Update Before Baby Comes

Back in August as we drove home from Idaho, we went through Custer State Park in South Dakota. Saw us some great Bison!



Had an unexpected stop at Martin's Cove. No idea it was there! They had great "mini" handcarts for the kids. Wonderful visitor's center, too. Really enjoyed it.

Kenzie loved her glasses.

On our way to Mt. Rushmore there was a beautiful scenic outlook. I'm about 7 1/2 months along here.

Then there was Mt. Rushmore!

We had promised Caleb we'd celebrate his birthday the weekend we were home. So I had about 2 days to get stuff unpacked and make Caleb his birthday cake. I only used leftover fondant from Kenzie's birthday cake...so I didn't have quite enough. Don't look too close. Caleb's first comment was, "Why are it's tires flat??" lol Thanks son. Happy 4 years my wonderful son!

Then September brought Caleb's first day of preschool. He was really excited! Kenzie was too, though she didn't know why.

Towards the end of September we took our first visit to an apple orchard since living in Iowa. Unfortunately, it decided to pour. and our poor pneumonia-recovering family was really cold. Caleb loved it, at least! This pic was before it started pouring.

Aside from these awesome documented pics, we've just been surviving Justin's terrible school schedule, trying to get ready for baby (2 weeks and counting!), and trying to stay healthy, all while having fun! :) It's always an adventure and a delicate balance!

Summer Fun: Indian Cave, Bunk Beds, Hershey Chocolate Factory

One of our events was to visit an Indian Echo Cavern. Like I said, we did too much and had so much fun to write about it all...here are just some recaps. 

We were all there! complete with belly!

Mackenzie and Caleb got to sleep on a bunk bed in our little cabin, which was awesome! They're getting on in August so it was a great trial run. And they loved it! This turtle was a rare find so we had to indulge Mackenzie in her love of the green animal. She took it everywhere!

And then Hershey Chocolate World. The first visit was AWESOME. The second visit needs its own post. Another day. But here are some fun family pics:

Caleb loved cousin A...and hand-holding was a frequent occurrence! 

Three generations of women. Kenzie's face cracks me up here!

As excited as a little boy...

Just some more factory fun. 

That's all the pictures we took. I know my siblings took more, but those have yet to be exchanged. The trip was fantastic and we look forward to seeing more family in the future!

Summer Fun: Independence Day with Family

We didn't take any pictures of camping with Justin's parents...we let them do that. So we'll get those sometime in the future. But after 3 days camping, we drove another hour to arrive at the Hart Family Reunion. There's no way to write everything that happened or was laughed about or enjoyed; it was a great visit! My sister planned and organized it all and it was a huge success! We were able to see everybody from my side, though maybe not all on the same day. In these pictures, Grandma had a fabulously kid-friendly craft for the kiddos to create on the 4th of July. 

Kenzie warmed up to Grandpa...and her cousins. Especially the girl cousins. 

Caleb loved playing with his cousins and couldn't run around with them enough. So sweet to see these relationships form and strengthen as the kids get older!

This is my mom BTW. Pretty lady!

Why PA, you may ask? Nobody in my family lives in PA. We like to pick random places around the country to visit and see who has to drive the longest to get there. We didn't win that competition this year!

Summer Fun: Lake Eerie and Traffic Jam

Our drive to PA for camping with Justin's parents and a family reunion with my side was begun the day Justin was out of class. He only had 2 weeks off this summer and we really wanted to take advantage of it! Our car was loaded, complete with suitcases strapped on top, thankfully covered with a tarp! We were rained on a ton while driving, and once we arrived in pa. 

We started by driving to Ohio and spending the night with family friends. We decided to stop at Lake Eerie, since I had never seen a Great Lake before. It was incredible! If YOU have never seen one, you definitely are missing an experience! It was incredible to see this mass of water stretching out past the horizon. I couldn't see the other side of it!! It had waves and moved like the ocean! But it was a lake! So crazy.

We enjoyed some rock-skipping. 

Caleb has always become very calm and contemplative in nature. It's one reason I love camping as a family. It's good for his little spirit. And mine. 

And Mackenzie just loves being where we are. She liked the geese. 

We continued our comfortably slow driving (we only had 6 hours to go that day) not wanting to arrive in PA before Justin's parents, because they had the tent trailer. How much fun would it be to get to a campground and have to sit in the car? Might as well be on the road and not feel bad about it, right? 

Well, we got more than we bargained for in that regard. Somewhere in PA on I-80 there began a terrible traffic jam. There was either a semi on fire or some other unexplained event, but we moved 10 minutes on our GPS travel time in 5 hours. Literally. We luckily were able to find a gas station and get off in the middle of that. At some point I-80 was evacuated and all of the traffic was forced to travel county roads as we bypassed the mysterious accident. There weren't any signs making sure we went the right way, so we just picked out some friendly truckers and made sure we went the way they went. Of course, we had our GPS, so we weren't worried about getting lost; we just wanted to get back to I-80 ASAP!

Instead of arriving at our campsite at 8:00p.m. we arrived at 1:00a.m. But Justin's parents had only been there for about an hour...so maybe it was good that we were stuck in the car driving. 

Kenzie Birthday pictures

I posted some of these on FB, but for your viewing pleasure (*Elisa*), here they are again with some additional bonuses. 

This is the turtle cake I made for Kenzie. It was my first time using marshmallow fondant, and though I was pleased with the result, the process of making the sticky, gooey stuff was rough. I'm not sure if I'll do it again. But it was really nice to be able to manipulate it and mold it to make a simple turtle cake. 

See, we learned while in St. Louis that Kenzie loves turtles. So I decided to make one. I used a small Pyrex bowl for the shell and then cupcakes for the head and feet. Okay, so it was a lot of fun using fondant, but MAN, first time is always bumpy, right?

When it came time to sing and cut the cake, I asked Kenzie which part she wanted. She didn't respond so I asked Caleb, and he of course said he wanted the head. And I obliged, not even considering what the repercussions from Kenzie might be. And boy where there! She bawled, we reapplied the head; she ate the eyes off. It was hilarious!  

Hopefully that video works. It was funny! 

And for the kitchen. This was something I wanted to do a year ago, so finally in November we found this gem to transform. We figured we had 6 months, we should be fine...

We didn't plan on me being sick for 2 months...or for just crazy school (why did we not plan on THAT?)...so it was crunch time before her birthday. And Justin really did all of the work. I made those little pot holders and the apron, but that was just a fraction of the time and effort Justin put into making it (especially with limited tools, which he hates). 

I personally love how it turned out. The kiddos play with it together and make very creative soups and Kenzie serves me water repeatedly. It's lovely. 

Again, happy birthday to my 2 year old little girl!