Holiday, Celebrate!

I love to celebrate holidays (sometimes more than once!) Minor holidays like Labor Day are no exception. This year, as labor day weekend was approaching, I was feeling bummed that I had no plans, no family nearby, and no husband around. I was able to talk my friend Lisa into going on a last minute get-away with me, and where could be better than fabulous Omaha? We got a great deal on a priceline hotel (a 2 bedroom suite for $40 a night!), loaded up the kids in her van, and headed across the border (the Iowa state border, that is).

This crazy crew was so excited for our little trip.

We took the kids to Spagetti Works in Old Town for dinner. The atmosphere was great, and the weather was perfect. The food left something to be desired.

When we got to the hotel, we were greated with warm chocolate chip cookies. (Are you kidding me? could this place get any better?) Then we took all the kiddos to the pool.

Ammon, Abbi, Carter, Ashlyn and Oakley at a park in downtown Omaha.

These picture are kind of out of order, but at Spagetti Works there was a balloon lady! She came right to our table and made the kids these fun ballon creatures.

Abbi was a little angel (well most of the time!)

Saturday, we met some more friends at the wonderful Omaha zoo. Once again, a great day. The weather was beautiful, the company was great and the kids were (mostly) well-behaved.

The boys in front of one of the waterfalls in the indoor rainforest.

My kids are super cooperative when we try to take pictures. This one, at the butterfly house, is the best one we got of all of us at the zoo.

The whole crew! (minus Lisa who was taking the picture)

Maddie, Caden, Heather, Brenna, Oakley, Logan, Austin, Megan, Ashlyn, Shauni, Carter, Abbi and Ammon.

We love Omaha!

Thanks guys for the fun trip.

(and Lisa, I am amazed that you managed to escape every one of my pictures.)

Toddling

This one's for Daddy!

After many failed attempts, I finally caught Abbi toddling on video. As you can see, she still prefers to crawl, but I think she is on her way to becoming a walker!

Go Hawkeyes!

Iowans take their football seriously. Especially Iowa/Iowa State football. This year I have noticed it even more than before. The boys both had University of Iowa/Iowa State dress day at school, both of their soccer games were cancelled Saturday because the coaches wanted to watch the big game and too many players were going to miss soccer to go to the big game and last week (the week of the game) the doughnuts at Hyvee were frosted in Iowa/Iowa State colors. But I knew it was really serious when Ammon came home from school on Friday and said, "So mom, Cyclones or Hawkeyes?" I decided it was time for us to get into the spirit of the big football rivalry. We are all now proud owners of Hawkeye apparel (football fans across the nation will begrudge the fact that I chose our team based solely on the color scheme of their merchandise). The day of the big game we all got dressed in our University of Iowa garb and headed to the farmer's market with some friends. We enjoyed chatting with fellow Hawkeye fans and the banter we received from those who were sporting their Cyclone gear, and we felt like true Iowans, enjoying a morning at the farmer's market before the big game. We didn't go to the game (we actually didn't even watch the game), but I hear that I chose wisely: University of Iowa beat Iowa State 35 to 3. Go Hawkeyes!

Two less lonely people in the world...

Last week (as I was missing my husband and dreading the weekend alone), I got a message from my friend Celeste that she wanted to come to Iowa to visit. I was so excited I called her immediately and we started planning. Her husband was also away on rotations and we both wanted some company. She is amazing and braved the 10 hour drive here from Michigan, with 3 kids- including a 7 week old baby. WOW! She totally made my week. Make that my whole month. We had a blast. It had been over a year since I had seen Celeste and her kids, back then we spent nearly every day either running together...

or working together. We had some great times!

This weekend was no exception. Still more great times.

We were so excited to meet little Maddilyn. She has the cutest little face and the best hair! Abbi was especially interested in her and kept crawling over to check her out. Sadly, cute little Maddi made Abbi look like a toddler.

The boys were also sooo excited to see their buddy Cannon. They spent the whole weekend playing with legos and transformers and we hardly heard from them. The older boys stayed up chit chatting until late into the night and somehow weren't even grumpy the next day.

They even included Karlee in the sleepover festivities, and she was such an angel!

We revisited some of our old "stomping grounds" like the Neil Smith trail. Hauling six kids on bikes wasn't quite as relaxing as running the trail used to be, but it was fun all the same.

