Back to School

Before our kids head off to kindergarten, Heather and I take them out for a date, just the three of us. This year was Garrett's turn! He got to pick the afternoon outing...he went for mini-golf, then fishing and then ice cream! So we headed out to Jester Park for some mini-golf!

 G is kind of a wild man with a golf putter yet he managed to get his ball in the hole each time!

 All smiles from this crew!

 After golf, Jester Park has a good fishing pond...but the fish were not biting...G did find this cool centipede!

 Up and over his figure..."It tickles!"

 Next stop...Van Dee's for ice cream. We chatted about school, about life and about

 We headed to school for meet the teacher and of course get our picture taken with the Dragon!

 Cheese!

 1st day of 2nd grade for this dude! Rockin' the mow-hawk for day 1!

 G is pumped for his first day of kindergarten!

 And B is pretty excited to have girl time with Mom at home everyday!

 The Comfort crew ready for school!

 Trigg with his teacher, Ms. Kintz

 Garrett with his teacher, Mrs. D!

Let's do this!

Summer Fun

As summer comes to a close, I was looking through some of our great summer fun! We played a ton outside, on skateboards, on bikes, on scooters and building ramps!

 B loves her dresses and her tutu and we often find her on her scooter wearing said dress or tutu!

 G got a ton better on his bike this summer!

 Let's ride!

 Our library does a summer reading program and the boys earned tickets to the I-Cubs game!

 We got this Ziggle cart from Morgan and Piper, the boys love riding it as much as Blythe, but it is a girls Ziggle and all pink, so we decided to give it a face lift. Blythe picked the colors and it now has a fresh look!

 G decided it was time to pull off the training wheels!!! Big day!!

 We also got to hang out with our friends this summer!

 One of the greatest finds at the end of summer was our new backyard pet...Mustang! We build this "habitat" for him...which he loves!

 Oh yeah...Mustang is a toad!

 We also took a trip to Pella to walk around town with a stop at Central College, where Heather and I met!

 Selfie with the iconic bridge (photobombed by Trigg on his bike)

 Go Dutch!

We love summer and feel like this one just flew by...we aren't really ready for it to be over yet but we are excited for a new school year to get started!

Iowa State Fair

We made our annual trip to the Iowa State Fair this year. Heather loves the fair and I enjoy it for the most part, I have come to the realization that if I want to enjoy the fair, I need to take a day off of work and we go in the middle of the week, which is exactly what we did this year!

This giant sand sculpture greeted us as we headed to Little Hands on the Farm

 These little hands were excited to see what farming is like!

 Time to plant!

 Pick your seeds wisely and plant in the good soil!

 Time to drive the tractors...don't forget gas...an ethanol blend made from corn, of course!

 Sharp turn and then down the hill!

 Through the dairy for get milk and then head to the market!

 After the farm, we headed to see some farm animals!

 Blythe wasn't too sure about the calf.

 Posing with the 760 lbs giant pumpkin!

 Quick stop at the train playground

 And then the giant slide!

 All smiles as the 5 of us came flying down!

 These bacon wrapped hamballs stuffed with cheese and covered in BBQ sauce were amazing!

 This bad boy on a Bad Boy Mower!

 Pretending to be farmers!

 Cheese!

 Nothing runs like a deere!

 All three in the scoop of a front loader!

 One more picture from a huge tractor

 And as the day came to a close (for us anyway), these two were Happy Campers and had a ton of fun at the fair!

Nothing Compares to the Iowa State Fair!!!

Family Camp - Hidden Acres

Every summer our church does a family camp retreat at Hidden Acres in Dayton, IA. If you've never spent time at Hidden Acres, I would highly recommend it, there is a ton to do and fun for the whole family!

We started with a little paddle boating on one of their 4 ponds!

 After that, we headed down to the lake for some swimming. I didn't snap any pictures of the lake, but they got a few of the old water slides from White Water University, a water park that used to be in Des Moines.
After the lake, G and I tried a little rock climbing!

 Ready to go!

 Up goes G!

 One hold at a time and up he goes!

 Garrett did awesome and made it pretty high up the wall!

 Heather, Trigg and Blythe went over to the giant swing while Garrett and I were rock climbing

 2 thumbs up for this gal!

 Helmets on and ready to roll!

 They climbed up the platform...

 The scaffolding slides back and they are hanging in the air...

 The swing then gets pulled back and pull the rip cord and they are swinging!

We had such a great time at family camp, it was a good chance to meet some other families in our church and a great chance to spend some time playing outside!