Happy Halloween

I must admit I'm not that into blogging. I'd rather be reading celebrity news Web sites. But Roger has downloaded lots of photos, so I'll try to play catch up.

Roger and Juliana ran into Tyler while trick-or-treating on Oct. 31.

Juliana is Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Tyler is Percy (Thomas and Friends).

Juliana helps Roger carve a pumpkin.

Almost there

Two carved pumpkins

Juliana also went trick-or-treating downtown with her friend, Rozzie.

They are pictured with Rozzie's aunt, Janelle.

Roger wasn't able to make it, but Juliana latched on to his friend Travis.

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Update!

 

Juliana and her BFF from preschool, Addie, at the Pufferbilly Parade.

Eating with Rozzie to her left at the Patterson Post-Pufferbilly Parade Potluck.

On Labor Day, we went to Perfect Games, an arcade in Ames, for bowling, pizza and games. We purchased a Groupon and it was sort of a birthday deal for me. I know other parents have taken their preschoolers bowling, so Juliana got her first crack at that. It was fun, and we still have some credit on our game card, which might be useful on a cold winter day when the high struggles to reach 0.

Juliana got the best score, thanks to the bumpers!

More 4th of July

The main reason we went to Illinois the 4th of July weekend was to see Roger's cousin, Tim, get married. So on Saturday, we headed over to Rockford. We checked in to our hotel. We were able to get a good deal since Tim's bride, Shannon, worked there before. Roger's sister, Sarah, picked up Grandma Lutz, fresh off her airplane trip from Texas. (This is where the Grandma on the Airplane comes from.) We hit the hotel pool with Sarah, Lana and Alex while Roger drove his mom to Belvidere to meet up with Great-Grandma Hart.

Then we went to the rehersal dinner at the Machine Shed in Rockford. The following day, Great-Grandma Hart invited us to breakfast at her house. We played awhile there, but needed to head back to Rockford for a quick swim and then to change for the wedding.

Grandma gave Juliana a princess sticker coloring book!

Then we headed back to Belvidere for a wedding in the park.

Grandma Hart's great-granddaughters, from left, Juliana Lutz, 4, Lana Nisbet, 2, Zoe Hart, 5, and Maya Hart, 1.

Jill, Juliana and Roger at the wedding.

Zoe was the flower girl.

A good shot of Tim, the groom.

A good shot of Shannon, the bride, and Tim's brother, Mike, who presided over the ceremony.

Then we went to the reception in Rockford for food and dancing. Sarah, Alex and Lana left from the reception to drive through the night and head back to Colorado. We stayed a second night and hung out at the hotel before leaving about 11 to drive back home.

Juliana doing puzzles at the reception.

4th of July weekend

This year we actually went out of town for the 4th of July weekend. Roger's cousin, Tim, got married on Sunday, July 3. We were able to see many extended family on this trip.

We left about 10 a.m. on Friday, July 1. We have decided when we drive to Chicago it is just as effective to take Highway 30 across Iowa and get on Interstate 88 just inside Illinois. We did stop in Cedar Rapids about noon for some lunch. Juliana wasn't going to last any longer than that. We finished up the drive and pulled in to Roger's grandparents' about 4 or 4:30. Sarah, Alex and Lana had driven over from Denver, so we all got together for dinner at Russell's, a resturant Roger and Sarah remember from when they were young.

Getting ready to eat at the resturant

After we went back to great-grandparents' house and had a little birthday party for the girls. Lana turned 2 on June 15, and Juliana turned 4 on June 21.

Opening presents at the greatgrandparents' house.

Juliana got a whole princess ensamble, gloves crown, necklace, earrings and purse, from the Nesbits!

Getting ready for another birthday cake!

Getting ready to eat breakfast at the kids' table.

Great-grandma with her two great-granddaughters.

The two great-granddaughters with their great-grandparents.

Juliana's 4th birthday

Although we have seen many family members since Juliana turned 4, I have not put up any pictures from her birthday. So here they are.

Her birthday (June 21) fell on a Tuesday this year. We did celebrate in the evening, after Roger's meeting. Juliana was very good about waiting until Dad came home to open presents. We had taken cupcakes to the babysitter on Monday and just put candles on the leftovers. We spent Tuesday doing our regular Tuesday things. First, we went to the library for a special program, then we went to swimming lessons at the Y. We returned to the library for the regular storytime Tuesday night, and Roger pulled in right as we got home.

We got her three large presents (size-wise) this year, so they got wrapped in newspaper.

Blowing out candles on cupcakes.

We Skyped with Grandma Lutz (a.k.a. Grandma on the airplane) when we opened gifts.

Juliana loves those musical cards. And she liked the Olivia dollhouse just as much as her princess presents!

We had a formal birthday party on Friday. I knew that was the day "Cars 2" was coming out, and I wondered if there was a way to get a little group together to see the movie since we would all be seeing it in the theater eventually. We asked three families to join us for cake at McDonalds and then to the movie, which was playing at the theater in Boone. I think it went well, even though one boy cried when Juliana opened presents because he wanted presents, too, and the youngest girl did not make it all the way through the movie.

