No, I'm Not On Vacation...Yet!

Edited on 8/11/08 to add the photos previously described.

Oh, Man! I've read about people having problems uploading photos in blogger before, but, until now, I've never had a problem. I have cool pictures, too! Bummer!

My first non-existent picture is of Lil Sis sitting on Cool Daddy-O's lap with her eyes closed at a restaurant in Amana. We met my dad, brothers and their families there for breakfast on Saturday. Since only 3 of my immediate family members had their eyes open, we didn't have to pay for Lil Sis. We had a very nice waitress who understands shy 4 year olds. There were just too many people there, and she was overwhelmed with all the attention, I guess.

We did enjoy some yummy family style eats: fruit, toast, pancakes, sausage, bacon, fried eggs, fried potatoes, coffee, juice, milk. Too bad Lil Sis missed it. Poor Cool Daddy-O was stuck holding her the whole time. Big sis complained about the flat pancake (she's used to the fluffy pancakes I make). The girls had been up very late the night before and we had to wake them early to get to Amana in time for breakfast.

This weekend was the annual tax-free holiday in Iowa. All clothing and some select other stuff (like diapers) isn't taxed on the first Friday and Saturday in August. On Friday, I took the car to the dealer for some routine maintenance. I rode the Honda mobile to the mall and hung out for a few hours. I bought some good stuff at Target and I've been so busy since then, I haven't even unpacked all the bags.

The most fun things I bought were new cell phones for Cool Daddy-O and I. We both have new numbers and they're actually easy to memorize.

My next grouping of pictures includes one of Lil Sis standing by a baby zebra (her favorite zoo animal). We spent Sunday in Sigourney where there was a big celebration for the local John Deere tractor dealer's 10th anniversary. There were inflatables, a petting zoo with camels, goats, llama, baby zebra. There was also a monkey show, but we missed that part. The food was provided by Cookies BBQ (an Iowa company), chips from Hy-Vee (Iowa based grocery chain), and music by the Oak Ridge Boys. The only bad part was the 95 degree temperature with high humidity.

We managed just fine. Our next picture shows Big Sis spraying me with water. We carried the spray bottle with us everywhere and regularly sprayed the girls. During the Oak Ridge Boys performance, Big Sis was putting ice in the spray bottle and spraying me. It was AWESOME!

Today, the girls had swimming lessons and Big Sis had "reading camp" at a local college. In the afternoon, I filled up the little pool on the deck. The girls spent 4 hours there. I had grand hopes of doing some organizing of new purchases, etc. but I ended up sitting in the shade programming numbers in Cool Daddy-O's new phone. I did spend some time with my feet in the pool. That was nice.

Big Sis's big swimming lesson accomplishment today was holding her breath under water and blowing bubbles. She also was able to move from one side of the pool to the other today without the noodle while wearing the flotation cube thingy around her waist. Lil Sis was able to blow bubbles under water today. She's afraid of holding her breath under water, but she was moving around in our pool today holding her breath with her head above water. All in good time. She's getting more comfortable with the water...it's just going to take her some time.

Well, hope you enjoyed my non-existent pictures....I'll try to upload them another day.