Summer Vacay Dailies are BACK!

It's that time of year again, when the sun shines, the temps sky rocket, we're traveling central Iowa for baseball games, and I'm desperately reminding myself to take pictures!  That's right folks, welcome back to Brown family summer vacation daily pics!

I wish I could say that we have some amazing vacation planned to somewhere exotic, but the truth is we'll be hanging out in the state of I-O-W-A until we make a short trip to Omaha for a visit to the zoo and to visit grandparents and friends.  None-the-less, we have some of our own kind of fun planned that should keep us pretty busy these next 9 weeks (1 down already, sniff sniff).  Without further ado...

Saturday June 7

The morning was spent becoming reacquainted with my kitchen sink...and ALL of the dishes that it had accumulated while I had finished my last week of school.  The evening saw me playing bartender to some friends.  I'm not an alcoholic by any means, but I was definitely thankful to be done pumping so that I could have two drinks in a row without worrying about waiting hours until all the alcohol had metabolized from my body before I could pump again!  And I just had to show you our favorite jammies of Colby's, a nice blast from the past- I can't believe TMNT is still so popular.

Sunday June 8

On Sunday Dad called and said that he was taking a load out to Michigan and was heading that way on Highway 20, he wondered if we'd like to meet up with him.  Of course, if I can get us together with family, I will always do it, so we drove about an hour North to Holland, IA and had an early dinner with him at a truck stop there.  The kids got to climb around in his rig after we ate.  Cailyn wasn't so sure about it at first, but Colby was all about it!

Monday June 9

Monday, Cailyn watched  Beauty and the Beast for the first time, it's one of my favorite Disney movies but it can get a little scary so I hadn't wanted to show it to her until I thought she was ready.  She loved it!  My mom had to drop off my sister and a coupe other high school students at UNI for  student council leadership retreat thing-y, and then came down to hang out and stay with us for the evening- which, true to our weekly schedule in June, was spent at a baseball game.  The boys played a double header in Reinbeck.  The field there is right next to a swimming pool and a park, which was a perfect way to let little gal run off some steam.  I loved they had some old school equipment, like a manual carousel and one of those HUGE twisty slides.  I went down it with her, but, I'm not gonna lie, I thought I was going to throw up climbing to the top- it was so high!

Tuesday June 10

My dad was supposed to be back in Sioux City by Tuesday, but through some mix-up he ended up having to find another load to take back to the opposite side of the state (he only gets paid for driving if he has a load, so they line up ways for him to transport something to one place and then bring something else back).  He was taking the load to Omaha, but couldn't drop it off until 7am on Wednesday morning, so he stayed with us for the night.  There was a JV double header at home on Tuesday, and Cailyn loved having Papa Mark around to buy here whatever she wanted from the concession stand.

Wednesday June 11

Exactly one month from Cailyn's birthday, and I decided we probably better get ready to send out party invitations.  We're inviting her friends from daycare for a splash party and lunch, so we're going with a mermaid and pirate theme.  I also finally attached hooks to the wall in her room so that we have a place for wet towels and her backpack and such.  When I wasn't busy with those things, we were outside on the slip and slide- which I suck at.  I am to terrified to let my body fall down.  I dropped down to my knees a couple of times and I think it bruised me up a little bit, plus the water was really cold!  Mamba didn't care for the water temperature either, he usually loves the water, but I think it just wasn't that comfortable for him.  Cailyn, however, loved it and I had to carry her inside.

Thursday June 12

The Trojans hosted Grundy Center Thursday night, which was a nice reprieve from working on the garage.  We're insulating and finishing the walls before we put in some industrial-like deep metal shelving in the back to hold our million totes we have.  It's just taking forever.  I forgot how long this process is what with the insulation, the drywall, the taping, the mudding and sanding, yadda, yadda, yadda, so on and so forth, etc. Cailyn was doing to arm stretches with the bands the players left out, and one of her favorite parts of the night is anytime her Daddy comes off the field and she can see him.  I also have been going through closets and cleaning out clothes the kids no longer fit into, and I found the Dinosaur costume I bought for Colby that was waaaay too big for him at Halloween last year.  Well, it finally fits him now, ha!

Friday June 13

Friday I had a dentist appointment, so I took Cailyn with me to get her acquainted with what happens there, and Jerod took Colby to replenish our liquor shelf (classy, we know).  Then, JB donated plasma and I took the kids to the mall to play on the play place.  Which is about the only thing we did since somebody (whose name rhymes with Waylon) was being a turd and hiding under and in all of the clothes racks of the stores we went into.  Someday maybe I'll laugh about it, Friday was not that day.  We had the final game of the week at home against Aplington-Parkersburg, and it was such a close one, that the boys lost in an extra inning.  But, they played amazingly and Colby learned how to get food out of the snack bowl all by himself, so I'm going to count the night as a win!

See you next week!