The Ledges

There's a glacial formation (canyon?) just a few miles west from us in Boone that I've heard about but had never visited.  Well, cross that one off the list of things to do in central Iowa!

Me and the kids went with some friends - Geoff (Eric's supervising professor), Alicia, and Quinn.  It was really unexpected geography here in the flatlands, and really nice to see all the fall leaves.  We went on an absolutely gorgeous day last weekend - almost 70 and sunny. 

 It's a state park that was created after WW2 and has some really nice structures like this stone bridge over a small stream.  A lot of the people we saw there were families with a photographer having a photo shoot.  Apparently it's a popular beautiful location, kind of like Cascade Park in Bangor.

 Jamie contemplating the jump.

 Me and Alicia, who has quickly turned into my best Iowa friend.  She's fabulous.  If you're wondering what's in my hand, it's Jamie's leash.

 To get to our hike we had to cross a bridge that was basically a stream.  There were stepping stones with about 3 inches of water to our right, and to the left a 4 foot drop to a foot-or-so deep stream. 

 Lots of climbing!  We went up, up, up for the view.  The girls loved the stairs and didn't complain once about being tired, needing to stop, etc.  I think having two of them climbing made a difference - I'm pretty sure Lucy would have wanted to be carried if it wasn't for Quinn prancing away up and down the path.

 Hello friends!

 Hello us!  Though Lucy didn't complain, Jamie did.  He was unimpressed that he had to ride in the backpack rather than walk, and spent most of his time leaning around either side for a better view.

 Hello Boone County!

 Remember when I said I was starting my hunt for a great Christmas picture early?  Yeah, this is why.

I'm looking forward to a trip back.

Orchard

A couple of weeks ago I took a personal day to go with Lucy on her school field trip to the apple orchard.  It was so fun and a way more beautiful way to spend a Wednesday than at the high school!

We started off the day with a hay ride on which we actually bumped around on hay.

 Miss Shireen and Miss Karla, the best preschool teachers ever.

 The hayride went to a gourd patch where each kid got a bag to pick 2 gourds.  We had fun picking out our favorites.  Guess what?  Jamie's picks are round like balls.

 Some Small Wonders friends l-r: Lucy, Luci Rae, Kavya, Lalo, and Bowen in front.  It looks like the kids are taking totally different pictures here.

 We got a cow milking explanation.

 And some time to try to milk the plastic cow.  It was hard!

 There were some animals to look at too.  Yes, Jamie climbed to the 3rd rung all by himself.  And was headed for the 4th when I snapped the picture and snagged him.

 The bouncy pillow!  This was a massive inflated piece of rubber that worked as a trampoline that wasn't level.  I bounced for a while with the kids and was tired at the end.  It was perfect for the major bounce that would send a kid flying 3 feet in the air (anyone else a fan of Wipeout?)

 After the preschool friends mostly went home we stayed with Karrie and co.  Bowen and Luci's favorite place was the burlap sack slide.  It was pretty steep and looked a bit terrifying from the top.  I went down with Jamie on my lap and ended up with a slide burn on both ankles because I pressed them against the sides of the slide as we went down the first big drop.

 Whee!  The drop didn't appear to phase the kids at all.

 Christmas photo?  I remember trying to get a good picture of Lucy at that age and wanted to start early on working on a great picture of the kids.  It won't be this one in the corn pool.

And a couple of short clips of our fun.  Check out the girl on the right on the bouncy pillow in pink on pink.  She shoves her friends down every time they get up.  Don't remember seeing this one while I was filming but it's pretty funny now.



Center Grove from Kristin York on Vimeo.

Spring (yes) Show

Lucy participated for the first time in a spectacular, this time for Cardinal Gymnastics.  We nixed the idea her first two years in gymnastics because she was just too little, but our gymnastics buddies talked us into it this year.  It seems like it's the fundraiser for the program as all the girls have to purchase leotards and then we paid admission.  I suppose all dance/gymnastics/etc shows are like that.  Even at school I've got extra duties to take money for tickets where last week I sat in the middle school gym and charged adults $2 apiece for the pleasure of watching their 7th graders play volleyball.

Lucy waiting to go in to the gym.  She looks so grown up to me here.

The kids got to "warm up" on the mats in the gymnasium next to CGA.  Lucy practiced somersaults and the candle.

Tumblebugs gathered to wait for their turn to perform.

I swear they practiced this dance 15 minutes a class for about 2 months before the show.  It was still a hysterical wreck.  Nobody really remembered much, but they were little enough that it was adorable.

Lucy's #1.  Yes, I wish I could claim that title but not a chance on earth. 

CGA Spring Show 2012 from Kristin York on Vimeo.