We also had to hit Panera bread and take it to Dewey park for a picnic.

Somehow I don't have photo documentation of it, but one of the highlights of the weekend was getting a babysitter and going to dinner and shopping.

The weekend wouldn't have been complete without meeting up with some of the old Chapelridge crew. We met up with Megan and Lisa and their kids for an afternoon at the park. As far as parks go, it doesn't get much better than Raccoon River.

What a crew! The kids (minus Logan and Maddi) stopped playing for a minute to have a snack.

We spent all afternoon playing at the park, playing in the sand,

and swimming in the river.

We ended the weekend with a pizza party and (of course) the kids ended up hunting for (and catching) frogs in their pajamas.

This wasn't really part of the festivities, but I had to throw this picture in here because I am certain that I have about the cutest baby in the world and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Celeste, Cannon, Karlee and Maddi. We had so much fun visiting with you guys. We had such a good time that Celeste has convinced me to drive to Michigan in November for a visit. (She is going to hold my husband captive as collateral!) We can't wait to see you guys again.

Firsts!

We have had a lot of FIRSTS at our house lately. Today was Ammon and Carter's FIRST day of school.

Ammon started FIRST grade,

and Carter started four-year old preschool. It was the FIRST time the boys got to play together at recess.

This week Carter also had his FIRST soccer practice.

Today was also the FIRST time I took all three kids to the doctor for check-ups at the same time. (This was also the LAST time I attempt to do that!)

Little Miss Abbi is growing like a little weed, at 9 months here are her stats:

Weight: 21 lbs. 6 oz (75th percentile)

Height: 30 inches (97th percentile)

Unless she gets her mom's hand-eye coordination, we could have a little basketball player on our hands!

This week, Abbi got to visit Gray's Lake for the FIRST time,

It was also the FIRST time she stood on her own,

and sadly, the FIRST time she skinned her knee.

And last but not least, this was the FIRST week that Colby was away on rotations....

and we survived!! Hurray!

Whew, all this excitement is wearing me out!

Farewells

This past week, we have said a lot of "goodbyes." After a wonderful Summer, we left our family and friends and headed back to the midwest. Less than 24 hours later, I drove Colby to the airport and said the hardest "goodbye" of all. For the past 3 1/2 years I have been (apprehensively) waiting for this day to come. Colby's fourth year of school is now in full swing and as part of his last year of formal education, he is required to do a lot of traveling. This means that I am currently living in Iowa with the kiddos while he is over 1,000 miles away enjoying mama Frost's pot roast and laundry service. He has been gone for three days and we are already missing him like crazy. I would like to say that I am coping like a champ but I'm not going to lie; I cried my eyes out at the airport, I spent the last two nights watching chick flicks and going through boxes of dating/wedding pictures and I have spent an inordinate amount of time surfing the Internet. I have had many people tell me that this will be worth it- all I can say is, "I hope so!" The good news is, I have these cute little kiddos to brighten my days and GREAT memories of all the time we spent with family this Summer.

Those are my boys: always super creative!

I love this cute little face.

Ice cream and Goodbyes with Grandma and Grandpa Stewart.

I love these girls! Our last Girl's Night Out of the Summer.

Grandma Stewart and Abbi on the carousel at the zoo.

Temple night with the Frost family.

Oquirrh mountain temple open house.

Kenecott Copper mines with Grandpa Stewart.

Cousin Time!

One of the best parts of the being in Utah for the Summer was being able to spend LOTS of time with cousins.

Carter and Megan.

This picture cracks me up! Could it get any worse?

Abbi got to meet Henry for the first time,

and had lots of fun playing with Barrick.

We had much better luck getting a picture with the Stewart cousins.

Salamanders

When I asked the boys what their favorite part of our visit to Utah was, they both replied, "finding salamaders." Our last week in Utah, the boys spent a lot of time in Grandma's window well, they found a grand total of 5 salamaders and 3 frogs. These little creatures kept them entertained all day, for about 3 days straight.

Showing their little "pets" to Abbi and Colby.

These little critters got a lot of love!

Although we had a great time on our trip, I was very excited to see the beautiful midwestern landscape. We had a hard time saying our farewells, but it's good to be home.