Valle Drive-in theater

Tonight we went to the Drive-in theater with our friends the Coombs. This was my first time going to a drive-in and it was so much fun! We watched Captain America and ate popcorn while sitting in our camping chairs. The nice thing about going to a drive-in is that you can pack all the snacks and drinks that you want. Here are some pictures of what it looked like when it was lighter and when it was dark.

Here are the girls. Aubrey stayed up for part of the movie, but then fell asleep in her car seat.
Here are all the kids in the back of the Coombs' van. They always have so much fun together.

Aubrey 8 months

Aubrey is now 8 months old and 19 pounds! She's definitely not my little baby anymore. She's learned so much this month.
She can babble and say mama, dada, nana, baba.
She can pull herself up to her feet on somethings.
She can crawl up one stair.
She can sit up on her own.
So far she is a mama's girl and has separation anxiety. Totally different from how Morgan was.
She loves to chase Morgan and wrestle her. I can tell that once she can walk she'll chasing Morgan every where. She already can't wait to play with other kids.
She loves to hang upside down and loves to smack her lips like a fish and make a clicking sound with her tongue. She also got two more teeth making a grand total of 8 teeth. You can tell how much Morgan loves Aubrey. She's such a good big sister and tries to help with Aubrey all the time. Morgan was about to sneeze in the last picture, I thought it was pretty cute that Aubrey was just staring at her.

Iowa State Fair

Oh the fair! This was our second time going to the fair. Since this might be our last time being here for the fair we didn't want to miss out. The weather was perfect so we decided to go earlier so we wouldn't have to rush through everything. So, this time we got to see some free shows.

First we saw an acrobat act "The Fearless Flores Family." They were on America's Got Talent this year, so they were kind of celebrities! The tight rope walking was pretty cool and the lady climbing a 65 foot pole and balancing on it was really neat too. I definitely could not do that job!

Mike and Morgan also saw an alligator wrestling act. Since I was too short I couldn't see over the people in front of me, but they thought it was cool.

It's not a fair if everything isn't deep fried! They had deep fried mac and cheese, candy bars, pickles, cheese curds, funnel cakes. This year people were lining up for the the DEEP FRIED BUTTER! Basically they dip a stick of butter in batter and deep fry it. Mike and I weren't daring enough to get anything deep fried so I asked someone if I could take a picture of his butter. He reminded me of my Grandpa actually. He asked me if I wanted a bite and his wife said "No, she just wants a picture of it!" haha, I could totally see my grandpa saying that. Who knows what they'll fry next year.The fair is also known for it's huge animals! They had an almost 3000 pound bull, 2000 pound boar named "tiny" and 2000+ pound Belgian horses that were over 17 hands tall. (I don't know what that means but they were big.) :) They also had a place where baby animals were born. They were so cute.

Morgan did the "helping hands on the farm" again this year where they get to plant and harvest their crops to sell at the farmer's market. She earned a dollar and bought a chocolate milk from the store.

They of course had huge pumpkins and Morgan loved the miniature horses. Some of the horses were smaller than some dogs that I've seen.

We love the fair!

Adel Corn Festival

This was our second time going to the Adel Corn Festival and once again it was so fun! First they had the parade, and what is an Iowa parade without lots of tractors, lawn mowers and pickup trucks! There was a really cool race car and Morgan asked if she could have a ride.
On to the yummy corn! Iowa boasts to have the best sweet corn and I have to agree. The night before the corn festival they have a party and everyone comes to help shuck the corn. This year they had a truck load of about 7 tons of corn! Holy moly that's a lot of corn.

Morgan loves corn and of course she devoured it. Unfortunately for Aubrey since she has teeth we didn't want her to gnaw on the corn because she'd probably bit some corn off and choke. Maybe next year she'll eat some corn. Aubrey and her friend Eli were pretty happy chewing on water bottles.
This year Morgan and Cole got to do the tug-of-war style game with the water hoses. Morgan had a lot of fun until it got a little too cold. By the end she was standing there while the girl that was helping her sprayed the bucket.
Also this year they had a life flight helicopter and a police car for the kids to climb into. They got to turn the siren on and climb in the back. Hopefully this is the only time that she sits in the back of a police car.

We loved the police mobile command center that was "donated by drug dealers of USA."

Iowa has so many fun things for families to do and when it's not incredibly hot or bitterly cold Iowa is a great place to live. :)

Balloon Festival

Every year the town of Indianola has a hot air balloon festival. Since we missed it last year we decided it would be fun to go this year to see the hot air balloons. We sat in a field across the street from where they launched the hot air balloons and we waited for them to float up to the sky. Slowly one by one a balloon would pop up until there were over 30 balloons in the sky. It was a really neat thing to see so many balloons at once. Since it was so hot and humid, we left before the fireworks. We're really glad our friends the Coombs could come with us!



It was really cool, literally, when one of the balloons floated over by us and blocked the sun a little bit. Morgan and Cole were being such goof balls, they always have such a fun time together.

Rotations

Mike is now in his 3rd year of medical school and that means he has started rotations. His first rotation is working with an orthopedic surgeon in Pella, Iowa. His commute is about an hour and ten minutes away. Originally we thought that he would stay in a house that they have for students during the week, but it turns out his work day ends really early so he has come home every day.

Mike has worked so hard to get to this point and I am so proud of him. We can't wait for his other rotations and I hope he learns some pretty cool things! Isn't he handsome? :)

P.S.- To show how dedicated and loving I am I woke up early with him to take this picture on his first day of rotations. I am definitely not a morning person.