Goin' To The Chapel

My cousin, Adam, and his new bride, Quinn, were married in Kansas City over the weekend. They had a beautiful wedding and super fun reception!
Here are Adam and Quinn entering the reception. :) They both looked stunning!
Adam and Aunt Karleen during the Mother/Son Dance.

Haydn, Stella and Hannah "CHEERS"!

Vada enjoying a little snooze during the reception.

Nana and Vada, Love this pic. I have the exact same photo of Mom and Haydn from Anna's wedding (if I wasn't so lazy I'd go find it and post it.)

Vada and Porter playing under a table at the reception. They entertained themselves for a long time doing this. :)
Brad and I posing for the camera!

The morning after teh wedding, trying to get a good photo of the Watson 5. Porter was cracking me up and would not smile! You can see his pout face! Funny guy!

Probably the best shot I got of them.....

Stella's Turn For Fun In The Ayr

Wednesday morning Stella went home with mom for her turn staying with Nana and Papa. The day before, we (mom, Sara, Hannah, Haydn, Stella, Porter and I) went to Boone and rode the Scenic Valley railroad train ride. It was a beautiful day for the train ride and we had a lot of fun. Of course I forgot my camera, Sara has some great pics on her blog at: http://waukeelittles.blogspot.com/ . Anyway, Stella has been having a lot of fun at Nana and Papa's house. She rode her bike 3.5 miles down the nature trail. I was amazed she could go that far! Porter and I have been having a lot of fun up here. I haven't taken any pics *gasp*, but we've been busy. I never get one-on-one time with him since Stella doesn't nap, so it's been great doing things that he likes to do. It's fun to watch him play with his toys and see what he is really into since Big Sis isn't up here to boss him around! LOL! We went to Ashby Park today to the wading pools and played on the playground as well as in the water. Yesterday we went to the library and to the mall to play at the playland, and of course get a pretzel at Auntie Ann's! Each afternoon after his nap I've taken him on a 3 mile run in the jogging stroller (SO MUCH easier to push one child rather than two!) and we stop at the park each day. Tonight we are going to Family Fest and listen to some music, enjoy a couple beers and play! Here are some photos that mom has emailed us the last couple of days.
Yesterday mom and her dressed up and went uptown (that sounds so posh, yet funny considering what "uptown" MA is!) for a fancy, grown up lunch. Here's Stella decked out in her fancy clothes and boa. My Aunt Kay was able to join mom and Stella for lunch at Jamie's Coffee Mill. If any of you are ever in MA, Jamie's has a great lunch menu! The photo is a little dark, but I think it is so cute of the 3 of them all fancy! Even Mom and Aunt Kay wore boas to the luncheon. :)

Yesterday Stella also got to ***DRIVE*** the golf cart at the country club! I hope there were no injuries to innocent bystanders!!!!!

Cleaning her bike off after her long rides on the nature trail. She'll probably want to ride RAGBRAI next year!

Of course none of the grandkids (except for little Vada) can go to MA w/o swimming in the hot tub!!

Triathlon!

My mother-in-law, Linda, participated in a triathlon in Okoboji over the weekend. She turned 60 years young in May and her goal was to accomplish a triathlon in her 60th year....and she did it!!! We are all so proud of her, she started training last fall and she did a great job!
I woke up at 5:30AM that morning to help Linda get ready, I thought the sunrise over Lake Okoboji was beautiful that morning. Here is Linda in her wet-suit. It was a chilly 59 degrees that morning! Good thing she had her wetsuit. I snapped this photo before we left the house. She and I headed to Pikes Point at 6AM.

Here she is getting ready to start her triathlon! Swimming was first, then the 18 mile bike ride, than a 10K race.

Getting out of the water after the 1st leg of the competition....she still has a smile on her face after being in that cold water! :) Hopping on her bike to begin the 2nd leg of the race.

Mike and the kids met us right when Linda was finishing up the swimming part of the race, then we drove around and stopped at a few different spots to cheer Linda on during her bike ride. Here they are holding up the sign that we made for her. Stella told me what to write on it, it read: "Good, Good Job Grandma! We love you. You are the best runner, EVER!!!" :)

Sailing by on her bike.

After the bike ride, putting on her tennis shoes to do the 10K (and final!) leg. Still smiling!!!!!

And she's off!

Crossing the finish line!! Whoo hoo!!!!!!!!

