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Archive for June, 2009

Another busy summer week is gone. With the extreme heat we were having, our days were spent either inside enjoying the air conditioned climate or outside in a swimming pool (either in our backyard or at the aquatic center)! I told Anya that this summer we would go to all the different aquatic centers around town, so this week we made it to 2 different ones in West Des Moines (Valley View & Holiday) and our normal one in Altoona. We had a blast playing in the water, going down slides and jumping off the sides! When we weren’t out at the swimming pools, Anya was usually in her blow up pool in the backyard. In fact, it was so hot one morning that by 9am, she was already sitting in her pool eating a ice pop! She definitely knows how to beat the heat!

Tonight Josiah got his first ice cream cone. He has had ice cream many times, but always feed to him on a spoon by someone. Well, lately, he has hit a bit of an independent streak (who knew??!!) and wants to feed himself. So, I gave him the ice cream, cone and all, and let him go to town. Man did he think he was hot stuff. He actually did a pretty good job until he decided to take a bite of the bottom…things went downhill pretty fast from there. But, he enjoyed it and it was pretty funny to watch, so it was worth all the mess in the end. Plus, it’s not really summer if the kids aren’t sticky most of the time anyway right?

Here are a few pictures of our week. Hope everyone is enjoying this reprieve from the heat!

It seems we had a very busy week last week, although when I think about what made it seem so busy, I can’t really figure it out. I did work an extra day last week, so I am sure that had something to do with it.

Well, now that the weather has been a littler warmer (or more like ALOT warmer) we have been able to hit the pool a few times and also use our little splash pool in the backyard. Anya has really become a fish and, with her flotation backpack strapped on, can pretty much go anywhere in the pool. Of course she prefers to be with the big kids in water deep enough that she can’t touch, but I try to keep her in a little shallower water so I don’t have to manage 2 kids in deeper water. She is pretty bummed that she isn’t tall enough to go down the slides and I haven’t had the heart to tell her that she probably won’t be tall enough for at least 2 more summers. Let’s hope for a growth spurt!

Josiah seems to like the water pretty good. It is a vast improvement from when Anya was his age and would scream if any water was even in her sight range. He gets pretty brave and puts his face in and gets a kick out of splashing anyone nearby. He also gets a kick out of playing with the geysers at the aquatic center is pretty amazed that the water can squirt higher than his head.

This last weekend we had a full house. Papa Jim & G’ma Barb came Friday night and then the whole Miller clan came Saturday afternoon. Sunday all the men (except Josiah) headed out pretty early to Newton to attend the Indy Corn 250. It was a gift that G’ma Barb gave to all of them for Christmas and it sounds like they had a great time. While the boys were gone, us girls (plus Josiah) headed to the mall to have some lunch, let the girls play in the play area and do some shopping. Once the boys made it home, our guests all took off and luckily made it home without running into the tornadoes that were hanging around I-35 that afternoon.

So, we had a busy and great Father’s Day weekend. Here are a few pictures of some of the excitement we had going on around here in the last week.

This summer has been full of construction zones for us. For those of you that aren’t familiar with where we live, our house is located at the end of a dead end street off of a dead end street. Interesting huh?! So, what makes this so crazy for us is that the one single major road that is the only way to our (very) small neighborhood has been under major construction since the middle of May and we have been limited to going only one direction off our street for a few weeks now. It is not a huge deal (just slightly inconvenient and more than slightly annoying) and it would be an understatement to say that we will be thrilled when 2-way traffic is back and I don’t have to go 15 minutes out of the way just to get to work!

So, to add to the construction we have looming at the end of our off-street, we also have it in our front yard. Why you ask? Well, again, for those of you unfamiliar with where we live, we have a creek that runs the length of the west side of our property. Unfortunately, the original culverts that were installed for the creek (that are located on the NW part of front yard) were placed at an incorrect angle making it possible for water to back up and cause flooding in developing neighborhoods just north of us. So, they are fixing the problem and in the mean time reeking havoc on our front yard. Actually, the damage has been much worse for our neighbor but the county (who is in charge of this project) swears that everything will be restored and beautified when it is all said in done (minus the 20+ trees they had to cut down in our wooded area). So, time will tell. The good news about this whole ordeal is that the workers seem pretty nice and always take the time to answer our questions (which have been many) and don’t seem to mind us out “watching” their progress several times a day. Sounds like the construction part of it will be done in a week or so and then the landscaping team will come in to put everything back the way it was. So, hopefully by mid-July everything should be close to back to normal. We’ll keep you updated.

So, here are a few pictures of the creek construction. I’ll be looking forward to posting the completed pictures soon.

We had a busy weekend entertaining various visitors. Thursday night we had both Papa Ronnie (in town for the World Pork Expo) & Grandma Barb (who just came for a long weekend) at our house and the kids didn’t know who to love on first. We grilled out and enjoyed the spectacular weather and Anya even had a little softball hitting practice with lots of coaching from daddy and Papa. Friday Papa Ronnie headed back to Winfield and G’ma Barb, myself and the kiddos went shopping. It was a long, full day and we were tuckered out when we got home. Thank goodness daddy fired up the grill and took over supper duties for the night. Saturday G’ma Barb watched the kids while Jason & I went to a wedding of a former co-worker of mine. Although it rained off and on all day, we were lucky enough to have the rain hold off during the wedding and reception. Today we got up, went to church, napped and then had our third Alpha class at the church. It was a fun weekend and we are all ready for an early night to bed to get rested up.

Otherwise, things have been pretty run-of-the-mill around here. It is a whole new ballgame now with Josiah up and running. He loves to remove items from the garbage or recycling can and turn them into toys and his most favorite activity as of late is using the toilet as a slash pool. Oh the joys of toddlerhood…….keeps our days interesting (and our toilets clean )!!