Round and round we go, when we'll stop nobody knows

We found out that there is an amazing park with a cute little carousel just a few minutes away from us! For Fun Friday this week we went to the Carousel Park in Des Moines. There were 3 playgrounds, a splash pad, and an old fashioned carousel that you can ride for only 50 cents. It was such a fun place. We rode the carousel 6 times, and Cole still screamed when I told him we were all done. All of the other kids were done after a couple of rides, but I think Cole could have ridden all day. Next year we'll have to get a season pass so he can ride to his hearts content.

Cole wanted to ride the "train" instead of the animals at first. Does this look like a train to anybody else?

I finally got him on a horse that went up and down, it took him a minute before he decided he liked it.

Cole and his buddy Ben, followed by Cole checking out Mylee :)

Family Weekend

My sister Mindy and her two oldest kids, Landon and Brittyn, came to visit us last week. Cole and I had so much fun with them, and Ben was relieved that he could study and not worry about us. It rained most of the week, so we didn't get to do as much as I had hoped and we didn't get much swimming in like Landon and Britt had hoped, but I think they still had fun. Ben's parents as well as my brother Casey, his wife Lindsey and baby Carly came Friday to visit for the weekend. We had a full house for the weekend, and we loved it!! It was so much fun having our family here.

Cole loved playing with his cousins! He was a clown the whole time :)

We went sightseeing in the rain, and made Landon get out of the car for a pic :) Landon and Britt were real troopers

Going a little crazy in the car :) The kids kept asking why we had to go in the car AGAIN

They were more than happy to play video games and watch movies while they waited out the rain to go swimming

Cole couldn't get enough of Baby Carly (unless she was chasing him! Who knew a 2 yr old would be afraid of a baby?)

Ben's parents came for DMU's Family Weekend. Friday we got to see a lot of the school and see what Ben's daily life is like. Saturday was the White Coat Ceremony where Ben got his short white coat...he is officially on his way to being a doctor! Mindy and Casey were great and kept Cole for a lot of the weekend so we could go to all of the events. It meant a lot that Ben's parents would come out for this too. We have so much love and support from our family! I don't know how we would make it without them.

We didn't get very many pics of the school, but at least we got a few: our family, and Ben and Cole in a classroom...Cole wanted to sit in a big chair like Daddy!

Saturday was finally a nice day weather wise, so we all went to the Iowa State Fair. We had heard that it is the biggest state fair in the country, so we were pretty excited. There was way too much to see, I'm pretty sure we missed about 2/3 of it. We saw plenty of animals, the famous butter sculptures, a plethora of veggies and flowers, and for Cole's sake some trucks! We missed the train exhibit with Cole, which he would have loved...I guess we'll have to go next year and see it :)

That is one huge pumpkin!

Only in the land of corn

I thought Casey should be in this display...

and Casey thought my belly should be in this display :)

There was a ton of produce, but this was our favorite!

There was also a ton of animals. Landon kept asking "why are we looking at a bunch of cows?" (or pigs or goats or whatever animal we were looking at)

Cole had to sit on Ben's shoulders to see anything in the huge crowds

Cole's favorite animals were the bunnies (Mine was Baby Carly!)

There was a beautiful garden and the cutest little tunnel that Cole found...unfortunately I couldn't fit in it :)

Cole was thrilled to see a fire truck and lots of tractors...and how can we go anywhere without finding a garbage truck?

The only thing Cole got to ride though was Connie's scooter (We met Connie when she came to take her scooter for a spin and found our little munchkin trying to hotwire it)

Last, but not least, we couldn't leave without seeing the butter sculptures

It was an action packed weekend, and we were so sad to see everyone go. Cole asked if he could go on the airplane with Mindy, and he keeps asking where everyone went. Luckily he has lots of friends around here so he hasn't gotten too lonely without our family. We miss you all and love you! And we're ready for some more visitors...any takers?

Sweet Corn Festival

Saturday was proof that Iowa is all about corn. We went to the Sweet Corn Festival with some friends. It was quite the production watching the scouts unload crates of corn from a big semi into the boiling water and on down the procession line to the waiting crowd. It was almost like a ward party, except they were feeding half the state not just one ward :)

It was 97 degrees and I swear 100% humidity, but it was worth it because we were surrounded by all of Cole's favorite things: a parade filled with tractors, trucks, endless bouncy balls and loads of candy, followed by all you can eat sweet corn, and then blowup bouncers and a bugle toy as a prize...He was in heaven!

