Mississippi Fun

On July 1st, we headed up to Harper's Ferry, Iowa (just a few steps from Prairie Du Chein, Wisconsin) to visit our good friends- Andy & Mary Beth Maloney and their two kids- Ava- 6 and AJ-4!  I teach with Mary Beth and they just happen to live 2 houses behind us! Their parents own a cabin on the Mississippi, so they invited us for a fun day of boating, tubing, and relaxing.

 
 Elise, Ava, Braydon, and AJ ready for a tube ride.  Braydon's first ride!

Elise thought she was brave for about 10 seconds (notice we have barely left shore!)  She thought it was a better idea to stand up. :) 

Elise and Daddy

Adam and I enjoyed  getting whipped around by Andy.  I realized the next day I am WAY too old for that stuff- my back was killing me.

I talked E into going on the tube with me.  Still not digging it.  After about 30 seconds she was crying- throught all the bumps.  Poor girl!

 

This little girl has NO fear.  

            

Before we left to go boating, Elise decided she was ready for the water.  She climbed on in by herself.  Fearless!

 

Braydon had a great time on the trampoline with Ava and AJ

Can you tell she's tired?  She fell asleep sitting up while the boat was cruisin' along!  Precious!

Captain E

We pulled tried to pull the trampoline over to tie up with some friends.  We made it about 5 feet as we could only travel about 2 miles per hour with the kids riding on it.  That doesn't work in 100+ degree heat.  Adam ended up holding on to it on the boat while we sped over.  Whew!  It was fun while it lasted.

Yo!

                           

B is pretty stoked about being on the river. (It took a while!)

He really isn't scared- this is his new face! :)

              

Ava and Braydon ended the day trying to hook some fish- No Luck!

We had a wonderful time with the Maloney's.  After being on the river for nearly 4 hours we headed back to the cabin to get ready for some dinner and cool off in some AC!  We can't wait to go back for another trip!

My 26th Birthday (3+ months ago)

Cheese!

Uncle Al always causing racket!

For my 26th birthday, Alex met us in CR at Osaka- a Japanese grill.  After that, we headed to Orange Leaf to enjoy some frozen yogurt.

26 wasn't too crazy.  Adam, Elise, and Braydon gave me some 15 lb weights and a gift card for a massage- It was wonderful!



Binky Addict

Loving this!

And THIS is why she is officially, a binky ADDICT!

Although this picture was taken in March- this is a clear picture of how crazy Elise is was about her binkies until a week or so ago when we limited them to nap/bed time.  She still sleeps with 2- 1 in her hand and 1 in her mouth. LOVE HER!

Mr. Athletic

Braydon played football this spring in Cedar Rapids.  Check out the athlete below:

Team Picture

Yes, he's the one wearing football gloves.

Ready to go!

Braydon LOVES sports- of any kind really.  I'm sure I couldn't pay him to play with toys, wait- maybe I could.  BUT he has no interest in playing with any sort of toy.  He would much rather, and does, only play with baseballs, soccer balls, footballs, basketballs, etc.  You get the drift.  

Anyway, he's quite the athlete- he's quick and puts his heart into it.  Hopefully it continues to be a source of happiness for him in years to come!  GO B!

Dr. Ward (And our trip to Omaha)

I bought myself an IPAD for  my birthday last year.  Any teacher  who applied for an IPAD in our school also received one in May.  This makes 2 IPAD II for the Foster's.  They are fun- and a nice way to keep the kiddos entertained.  (At home AND in the classroom :)).  Braydon and Elise are obviously having a great time on our drive to Omaha.

We are notorious for hitting birds.  Anywhere we go- we hit a bird.  We hardly made it out of Des Moines on our way to Omaha and SMACK- another bird.  We think he just wanted a free ride- he made it all the way to Omaha without falling out.  In fact, my brother ended up digging it out with a stick!  Yuck!

Elise thought she could watch a movie with Braydon- but really- she is more entertained with wearing the headphones- she thinks it's great!

My nephew- Hendrix- after his t-ball game.

Hendrix, Cash, and Braydon

We were celebrating Kim's graduation at a brewery in Omaha.  We put them up on the ledge so they couldn't run away!

Cash, Hendrix, and Braydon playing with water guns.

Elise trying to join the fun.

She found Harper's mower instead.

The real reason for this post:  My sister-in-law Kim graduated with her Master's Degree- She is now a licensed Nurse Practitioner- Dr. Kimberly Ward! 

We headed down to help her celebrate for the weekend.  We didn't make it in time to go to the graduation ceremony, but we made it to help her celebrate with lunch and spend the evening/next day with her.  All of my siblings (minus Alex) made the trek- along with all of Kim's family.  The kids had a blast playing together.

Next stop in Omaha- HENDRY DOORLY ZOO!

