Iowa Life

Well before I get to life in Iowa, I have to finish up our "homeless" week. :) We spent the rest of that week at my parents' house in Wisconsin.

Monday was the 4th of July!

 J just loves the Brookfield 4th of July parade, so of course we had to go!

We staked out our spot the night before!

And look, a similar pic from last year!

And yes, I scored that same 4th of July dress in 2 sizes. :)

We also hit up Kopp's for some frozen custard!

Hope approves!

That night we went to the Elm Grove fireworks. Adam stayed home with a sleeping Hope (SO not worth it to keep her up late to watch 30 min of fireworks!). J was super excited!

Tuesday we hit up the Wirth Park pool in the morning. Hope seems to be fearless, and I don't really like it!

 That night my parents graciously watched J and H for us so that Adam and I could go out for an early anniversary dinner! Yay!! PF Chang's, Cheesecake Factory (picked up cheesecake to go!), and Target of course! :)

Wednesday evening we stopped for dinner at Chic-fil-a (my fave!) and then headed downtown to walk along the waterfront. It was kind of overcast, but really humid if I remember correctly!

Thursday we stopped by Brassers to visit Uncle Lew and Aunt JoAnne- so nice to see them as usual!

J making sure H is cooperating for the photo, of course.

Then we stopped at Grandpa's old school, Brookfield Christian School, to play on the playground. I really wanted to get a nice pic of the kids on Grandpa's bench.

H was NOT cooperating, and then the tornado practice siren went off, and then I gave up.

Friday was the big day to move into our house in Clinton! We arrived at about 3:30 pm, and I think the Uhaul was unloaded in just a few hours (and we even had sheets on all our beds to sleep on!). Could NOT have done this all without the help of my parents and our friends here in Clinton, the Middendorps and the Middendorps. :) We appreciate your help and hospitality SO MUCH!!

Monday was Adam's first day of work, and our first day of exploring Clinton.

A few house pics, if anyone cares. :)

His first library card- so exciting!!

We checked out Eagle Point Park- that is a really cool place!! Definitely a place to go more often!

We've also been working on doing all the fun "moving to a new state" stuff like getting new driver's licenses. Yippee!!

Oh, and Thursday the 14th was our 9th wedding anniversary!

We celebrated by Adam working, and then taking the kids to Applebee's. Woohoo!

Saturday we got to explore the Children's Discovery Center as a part of a program that I signed J up for called "EnviroKids." J went to 4 different stations and learned all about motion (and got to play, too).

 Hope basically drove this car around for 2 hours straight.

So that's what we've been up to! The kids and I are off to IL for a week at a lake house with my family. Adam will stay behind to work, and then hopefully join us for Thursday. I feel like all of our busy-ness is making this summer just fly by!!