Second Grade

Morgan's first day of second grade at John F. Kennedy Elementary School.

I was very anxious this morning for Morgan. I never liked the first day of school. I also felt bad that she had to start a new school. There was so much unknown for her, but she seemed less nervous than me. I prayed for her throughout the day that she would feel confident and make a friend. I could hardly wait to pick her up from school to see how her day was.

I had to pry information out of her about her day. These are the few things I gathered:
*her class room is very small
*her teacher is nice
*the lunch room was confusing
*the playground was super small
*she made a friend

Cable Car

A while back we were exploring downtown Dubuque. We found this.

It is a cable car that takes you up and down a steep bluff. There are two cars on a pulley system, one goes up while the other comes down. You can kind of see the car at the top and the other one is in the shack. The girls begged to ride on it, so we promised them that some time this summer we would take them on it. We surprised them Friday night with a trip on the cable car.

I debated whether or not to get on - I HATE heights. Once inside the car, you pull a cord to signal to the operator at the top that you are all loaded. The seats were like steps, because if it was a bench you all slide to one end. The doors close and slowly up you go. The girls loved the ride, Jett wasn't to sure of it and clung to David, and I have to admit that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

At the top you get out at what looks to be an old house. The operator works inside and collects money from the riders. There is an observation deck that allows you to look out over downtown Dubuque. The views are amazing. You can also see way down the Mississippi River. In this picture you can see across the Mississippi River to Illinois and to the North a little ways is Wisconsin.

A plaque on the wall said that J.K Graves built 'The Fourth Street Elevator' in 1882 for his own convenience; it was rebuilt after a fire in 1884 and used as public transport. At one time it was operated by steam, but now by electricity.

It gave me a funny feeling being up at the top and I didn't want to ride back down. I told David that he could just drive up and get me. After watching two other groups of people ride down unharmed, I decided to get back in the cable car. It didn't help things that on the ride down David started talking about what if the cable broke, what would stop us at the bottom?

It is fun being tourists in our new town!

Long Time No Post

I have to apologize for the lack of posts. I have been busy with house stuff and getting ready for the girls to go back to school.

We went and checked on the house today and it is pretty much all framed in. I have ordered all the lights and some have already arrived. This is what we picked for the interior lights. These are the exterior lights. This week we also picked out siding colors and cultured stone. We will be using the siding colors just like in the picture - siding in desert tan and shake in natural clay. The cultured stone will be in the aspen color. We will use this on the the garage and one part of the front of the house.

It has been crazy trying to get everything in order to get the girls registered for school. Where we are renting Morgan would go to one school, but where we are building Morgan would go to another school. I fill our extra paperwork to get Morgan in the school where we will eventually be living. I have to take her to and from school until we move. Preschool is filled all over. Dubuque received a grant in which all 4 year olds will receive 10 hours of preschool paid for a week. Carmen is 4th on the waiting list at one preschool and has a spot at another preschool. We toured the preschool that has an opening and I am going to send her there. It is held at a methodist church and has a montessori program. Carmen will go 4 days a week in the afternoon.

This week the girls had a doctor's appointment so that Iowa schools would let them attend. I went there telling them that they would just have to be checked out by the doctor. I was so wrong.... they needed chicken pox boosters and blood drawn for lead testing (an Iowa requirement). We decided to use a family practice instead of a pediatrician. I like the idea of everyone in the family going to one location and seeing one doctor.

Gotta go... David just came home with Panchero's (Iowa's equivalent of Moe's or Qdoba).

This is what the house looked like last Sunday when we got back from Michigan.


This is what the house looked like today.

Fun in the Sun

After a 9 hour drive, we arrived at my parent's cottage 'up north'. My Mom and Dad stayed with us over the weekend and left on Sunday night. Our family had the cottage all to ourselves Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. My parent's came back up on Wednesday night.

Enjoying the fire.

The kids having a snack on the beach in Elk Rapids (about 15 minutes from the cottage). The girls favorite spot to swim was where the Elk River emptied into Lake Michigan.

Celebrating my 32nd birthday! The girls went shopping with David and picked out some gifts for me. They got me candy and a hand painted turtle watering can.

A picture of Torch Lake. This lake is 18 miles long and the water looks like the Carribean - it is super clear and has a turquoise hue.

While we rode on the pontoon boat, the girls loved to watch the water go by.

Papa even let the kids drive the boat.

Toes in the water as we went up the Grass River.

Jett playing on the shore of the Grass River.

We had a great time and excellent weather while we were at the cottage. On Saturday we drove to my parent's house in Grand Rapids. We visited our old neighbors who had a baby after we left. It was strange (not sad) passing our old house and seeing others people's stuff there. On Sunday we attended Ada Bible Church. It was great seeing many of our friends again.

This was our first trip back to Michigan since we moved. We didn't know what feelings to expect. As much as we enjoyed seeing family and friends, we were ready to get back to our life in Iowa. This is where we are meant to be and have no regrets moving!

Last Minute Trip

John Deere has what they call "shut down" this past week and next week. I think it is a time where they clean and repair things in the shop. They encourage employees to take a vacation during this time. David thought he would not take vacation, but use this 'quiet' time to get more work done. Well, David decided yesterday that he would like to take vacation time next week.

This has left me scrambling to get a trip to Michigan planned. I called my Mom and she said we were welcome to come up to their cottage on Torch Lake. We thought about taking the ferry across Lake Michigan, but the convenient times were not available - go figure. I am currently doing laundry, so I can pack clean clothes for the kids. At least the cottage has everything else and all I need to worry about bringing is clothes!

We will be leaving after lunch and are not sure how far we will drive. We may spend the night at my parent's house in Cascade and then drive the rest of the way on Saturday morning. Thank goodness for dvd players in the car!

The Fair

Today I met my sister-in-law (& kids) at the Dubuque county fair for a few hours. The girls have been itching to go ever since dinner on Monday night when Morgan said, "I see a ferris wheel." Yes, we can see and hear (mainly the races and nightly music) the fair from our back deck.

It was a typical fair... farm animals, 4-H exhibits, food stands, rides, games and fair folk. I love going to the fair to watch all the interesting people that attend it. The girls were entertained by a magician for about 30 minutes. I had to pull them away so we could go see/touch the animals. Jett was facinated by the cows and kept making his "et" sound which means he sees an animal. We watched a show by Dave The Horn Guy which I really enjoyed. We walked around all the rides so the girls could decide what they wanted to go on later. At some point Jett lost his pacifier and was not going to settle down without it, so we went home.

After David came home from work, we went back to the fair. Morgan and Carmen went on several kid rides together and had a blast. Morgan was tall enough for the swinging ship ride, so David went on that with her. They sat in the end row and he had to hold Morgan down when they went up in the air because she was lifting off the seat. Once we ran out of tickets, we went and watched the tractor pulls. This was our first time observing such an 'interesting' event. It was very loud! On our way out, we caught the end of the tiger show. It was amazing to see these large cats so close up.

Another day making memories with the kids.