Uncle Chris pulling double duty again with the kiddos.
The evening of her race, here is Linda soaking her sore ankles in the hot tub, enjoying a cocktail and sporting the GOLD medal she won for age bracket!!!!!!!!!!

Porter giving Grandma a HI-FIVE for a great job!

We left Okoboji early Sunday morning to get home for a birthday party that day. Then we invited Hannah over for a sleep over (Haydn was in Mt. Ayr). This morning after we got home from the park, Hannah wanted to paint so we got out the paint and set everything up outside so that the house wouldn't get completely trashed!

Porter decided he would rather paint rocks than paper. :)

This is the reason we painted outside. Can you see how gloopy his rock and fingers are?!?!? Ick!

Stella painting a rock. And then Hannah working on her masterpiece.

After Hannah left and Porter was napping, Stella and I were playing outside and I was flipping through Family Fun magazine. I found a cool activity to do in the magazine and Stella wanted to try it out. It was really cool!

Porter getting in on the action after his nap (notice they are both wearing different clothing from this mornings painting activity.....they were both covered in paint!).

Chasing Porter with bubbles!

Flying Solo

Porter is spending a couple of days with my parents, this is the first time he has been down there by himself, normally he has Stella with him. Mom says he is getting along great! She is really good about emailing photos of the kids when she has them, so I thought I'd update the blog with Porter's trip to MA. He'll come back home tomorrow morning.
Here he is this morning on a picnic at the old train depot. Playing with the ISU football!

These were taken last night. Porter's face cracks me up in this picture! All the grandkids love to play in this tree next to my parents house.

What is a trip to Nana and Papa's house w/o treats?!?!? Enjoying a popsicle.

Papa and Porter enjoying sometime in the hot tub. Thanks for the photos, mom!!

VBS

Stella is participating in Vacation Bible School at a church in West Des Moines, it is a huge church and the VBS has a huge turn-out as well. This is the same church that I volunteered once a month at last school year to lead a mommy and me music class. Anyhoo, I brought my camera today to take some pics to show Mike just how large the VBS is! A far cry from the bible school we had back in Maloy where there were probably 10 kids total!!!!!!
I was upstairs getting a photo and trying to zoom in to get Stella and Hannah. Stella is in the 4 year old class and Hannah is with the 5's. At the end of each day the 4 and 5 year olds gather together in the gym and sing songs. Stella is near the right hand bottom in a turquoise top, Hannah is hard to see, she is near the left hand side next to a boy in a blue shirt. A shot of the gym where the 4's & 5's gather. There are probably 10 sections of each age group. Then the 1st grade-6 graders gather upstairs at the end of each day. Each section has 4 teachers, the church needs about 2000 volunteers to help with VBS! Crazy, but the kids have so much fun! :)

The last song they do each day is done with sign language.

Hannah and Stella at the end after VBS today. :)

Girls Day!

Today after Stella got out of Vacation Bible School we went and picked up her BFF, Berlin. Berlin has a new baby sister and we thought her mommy would enjoy some quiet time this afternoon while the baby and her younger brother were napping. While Stella was at VBS I met mom and she took Porter home with her for a couple of days. Stella will go spend a few days in MA next week. So we met Mike for lunch and then the girls and I headed to the mall....what can I say, we are a bunch of females!!! :) While at the mall they had lots of fun playing at the playland, then riding the escalators. They also got a manicure, which they thought was big stuff! I wish I would of had my camera on me, they were so cute and excited during the whole thing!
When we got home we made some brownies.... Showing off their pretty nails.

Another photo of their nails! Berlin picked out a hot pink color and Stella choose a bright purple.

Right before we took Berlin home I changed them into the shirts I bought them today at the mall. They say BFF, which they thought was so funny! They kept saying Best Friends Forever all afternoon! They are a hoot!

Mackenzie's Party

Last weekend we traveled to Minnesota to help Mackenzie celebrate her 3rd birthday! The birthday party was so much fun. :)
Stella taking a swing at the pinata. Porter checking out one of Mack's new toys---he loved playing on this thing even though it was never turned on! :)

Singing to the birthday girl.

Stella and Porter adore their dog, Chipper!! They gave him LOTS of attention!!!
A couple of our college friends drove down to see us when we were at the Kohls'. Here is Beau, Kohls and Mike, they were college roommates their senior year at ISU!