Happy 8th of July!

Okay, so I missed the 4th by a few days. Hope everyone had a good holiday. We headed to Cedar Rapids to visit with Dan's family. We were planning on a trip to the lake on the 4th but it was a crummy day so we went on the 5th instead. Oh well. We've had a good mix of being busy and not being busy. This weekend we have no plans but the next two we do (okay, I'm not sure if seeing the new Harry Potter movie counts as "having plans"). Dan is gearing up for an outdoor project. He is planning on putting down pavers in the backyard to create a patio. Some of the pavers are free from friends which is such a blessing. It will be nice to have a place to put our outdoor table and chairs. We also have big plans for landscaping in the front since there currently is none. Too bad plants cost money! Not sure when that plan will happen. Let's move on to the pictures, shall we?

Tyler and I went to a parade with his friend Kara and her parents. Here is Tyler clutching his snack cup in one hand and the candy he has snagged in the other.

Tyler and Kara being forced to stand next to each other for a picture.

Tyler enjoying his new pool in our backyard

Des Moines has a lot of wading pools that are free to visit. One of our friends rented one out and had a pool party. I thought it was really nice but I heard it can get really crowded during its normal operating hours.

Tyler and daddy pouring some water. This is the "deep" end. It was 1 foot and 4 inches deep.

I made this mailbox for Tyler using an empty diaper box. I got the idea from a blog. I think between Tyler and the cats, it may get destroyed soon.


I have a lot of envelopes sitting around so I made some out to different relatives and drew on a stamp. I also had junk mail but Tyler seemed concerned that he was playing with unopened mail and kept trying to give it to me.

Like I mentioned, it rained and was cloudy on the 4th so we took Tyler to an indoor play area. It was nice because we were the only ones there at first. That's a very ideal situation for Tyler. Daddy spent most of his time crawling around with Tyler through the tunnels. Tyler had a lot of fun and wore himself out!

On the 5th we headed out to Dan's brother's wife's parent's house on the lake. Got it? It was a fun day of swimming, boating, and eating. Here is Tyler waiting to leave on the boat, looking a little apprehensive.

Maybe he was apprehensive because he knew we were boating out to this rock so mommy could jump off of it. This is a picture of Dan's sister, Holly, jumping off. The rock didn't seem high until we were on top. Then after I jumped I couldn't believe how long it took to reach the water. I'm happy I jumped off of it so I'll never have to do it again. I'm not sure how clear the picture is. The place where we jumped off is above Holly's head and to the left.