Friday, August 26, 2011
2011 Iowa State Fair!
No summer is complete without a trip to the Iowa State Fair and last week we did just that! The past couple of years we have parked at the capitol and taken the bus to the fairgrounds, I would highly recommend this mode of transportation, it works out really nicely! Anyway, our first stop was at the Family Center to check out the cakes...and look at this one, this cake basically is the fair! It has the sky glide, the butter cow, a pig, a cow...everything one would want to see! Heather was amazed!
Outside the building, I was amazed by the hydrangeas, we just planted two of these bushes in our front yard, but they are no where near the size of ones at the fair...again I was amazed!
Inside the 4-H building we found a soda cow, not exactly the butter cow, but I am sure it took some work putting this one together.
Of course, we made a stop in the horse barn, one of our favorite stops, to see the Percheron horses.
We went from big horses to the big bull!
...and then the big boar, Tiny weighing in at 1,196lbs, he is a purebred hampshire from Postville, IA!
...and then we walked through the cattle barn...watch wear you step!
We swung through the Agriculture Center to see the famous butter cow!
...and out to the Grand Concourse for a little people watching.
This year, with baby on board, we jumped on the sky glide and took it to the top of the hill!
At Pioneer Hall, this quartet was playing...on the left, the banjo, then the fiddle, the washtub bass and the guitar, yes that is a washtub bass, awesome!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
BBQ Fest
A few weekends ago, Heather and I hosted our annual BBQ fest. I woke up about 6:00am Sunday morning and got the smoker started. We smoked brisket, grilled ribs and chicken legs. For some added fun, I cut out some vinyl moustaches to put on all our glasses!
In both black and brown...and in four different styles!
Like I said, I started the smoker nice and early and got the red needle to "ideal"! The brisket was on there for 12 hours and it turned out wonderfully!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Curb Appeal
This past weekend we did a little landscaping to the front of our house. We have a ton of hostas. I love hostas, don't get me wrong, they are hearty and good ground cover, but we have way too many in the front of our house...too much of the same green color. Here is the "before" picture.
So we pulled out this bed of hostas...
...and planted two Limelight Hydrandea bushes. We also planted some flame grass that is supposed to turn red/purple in the fall! We did add a few of the hostas back in the front of the bed to fill it out. The rest of the hostas we moved to the side of the house to help hid some down spouts.
Any suggestions on how to care for our hydrangeas?
Any suggestions on how to care for our hydrangeas?
Balloons 2011
No summer would be complete, for me, without a trip down to Indianola for the National Balloon Classic. This year, we didn't make it down till the very last night, but it was worth it.
Not too much wind and depending on how high the balloons were, the wind was changing direction, so balloons were taking off from all sides of the field and flying in, it was a lot of fun to watch!
It kind of feels like a family reunion going out to the balloon field, most of my actual family is there and then lots of people (who feel like family) that I have gotten to know throughout the years are there too, so it is always fun to catch up on how everyone is doing. We had a great time watching the balloons fly, as always.
It kind of feels like a family reunion going out to the balloon field, most of my actual family is there and then lots of people (who feel like family) that I have gotten to know throughout the years are there too, so it is always fun to catch up on how everyone is doing. We had a great time watching the balloons fly, as always.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Big 5 for Nathan
Last week our nephew Nathan turned 5 years old! Heather and I were at her Grandma's in Monroe, I was mowing the yard and Heather and Grandma were making corn to freeze. We met the Pella VL's at Jersey Freeze for some ice cream cones!
The ice cream was melting fast on a hot day but it sure was good!
Monday, August 1, 2011
Pool Party!
The past two years, we have rented a pontoon boat at the end of the summer to spend a day out a Big Creek Lake, but this year 2 of the 4 girls are pregnant and wouldn't be able to get in the water at a lake, so instead we headed to a pool for an afternoon of fun!
The girls really enjoyed the rafts and relaxing in the water...

...and the boys enjoyed plenty of shenanigans!
Aaron with the flying suplex/belly flop onto the floating blue mat
Derek pulls the six-gun shooter salute!
...flying smile, over Derek and the fountain!
Heather and Dawn enjoying the water!
Then the guys started to get creative. In this photo, Aaron is catching the football in mid-air and then flipping it to Derek as he is also jumping into the pool!
Heather and I are all smiles on a beautiful day!
A day well spent at the pool!
The girls really enjoyed the rafts and relaxing in the water...
...and the boys enjoyed plenty of shenanigans!
Aaron with the flying suplex/belly flop onto the floating blue mat
A day well spent at the pool!
Weekend with Girls from the OC
Last weekend, Heather and I got to spend the weekend with our nieces and had a blast. We picked them up Friday evening and hung out with them till Sunday. Saturday evening, after a fun filled day, we headed to the park up the street to check out the playground equipment. Addy loved the twirly slide!
...Gracie did too!
The girls even got Auntie Heather to climb up!
Karys and Gracie made it across the monkey bars!
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