At Whitten's End

 Brad's brother, Dave, came for a brief Sunday/Monday visit and had never been out to the Field of Dreams.  Despite a VERY hot and humid day, we took the opportunity to head into the country roads of Iowa to share the magic that is the Field of Dreams.  Despite the weather, there were some people tossing the ball around, giving me and Kayla an opportunity to hit a few balls and run the bases (while no one had a camera rolling!) and then we took some time for some corn pics, house pics, and to toss the ball around for a few minutes. If you look closely, you'll notice that there is little to no corn on these huge stalks.  I remember watching documentaries that came with the special edition "Field of Dreams" DVD set that we own.  When they filmed the movie there was a severe drought and the corn wasn't growing, so they set up sprinklers and painted the grass green.  Despite the water, the corn stalks grew but no corn grew as the nitrogen that comes from ...

  Despite having a membership at Niabi Zoo, we've not had or made very many opportunities to get out there this summer.  Between yard maintenance, construction on the I-74 bridge, and other duties of having a new place of our own, life gets in the way and we haven't been getting over to the Illinois side of the River.  That being said, we decided to have a special, atypical day at the zoo today.  Typically our day consists of going out, riding the train, and maybe getting some food to feed the goats or the fish.  Today's agenda wasn't so much about seeing the animals, though, but experiencing some of the bonus perks of the zoo that are "extras".  While the train is an extra, we always do it because Emma and Casey are a bit fanatical, but today we decided to allow the kids to do some other fun things: ride the ponies AND the train & feed the giraffes and the lorikeets!  Because of these unusually fun things, it made for an especially spe...

 I would be lying if I didn't say that I dreaded taking Emma in with me for her first dental exam and cleaning, especially as I had an appointment for right after hers.   So I spent the morning prepping Emma on how they were going to clean her teeth and how she'd have to open her mouth real big so they could clean and count her teeth.  When we walked in the room, she refused to sit in the big chair... oh no, what was next!?  Well, lone behold, LaDonna (they hygenist) took Emma around the room and showed her what she was going to do and right as I was about to get in the big chair so Emma could lay on my lap, she was already in the seat ready to go!  The rest of the appointment went off without a hitch and her teeth checked out perfect... I was so happy it went so well!  She even sat in the seat beside me without problem while I had my teeth cleaned :)  Enjoy these cute pics!

The kids looking out over the Mississippi River as a barge comes through to the lock and dam.  We headed out bright and early on one of Brad's days off to visit the town of LeClaire which is just a few miles outside of Bettendorf, Iowa, right off of I-80.  LeClaire is the location of the boyhood home (up until age 7) of Buffalo Bill Cody and home to the History Channel's "American Pickers".  Neither Mike, Frank, nor Danielle were in the shop that day (they'd just opened a second location in Nashville, TN, a few days before), but we still had an opportunity to see some items we recognized from their pickings and got to have some photo ops along the way as well :)  The Laurel and Hardy heads that Mike & Frank bought on one of the very first episodes of Pickers I ever saw! As a parent I treasure great family photos, but I also love photos like this where the personalities of my children come shining through! Brad had been interested in seeing wh...