Day 2 of our whirlwind Iowa trip was equally full and fun!  We spent most of the day in Aunt Stephanie's pool, soaking up the sun.

Blake was waiting to see if Papa Bruce would do his infamous cannonball into the pool.  That is Great Aunt Ginny here also, up from Florida for a couple of months to visit.

Blake did his best to get Grandma Suzanne wet.

Little Miss Extra Floaties had a great day too.

Can't remember who that splash belongs to.

Later in the day Tim, Grace and Emily joined us for a swim.

Blake and Grace were big fans of the diving board.

The kids had a ton of fun playing with Jessie, the youngest of Steve and Steph's family.

Blake receiving his dive scores.

I don't think Alexandria ever opens her eyes when she's swimming.

Almost open here.

Sunbathing, so relaxing.

Papa Bruce and Annie were good enough to get some lunch for us from Hyvee, so the kids took a short break from swimming to eat.  But they were right back at it after we ate.  Grace and Blake even jumped off of the diving board without their floaties/life vests and then swam to the side.  They were both pretty excited about it.

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Whew!  Swimming all day is exhausting.  We headed to the park that evening for a little picnic with the family.

Joseph wasn't as excited about the playground as the bigger kids were.

And just when we thought the evening couldn't get any more fun...it did.  We drove out to Dan and Amy's house and watched a hot air balloon ascension.

We could see all of these from their back yard!

Josiah was a perfect host.

After all of the events of the day, we were pretty tired, but we still drove to ES that night so we could be there for the second Sunday of the Two Week Meeting.  More on that later.

We took a last minute trip to Des Moines to visit Matt's family a couple of weekends ago and fit a whole lot of fun into two days.

Playing with Shea and Gabby on Friday morning.

On our way to the DM zoo.

There were lots of neat animals there, but the real attraction was the newest Harvey family member born on July 1. 

Blake and Grace were really cute together.

The grandmas talk things over.  Jami's mom and her aunt joined us for our zoo day.

Did I mention how cute they were together?

Miss Taylor, sweet as ever.

We had a pretty good herd of people touring the zoo.

Getting ready to go check out the dinosaur exhibit.

This was easily Blake's favorite display.

More cuteness!

Joseph was a perfect baby, sleeping right through the zoo until the last few minutes.

On Friday night we had a pizza party at Tim and Jami's house, complete with a video.

Alexandria and I got in lots of baby cuddling. 

Alexandria *really* liked holding the baby.  It was so sweet.

I didn't hold him ALL night.

Once Blake finally realized there was a baby there, he held him too.

Toward the end of the night Grace put on a little show for us.

Blake has a hard time sharing the stage.

After we returned home from Excelsior, we were home for a grand total of 48 hours before we set off for Iowa and ES once again.  We were home just long enough to unpack, do some laundry, repack and take a little time out back in the pool.

This year Matt was asked to speak at the two-week meeting at Excelsior Springs, and I have to admit, when I first heard about it, I was a little reluctant to go because our kids are still pretty young for that much sitting in church.  But I am so thrilled that we went because we met tons of new people and were uplifted and encouraged by all of the lessons and classes.  And thanks to the wonders of technology I have heard almost all of the rest of the lessons online since we've returned home. 

The night we arrived we met up with Dane for a super late supper.

Both kids really wanted to sit by Dane, so he obliged them, while Blake licked Dane's plate. 

One of the things that is unique about the ES church building is that it is within walking distance of restaurants, hotels, shops, etc.  We stayed right next to the church building at The Elms Hotel, a hotel with a lot of history.

It was a pretty neat place, unlike your typical hotel.

After morning services and a delicious lunch served by the ES ladies, the kids headed out to play in the nearby fountain.

Paige was there that day too, so we got to play with her.

This is her new pose...no idea where it came from.

Blake's new friend, Easton.  I have followed his mom's blog for quite some time now, and I knew that if the boys ever got together, they would be fast friends.  And we were right about that. 

