Stella's First Day of Preschool!

Our little girl started preschool today! She was so excited and so were we!! No tears were shed as we said our goodbyes, just all around excitement. :) She goes 3 days a week for 2.5 hours a day. The photos are somewhat out of order, so bare with me!

Here she is going into her preschool.

This morning before we left the house, her backpack is as big as her! She picked out her outfit all on her own at the store a few weeks ago, she loves purple!

Playing in the yard before leaving.

Next to her cubbie at school.

She and Porter checking out one of the toys.

One shot of the inside of her school, there are 3 large rooms that open up into each other and another room across the hall is where they have music class.

Okoboji with The Watson's!

Mike has been working in Okoboji for the past couple of weeks. Last Thursday, the kiddos and I went up to see Mike...needless to say the kiddles were VERY excited to see Daddy!! We had a great treat of having my parents (Jay and Donna or Nana and Papa as they are known to Stella and Porter) join us for a few days in Boji! We had a great time and my wonderful inlaws were fabulous hosts as ALWAYS!
Steve, my father-in-law, had a DOUBLE knee replacement 2 weeks ago from yesterday and he is recovering really well! We are pleased as punch and hope his "new knees" allow him to be turning cartwheels shortly! :) The day before we left Stella, Porter and I were at the mall and we saw this shirt and HAD to get it! Stella wore it the first two days we were in Okoboji, it reads: I love Grandpa! Stella with her Grandma and Nana....such a lucky girl!

Dad, Mike and Stella went out with a fishing guide on Saturday afternoon and Dad (who has not been fishing in probably 40 years!) caught the biggest fish! Stella kept calling it an alligator!!!! Here he is with his prized catch.

All summer we've been meaning to stop at this exhibit at Okoboji called "Big Bugs". An artist created....well, I guess Big Bugs, out of wood and they are displayed at Okoboji this summer. I think there were 10 different bugs scattered throughout the display, here is Stella, Dad, Porter and Mike under the Praying Mantis.

Papa was "lucky" enough to be put in charge of pushing the youngins' at the Big Bug exhibit.

Family photo overlooking West Okoboji. Stella and Porter with their Grandma, Papa, and Nana. Steve wasn't able to come due to the double knee replacement.

Stella and Porter in front of the huge spider web and spider.

Dad on a jet ski! We had a lot of fun playing on the lake!

My poor little guy!!! Stella, Porter and I were in the hot tub and they were having so much fun playing, all of a sudden Porter is jumping to me and hits his forehead on the side and INSTANTLY gets a huge goose-egg! I felt horrible, but he was fine. Here's his goose-egg :(

The dudes!

We took a nice boat ride around Okoboji on Sunday night, it (like everything) was a lot of fun.

Stella and Nana:

Captain Mike

Stella and Porter, full of smiles on the boat ride.

Mr. Photographer

Porter and I hit Target up this afternoon and before I knew it he had dug my little camera out of my purse and was playing with it. I probably should of taken it away from him, but hey it occupied him so I could browse a little longer! I got home and was looking through the pics and some of them were cracking me up, so I thought I'd share. :)


This is my favorite one!
Eyelash....

Photo of a little toy shark (who didn't end up making it home with us!).

Chin.....

Me pushing the cart....

He is now taking appointments for photographing weddings, family portraits, etc! ha h

Camp Out!

Okay, trying this again!! I just uploaded all of these photos and captioned them and then lost the entire entry!! UGH!
This weekend we traveled to southern Iowa to camp out (I use that term loosely as we stayed in cabins that had power, air conditioning, etc....but hey that's as rustic as we get!). We joined mom & dad, the Little's and Mark and Ken. It was a great time, but we were surrounded by great peeps!
Here is one of the cabins, there are 4 cabins, so we all had plenty of space. There were also quite a few people camping out in their campers over the weekend.
Mike and Wes playing the bean bag game.

Porter enjoying a super healthy snack of juice box and chips!

Dad and Mike

Hmmm.....what could this possibly lead to????

Water balloon fight!!!!!!!!

I was the only one who didn't get drenched (sometimes it pays to be behind the camera!)

Late in the afternoon we went to John and Karleen's house so the kids (both big and small) could go on a horse ride. We all had a great time, they also have a huge trampoline which was a huge hit with the little ones also!

John and Karleen have a gorgeous view from their deck, this photo does not do it justice at all!

A group shot on the horse, they didn't ride all at the same time, but we wanted a pic of them together! :)

We got back to camp and put the guys to work cooking dinner.

We were also able to celebrate Uncle Mark and Hannah's birthdays last night.

Porter is all about the frosting!!!

A plaque at Fogle lake explaining the history of a bridge that crosses over the lake, the plaque is in memory of our beloved Grandma Bert.

Group shot!

Giant Slide

Here is a video of Porter and I going down the giant slide at the fair yesterday. Stella has gone down it every year since she was 1 year old, this year she and Mike climbed all the way to the top and she chickened out! So they climbed all the way down..... Porter REALLY wanted to go, so I took him...........let's just say by the end he wasn't too happy! But he loved watching the video today! :)

Iowa State Fair

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Iowa State Fair, it isn't summer until you've been to the fair, right?!?! We had a great time and the although the weather was hot, it wasn't unbearable like it has been in years past!
Here is Stella at the DNR exhibit watching the ducks.
A childrens garden area, they loved the little camo jeep!

You can't go to the fair w/0 stopping by to see the Butter Cow! Porter was mad here b/c I had bumped his ear!

Enjoying an ice cream cone....we were smart and only got them ice cream once we were inside an air conditioned building!

I can't remember the exact name of this building but it is SO cool! It was full of animals giving birth or had just given birth. We saw actual chicks breaking out of their eggs, calves that were less than a day old, many pigs that were just to give birth. It was really neat!

Mike and Stella on the skyglider.

Porter checking out a skid loader (is that what that is called?!?!).

Stella playing in a tractor.

Porter playing at a little play area, this was shaped like a train, which he loved and it was a donated by the Clearfield Lions club.

We ended our day at the fair by enjoying listening to the Nadas!! Woot! Woot!