After the boat ride, we headed down to Grandma and Grandpa Great's house for lunch. There were a lot of cousins and second cousins to play with.

After lunch we headed back to the apartment to get ready for the party that evening. Lucky for us, it was in the restaurant under the apartment. Convenient, right?

I think all the kids that visit the apartment love looking out the big window to watch the activity. 

When we were all dressed, we headed downstairs to the restaurant to celebrate the wedding of Peter and Gowoon.

It was a great party with dinner, music (provided by the groom), and dancing for the kiddos. 

Luckily, we had the whole place so the kids could run around (at least that is what I kept telling myself as my son was running around the restaurant).

All of this generation that was able to attend.

After the celebration was over the little kids headed off to bed. Luckily, they were staying at Grandma and Grandpa's so the moms (myself and Becca) headed down the street to hang out with our cousins for the evening. It was a lot of fun full of laughter. It was nice to get some time with these people. 

The next morning we headed back over to Grandma and Grandpa Great's for brunch. More time to play with second cousins. It's nice to have so many kids Patrick's age he can play with. 

Plus Grandpa was there. That's always fun. 

That afternoon, we went back to the river for some houseboat time. I love the houseboat. It is always so relaxing. Patrick liked the "basement". It was just his height. We even made a few trips out on the speedboat to watch the skiers. He just liked that it went fast. 

Sunday night we drove back to Grandma and Grandpa's house to sleep and then spent Monday relaxing and hanging out. 

It was a great weekend filled with fun times with great family. Thanks for the hospitably everyone!

Homemade Whipped Cream

I had to use whipping cream in a recipe and had some left over. I also have an awesome Kitchen Aide Mixer that I got for my birthday so I thought why not make our own whipped cream. The boys loved it. They each had a job to do and loved seeing the bubbles.

Who knew watching cream get whipped would be so fun?

Then we dished it out onto fruit and had a fun snack. 

They ate it all (except Patrick), bless their hearts, even though it tasted terrible. I didn't realize you had to add sugar so it was pretty sour. I think the fruit helped some. Oh well. Now I know for next time.

First Day of School

It's finally here. The first day of school. They boys are super excited about it. 

Dad stayed home to walk the boys to school. 

We took the annual pictures on the porch with all three boys (even thought Patrick doesn't start for another week). 

Daniel 1st Grade

Josh 4th Grade

Patrick Preschool

And they are off....

I think it is going to be another great year.

Downtown Aquarium

We signed Daniel up for the Broncos Bunch this year so he could go to the events too (and they were selling them at a discount). With his welcome packet, he received a coupon for free admission to the Downtown Aquarium so we made that one of our stops on the last week before school extravaganza. 

The boys love running around this place so it's hard to take photos. 

Daniel loves this big fish so he asked me to take a picture of him by it to show how big it really is.

Josh's favorite tank is the shark tank. They have a sign that talks about diving with the sharks. The sign says you have to be 10 so Josh has been talking about being able to dive with the sharks next year. What they fail to tell you is you have to be SCUBA certified as well. That crushed that dream but they do offer snorkeling in the fish tank so maybe we can talk about that one day.

They also enjoy touching the stingrays. Patrick even participated this time. 

It was a fun day and a good way to end summer vacation. School starts Monday! Have to get the adventures in while we can.

Dinosaur Ridge

I purchased a membership to Dinosaur Ridge in an effort to get out there this summer. Well, we are down to the last week so we better get moving. 

It was a pretty nice little place. The membership includes a shuttle tour of the area. They talked about the different eras you could see in the rocks and how you could tell the land used to be under water. Then we got to get out of the bus and touch actual dinosaur bones. This place is full of bones that have never been excavated. It was pretty neat. 

Daniel pointing to a bone in the rock.

They also have an area you can crawl around with dinosaur footprints. 

When we got back from the tour, we walked around the little exhibit hall they had.

They also had a little place where you could excavate dinosaur bones although the boys thought it was more fun to bury their little brother's foot and watch him break out of the pile.

It was a fun little place. We will have to go back on an off school day for the kids.

Sports Authority Field Tour

For a few years I have been hearing about the tour you can take at Sports Authority Field, which is the home of the Denver Broncos. So, I finally decided this was the summer we would go and two weeks before school started, I booked us a tour. It was on an off Friday so Dad got to join us. 

It was pretty neat. They took you up in the suites, the press boxes, the guest locker room (the Broncos locker room was off limits, I guess they are superstitious), and on the field. 

The press room

The 5280 Suite. The only suite you can purchase individual seats for. The rest you have to purchase the entire suite, plus food and drinks.

As close as we got to the field. They were having an NFL Play 60 event going on. 

We got to go into the beer fridge. They have two of them that supply the entire stadium. Look at all those tubes bringing beer to the good people of Denver.

The visitors hot/cold tubs. I guess they are the ones used by the Broncos since the 70's. They go moved to the visitor locker room when the Broncos updated to nicer ones for themselves. 

After the tour we walked around the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. They had a kid room where the kids could dress up with all the old athletic equipment from the teams. He makes a pretty cute football player. 

It was pretty neat to see parts of the stadium you don't see when you go to a game and hear the history of it. And those from Iowa will get a kick out of hearing the Hawkeyes make the tour for their pink visitor locker room. We were discussing tricks to psych out the competition.

It was a fun little trip.

No more braces

We had a very fun orthodontist appointment this morning. 

He went from this....

....to this (look at that genuine smile!)

He even came out with a bag full of all the things he wasn't supposed to eat with braces on (and proceed to pull them out one-by-one saying, "I didn't know I wasn't supposed to eat this". Oops!) Now we get to experience life with a retainer. Yay!