Fourth of July 2018

We had two extra house guests for the Fourth of July holiday. A couple of Dallas friends (brothers) stayed the night while their parents were finishing up a vacation. 

 We headed over to the stadium to watch the fireworks. The boys played some street football while we waited for it to get dark.

 Emily and a festive friend. 

 I brought along sparklers and those things you throw that pop on the cement. The sparklers I bought at Walmart were ridiculously short compared to the things our friends were lighting. 

 Looks like Dallas secured a long sparkler from a friend 

 Dallas, Isaiah and Abram taking in the fireworks

 Ames has the fireworks on July 3rd. They host a parade down main street and a pancake breakfast on the 4th. We were invited to help with the Upwards float associated with our church. Robert drove the Chevelle in the parade with a ton of Upwards magnets as advertising. It was the hottest day!!!

 Like most things, we had to be to the staging area early and then wait. Luckily we were in the first 3rd of the parade. There is usually 100 entries.  The kids had candy and foam footballs to hand out, the adults handed out Upwards registration flyers and discount coupons.

It was a success. They handed out over 3 Sams Club carts of candy and 3000 footballs.

June 2018

 Pajamaed kids playing golf in the backyard. Dallas bought a nine iron, a putter and 4 balls at Overflow (a thrift store) and decided to be a golfer. 

 Noelle chipped her bottom tooth via her top teeth while swimming at the pool. The dentist said it looked fine, if anything it smoothed down her teeth that have big ridges.

 My kids have taken to audio books.  They can be seen eating cereal while listening. I think Dallas is also reading a comic book as well.

 I got to take Noelle on a date to El Azteca, her favorite place to eat. Her order is two cheese quesadillas no beans or rice and an order of queso.

 It has begun. I am pretty thrilled about it. Almost 18 months ago I was so worried he would never read well, perhaps he was dyslectic. Time makes a world of difference. I had him tested an he was reading above grade level then, just didn't want to do it all the time like Emily did/does. He had read a lot over the last year!

 We celebrated Fathers's day and Grandpa Dallas birthday

 We were tipped off about free smoothie day and indulged after the pool

Dallas finished up baseball season, and we celebrated!

 We went to Adventureland with Audrey

 The cousins grump

 We got Robert a new popcorn maker for his birthday and took him to a new BBQ joint we had heard about in Luther. It was delicious. 

 A quick pause for more reading

 Dallas took a couple of golf lessons

 Robert autocrossed the Chevelle at the Heartland National Good Guys show at the Iowa State Fair. He went down with Dallas all three days, I went two days and the girls went one full very hot day. Luckily Aunt Lynne volunteered to spend some time with the girls at her pool the next day.

 Good Guys with the Johnson cousin's. I was so thankful they had a much bigger, and air conditioned site for the Kids zone this year.

It was so hot at the fair grounds. We turned an empty cooler into a hill billy air conditioner. All the drinks were gone and all that remained was ice and water, we all took our sandals off and took turns standing in the cooler.

Noelle Dance Recital 2018 Robert Thomas "Beauty and the Beast"

 Noelle began dancing at Robert Thomas Dance in January. Her broken leg in the fall prohibited her from dancing half the year. I called around and we found a spot mid-year. I mean it was not like they were going to turn down my money!

 She was placed in a combo class, she learned ballet, jazz, tap and Irish dance each week. Her performances were in tap and ballet, once song each. The studio had three separate and unique recitals on Saturday. Noelle's two performances were both in the 2:30 recital and all the acts in that recital slot told the story of "Beauty and the Beast"

 She had a lovely experience this year and we will likely sign up again. I am hoping to enroll her again mid-year after she finished cheer leading in the fall. That will keep us to one sport per kid.

 She loved the waiting, lots of girl time

 She also loved the required stage makeup and bun. We went to Sally's beauty supply and I asked all sorts of questions on what I needed to pull this look off. Emily became a pro at the bun and Lynne helped me through the "cat eye" look.

The best part besides watching her love dancing was the dance mom status I earned. I kid you not, I took her for dance pictures, which was our first time in the full get up and the instructor took me aside and whispered "it's not a big deal, but so you know the bow goes in the back" - yep you guessed it, I had put her costume on wrong! The bow does go in the back. Noelle is old enough to be embarrassed by these things so we quick switched in around and she looked the part for the group picture. But I will always have that first year individual picture to remember I had no clue!

Hawaii the way home...

 My last Hawaiian sunset as viewed from the tarmac inside our plane waiting to leave. The kids got to experience their first red-eye flight. No one really slept, I think we had not reached the we are too tired to sleep this uncomfortably. We left Honolulu around 8:00 pm and headed for Houston.

 We deplaned walked all across the airport, had a little chick-fil-a breakfast and lots of coffee and waited for our plane to Omaha. It was much smaller, two seats on each side and one isle. Dallas and Noelle sat together, Emily and I sat together and Robert was a few rows ahead of us. On this flight we did reach the we can sleep anywhere, and you can see from the next pictures it continued on the drive back to Ames.

 We arrived in Omaha a little before lunch and we were home in Ames by 3:00 pm, went and picked up the dog and some groceries and just like that vacation was over.

 Luckily summer was just beginning!

Hawaii the food

 Fancy Drinks, bloody mary and I think I got a cucumber vodka something?

 Shave ice is required on the island

 Ted's Bake Shop was recommended by all blogs or sources I checked. There was a little memory book in our condo and guest after guest said to go there. It was a wait for "real" food, and all the picnic tables were taken so we grabbed some pastries to share. A couple of pies and donuts. It was good and very rich.

 Shave ice on the North Side of the Island. You can barely see it in the picture but I got vanilla ice cream that came in a hollowed out pineapple with pineapple. I am still thinking about it. It was soooo good! I need to find a flavor-filled pineapple and try it at home to see if its the same, or if I was just starving.

 My birthday dessert from Aulani

 Everyone also said that we must eat at the shrimp trucks.  We did our best! Sticky rice was delicious, and everyone who likes shrimp in our family loved it. We also tried some local "pop". Which was weird but drinkable, we didn't order that again.

 Notice all of our meals were outside and in our swim suits.  I did over pack, this was defiantly a vacation that we spend 80% of our day in swimwear.

 We found a donut truck to get our Saturday morning donuts.  All food on the North shore comes in trucks.

 This was supposed to be a bear claw, the lade working said her sister wasn't in to help her today and things didn't turn out like she hoped. She marketed this to us as an alien hand! Also our coffee was complimentary because she was fairly certain she made it wrong as her sister usually does that.

 Asian snacks

 One shave ice stand that wasn't a truck. You still eat outside.!

 This restaurant on the North Shore at Turtle Bay was so windy that they recommend everything go into this drink caddy on the table. They were right, it was needed. This restaurant was supposed to be the spot to watch the sunset. It was our last night, I had the recommended Mai Tai, supposedly the best one on the island. I guess I don't like those. Robert had to finish it for me!

Drinking coconut water out of a coconut bought at roadside stand after the beach. We bought a pineapple the day before!