Fire Station Party

Cole really wanted to celebrate is 4th birthday with all of his friends. Our amazing local fire department hosted his party at the Waukee Fire Station.

The party started out with a tour through the ambulance and two of the fire trucks at the station. The kids love to climb around the trucks and pretend to be fire fighters. Fire fighter Nate even showed him the fire fighting tools, including the big axe in the pic below.

Next, fire fighter Nate pulled out the hoses and helped the kids spray targets. They had a blast!

He even pulled out the big hose and let the big kids spray! The adults had as much fun as the kids :)

The other fire fighter took all of the kids for a ride in the big ladder truck. The lucky few who got to sit in the front were able to honk the loud horn! This was also Ben's first time riding a fire truck :)

Last stop on the tour was trying on the gear. Fire fighter Nate showed us all the gear he has to wear when fighting fires. He let the kids try on all the gear too.

The fire crew let us use their meeting room to do cake and presents after the tour.

Cole was spoiled, as usual. My favorite gift was his fish. Cole named him Flarb and we all adore him!

We were so lucky that so many of our friends could make it:

Andrea and McKenna Bowman; Emily, David and Lydia Croft; Troy, Katelyn and Kylie Fowler; Danna and addalie Pettit; Mike and Morgan Pfeiffer; Jessica, Ethan and Chase Rindlisbacher; Mindy, Rykker and Brigham Stromberg; Grandma and Lilly Stuart; Travis, Karen, Grace, Anna, Nelson and Emmyline Tidwell.

We had such a fun birthday party today! One of Cole's friends said "This was the best day ever!" It's pretty far up there on the list. Thanks to the awesome Waukee Fire Department! And Thanks to our awesome friends for coming and playing with us!!

Thanks Aunt Mindy!

Dear Aunt Mindy,

Thanks for the super fun train table...and the box ;)

We are having so much fun with them both!!

Love, Cole and Elise

Part 4: Chicago

We made a last minute stop to Chicago on our way home. We have been wanting to go to Chicago, but we didn't think we had enough time. As we were driving home we thought, "why not?" and stopped there for a few hours.

We walked down Michigan Ave and saw the Sears Tower and all the famous stores in movies. We even got to stop at H&M and do a little shopping :)

Then we decided to walk down to Navy Pier. Shopping took a little longer than we had planned :) so by the time we got there everything was shutting down. We did get to see the big ferris wheel right before they shut it down and turned off the lights though. We also got to see lots of boats and the amazing view of the city. It was a fun atmosphere.

We got a small taste of Chicago. It was a fun detour, even though it made us drive through the night to get home. It was worth it!

We had an amazing 10 day vacation! It was so fun to be with Ben the whole time and not have to worry about school and boards. It was great, but it's good to be home.

Part 3: Cole's 4th Birthday

Saturday was Cole's 4th birthday, so I thought deserved it's own post.

First of all we went to the National Zoo, which we came to find out was practically animal-less. We saw a few animals, but it was so sweltering hot that if the animals were outside they were asleep in a shady corner so they were hard to see. These pictures are basically the only animals that we saw. We did a lot of walking and not much animal viewing, but Cole wanted to go to the zoo so we did :)

What Cole really wanted to do on his birthday was open his presents :) We went back to the hotel and tortured him by making him wait to open his presents until after we sang "Happy Birthday" to him and he blew out his candles.

He finally got to open his presents: a Transformer, helicopter, and dinosaur puzzle from mom and dad; a space shuttle, airport magnet book, and lace cards from Grandma and Grandpa Coombs. And while Cole was busy opening presents, Elise snuck over to his cake and sampled an entire corner :)

We decided to stay out of the heat and take Cole to a movie for the rest of his birthday. He loves going to movies but we rarely get to go. We saw "Cars 2" and we all loved it! Ellie got a little restless, but as long as she had a treat to snack on she was fine.

I hope you had a fun birthday Cole bud. I love you and love every minute I get to spend with you! You are such a sweet and loving boy, always giving me hugs and kisses and telling me you love me. My heart melts when I see you play with your sister; you two are best friends! I love that you want to be just like your Daddy and do everything that he does. You are so smart, reading three letter words already. You have an amazing imagination and can make believe anything and everything. You are a friendly boy who makes friends everywhere we go. Now that you are 4 years old you think you can do everything by yourself, but I know that you will always be my little boy. I love you through and through and I am so glad that you are mine!!