Soccer Practice

Soccer practice starts this week. All three kids are playing this year. Last night Elliot had his first practice. There are only 6 kids on the team, but John let siblings join in and it turned out to be a rather large crew.

Elliot’s Soccer Practice

State Fair

We hit the Iowa State Fair last night and had a great time. The kids always enjoy the eclectic mix the fair has to offer. This year we stumbled across a hypnotist’s show, which amazed and amused us all.

They were really excited about the cotton candy.
Dinner at the Fair
Biggest Pumpkin in Iowa

Piano

After flirting with it for years, we finally got a piano. Andrew has been interested for a while and has been playing around a lot on his keyboard. His third grade curriculum calls for a musical instrument so we think that now is the time. Hopefully his lessons will start soon!

We put the piano in our livingroom, where the wardrobe used to be.

Stam

We hit up Stam tonight for some gelato. I have always felt that Des Moines’ ice cream screen is rather lacking, but Stam makes a good attempt at keeping it real.

Live Music in the Evening

Adventureland

Yesterday we had our annual trip to Adventureland. The Reagens scored some free tickets earlier in the year and this year we were lucky enough to be accompanied by Bianca. I took the kids most of the day and Susan joined us in the evening. The weather was great and the crowd died down by mid-afternoon so we had almost instant access to most rides.

Andrew & Bianca getting ready for the Silly Silo.
Andrew eating his traditional footlong hotdog for dinner. He warned me this year that next year he might need two.
Ready to Ride

Whiterock Conservancy

This past weekend we took our (hopefully) annual trip to Whiterock Conservancy with the Reagens. We stayed at the 805 River Cabin, which has no running water or electricity and is right along the Raccoon River. A good time was had by all.

Playing in the River
There was a brief bit of rain one morning so we got to play cards in the cabin.
Andrew by the Lake
The Kids