Elsie

Alstan's Drawing

Alstan's drawing of Mickey Mouse!

Train Ride

We met Grandma and Grandpa Zielicke in North Freedom last week to take a train ride.  It was Alstan and Elsie's first train ride.  It was an interesting place, even if the little ones didn't allow for much time in the museum.

Afterwards we went to Culver's for ice cream and Grandpa "shared" his ice cream with Alstan. 

Platteville M

We are finally getting a break from the extreme heat and are able to get outside.  We walked the Platteville M on the weekend after we got back.  Alstan walked up and down the entire set of stairs without problem.  The hike wore Elsie out a little bit as she is sleeping in the last photo.

Bubbles

Watering Bridges, Sidewalks, and Flowers

After the sprinkler fun, Alstan helped Grandpa water the yard.  For Alstan, that meant watering pretty much everything in the yard.  He even went after Grandma, Grandpa, and Mom at the end (Dad was too fast!)

More of the Sprinkler

The kids got used to the sprinkler pretty quickly and it became a nice evening activity.

Sprinkler

On our last night at Grandma and Grandpa Van's we set up the sprinkler.  Alstan was a little leery at first so Dad had to help him across a little.  I didn't want him to get a face full of water when stopped right in front of the sprinkler.

Mater Tales

As we were waiting to eat in Sioux Falls we went over to Borrowed Bucks Bar in Sioux Falls to get a picture with "Mater".  It is an old, rusty tow truck.

Our Little Cutie

I'll use this random photo to brag about our now 18 month old.  On her year and a half birthday (no we don't celebrate it), she wanted to sit down on the potty while Alstan went potty on the big potty.  Not only did she go that time, but she went three time total that day!  She went in the potty a few times the next day too.  She now pulls on her diaper to show she needs to go to the bathroom.  As parents we'd love to take credit, but we just got Alstan potty trained at 3 1/2 years old.

Butterfly Gift Shop

The Butterfly House

We have been talking about going into the Butterfly House most of the summer.  Alstan was very excited to see all the butterflies and did a great job of not touching them.  Trying to get one to land on him proved to be a little exasperating though.  It takes a little more patience than our three year old has.

Playtime

Alstan got a chance to play with Eric and Becky's little guy, Greyson.  He and Alstan are both three and they enjoyed playing around together.  Elsie just looked on watching the boys be boys.

Go Blue!

Alstan and I took a quick trip from Iowa to Michigan Stadium.  :)   Is it football season yet?

The Big Race

Alstan went to the race track to see his first race to start our vacation.  He was super excited to see his second cousin Jim's REAL race car.  We went to see Jim race at the track, but he crashed his car on the first lap.  We also forgot to bring his ear covers, so he spent the entire hour we watched the races covering his ears.  To end our boys night out we went through the rest of the fair to check out the cows and tractors.

Toy Train

During Amie's wedding shower Zach and I took the kids to a park with a toy train.  We could have stayed there for a long, long time.  Elsie finally wore out and fell asleep, but Alstan kept on chugging along.  He fell asleep almost immediately after we got him in the car though.

Great Grandma Akers

We missed our opportunity for pictures with Great Grandma.  Elsie was over visiting with her quite a bit, but we didn't get the camera out until we were about to leave.  As you can see, it was a little to late for pictures.

Visiting with Grandma Van