Saturday

Saturday morning we took a tour of southwest Iowa and visited the farm where my Grandpa lived as a child (most original buildings are gone but it was still really interesting). His brothers and sister told stories about growing up there and pointed up the hill to show us where their schoolhouse used to be.


After that we went to a little museum that was stocked with all kinds of old farming equipment. Rand found the pump especially interesting.

Ella in the Queen Anne's Lace outside the museum.

Next to the museum was an old farmhouse that had been restored. John and Rand played tag in the yard.

There was a playground there, too -- Rand loved the teeter totter.

It is very hard to get a good picture of the two of them. Maybe someday.

Finally, we visited the graveyard where several relatives were buried. Rand and John were only a little sacriligious. The wedding was that afternoon, and it was beautiful! Unfortunately Rand and Ella had both lost their minds -- I think it was the combination of road trip, too many new people, time changes, and having to be on good behavior. Both of them slept on Daddy's shoulders at different points during the day.

We're home!

We are back from an absolutely wonderful two week road trip to Iowa. It was so much fun seeing our family and friends, and even the drive to and from wasn't that bad.

We left our home early Tuesday morning and were on par for the SLOWEST START EVER with stops at Werner's school, McDonald's (because Werner got hungry after packing the car), and a detour in New River. Things picked up once we could go 80mph and we spent the night in Grants, New Mexico. Rand was quite impressed with the indoor swimming pool, and Werner made a trip to the local ER because his mild ear infection was getting worse instead of better. He returned to the hotel loaded up with meds.

We stopped at a rest stop in New Mexico where there were horse corrals. Here is Ella attempting to crawl without actually touching the ground:


On Wednesday, we stopped in Tucumcari, New Mexico to visit a dinosaur museum. It was owned by the community college and featured lots of bones that were dug up in the surrounding desert. We arrived in Dalhart, Texas, just before a huge Texas thunderstorm. Rand and I put on our sunglasses to protect us from the flying dirt and stood outside in it for a while. I was washing dirt out of my hair for days. The next morning we found a beautiful little pond behind the hotel and Rand caught a teeny tiny little frog. We had waffles for breakfast in the shape of Texas.

Thursday we left Texas and immediately after we crossed the border into Oklahoma we were stopped for speeding. Apparently the speed limit changed and Werner didn't notice. Luckily, the nice officer let us go with just a warning.

We stopped in Greensburg, Kansas, which is the site of the world's largest hand-dug well. Unfortunately, a tornado had devastated the town a couple of years ago so people could no longer walk down inside the well. It was both sad and interesting driving through the town -- it was very obvious where the tornado had hit and where it had passed by. In the picture you can see a big pole on the right side that had been completely twisted by the tornado.

There was a little park next door with three big culverts and the kids had a great time running through them.

We spent the night in Wichita and had breakfast complete with with biscuits and gravy. I did the laundry (woohoo!) and took the kids swimming in some chilly water.

This did not happen very often. But when it did, Werner and I practically cried tears of joy:

On Friday we arrived in Iowa just in time for dinner with all of the out-of-town Fisher relatives. Grandma Fisher was the first person we saw and she was so happy to see us. The church where the dinner was at was right next to a graveyard. Rand called the headstones the "golden stones." We had a great time seeing everyone and headed off to our cabin that night.

The Holdout

All in all, swimming lessons were a success. Sure, it took 4 days to get him into the pool, but Rand had lots of fun and was having a great time participating by the end. The last day he got a popsicle and a little report card.

Saddest Baby Ever

4th of July

This year was the nicest July 4th we've had since moving to Arizona -- year 1 Rand got sick, year 2 the fireworks were canceled due to high winds, but this year was perfect! It was a trifle warm, but once the sun went down the weather was pretty nice.

I like how Werner and Ella have the same expression here.

Playing with bubbles

Rand got lots of practice waiting his turn.

Rand LOVED this train balloon obstacle course and went through it probably 7 times


Rand having fun!

Tickling Rand

Rand and Daddy wrestling

Ice cream time!

Looking at the stars while waiting for the fireworks to start

Both the kids really liked the fireworks (although halfway through Rand did ask if he could play games on Daddy's phone....denied!) and it made us feel like official parents as we slowly fought our way out of the sports complex and arrived home at almost midnight with two very sleepy/grumpy children.

Oh dear.

I left Ella in her room for a moment to get Rand out of the bathtub and came back to this.....

which quickly turned into this.....

Likes

Rand likes....

- Reading "Horton Hatches The Egg"

- Wrestling and tickling and playing up-high-down-low-cut-the-pickle-tickle-tickle

- Spelling words

- Lucky Charms and apples with peanut butter

- Snuggling with mom and watching "The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh"

- Swimming!

Ella likes....

- "B-I-N-G-O" and "All I Want Is You" from the Juno soundtrack

- Climbing! She is going to give me a heart attack. Yesterday at the park she made it halfway up the slide (by herself) before I called time out and peeled her off.

- She does NOT like getting her diaper changed

- Throwing her sippy cup on the floor and saying "uh oh!"

Summer has arrived!

Summer is officially here. It is hot, of course, but even more significant is the fact that Rand has started both a Summer Reading Program and Swimming Lessons. So far Rand has read 26 books, gotten two prizes (a sticky frog and a smile buddy, both totally the educational types of toys I love having around), and had loads of fun putting the stickers on his little map.

Today was Day 3 (out of 9) swimming lessons and so far Rand has managed to not get in the water at all. He does sit very nicely on the edge of the water and listens to the instructor. He also recounts -- with great enthusiasm -- what "we" learned in class that day. "We learned how to do ice cream scoops, and float on our backs, and play red light green light!" He assures us that "maybe tomorrow" he will get in the water.

But that's okay, part of the reason I signed him up for swimming lessons in the first place was because he is rotten at participating in group activities. Swimming lessons are cheap, short, and conveniently located, and hopefully by the 9th day he'll at least have gotten in the pool.

The final reason we know summer is here? We've gone to Westgate a lot! Ella wants to be down and playing, even though her little knees get all red from crawling on the cement. Rand has switched from blue to green ice cream, and when some kind lady leaving Margaritaville offered Rand her spectacular hat, he said, "YES!!!" and even remembered to say thank you.