Snicker Salad

We introduced Addison to Snicker Salad, she loved it of course (I mean, who wouldn't?) The boys were out playing so we let Addison lick the bowl.

We went out shopping and stopped at a furniture store. Addison thought all the fake food was pretty cool. We sent the picture of Addison with the cake to Parker, he was quite upset that he didn't want to go with us and now Addison got a giant cake. ha! That kid loves his sweets :)

Sitting on the couch with her popcorn, pretzels, and beer :) She thought it was pretty fun. 

Goofy girl putting her Paw Patrol finger puppets on her toes :) She managed to get them all on her tiny toes somehow! 

Swimming with Kelly

We went up to the big pool one day. It's nice because they have a shallow area that Addison can play in. She can take her diving toys and she can drop them and get them herself. 

Aunt Kelly got in the water and took Addison swimming. Addison hasn't had any swimming lessons yet, but Kelly got her started. Kelly taught her how to doggie paddle. She was quite timid in kicking her legs and making a splash. 

She also taught her to jump in. By the end of the day, she was doing pretty good at "jumping" to Kelly.

Parker showing Addison how it's done :) Might be a little bit before Addison is doing cannon balls. Although we do have her signed up for swimming lessons that start next week!! She's never put her face in the water so we will see how this goes..... ha! 

More Mini Golf

Cousins playing catch in the driveway. These boys are so good playing with Addison. Although sometimes they expect her ability to be closer to theirs! 

Looking for the ball that got stuck in the tunnel. 

Making the boys pose with the props at mini golf places. I'm surprised we were still getting good smiles after how many pictures we were making them take and how hot it was! 

Nothing like some gas station ice cream :) The Race Track gas station has a serve yourself ice cream place. You get your own cup of ice cream and your own toppings. Now matter what you get, it's $2.50. And you can even sample the flavors first. I sampled about 3 flavors then I was good :) The boys thought it was pretty fun. 

Happy birthday Conner!

She was pretty excited to get in the pool with Grandpa Ron. She likes that floatie and she can play with her toys without them going to the bottom of the pool. 

 Conner turned 12 right before we went to Florida. So we had an ice cream cake to celebrate. He needed Addison's help to blow out the candles.

Ryan wasn't with us on this trip so we had to send him pictures to keep him updated on the activities. 

That swimming is hard work, we gotta take a break! 

Ready to go swimming

Back tracking a little, apparently my photos are out of order. Me & Addison's 2nd flight alone - the TSA guy gave her a sticker. She told me it belongs on her nose not her clothes. We have also flown since this flight and she remembered the guy gave her a sticker and was super excited to get another one. Of course, they didn't give her one that time :(

Her cousins rode to the airport to pick us up. 

Had to get a picture, this might be the furthest Grandma Rita will get in the pool! She was getting one of the toys Addison dropped.

No time to get a suit on, we will just go in our undies! She was too excited to wait for her swimming suit.

Florida #2

This picture cracks me up. We had just got done mini-golfing and were looking forward to ice cream to help us cool off. We had some "buy one get one" coupons so we were even more excited - ha! Kelly wanted to get a picture of us with our ice cream, and this is what she got. haha! 

Just catching some rays by the pool. 

Another mini-golf course. 

Conner got a hole in one! He also spun a wheel at the end where he won a free game of mini golf. The rest of them went back to play again that night for half price. Gotta get our money's worth! 

Quite a site, all 3 kids had their iPads :) 

If she needed another pair of sunglasses, I definitely would have bought these for her - ha! 

Playing Mr. Mouth - it was one of my favorite games growing up! She needs a little more practice :) 

Florida

Kelly took Conner & Parker to Florida in the last week of June/first week of July. They went to some festival type thing where they met Smokey the Bear. 

One of the favorite activites when we go to Florida is mini-golfing. There are a bunch of mini-golf places around, the boys have them all scoped out and ranked as to which ones are the best.

Addison and I joined the boys after they had been there a few days. I went out golfing with them one day, Addison stayed back. It was super hot out, we were all dripping with sweat. And it has be pretty hot if a Julius says it's hot :) 

A dip in the pool was a much needed relief!

Des Moines Arts Festival

One very warm day in July we decided to go walk around the Des Moines Arts Festival. It's a free festival downtown and we had nothing else to do. We got there before it opened and it was already busy. 

You have to look really hard for Addison in the photo above! 

It went around the sculpture park so we stopped to take a few photos. 

By the time the Arts Festival was open for about 20 minutes, we couldn't even walk down the aisles. The place was packed! We made one loop around the festival then we went home to take a nap and get the pool out :) 

Silly photos

One of the first 'projects' Addison brought home from school - a captain's hat. She was pretty proud of it. She kept saying "aye aye captain!" She learned all about boats.

We were getting ready for school and she said "Mom, you have to take my picture before we go" So I did :) 

She was trying to figure out how to wear both pairs of sunglasses. 

She's not a fan of the helmet but we figured we better try to be good parents...... 

I was using a spatula to clean out the peanut butter jar and she asked if she could lick the spoon. Sure. She loved it, that's the Julius in her :) I really don't know what I would do if she was allergic to peanuts..... lol.