Hot Balloons

July 26th thru August 3rd is the National Balloon Classic held in Indianola!  We headed down there Saturday evening to watch the hot air balloons fly through the sky!  

We got there around 5:30, the flight time is scheduled for 6 but with strong winds they had about an hour wind delay...so we decided to check out The Heartland Express train ride!

 This is the look of determination...Trigg made sure that train was heading in the right direction!

 Around the field they went, Morgan and Piper in the front car, Trigg right behind them!  It got a little bumpy as they made the turn...

 ...Trigg ended up holding on to the sides of his car, but I think he still had fun...he asked to ride again!

 We grabbed some food and then rode again, this time he requested that Mom ride too!

 Once the train ride was complete, the green flag was up and the balloons started to inflate!

 Up, up and away!

 "Hot balloons!"  Trigg said pointing them out as they flew over our heads!

 With around 80 balloons this year, it is fun to watch them all take off!

 ...and away they go!

 "Balloons!"

 ...and some more

 WOW, look at them all go!  Awesome!

 The gentle breeze blew all the balloons from the field right over our heads!

 GO BALLOONS!

The weather was great Saturday evening (and the forecast looks great for the rest of the week).  If you've never been down to Indianola to check out the balloons, we would highly recommend it.  They are awesome!

Week in Review

Another week of the summer has gone by...August is right around the corner!

Last Monday was a "Dudes Night", Mom had her gals small group, so the dudes were on their own.  After bath time, we headed to the basement to read some books.  Trigg noticed his Green Lantern mask (from Aaron Paul's birthday party) on the table and asked if he could wear it...absolutely, you can!  

 He wore the mask through all three books and our prayers...then I reminded him that even super hero's need to go to bed, so the mask came off and it was bedtime!

 It wouldn't be summer in Iowa without corn on the cob!  Trigg had his first taste of sweet corn...

 ...He loves it!

 Saturday morning we headed back up to The Berry Patch...

 This time to pick blueberries!

 There are a ton of these little blue treats ready to be picked!

 With bucket in hand, we are ready to go!

 Trigg spots a few berries here and there...

 ...but he quickly figured out the best place to find good blueberries was in Mom and Dad's bucket!

 After we were finished picking blueberries, we stopped at the swing set to let our little cowboy ride the tire horse!

 Giddy up partner!

We had a ton of fun picking blueberries!  We made our own blueberry jam and blueberry muffins!

Week in Review

It's hard to believe that we are over halfway through July!  We have been spending a lot of time outside enjoying the summer!

Trigg has been asking Papa Brent for a motorcycle ride almost on a daily basis, so finally Papa had his motorcycle out so we decided to go for a ride around the block...

We had a lot of fun sitting on the motorcycle while it was off in the driveway...but as soon as Papa fired up the Harley, those patented "loud" exhaust pipes brought Trigg to tears...we were done before we started...maybe next time!

Some friends of ours told us about all the fun they had at Jester Park Natural Playscape, so we had to check it out for ourselves!  We headed there last weekend and had a ball.  The first thing we spotted were these big boys cooling off in the water...Bison!

Trigg was pretty sure that they needed swimsuits to be in the water and we tried singing "shoo fly" but their tails seemed to be doing a pretty good job of keeping the flies away!

We said "bye-bye" to the Bison and headed over to the natural playscape!

Our first stop was the "wetlands" to cool off!

We found some cool rocks...and then tossed them into the water!

Mom and Trigg got wet playing in the bubbling rock and water fall!

On a hot day, it's a lot of fun to splash around in the water!

We stopped over at the hollow tree...it's a tunnel!

"Hello in there!"

We had a lot of fun playing at Jester Park will be back to play some more and check in on the bison!

Henry Doorly Zoo

This past weekend, our good friend Adam got married in Omaha, so we made a weekend out of it, wedding on Saturday and we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo on Sunday!

The first stop was the aquarium and we stopped at the "Touch and Feel" station to touch the sea urchin and several star fish!

Then to the fish tanks...lots of fish!

We loved watching the penguins swim, splash and waddle around!

Trigg found a little shark sleeping in the corner.

This tank was especially fun...lots of bright colored fish and coral!

...the bright orange fish caught Trigg's eye

The dudes with the bright orange fish!

Next up...Shark Tank!  We loved the underwater tunnel with all the fish and water animals swimming all around us!

WOW!

Sea turtles, sharks, sting rays and lots of coral...so much to see!

After the aquarium, we headed around the zoo and found some zebras!

We found a sculpture of a monkey that resembled Trigg's shirt (just missing the tie and glasses)!

We found the big bell to ring as we were headed to the gorilla/monkey house.

The gorilla's were eating a snack and roaming around their world...

...this one grabbed some food and came and sat down by us!

Trigg tried to tickle his back through the glass!

After the gorilla's we made our way through the desert dome!

Family photo with a turtle!

We had a great weekend in Omaha, it was fun to see our friends at the wedding and the zoo was great!