Using What You Got

We love to preach recycling, cleaning/picking up after others, and all green things in our house. Our lovely daughter Taylor took that to another level a few weeks ago when she decided to make a robot out of recycled or used materials she found around the house.

The best thing about this was it was all her idea and the work was done completely by her.

Raining Independence

Well, it was a great fourth of July week despite the weather at times. We were blessed to have Amy's sister and her family in town all week from DC. This gave much needed playing time with their son Rafe and our kids. Taylor and Amy hung out with Jenn and Rafe Monday and Tuesday, the boys spent the night with Rafe on Wednesday, and we all hung out Saturday.

Amy and I were able to enjoy a day off of work on Friday to hang out with the kids all day. This consisted of attending the boys' final swim lesson in the morning with doughnuts at the Tipton Bakery to follow. After our breakfast, we headed over to the Cedar Bluff park area where we enjoyed playing at park and taking a nice hike through the woods and along the Cedar River. We then went into Iowa City in the evening and enjoyed some fabulous pizza at Pagliai's and wonderful music at Jazz Fest. The plan was to to top off the night by watching fireworks in Kalona at the Shilo Amphitheater. The kids had been looking forward to it all night, we had the snacks ready, and drove all the way down there to find out they postponed until Saturday night due to forecasted rain. We were all truly bummed.

Kinnick later summed up the rain and cancelled fireworks with the following words (with arms crossed in front): "When I get up to the clouds I'm going to have to have a talk with God about this rain!"

The 4th started off the same as the night before ended. Rain! However, we and the Marietta's are two tough families and were not going to let a little (or a LOT) rain stop us from attending the Coralville 4th of July parade, which we have made an annual ritual. So, following breakfast at Grandma Sue and Grandpa Jeff's house, the kids collected their soggy candy and we enjoyed the wet parade as much as we could. After the parade everyone headed to our house to enjoy the rest of the day together as family.

We had a great time and enjoyed an obstacle course, scavenger hunt, and delicious food.

Videos of the obstacle runs are coming soon. Above is a picture of Amy finishing the obstacle course as she ran the trial run for everyone to follow.