We got to Iowa Sat. morning and then went to Abby (Randy's niece) and Matt's wedding. We had a nice time and tried to get all the cousins 4 years old and under in a picture, I thought this was the most realistic one.
Sunday was George's baptism. George is Randy's brother Joe and his wife Renee's new (and first) baby. Randy was honored to be the godfather. L-R is Randy, Jill (Renee's sister and the godmother), baby George, Renee and Joe.
Mon and Tues we saw my family. My dad and Cheryl, my Grandma and Grandpa Leymaster, my Grandma and Grandpa Wood, my brother, his wife Joni, and their two boys Kale and Brady. But as we didn't have any monumental events going on and because life just gets busier with 5 children I didn't get pictures and just enjoyed the visits.
Wednesday started (after Dan and Dale fixed our van's breaks for us - thank you!!) at Heartland Acres in Independence (IA). A good museum on current farming and past farming practices.
The kids became official Poop Investigators.
And we saw the world's largest tractor.
Next we went to Dubque to the Aquarium and River Museum. There was a lot to see and do there. We all enjoyed ourselves. After the museum we went on to Chicago and had dinner with Randy's uncle Ralph. We had a great dinner and enjoyed his company.
This is part of the water works section of the museum (in Dubque). The Water works section was a hands on water activity area. The kids really enjoyed playing here.
Grandma is lifting Henry to see the duck, that splashed all of us.
Thursday we made it to Lego Land!! The kids all had a blast. There was a lot to do and see. I definitely don't have pictures of everything. We started the day by walking under the lego giraffe and into Lego Land.
Here are just a few of the lego sculptures we saw.
Lego Land began with a display called Mini-land. Which was Chicago done in Lego. It was very impressive. After awhile the lights in the room dimmed to show the city at night. Street lights came on, buildings lit up, campfires on the beach lit up and the playground equipment with children on it stopped swinging.
Indiana Jones!
Darth Vader and R2-D2 made out of legos! Does it get any better?
"Ahh! Get out of the way of the race car!" Unprompted they posed as if the lego race car was about to run them over.
Here's everyone with Bob the Builder.
Max and Alex went to a Master Builder class while we were there. Randy took them and said they were very serious about the whole thing. They learned how to make a top that looked like a hamburger. They agreed it was very fun.
All the kids played in/on the huge playset there. It was like a really big, really good McDonald's playset with a ton of very large lego blocks.
An area of Lego Land was dedicated to building and racing race cars. Alex and Max spent a fair amount of time there. Alex especially kept trying to improve his cars so they would race straighter and faster.
Grandma, Parker, and Timmy enjoyed the Duplo corner. A little corner full of Duplo legos next to the giant play set and some earthquake tables (tables you could build on and then push a button to shake the table like an earthquake)and more lego sculptures.
We ended our vacation in Muncie, IN visiting my Aunt Eileen, Uncle Pat, cousins Sarah and Emily and Emily's husband Matt. We had a great visit. Saturday my Aunt's work hosted a Family Fun Fair and we had a lot of fun. There were a ton of bounce houses, a dunk tank, lots of games, Sophia got her nails painted, lunch and lots of fun. It's a wonderful time with the added bonus of everything being free. After the fair we went back to my aunt and uncle's. The next day Randy and Pat golfed while the rest of us relaxed. We left Monday morning happy to have had such a great vacation , sad it was over and Randy and I started planning another vacation on the way home.
