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!

Fourth of July

There are many things great about this country, one of them is freedom and Urbandale puts on a great parade on the 4th of July to celebrate our freedom!  We headed over there to watch the floats and marching bands and hopefully see a few fire trucks!

All decked out in red, white and blue waiting for the parade to start!

 Here comes the marching band with the drums and the horns!

 Mom is all smiles and Trigg keeps watch as the parade goes by...

 "Big Rig"  Trigg shouts and points with enthusiasm...

 Sure enough, the Army, Navy, maybe Marines (one of the branches of the armed forces)...

 brought in their awesome tanker truck!

 ...and the fire trucks!  Pumper truck, aerial ladder truck, paramedic truck...they were all there and these two guys were excited to see them!

 Our pup, Riley, was born on the 4th of July, so we celebrated her birthday with a fun cupcake doggy treat that Trigg picked out from a local dog bakery, Bone A-Patreat!  7 years old!

 At the end of the day, we headed over to Altoona to watch the fireworks!

We had a great day celebrating a few of the things that make this country great, Happy Birthday America!

The Berry Patch

Last weekend, we took a short 20 minute drive north to The Berry Patch to pick our own strawberries.  The strawberries were ripe and ready to be picked!  Trigg loved finding the bright red surprises under the green leaves of the strawberry plants.

 He like eating the strawberries even more than finding them!

 Heather grabbed a carton and started filling it up too!

 Trigg was our "quality control" and tasted, what seemed like, every 7th strawberry to make sure they were up to his standards!

 ...oh so good!  Trigg had the evidence all over his face!

 We took a long stroll to the raspberry patch, but they aren't ready to be picked yet.

 We had a ton of fun at The Berry Patch, we picked strawberries and for snap peas!

We are already planning our return trip in late July to pick blueberries!

Month in Review

We are in full swing of summer and having lots of fun!  We are still searching for our new house and making the most out of our time living in the basement in Ankeny!  Trigg found a cowboy hat and was running around the house as a cowboy should!

Trigg also found a chair in the basement that is just his size...complete with a foot stool!

 Trigg has been using more utilizes and enjoys his folk and spoon...it gets a little messy in the mornings eating oatmeal.

 Trigg also got a new lawn mower and he loves it!  He pushes it around the yard as I push the big mower around.

 Hanging out with "Big Bear" down in the basement...

 ...oh "Big Bear", Trigg loves to wrestle Big Bear!

 The dudes taking care of the yard!

 The dudes and the mowers

The summer is rolling along and we are enjoying the summer days!  We've been to the pool several times and go for nightly bike rides!