Summer

It's nearly time to close up June. I can't believe I have been on summer vacation for almost a month. We have been busy trying to keep busy. Braydon and Elise are enjoying each other SO MUCH. It's good thing they have each other- it allows me a FEW free minutes. (I use the word few, lightly). Braydon has been participating in t-ball and basketball this summer. When that is all done, he will start swimming lessons- his second set. He loves both activities. And not to be biased, but he's a good little athlete. He is doing the Kernels Reading Program this summer. His goal is to read 1,000 minutes by the end of the summer. He is 50 minutes away from 500! He reads at least 25 minutes per day- we are trying to keep him 'ahead of the game' in school. Hopefully this helps his transition to 1st grade go smoothly. So far this summer we have visited the splash pad in town, gone to the Cedar Rapids Pool, gone to parks, Palo Beach, the library, Hansen's Dairy Farm in Hudson, had Cash over for a week, and of course played outside for countless hours. Anything to avoid being 'bored.' I think our favorite activity so far was going to the pool and to the dairy farm. Elise loved seeing the cows. Elise is growing like a weed. I can't believe she will be 2 at the end of the summer. She loves to read books, eat, sit at the table like a big girl, run, push her stroller for a walk, and whatever Braydon is doing- she wants to do it too! We attempted to get rid of the 'binky' this last weekend. (Key word- ATTEMTPED). We were unsuccessful. When I picked her up for her last day of daycare on May 30th, her teachers told me they stopped giving her the binky when she started in that room (in January). Ha! Boy had she fooled us. She is like a bink-aholic around here. Not only does she need 1 bink, but 2!! One for her mouth and one for her hand. Anyway, after letting her scream for 20+ minutes last Sunday night, my heart broke, and I was forced to give it back to her. I realized as long as she only has it when she's sleeping, what is it hurting? Right? After witnessing a 2+ year old at the pool today (in the water) with a bink in her mouth, I figured Elise is doing great! The rest of the summer we plan to visit the Omaha Zoo as well as the Ward's, celebrate Cash's birthday in DesMoines and B's at Planet X in Cedar Rapids, attend a wedding in Okoboji, and enjoy some relaxation! Oh, and if you're reading this and wondering why it is all one paragraph (as the preview shows me)- I did actually use correct structure; however, it must be because I am using my IPAD and it won't allow it to format correctly. Annoying! Happy Summer!

It's already September...

Birthday sign from her friends at school!

Round 2: finger painting with frosting!
Round 1: Not really enjoying her first cupcake!

Loving her new horse. Thanks Nicole and Lauren!

Elise had a great first birthday. I am proud to say she did NOT like her birthday cake. For her party we had on Saturday I just got her a white cupcake with white frosting. She took about 2 tastes and threw it. So I was thinking 'maybe this is a fluke..' so for her real birthday on Tuesday I got her a chocolate cake with butter cream frosting thinking that maybe she just didn't like white cake. Nope, that wasn't the case either. She took one bite, cringed, and started finger painting with the frosting. I finished the 9 inch cake for her.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELISE! :)
Her gift opening was fun. She got 3 new babies with a stroller and their very own pack-n-play. She puts everything in her stroller to push around.. Clifford, her water bottle, cell phones.. anything she can find. She walks all around the house pushing that thing around. She was also pretty excited about her piggy bank she got. She points at it every morning she wakes up and says 'Ooooo.' This girl is ready to make money..;)

As a 1 year update Elise can do the following: walk, sign language for more, eat, all done, and please. She also can say "momma, dadda, ba-ba (for Braydon), woof woof for puppy, bath, yea, hi, and bye." People of my past will tell you, I was a motor mouth as a child... but I don't know what they're talking about. At this point, she gets her love for talking from her DAD! :) Her favorite food: broccoli!

We had family pictures taken the first week of August by Tim Dodd- the same guy that did our wedding photos. He got a few good ones... I can't help but share a lot- there are too many goodies. Elise hated every minute of family photos. She did not want to sit still: she was fussy, puked once, and wanted to grab the photographers camera at any chance. We also took some in a field across from the studio. Elise managed to touch a thistle and was bleeding on her shirt- thankful for photoshop. It was also very hot, so we are lucky he got any good ones considering the circumstances. I'll share more over SNAPFISH when I get a chance..

Braydon seems to be doing well in Kindergarten. We have conferences for him the first week of October, so we will know more then. He doesn't get much of a nap, so I think that has been his biggest adjustment. He has matured so much over the last couple of months and is suddenly a 'big kid' now. It's scary, but so exciting at the same time.

We took him to the Iowa vs. Tennessee Tech game over Labor Day weekend. I signed him up for the Junior Hawk Club, so he gets a free football ticket for the first home game, along with other perks. With that, we can order up to 3 extra tickets, so Kassey, Adam, and I all took him together. It was a great time.. and we had awesome seats- Row 6 near the end zone. It rained for all but 20 minutes.. long enough for us to take a couple of pictures and eat some food. We ended up leaving at the beginning of the third quarter due to the torrential down pour of rain. I think we will make that an annual trip- we had a blast!