Next year (IF we do the show again) she'll be with the bigger girls (IF she stays in gymnastics) and show skills on either the beam or bars.  The transition from little to big has been a bit rough for Lucy, with a couple of class switches and a less-than-enthusiastic coach.  We'll see what the spring brings.  If she does continue and do the show you should expect to hear about it around Halloween sometime next year :)

More Camp 2012

We had lots of fun at camp again, and amazingly didn't wreck the place.  Camp was where Jamie got the loving nickname of Dr. Destructo from Tim and Sara.  Here's a couple more photos and the videos I took there.

 Don't worry Baby J, you'll be big soon.

And the movie reel ...


Camp 2012 from Kristin York on Vimeo.

I really should learn not to torture myself with pictures of camp during the year.

Lucy's 4th Birthday

We had a whopper of a party for Lucy's 4th birthday.  I say that jokingly, as most of our guests backed out for various reasons on the day of the party.  We had two of our best friends (both Lucy's and mine) over for an afternoon of kid fun and wine.

Since Lucy was born into the 2008 summer games, we decided to have an olympics-themed birthday party for her, complete with events and numbers.  Her cakes were supposed to look like torches.  They do, if you're willing to use your imagination a little.

 No matter that the girls didn't know what the torch was, they were perfectly willing to hold them up for a photo and eat them.

 Jamie quite enjoyed his torch as well.

 I had the basement all set up with the olympic events: balloon ball, running, equestrian, trampoline, long jump, soccer, and beam.  Each girl had a name and number pinned to her shirt along with a card to check off the events that they completed in order to win a medal.  One of the funnies was when Quinn brought me the card with the clip art pictures of events - I found a picture of a girl doing a handstand with her legs in a split on the beam and Q wanted to tell me that she wasn't able to do that.  Obviously she was out of the medal contention at that point ... :)  I've got to remember that some kids are often more literal and sensitive than mine.  Lucy is a plow-ahead kind of girl and doesn't think at all about limits.

I didn't get a lot of pictures of the girls as I was too busy corralling them into competing in the events, but here are our long jump shots.

 We finished off with a medal ceremony.  Every girl won gold, of course.

Super fun! 


Lucy's 4th Birthday Party from Kristin York on Vimeo.

Lucy was lucky enough to be able to have a family birthday on her actual birthday, too.  The girl loves a party!  The pile of presents from us and Grandma.  The girl also loves presents!

 Yea!  The Lalaloopsy doll!

 Jamie's cute face.  So happy it's Lucy's birthday!  So full of mischief!

 We skyped in Grandma to let her see Lucy open the awesome Doc McStuffins doctor kit she found in Maine.  BIG hit.  Lucy has now changed her name to "Lucy Ellen Doc McStuffins York" if anyone will be sending correspondence soon.

 Big girl!

This photo has nothing to do with Lucy's party, I just think it's adorable.  Shorty puts up with a lot.

There's not much better than being 4 years old.

Balloons

So I suppose I should add an Iowa post, as we have been back for quite some time now.  We went to the International Balloon Festival in Indianola a few weeks back.  Balloon lift-offs were scheduled at 6:30 am and 6:30 pm.  You can make a guess at which one we drove 45 minutes to see...

We got to watch only a few balloons inflate.  These were the 3 that were available to take people on a balloon ride.  Lucy was desperate to go.  I had hoped that when we got there something would be available to just lift up in a basket, but it was a full-on three hour tour.  Grandma sent Lucy some money for her birthday that would have mostly covered the cost of sending her alone.  Maybe next year, kiddo.

 The festival was really a competition.  All the other balloons inflated over the horizon and floated toward us, where there was a target on the ground.  The balloonists had something they dropped out of their baskets, aiming for the target on the ground, with a prize for the winner who landed their object closest to the center of the target.  All the balloons here were floating toward us.

As the advertisement told us there was a fair-like atmosphere, we went early.  Too early.  There were a few food stands (not open yet) and some bounce houses (absurdly expensive) plus the barrel train.  I had a hard time shelling out $3 for a 30 second trip down the bouncy slide.  Double that and we can go to the Ankeny bounce house park for hours.  We did ride the train!  No seat belts, so I rode with Jamie.  It felt like a death trap - I was sure we were tipping over at many points in the ride, but somehow everything but my pride survived the ride.

I went with a new friend, Sareena, who's husband started the phd program with Eric last Monday, the same day she went into labor with baby Lydia.  She's approximately 8.75 months pregnant here, and was a great sport about driving and sitting on the ground for a picnic and balloon-gawk.

 Once the balloons got up in the air it was pretty spectacular. 

 Beautiful kids.  Note Jamie's silly face.  He likes to wrinkle up his nose now.