Thanks, Marcy, for getting a picture of the three of us!

Bethany, far left, Ethan, Olivia, Tyler, Juliana, Jill and Roger. We know these kids from church.

Tyler, Juliana, Jill and Rozzie. Rozzie's dad is Travis, who is Roger's bud.

We did learn the joy of duplicate gifts this birthday. But we were able to easily exchange them for similiar items.

Enjoying Ronald McDonald birthday cake.

Goodbye June

The end of June is here, so I thought I'd catch you up on what's been happening this month.

The first Monday in June brought the last soccer game. Although Juliana wasn't confortable being right up with the ball and all the other kids, she came a long way from her first practice, where she made a nice pile of grass. She did great in practice, kicking the ball around the cones and running drills. We had a great coach, Coach Christie, pictured on the right.

The first Tuesday in June marked the return of swimming lessons. We'd been doing them at the Y during the school year so we continued there this summer. She warmed up to Chris (a BOY teacher) and even ventured off the diving board again!

Our friends, the Haselhuhns, had their baby on June 15. Juliana and I were able to visit baby Hannah at the hospital the following day. Juliana is pictured with Tyler and Hannah. After talking about the Haselhuhns so much, Juliana started to say "Juliana Haselhuhn." Hmmm. Not sure about that quite yet.

Kerry, my best friend from college, and her husband, Jeremy, came down from Minnesota to camp with us a couple weekends ago. The last time Roger and I camped with them was the summer before Juliana was born! They are seasoned campers, and I'm glad they were willing to drive down here to camp with us. They brought their boat and got Iowa fishing licenses. It was nice being close to home so when it rained on Saturday morning, we ran home and showed them our bathrooms. I made many calls to Kerry last summer when we were remodeling them, and she had yet to see the final result.

They brought their dog, Squiggles, camping with them.

Here's our campsite. Since Juliana was almost 4 years old, I figured it would be "worth it" to camp because she'd remember it a few weeks later. She certainly remembed it was worth the walk to the "clean bathroom" even when the "stinky bathroom" was closer!

Who shot the dinosaurs?

When we visited the dinosaur exhibit at the zoo, Juliana asked, "Who shot the dinosaurs?" Hmmm, I thought. We know for sure that's one way they didn't die. She also asked "Who shot that squirrel?" and "Who shot that bird?" when we saw roadkill while out on a bike ride. So in her mind, if it's dead, it got shot. Anyway, I got her some dinosaur books at the library, and her favorite pages are the ones that show the asteroid hitting the earth and the dinosaurs dying. She also was telling the checkout girl at the grocery store all about how the dinosaurs died!

Memorial Day

We spent Memorial Day at the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines. My parents bought us a 2011 membership when they were half off through Groupon. They bought us a "plus 2" membership, which means our family, plus two unnamed guests can get in for free. In March, my brother, Matt, Juliana and I made a quick visit on a 70-degree day during spring break. In April, we invited our friends, Travis and Marcy Stevenson and their daughter, Rozzie, for the zoo's Easter activities. And in May, we invited our friends Adam and Traci Haselhuhn and their son, Tyler. After a cold, rainy, grey weekend, Monday dawned hot and windy. We had a good time, and every time we go something new has opened. This time it was the dinosaur exhibit, although we did not get photos of that because Juliana was pretty scared of them.

Fed a giraffe a lettuce leaf.

Ostrich watching.

Rock wall climbing at Kids Kingdom.

Feeding the fish.

Feeding a goat.

Juliana and Tyler on a frog.

We also rode the train at the zoo for the first time. Maybe Roger got a picture with his cell phone. On Mondays, members ride the train for free and so did our guests! I'm not sure when we will make it back (although the Austrailian Outback does open June 25), but I have some more invitations out to other families, so we will probably make it back a couple more times before summer ends. And at some point my parents need to come. Or maybe Roger can take some buddies for Zoo Brew.

Memorial Day weekend

On Saturday, we ventured to Colfax to visit my cousins. Colfax is about 20 minutes east of Bondurant, my hometown. My cousin Anne and her husband and son had flown in from Atlanta for the weekend. My cousin Margaret and her boyfriend drove over from Omaha, and my cousin Evan lives in Colfax with his wife and three children. We all met at my aunt and uncle's house. It was a bit of a disjointed visit. Anne's 20-month-old son, Sammy, was sick and they took him to an urgent care clinic shortly before Evan and his family arrived. With a daughter, Taryn, who's almost 3 and twin 3-month-old sons, it understandably takes Evan's family a while to get going. My parents and brother, Matt, also drove over. We were glad to see everybody, even though the visit was pieced together!

Juliana with the twins. Aidan, left, is two pounds smaller than Caleb, right.

Roger and Juliana playing with Caleb.

Juliana holding Aidan.
As I said before, we didn't get everyone's pictures with all the coming and going!

Planting Flowers

Juliana helps Mom in the flower bed planting flowers.

Here's Hobbes!

Here's Hobbes, our orange tiger cat.