Weekend Whirlwind

Butterfly Garden

On Friday Ethan and I joined the spouses club (or politicallycorrectly known as the significant other support group) on an outing to the butterfly garden at Saylorsville Lake. We had several toddlers in our group, and there was another playgroup ahead of us. A big sign in the garden instructs visitors to find a place in the garden and stay quiet and still until a butterfly lands...well, needless to say we only saw one butterfly, but Ethan had a blast tearing the place up.

He was so excited to run I couldn't even get a picture. When I'm around other kids his age I notice how much energy he has - he has one speed and it is FAST! He has one volume too and it is LOUD!

Iowa Cubs Baseball Game

We joined the college of podiatry to cheer on the Cubs. The weather was perfect, the fireworks after the game were fun, and I think the game was good (they won?).

Representing BYU here in Iowa. We are just a little jealous about missing out on the group football tickets at BYU with my Dad, brothers, sisters in law, cousins and friends!

Craigslist Adventure

Clark decided that Ethan needed a basketball hoop. He is constantly stealing things from my room and shooting them into the laundry basket. (I had one frustrating morning looking for my makeup everywhere - finally found it when I did some laundry). He loves balls and he loves throwing them. So we found him the perfect little hoop that can grow with him up to 6 feet on Craiglist. It took us to Indianola Iowa (we thought it was just a suburb of Des Moines)...it was about a 40 min. drive.
After driving all the way there we decided to explore the town. Lucky us - they were having a quilt festival downtown and displayed several local quilter's art all over downtown. Lucky us again - I had my Entertainment Book and we had a buy one get one free sandwich at the Crouse Cafe.

We walked in and the place was packed...seriously tons of people and everyone was over the age of 70! I panicked that we had crashed an old folks home or a retirement party (which I've actually done before on accident) or something. Seriously, the joint was hopping - it was busier than Chuck-a-rama during the senior discount hour. On the way back to our table we passed 4 walkers, and 3 oxygen tanks. Feeling a little out of place we ate our yummy buy one get one free sandwiches and got out of there before Ethan got his cheeks pinched off by the grandmas!

After going to a few more shops we found another coupon in our book for the Corner Sundry, an old fashioned ice cream shop. Clark had a strawberry ice cream soda and I had a brown cow. Ethan just loved sitting on the tall bar stools and eating both of ours!

It was a pleasant little visit in Indianola, the people were nice cooing over the strawberry blonde curls on our little guy and telling us how cool their town was.

We did make it home with the hoop!

At first Ethan thought he needed a little boost to reach the basket...

That didn't last long, he loves it!

I love this picture because Clark is in the back shooting with the mini ball, and Ethan is on the run with Clark's real ball.

Soggy Doggy

Ethan's favorite things right now are playing in water, dogs, his horse, Clark and throwing things (probably in that order). This toy combines the top 2 perfectly. He loved it!

Riding into the Sunset

Every cowboy needs a faithful steed.

So the little horse in the auction made it all the way back to Iowa - and Ethan has a new best friend! He loves riding and hugging his little horse. Tonight Clark rigged it so that we could pull Ethan and his horse on a little walk around a pond. It was like wakeboarding, there were a few downhills that had Ethan holding on for dear life. Every once in awhile he would dismount and chase some ducks, but come back every couple of minutes to give his horse a hug and make sure he was still there. I think taking a horse on a walk is way better than a stroller.