Our Summer In Pictures

Helping Daddy with his furniture.  This picture is from late April/Early May.  I think she looks like such a baby...

You have to forgive me because the pictures got all out of order and I have tried to move them around some but it was not working so well.  I will put captions under most to give you an idea of when they were...sorry

Meal time!  Emily is a very silly girl and likes to make faces.  

Em started to eat all finger food at about 9 1/2 months old, she LOVES to eat solids!

Waiting for surgery (June 26th)

 Playing with our farm!  I think Em would play farm all day every day if I let her :)  We got the farm in Mid July and this picture was taken shortly after.  

 For Fathers day we went on a weekend trip to Des Moines.  We went to Blank Park Zoo and did some window shopping at Jordan Creek Mall.  Em did get some new clothes that trip :)

Emily and I rode a camel, Em thought it was the best thing ever and was so excited the whole ride, we also all got to feed a giraffe.

 Another Farm picture - it was taken the same day as the first.  Sorry again that the pictures are so out of order...

Cousins!!  Emily has so much fun with the boys, and it is so cute to see them care for her.  Both Noah and Eli just love her, and are so sweet to her.  They had to take turns pushing her and Eli would give her kisses whenever needed.  In the top picture Eli is sharing the leaf he found with Em.  I do not remember when these pictures were taken, it must have been earlier in the summer since we are in long pants/sleeves.  Amanda would know because it was shortly after Maggie joined their household.

Baptism Mid June

 Memorial Day weekend we went to Old McDonalds farm in Cedar Rapids.

 We went to Niabi Zoo for my birthday (end of may).  It was a very nice day, and Emily loved all the animals!

our monkey!

 These two pictures (top and bottom) are from the Circus, Emily really loved it and it was the first of all our animal themed trips this summer.  The Circus came to town at the end of April if I remember correctly...

 Emily loved all the pool time in Orlando, we were lucky enough to tag along with Paul to Orlando (mid July), Paul attended a Tax conference during the days.  We had lots of time as a family in the evening and then stayed a few extra days.  We went swimming every day, went to the beach, and Gatorland.  It was a a very nice first family trip :)

 Paul and I eating gator!  We decided we had to try it at Gatorland, it was really tough and greasy and I don't know if I would recommend it to a friend.

 Emily picked out one good pearl for Mommy!

 Getting ready to Swim in Orlando
 We took the scenic rout home from Columbia, Mo. after visiting family.  We decided to go to the drive in that night on the way home in Grandview, IA and found this foot bridge just off the highway in Columbus Junction, IA.  I was too afraid to go on the bridge with Emily or by myself, so Paul was the only one who enjoyed it!  He looks so small in the picture!

 At Grandpa and Grandma's 60th wedding anniversary dinner, the last weekend in July

 

 "You be my puppy, Emily".  Noah walking Emily, both had a great time!

Trip to Omaha, NE the second weekend in August.  on the way to Omaha we stopped in Prairie City, IA to see the 8,600 sq. mile prairie restoration.  It was a nice almost half way stop for lunch and a beautiful drive through the Prairie.  We were lucky enough to see two free roaming buffalo, and one came very close.

 Omaha Zoo!  We had so much fun, could have gone back another day.  It is a large zoo, with a wide variety of animals.  We did not even see the whole zoo and spent the entire day walking around it.

 Emily LOVED the Gorillas.  She was so excited the second she saw them and was kissing the glass.  Grandma bought her a stuffed gorilla in the gift shop and it is her favorite toy, she kisses it all day long :)

 Just relaxing and enjoying the ride!

 Emily also enjoyed the Tigers very much!  She kept saying "cat".

 She really enjoyed watching all the animals!

 Her Gorilla :)

 Enjoying her Dairy, Soy, Wheat free pizza!  She LOVED having a whole piece and her own plate...

We stopped in Elk Horn, IA to stretch our legs and see the Danish Windmill.  The windmill was brought over from Denmark piece by piece, it was a nice stop on the way home.  

Emily, sitting in front of the windmill

This pretty much sums up Emily :)  As happy as can be upside down sticking her tongue out at us...

And that sums up the summer for us, the university school year starts back up on Monday so Paul will be working some longer hours then.  We love having him home early (well on time) during the summer but he ends up working longer hours during the school year when the students are back.  Emily is just starting to ask about him during the day, she will say "daddy?" and I tell her he is at work and then she waves and says "dada bye bye"  she really misses him when he is away and has just started to yell for him during the day when I tell her no, like he will let her do it instead...and on our fussy/cranky days she asks about him more as well, she is in search of some more love and sympathy...