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We spent Emily's last official day of summer enjoying some time at the park.

National Night Out

Today the kids & I enjoyed the activities and food at Kohlmann Park for National Night Out.  The free event is sponsored by the Waverly Police Department.

Fish Fun

While Emily was at Camp Invention, Lincoln & I headed to Cedar Bend State Park to participate in the weekly program put on by the Bremer County Naturalists.  This week's topic was fishing.  After a picnic lunch, we listened to a fishing storybook, played fish games, made a fish print, and pressed flowers.  Everyone also got a chance to go fishing in the Cedar River.  We didn't catch anything, but we saw someone else who did.  We also saw lots of cool wildlife like a baby painted turtle and a little leopard frog.

Hansen's Dairy Farm

I got to accompany the kids on the Hudson Summer Adventure field trip to Hansen's Dairy Farm.  I have always wanted to see it.  It was fascinating to see the similarities and differences compared to my dad's dairy farm since they are pretty much the same size operations.  The biggest difference, of course, is that Hansen's markets all their own milk, selling milk jugs, ice cream and cheese throughout the Cedar Valley.
 

Emily was BFF's with Kendra throughout the summer

Petting the calves

The kangaroo mascots of Hansen's Dairy.  It's fun to see them hop!

Looking around the parlor

Petting the miniature goats

It's a long way up the silo!

Workers washing down the processing area

Putting milk into jugs

The visitors center/Hansen house

Practicing milking skills

Lincoln's first ever attempt to actually color in the lines

The main house/visitor center/processing center.  There is a pond to the left.

Playing at the Hudson City Park afterwards

Kids' Vacation

The kids really enjoyed their vacation in Hull.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and they got to do a lot of fun things thanks to Grandpa & Grandma Boote and Auntie Abbie & Uncle Wade.  Here the photos my mom and sister texted me over the last few days:

The first night the kids talked Grandpa & Grandma into having a campfire with S'mores because they remembered doing it last year.  They also had fun playing at "The Dinosaur Park" (a.k.a. Hubbling Park).  They are pictured with Sophie, the daughter of my second cousin, Cindy, who was in my graduating class in high school and who beats me regularly at Words With Friends.

Emily enjoying a picnic breakfast after sleeping in until 9:00am

One of the big things Emily had been looking forward to was golfing with Uncle Wade.  They had to go in shifts because there wasn't enough room on the cart for everyone (including Cousin Saylor).

Both kids loved driving the golf cart.  Abbie said they had a lot of work to do on Lincoln's golf game, but he was a waaaay better cart driver than Emily.



Another thing the kids were excited about was going swimming at the beautiful new aquatic center in Hull.  They went three times.  Emily got braver each time on the lily pads and slide.  Lincoln was content to be a shore dweller near the fountains and never got deeper than his thighs.

Emily found the 50 Card Games for Kids book we had growing up and had fun learning different versions of Solitaire, as well as playing "Trash".  Word has it that she & Uncle Wade are quite the pair.

Hull has a wooden park called "Kids' Kingdom" just like Waverly.  It had just been freshly painted and stained.

 

 

The kids accompanied my mom on her daily trip to the nursing home to visit my Grandpa Vander Kooi.  Lincoln enjoyed being the doorman.

Lincoln's highlight was probably all the time spent on the farm.  He visited the home farm a couple times and got in lots of Kubota time.  He talked a lot about the hay ride down the alley track, "my friend Kevin's tools" (Kevin is my dad's brother and partner) and the stinky stuff on the farm.

The kids also got to go see the fireworks in Sioux Center on the Fourth.  The official report was that Emily tolerated them with her hands over her ears.  Lincoln thought they were the best thing ever and laughed and laughed every time one went off.

A huge thank you to my parents, sister and brother-in-law for making this a memorable experience for Emily & Lincoln!

George Wyth Beach

One thing on our summer bucket list was to return to George Wyth Beach in Cedar Falls.  We enjoyed going there several times last summer.  We had a free day, so I sent out an email and had a couple friends join us for a picnic lunch and an afternoon of swimming.

As usual, Lincoln was mostly a shore dweller content to dig in the sand with a shovel or his excavator.  Emily spent most of the time floating around on the blow-up tube (and has the tan lines to prove it!).  That meant I got to spend most of the time sitting in a beach chair under an umbrella chatting with friends.  I only got my feet wet once or twice. :o)

This was my brilliant new idea.  After exasperating hikes from the parking lot to the water last year trying to carry an unbelievable load of stuff with little to no help from the kids, I packed almost everything up into our big wagon, set it in the back of the van and pulled it from the parking lot to the beach.  Each kid was also assigned one light item.  It definitely helped that the water is much higher this year (less sand to hike across), and the air tires on the wagon are a must-have.  We will definitely be doing this again next time!

Picnic and a bike ride

Emily had the day off for Kindergarten Round-up and the weather was beautiful.  After making my weekly stops in Waterloo, the kids & were going to go to the Phelps Youth Pavilion.  Unfortunately, we discovered it isn't open on Monday. :o(  We made the best of it, though, and still enjoyed our picnic lunch by the river. 

While spreading out our lunch, we discovered the remains of quarter-sized hail that had fallen just before we got to town.

Then we played on the equipment by the new splash pad.  Sometime we'll have to come back when it's actually warm enough to enjoy the water part!

After returning home we decided to venture out on a bike ride.  I loaded up all the bikes in the van and drove to the Waverly Rail Trail.  This was the first time each of us were on our own bike.  We made a very slow trek a mile down the trail to the first tunnel.  We stopped for a granola bar break and then headed back to the van.  Lincoln got going a little too fast on the hill down from the tunnel and bailed off his bike when he got scared.  This resulted in a scraped up back and face, but he was tough and got right back on his bike.  I hope we can do this many more times in the future!

When we got home from the bike ride, Emily decided she was going to write a book titled Iowa Discoveries: The Cedar River.  She made an impressive cover and then wrote a page of facts gleaned from a Wikipedia article on the Cedar River.

Park pics

It was a rare warm day that we could enjoy the park with no coats.