We only had our phones because my camera is not cooperating lately, so we only got a few pics:

Ben, Cole, Brady, Mylee, and Elise watching the parade

Cole devouring the free corn on the cob

All is Lost

So, we went to the fire station today with some friends and I got some seriously cute pics of Cole. I thought that I would share them, but when I went to download them to my computer they were missing! I have no idea where they went, but my card is empty. I lost a ton of pics from this summer. I am devastated, but hopeful that Ben can somehow fix it.

If I ever figure out what happened and get my pics back I'll post some. If not, I guess we'll just have to go to the fire station and take some more. I don't think Cole will complain :)

Ben's In-blog-ural Address

Well ... Howdy Y'all! I thought I'd better at least give a shout-out on this here blog before school begins tomorrow and I never get a chance to write in it again! :)

As Tearsa has previously mentioned, we had quite the time getting here. It was a memorable experience trying to keep our top-heavy, "stuffed to the rafters" Budget truck from rolling over every time we hit a bump in the road. On the plus side, we did get to see some of the best looking corn fields I've ever seen at a "scenic pace." Isn't that right Nate? (my trusty copilot for the ride who actually did most of the driving) We had a great group of guys on this end to help us unpack and I think they were taken aback when we opened the truck up at first.

We have since met and made friends with many of the student couples here in the ward. As of yesterday our bishop said we had at least 27 new student families that have moved in this summer and only 7 that have moved out. They are talking about making a 4th nursery! Welcome to BYU-Iowa.

This morning we had our first Thunderstorm here! I went and turned on the TV at about 5am to make sure there weren't any tornadoes headed our way. Nope. Just a "severe thunderstorm warning with the potential of producing quarter sized hail, dangerous lightning strikes, and damaging winds in excess of 60mph." It skimmed right to the North of us so we didn't get the full effects of it. I've always loved a good thunderstorm and boy do they have some good ones here. Makes up for them banning all fireworks but sparklers and snaps.

Well, I don't want to make this too long...oops, too late.

(for those of you who are still reading this)

So we finally did some serious shopping today to fill our cupboards with real food. While at the store Cole was getting all sort of feisty and ran behind the meats counter. I was gimpily chasing after him with my out-of-whack back and finally caught him in front of one of the butchers. They almost put him to work. I'm thinking a leash is going to come in handy. Especially after Tearsa has this baby.

Tearsa and I are doing great. Both of us have a lot of support here. Tearsa is being a trooper what with being prego in this heat, dealing with the nasty stale cigarette smoke smell in our apartment, and the many spiders she spots (or just senses sometimes). Cole is making friends but we know he misses all y'all. We really feel blessed to have been lead here and are excited for the next however long we will be here. We are so very blessed with wonderful and supportive family and friends and hope that you all know how much we love and appreciate you. Okay, that's all for now. I guess you can plan on hearing from me around Christmas-time.

Much Love!

The Big Move

We made it to Iowa! It was a rocky road...but we made it :) It took us 2 days to finally get our truck all loaded. Thanks a ton to everyone that helped!! We couldn't have done it without our awesome families.

Cole absolutely LOVED the big truck!

After packing and re-packing our moving truck, filling every nook and cranny with our junk, Ben and his brother Nate took off for the long drive across the country. The overloaded and top heavy truck made it an extra long and extra slow drive for the guys. Thanks for the road trip Nate :) You were a lifesaver!

Good bye Utah!

Cole was really sad that he couldn't ride in the big truck...until he found out he got to go see the airplanes and fly high in the sky. He loved the airport and all of the planes. Our first plane we got an entire row to ourselves too, so we all got our own seat (Even Beezer!)

It was a very long day! We were late arriving at our apt so we were worried we wouldn't have any help unloading the truck. There was nothing to worry about though, we had a dozen guys waiting to help and they unloaded the truck before I even saw our apt! We found out that we moved into a complex filled with students. Everyone here has been really great. We have had plenty to eat thanks to all of the dinner invitations, we went with some friends to a Farmers Market, and a bunch of us got together at the beach (who knew that Iowa had a beach?) at Raccoon River Park. It has been a lot of fun mixed with a lot of unpacking so I haven't had anytime to get homesick yet! Now, if only we can get the stale cigarette smoke smell out of our apt :( Yuck!

Cole still asks for our family all of the time, but he's found some friends here too so it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. We miss everyone, but we really like it here in Iowa so far. Ben starts school on Tuesday...so the real adventure has yet to begin!

Joining the world of bloggers

I held off as long as I could, but since we moved away from everyone we knew I caved. We officially have a blog. So, all of you who pressured me better take the time to look at it :) Lets get started...