A day at the lake

 This past Saturday we headed to the Okoboji area to hang out with our neighbors for the day.  It was a glorious day.  So beautiful!  We got some sun, but not fried, some wind to cool us off a bit, but didn't blow away, and a not very busy lake.  It's July people...but we're glad it wasn't busy!  Jacob got out on the tube with Nate as we floated around and then Nate got his wild ride.  Jacob took a snooze and then took a dip in the lake too!  Jacob enjoyed it all, just not at first.  By the time we were done on the boat that kid was warmed up to it!  The most memorable moment for him, that he talks about numerous times a day...peeing in the lake!  He's so funny about talking about it too.  We ate a delicious meal over looking the lake and then did some amusement rides...which some how Nate got his tickets for free (we were only going to do one ride for Jacob since they're kind of spendy there anyway.)  So, with his free tickets to ride one ride, Jacob choose the train.  Well, the guy wouldn't take their tickets, so they got a double free ride!  So the carousel ate up Jacobs tickets.  It was fun and memorable, especially because something was lost and found at the amusement park. 

4th of July at the zoo

The forecast was for 90, hot and humid.  Now I like heat and summer and sun, but I was a bit worried with the forecast.  The zoo is a workout.  By the end, we were saying that it really didn't seem as hot or feel as bad as what we were expecting.  With a lot of indoor exhibits and tree covered pathways we didn't have an overwhelming amount of sun exposure.  It was a glorious day and Jacob got up close and personal with a lot of animals!

 I have heard of several stories where gorillas are strong enough to break glass.  I was hoping this guy wouldn't get mad and bust the glass in on my boys!  How fun that he was right there though!

Lions and tigers are one of Jacob's favorite animals.  He could not wait to get to the cats!  On our way into one of the buildings they had a lion and tiger fur to feel.  That was pretty cool, and Jacob still talks about it.

From a distance I thought this hippo was a water fountain and made the mistake of asking Jacob if he wanted to drink from the hippo.  Instead, he just got to sit in his mouth!

Trying to sit on the elephant, but it was a little warm.

Another favorite was the giraffes!  He was calling for them to bring their big necks over here!

 Jacob liked playing in this little waterfall and we were able to prop the camera up for a timed family photo.

The aquarium was the hit of course, and we saved it for last.  He loved "playing" with the animals.  This sea turtle "crush" was right up to the glass and it was fun to see Jacob interact with it.

 Then we named him the fish whisperer as he was doing tricks with Dory, he would move his hand up and the fish would swim up, he would wave his hand down and the fish would swim down.

Even though check out was 11:00 at the hotel, our bands for the water park were good through closing.  We knew we'd be hot after the zoo and planned to meet Sarah for some swimming.  Jacob had a lot of fun playing in the water some more.  

 

Then we decided to hit up of all places the Pizza Ranch in Council Bluffs on our way home.  It was so tasty after a long day.  It was fun to see family and we were glad it worked out on such short notice! 

Some fun

 We decided to take a random, spontaneous trip to Omaha on the eve of 4th of July.  We made the decision and within an hour or so we were on the road, packed!  The trip was a little longer due to the current flooding of the Missouri River, but it wasn't too bad.  We took advantage of the water park at our hotel right away.  Jacob really enjoyed it, except when he slipped, fell and bumped his head - minor.

After we got cleaned up and ate supper after the water we headed to my brothers house to enjoy some fireworks they and the rest of their neighborhood were shooting off.  Completely different from Iowa where they don't sell fireworks and people don't shoot them off all evening long.  Jacob got his love of monster trucks from his cousins there, so of course those had to come out!

A little sparkler action going on.

1st of July

Our community happens to have 4th of July celebrations traditionally on the Friday of the weekend of the 4th.  We had some family over for supper before heading to some celebrations.  We had a tasty meal of grilled steak and chicken with cheesy potatoes, corn on the cob with some strawberry shortcake for dessert.  It was super tasty!  We have a small kitchen and a small table, so the kids had their first ever "kids" table!  They had a lot of fun not eating most of their food and talking to each other and being silly.  It was fun to see them interact together...can only imagine what it will be like a couple years from now! 

 At the festivities they had various kids activities, a petting zoo, train, bouncy house, and more!

We opted for a spot further away from the festivities to watch the fireworks.  The boy cousins had fun playing around with each other.

The fireworks were pretty and Jacob liked them.  

I like this picture for the red, white and blue combinations but also for the red one just bursting!

 

We had the rest of the weekend to relax and do whatever we wanted.  It was so nice!  On Saturday we worked around the house after deciding that we wanted to go pick out paint colors for our house and go golfing, we got a babysitter lined up - we were pretty excited since we called the day of and got a sitter for like 4 or 5 hours later!  

