Weekend in Iowa

This weekend we headed up to Iowa City. Our first discovery was the completion of the "man cave" that my Dad had been working on. Tim thinks he needs one too..... It's a great room that Abby and Megan can run around in and also watch TV in with their movies.

Abby loved the typewriter.




Saturday we made a day trip to Delmar for my Grandma's burial. As she was cremated we did this at a later date. We were also lucky enough to come away with some mementos from the house that were my Grandma's. A couple of my favorites are the overhead photo of the farm, her angel food pan, and the sewing machine. I have talked about learning how to quilt for a little while. It's a good enough time to start. After church we attended the Delmar Fireman's Steak Dinner which was filling enough to put all of us to bed!

Also, if you can believe it - Tim and I were married today....7 years ago. Happy Anniversary Tim.

Ice Cream!

In an effort to try some new locations out in Columbia we made a trek to Randy's Custard on Sunday evening to enjoy some custard as our favorite custard place - Shakey's is no longer. They conveniently had "baby cones" so we let Megan have at it for the first time on her own - it was a bath night. She loved it! Then tried to eat Abby's cone and my cone, but settled for some of Tim's concrete. She's addicted.


It doesn't look good for Abby but she catches up. Megan has it all over her dress and down her arm.


Seeing how it's done.

Looking at Daddy's concrete since her cone is almost gone.

Delicious!

This weekend we will be heading up to Iowa City/Delmar IA for the weekend for my Grandma Powers' burial and some family time. We will also be celebrating the retirement of my Uncle Pat. It should be a good weekend with family.

Congratulations to Rachel and Derek who will be getting married this weekend at Kentucky Lake on the Schmidt family side. Sorry we won't make it but we'll see you at Jake's wedding.

Houston Trip

This Memorial Day weekend we traveled down to Houston, TX to visit my brother Andrew and his wife Rebekah. We managed to have almost perfect travel experiences both ways, which if you know my history with flights is a miracle in itself. We arrived in Houston Friday afternoon and headed to the apartment for lunch and pool time, which quickly became Abby and Megan's favorite place.

Saturday morning we headed to the Houston Zoo.

Checking out the sea lions to start with.



The zoo had a new baby elephant.

Staying hydrated in the warm Texas heat.



Uncle Andrew helping Abby see the jaguars.

Chilling in the shade with Rebekah.


The zoo has a bald eagle named Liberty, and next to it a nest for photos. Once Abby figured out the eggs weren't real she was okay with it. Megan as you see had no issues.

This is the Beer Can House. By the Papke's apartment. I had told Andrew to visit it when they moved there, so he showed us it as well.


The whole house is pretty much covered in beer something.



After the zoo Abby and I had some mother/daughter time and got a mani/pedi so we were more appropriate for flip flop season.

Having dinner with the guys. Nothing like corn on the cob!

No Megan you cannot have my drink!

Monday morning we went to Discovery Green Park, in downtown Houston. It's a great park with toys and fountains for the kids.

As you can see we cooled off in the fountains after playing on the toys.



Just having some fun.



There were different cycles of the fountains. Abby got slightly braver and was running through the big ones.

Megan thought it was a good idea too, she quickly changed her mind.

Here's most of the fountains in motion.

Here's the sailboat pond where you can bring your own boat or rent one.

We had a great time in Houston. The weather was hot and it's only the beginning of June! We were happy to get back to our mid-80s in Columbia, but sad that our weekend went by so quickly. We're pretty sure that Andrew and Rebekah were happy to get their apartment back and are probably still finding cheerios that Megan put somewhere.

Abby's Dance Recital

On Thursday May 27th Mrs. Shelley's School of Dance had their Spring Recital. This is what all of those weekly practices have been adding up to. It was a very entertaining night followed by milk and cookies - who could ask for more ?


Here is Carmen, Abby, and Chloe before their first performances. They are ridiculously adorable. Abby is in the younger class which is why she is in the pink outfit.


Here she is after she was presented her certificate for completing the class.

We also got her flowers as well to celebrate her completion and performance.

We do have some cuts of the performances. There is one of the tap performance - which is cut short when Abby kicks off her shoe because I thought I needed to get it, but Abby put it back on and kept right on dancing! Then there is the ballet performance, and finally her tumbling. She can now conquer the somersault.

We are very proud of her, and she had a great time which is the most important.






Abby's somersault.

Unfortunately I'm having issues downloading the other two videos so we'll just have to wait to see those.