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!