Trip to Iowa...

It has been a crazy summer filled with lots of trips...I would love to sit down and figure out exactly how many miles I have travelled this summer, but I simply have not had a single moment to do so! The poor girls have been such good sports about the many hours in the car this summer...I am so proud of them! We first drove to the Ozarks, then to Virginia Beach, then to Iowa City, then finally to Cedar Falls, Iowa...not to mention little trips to Glasford and Macomb!!! We went to Cedar Falls to see my brother Nathan and his wife, Sky. The girls had a great time and pretty much want to live there! This could have something to do with the world's coolest park right across the street...I am so not exaggerating on this...the park was amazing...it took me at least 15 minutes to just walk around and see all there was to play on. It was a huge wooden maze-like castle! There was a tower of tires to climb up through: At least five different types of monkey bars:Rubber climbing ropes everywhere:And, yes, even a ZIP LINE!!!:Also, the wonders of wildlife hatching right before our eyes...honestly, I took this picture to use as a real-life example of molting in my science class, but I think it is really cool:Right next door to this park was the neighborhood pool. We took the kids there to swim for a couple of hours...Isabel saved her sister's life. Yes, you read that correctly. They were jumping off the side and Ashlen went down a bit too far and jumped in and couldn't touch. Isabel knew it was deeper there because she had just jumped from the same spot and had to swim to the side. She saw that Ash was trying to tread water (thank you swimming lessons), so she swam over to her and grabbed her and swam her over to the rope. She used one arm to hold onto the rope and the other to try to keep Ashlen's head above water. I noticed this about the same time as the lifeguard because she was juming in to save them about the same time I was noticing the drama...amazing what can happen when you are sitting right there!!! I was so proud of Isabel...she got to pick out a new swimsuit for her American Girl because she saved her sister's life! After all that, we needed to relax, so we went for pedicures:Isabel was very ticklish...her nail lady (what is the correct title here???) thought this was hilarious!

When Uncle Nate got home, he let the girls try out his new bike:

Our trip was full of lots of other fun things like shopping, going out for dinner and ice cream, and going out to see the wooded acres that they just bought and plan to build on soon! And we can't forget playing with the cat toys: No wonder Ashlen threw a very rare temper tantrum when we had to leave...they had so much fun on this trip!!!