Sweet Home Iowa

I was back in Iowa for 10 days and Adam made it back for 4. I HAVE SO MANY PICTURES... mostly of the nieces and Kane, it was very hard to pick and choose for the blog but more will be on my facebook photos soon!!

Good ol Iowa!

My girl Sadie with her duck. She is a good 12 years old now with a lot of the conditions older dogs get. But she is still full of sass and was SO EXCITED to see me... almost as excited as I was to see her!

The horsies

Brandon working with one of his horses.

Got to go on two rides! :)

This was something I had not experienced before. The vet came out to do dental work on the horses-- very interesting!

Girls with their Alaska gear! Look at how grown up they are!

Lookin for frogs!

We went to the imaginarium and had a blast. The "special event" was a very informational presentation of SNAKES! The girls loved it!

Shanin wouldn't pet the snakes but she is all about catching frogs and toads! Just like her cousin Heidi!

Playing in the playhouse. This was my cousins and we played in it growing up! The famous-hot pink playhouse!

Readin some books. Heidi and Shanin just finished Kindergarten and are well on their way to reading-- it brought tears to my eyes! Breanna is VERY interested in books and is getting ready for Kindergarten next year. Annie will be in preschool next year and does a great job using the pictures to tell her own story!

Future boyfriend and girlfriend. Well.. I don't know about future- they had a pretty good time playing with each other that day! ;)

Adam at the spillway.... he loves spillways and dams. They are the equivalent of a horse barn to me!

Big boy Gunner.... out exploring!

Mowing the pasture for mom and dad. (even though dad was perfectly capable of doing it... wink wink! He is healing super-fast from his shoulder surgery!)

Sydney in the kalidescope at the imaginarium.

Dad on the "flight simulator"... he kicked a little boy off and then refused to let another little boy have a turn. What a bully!

Emma is a little fish-- she loves the water!

Breanna having fun at the Dysart pool. This is the day when Deanna and I had them all loaded up and pumped for swimming.... then Iowa weather did its thing and it turned crappy on us. We swam for 45 minutes-- if that!

Silly Brooke and I swimming in the freezing water of Brandon and Deanna's new pool. We had fun!

Brandon doing a flip!

Sydney asked for it!! :)

Kane loves the trampoline!

Cousins reunited at last! Thanks to Tyler for taking the picture and putting up with us. I guess he is close enough to being a cousin too!

Mom and dad saved this lil kitty- Toby. Yup- he's a 3-legger but that doesn't slow him down!

At Drew and Adrienne's wedding. It was a gorgeous wedding!

Just putting the boat in at 11pm for some catfishing!

Scary eh? We didn't catch anything but it felt so nice to just get out on the boat, in a lake, with ma and pa Harris, holding a fishin pole!

I had a BUSY BUSY BUSY 10 days but had so much fun. Did the usual.... playing with all the nieces and Kane, horses, dogs, fishing, working outside, swimming, grilling, jumping on the trampoline, hanging out with my friends, etc etc. I even got to see my Jackson Elementary buddies-- go Stars! I had 10 days and it didn't seem like enough time, poor Adam only had 4! Luckily, he got a lot in those 4 days, even with sticking in the Des Moines area for the wedding festivities. The fam came down to see him Sunday morning before we left... I'm so glad he got to see MOST of our beautiful nieces (Syd and Brooke will have to get extra Adam time at Christmas!) He also got to see Kane-- who is a little spitfire... just like his Uncle Adam! We were absolutely amazed at how much they all changed- but especially the "babies"....Kane and Emma are totally different lil tikes compared to 6 months ago! Thank goodness for photos, videos, phones, and skype eh!??!

Well Iowa... until next time!! C'mon December!! (I did miss the mountains and the moosers though!)

......We are moved into our new house. We moved everything ourselves..... we chose a bad weekend to move-- Summer Solstice... Next year we'll get to spend the longest day of the year out camping and fishing with the rest of our friends! I'm getting as much done as possible with the house now (Adam is at a diabetes camp all week.. Kenai Lake) We leave for Florida in 8 or 9 days and then have visitors for the rest of summer! (yeaaaaaaah Brinkmeyers and Mom/Dad Harris!!!!!!)