Jumping off the ledge at the front of the building was great fun.

After afternoon services were over, we headed back to the hotel to cool off in the pool.

Blake immediately noticed some structural problems with the gutter.

Watching herself make footprints.

Alexandria got a hold of the camera for a bit.

The new pose crops up everywhere on this post.

Once we were water logged, we went to scope out the hot springs.

Or maybe I should say, the area where they formerly had hot springs.  They were more like lukewarm springs.

That wraps up Sunday...

MONDAY

We enjoyed a morning of classes, and then had a lovely lunch with these gals.

I had forgotten my camera back at the hotel, so we have to settle for Matt's iPhone pics on Monday.

Blake was the leader of the pack on our walk to lunch.

In between afternoon services and evening services we headed down to the pool again.

Elevators are a fun part of hotel living.

We had the pool and hot tub to ourselves outside.  We later checked out the indoor pool too.

They called this a European lap pool.

They also had a hot tub and a cold tub down in this area that the kids enjoyed playing in.

After dinner at the hotel restaurant, we took a few pictures before heading back out to evening services.

Walking to church!

She kept stopping and asking me to take her picture in certain spots.

TUESDAY

Waking up was getting tough by Tuesday morning.

Not a problem for Blake though.  We had Daylight Donuts three days in a row--now that's a treat!

Our messy room.

Caught these unsuspecting folks walking to lunch as well.

We dined with all these lovely ladies on Tuesday.

During the last session of the days, Doug ran a VBS style class in the basement for the kids.  It was so great.  I can't say enough of what a great job Doug and Jill did with all of the children's classes.  Thanks a bunch to them!

Jim directs Matt on the best way out of town.  We had such a great time during our first few days of the meeting that we decided to go back the next weekend!  Stay tuned for that post.

Our neighbor, Lydia turned 5 in July and we were invited to her super fun birthday pool party at our local YMCA.

Trying to gather all the party people was no easy task, but this last shot is decent.

You can never have too many flotation devices attached to your body.

The guest of honor!

All the sweet girls from our street.

Cooling off on the ice on a hot day.

When Drew and Angela come over for dinner, we know we're gonna have some fun times.

Wrestling is a given.

Then there were some pretty intense games of Guess Who?

A couple of weeks ago we had the ChemDry folks come and clean all of our carpets on the main level of the house.  We cleared all of the living room furniture out, and the kids were thrilled with the wide open spaces.  So thrilled that they proposed a picnic on the pre-cleaning carpet.

After evening services on July 20 we gathered outside the church building to remember Clint Sparks, who passed on to his eternal resting place one year ago from that day.  It was a somber time, but a quiet reminder to all of us just how temporary this world is.  Tom shared some thoughts and when he was finished, we released balloons.  Well, everyone released their balloon except for Alexandria, who was quite attached to hers.  She did let it go once we got home.

I couldn't get the whole video of Tom's remarks to upload on xanga, so I put it on YouTube.  Here's the link for that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mweOWKuV-kI

Several people tried to convince her to let her balloon go.

The middle of July signals the annual Shipman Picnic, complete with a parade.  So we braved the 100 degree heat and soaked up some fun.

Gma Foiles and Mom bought a whole bunch of ride tickets for the kids, and Alexandria was brave enough to actually use her tickets this year!

Waiting for the parade to start.

CANDY!

Once Alexandria gets a sucker, she is pretty well done chasing after the candy.

After awhile Blake just started picking up the kinds of candy he really liked and leaving the rest on the ground.  Guess these didn't make the cut for him.

Oh yeah, I got to ride this with Blake. 

I was pretty sure that she was going to freak out once this ride actually started, but she just smiled and screamed the whole time.

There's Blake on the left.  Thankfully he thought he could ride this one by himself.

Cotton candy and a lemon shake-up!

She chickened out here and had to get out of there.

What a fun evening!

We just can't get enough of the pool, and when our friends come over, it's even more exciting!