So, I think we kind of have our paint colors picked out! Ha!  It's so hard and I wish I knew someone super talented in this area that could just tell me, you need da ta da ta da colors, and they make a good combination and will look good on your house.  I'm so nervous that it's going to be UGLY!  After we did that we stopped at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Shoppe....delicious!  Yummy!  I loved it!  We decided to eat it in the car on the way to the golf course.  We played 18 holes and then enjoyed a delicious meal together.  It was the perfect evening to golf and had we been at home we would have been saying to ourselves...man, why aren't we at the golf course, it's a perfect night to golf!  The best thing is that we were home at a good time and could still put Jacob to bed ourselves. 

picnic & beach day

I can't believe it was already a week ago that Jacob and I went to a park about 20 minutes away for a picnic and some time on a small beach.  The weeks are truly flying by this summer.  It's kind of crazy packing stuff up to go away when a little boy keeps unpacking what you did or creating other disasters that put off the packing.  We eventually made it out the door and arrived, only to realize that I had not put shoes on my kid.  What parent hasn't left leaves the house without shoes on their kid?  

But in all fairness, the story goes like this...Jacob is dressed and ready to go - including shoes on his feet, so am I.  I finish packing one more thing and as I am walking through the house to find Jacob I am saying, "okay Jacob, time to go potty, it's time to leave".....at the same time he is running towards me saying "mommy, I went pee...I had an accident."  Sure enough little puddles oozed from every footstep.  I carry him to the bathroom and get things under control...thankfully he had his rubber sandals on that can quick rinse off and no big deal, right?!  So I do that in the bathtub, set them on the edge to dry off a little - didn't want to put them back on right away as they would probably cause a blister or create more little puddles, which I did not want to wipe up.  So, I left the bathroom light on as a reminder to get his shoes....evidently I did not go back to that part of the house as the bathroom light was still on when we returned home later that afternoon!

Thankfully, we couldn't have been going to a better place to be shoeless.  Other than the fact that I wouldn't let him play on the playground and we couldn't take a hike.  We'll go back again this summer, he liked it!  He couldn't quite understand why there was sand in the water, but he seemed okay with it.  Next time we go we need some sort of big truck or loader.  Maybe the dollar store has a cheap plastic truck.

 The self-timer on the camera.  We enjoyed our lunch, but Jacob was a little anxious to go to the beach and didn't eat as well.  But it was hot too and who eats well when it's hot?

Having fun in the water.

I got one shot at a pose looking at me, everything else, action shot...

 Some boys that go to my school were also at the beach and they had this loader and they let Jacob borrow it.  It was so nice of them, he wanted to buy it from them when it was time to leave so he could bring it home!  It was cute.

Top things lately...in no particular order...

**Today is actually Tuesday and we've been in a streak of going to bed late.  It's fine, for me, because my days can be pretty relaxing and I usually have a little boy napping that I can at least rest during.  I really get myself in trouble when mid to late August comes around and I have to wake up and be moving roughly 2 hours earlier...we'll worry about that when it gets here! :) 

**Monday, I was able to participate in an adoptive moms group where we are doing a book study on "Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother".  The book is really good and I am enjoying reading it and gathering others thoughts on the book and how true it is.  I also just started reading a book called "Dear Birthmother".  It brings a lot of comfort and helps me feel closer to Jacob's birth mother as I read this. 

**Since I was gone Monday night, the boys had an outing too...it was Family Safety Night...basically they checked out the ambulance (see picture below) and fire truck and got a free bike helmet (which he received a free one earlier, so we need to find a tots head who needs one to give the extra one to someone else).

 **Tuesday, the sun was a very warm 75 degrees (not quite pool weather) with very little breeze.  It seemed warmer than it actually was, but it was a glorious day.  I thought I would try to sprinkler with Jacob to see how it went...he loved it!  We put his slide in too to add to the mix of fun. 

**We heard today that our home study needed a few revisions, but is already being sent back to the agency with those revisions made.  We were told that once it was received it should be signed and approved!  Which means that we should be approved by the end of the week.  This is super by the way!

**We have chosen to put our information on our agency's website - an online profile.  This took some work prepping, but we have the necessary documents to the person in charge of that in our office.  That was a great thing to check off the list too.

**My strawberries have been ripening in my garden and we made a strawberry pie, it was delicious, but needed to be eaten in one setting, not as good after it sat for a day...too bad we can't eat a whole pie by ourselves.  I have a huge flat of strawberries sitting on my counter to work with - not from my garden, but from Getting's Garden.  Yummy!  Now if only I could get my strawberries to turn out as large and sweet as theirs...

**Wednesday & Thursday & Friday are looking to be great SUMMER days!  I have a couple great plans to do with Jacob.  Part of it depends on the strawberry undertaking.  Enjoy it while we can is my motto!  The pool will certainly be hopping and I'm looking forward to a possibly picnic, maybe a hike, perhaps a dip in a little lake/pond with some sand.  We'll see how the days progress.

**I took Jacob to the library yesterday, we borrowed several books - one of them being "The Lion and the Mouse".  As far as I knew, Jacob was not familiar with this book, but with his love of lions, it was sure to be a hit.  Last night, Nate and Jacob were reading it...did you know that Jacob knew the mouse was going to help the lion!?  It was so cool how he was predicting out loud what he thought was going to happen.  This is a great reading skill by the way.  He pays attention to such detail.  Of course, I think my kid is smart and I'm enjoying fostering his learning and wondering what the years ahead will bring.

**I am going to sleep with the windows open again tonight.  It's been a long time since the A/C was on - very early June.  I'm not thrilled at turning it back on....but when 90's are in the forecast...it's ultimately easier to sleep and be. 

Lincoln gives shout out to Jacob!