Other Summer Adventures

Here is a quick rundown of lots of adventures we had this summer.  

Arts Festival downtown IC

Several trips to the Little Free Library right down the street.  These little libraries have popped up all over Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty.  Give a book, take a book!  The one closest to our house rarely has children's books.  Luckily, Ruby doesn't mind picking out books for me to read (or take up space on the counter.)  And even more exciting, is the possible visit from two little kitties that seem to come out when we are around.  Ruby loves them.  Jace loves them from afar, but isn't too brave when it comes to petting them.

 A quick trip to Michigan for a wedding of Paul's cousin.  Gary and Ruth rode with us and we had a great time catching up with family we hadn't seen in a long time.  Ruby had a wonderful time on the dance floor and was the life of the party for awhile.  Jace feel asleep in grandma's arms.  The next morning, we headed to Pau's grandmother's house with several family members.  The kids were able to play for a while before our 6 hour trip back home.  

Ruby and I got to see the musical Wizard of Oz at the Coralville Performing Arts Center with our friends Jaci and Clara.  

The Johnson County Fair with our friends Nicole, Lauren, and Levi.  

We had a couple beach days at Kent Park. 

 Several park dates.  This particular one was with our friends Katie, Lydia, and Claire.  

We tried to hit up as many school parks as we could before the school year started up again.  It was fun to try out new ones! 

Playdates with Cousin Sydney

Lower City Park to ride the rides, which were closed for a good chunk of the summer due to flooding.

Forevergreen Nursery Fun Fair.  Face Paint, cotton candy, and carnival games.... they loved it!

Despite the beautiful weather, we still made trips to the Children's Museum.  I'm pretty sure Ruby's week isn't complete unless we make a trip there.  

Ruby, Deegan, and Jace  

Jace's first sweet corn!

 Popcorn picnic

Splash Pad

Afternoons in the backyard... the only place for popsicles.  It looks a lot worse, but I promise it's just popsicle!  

Kid's Day at Kinnick.  Hattie and Brandon came to visit that weekend as well.  We stayed so busy with them that we hardly got any pictures.  

Fry Fest... "Herky Heaven"  They had all 84 Herkys in the same place!  Needless to say, the kids LOVED it!  

Grandpa Bill and Grandma LaDonn came later in the day and we went back to Fry Fest for the pep rally.  We got to see Hayden Fry and of course, the REAL Herky was also in attendance!

And of course, we had to get a few more pics with Herky.  

We enjoyed the rest of the weekend with Grandpa Bill and Grandma LaDonn and packed it full with visiting the Farmer's Market, cheering the Hawkeyes on to their first win of the season, having a fire in the backyard, attending church, and doing some shopping.

What had a wonderful summer!  

Asher John

Paul's brother Jon, and his wife, Stef, had their baby on May 18th.  Asher weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and has the longest toes I've ever seen!  After we visited them in the hospital, we asked Ruby what she thought.  She said, "Great! Now Asher and Jace can have a playdate!"  At first we thought, oh, that's so cute.  But we soon came to the conclusion that she just wants to keep Sydney all to herself!  Jace can have Asher!  Ruby and Sydney are quite the pair and we are excited that Jace has another little boy cousin to play with.  Asher is SUCH a good baby!  At three months old, he is now sleeping at least 11 hours each night!  If not MORE!  And I'm pretty sure he's been doing that for a good month already!  What a trooper!  Sydney is, of course, a wonderful big sister and so proud of her little brother!

Van Heukelom Family picture

 Asher was baptized August 3rd.  Papa Gary got to baptize him in our church.  Uncle Joel also came for the special occasion and apparently, got the best pics with the kids. 

We love you Asher John and are excited to watch you grow!  

Osceola County Fair

I need to catch up on all our summer activities but this one deserved it's own post!  Even though I don't have a ton of pictures from our weekend in Sibley, it was definitely a memorable one!  Our trip back home just happened to coincide with the Osceola County Fair held in Sibley each year.  My dad had a great idea for the boys (Paul, and my brother-in-law Brandon...who had never been to a county fair before!) to enter the BBQ contest.  There were three divisions with a $500 prize for first place in each division!  There was also a $1000 for the grand prize winner.  It only cost $10 to enter too!  The boys entered three entries into two divisions; a Fatty (deli meats and cheeses rolled into a ground sausage log) and ribs into the pork category and ribeye steak into the beef category.  Low and behold, the Osceola Country Fair BBQ committee has a few kinks to work out... each contestant got a number which told them when to bring their entry to the judging panel.  But they were also told that all entries needed to be ready by 3:00pm.  So they had their food ready, but their steak didn't go to the judges until 4:30 so you can imagine it was really good!  :/  Fortunately, their pork entries had an earlier number!  The day was long as they started smoking their meats around 8:00am and judging didn't commence until around 5:30.  We all waited anxiously for results...and they received FIRST PLACE in the pork division for their FATTY (out of about 30 entries!).  They were quite proud and I'm pretty sure they didn't wipe the smiles off their faces for the rest of the weekend!

Meanwhile at the fair, the kids saw lots of animals, a sheep show, tons of tractors...Jace's personal favorite!... and jumped in lots of bouncy houses.  The day was a success all around!