RAGBRAI!

Thursday Morgan and I rode a day of RAGBRAI.

We went down to Chillicothe Wednesday night and Morgan's dad Jim took us to Centerville Thursday morning. We met up with the rest of the Team Flamingo Team by the YMCA and then started our 50 mile ride to Ottumwa.

The route took us over the Rathburn dam. Here is a an idea of what the road looked like at any given moment.

We got another cyclist to take our picture.

Moravia, IA is home to the author that is known for the tall tale of Paul Bunyan!

This is the city park in Blakesburg, IA. It was our big stop for lunch.

The route into Ottumwa took us right to Morgan's 2nd cousin Doris' house. Jim and Shari brought the kids there to meet us and pick us up. The kids LOVED giving cyclists  high-five and welcoming them to Ottumwa.

End of the line!

Ice House Museum

I wanted to take the kids to 'do' more things this summer, so we decided to go to the Ice House Museum in Cedar Falls. It would be better to go there NOT in the summer (no air conditioning) but it was still pretty neat.

Afterwards we stopped at Scratch Cupcakery and I let each of the kids pick out a cupcake to eat at home. Sorry, we ate them too quickly for pictures. :)

Eli's Birthday

Eli turned 10 years old! 

I can't really believe it, even thought I know it is true.

For his birthday we bought a basketball hoop. We had left it at a friends house and that morning went and brought it home. I think Eli (and all the kids) will enjoy shooting hoops with it.

We brought down the small hoop so Noelle and Jet would be able to shoot hoops as well.

Eli discovered some Free Kids Meal coupons for Texas Roadhouse that we got from the library and asked if we could use them for his birthday.  You were only supposed to get 1 free kids meal per adult entree, but our waitress said that our kids were so good and polite that they were going to let us use all 4. Hooray!


When we got home we had Angel Food cake with whipped cream and strawberries for Eli's dessert.

Time for Camping!

Morgan and I decided that we wanted to spend more time camping with our kids. The tent that we owned was too small for all of us to fit. So we decided to buy a new Springbar tent!  It is awesome.

We spent the first night in it in our own yard, and are  going to use the tent for a family reunion this week.

Swimming Fun!