Well, back on the 21st of Aug. was my Grandma Krull’s 75th b-day.  We skipped Micah’s buddy’s wedding in Fort Dodge and celebrated with family. After spending the night at Mom’s, we helped with a relative’s fundraiser in George.  My 2nd cousin, Kevin, needs a kidney transplant, so they are raising money for that.  We had a great time at the spaghetti dinner and silent auction.  I even got a few things.

In honor of West Lyon’s first day of school, the boys and I met my mom in Lester, then headed to the SF zoo.  She hadn’t been there in many years.  I’m not sure who had more fun.    Mom was a lifesaver when we quickly stopped at the mall.  Bodee was a crazy nut, like he usually is in public.  I’m not sure how I could have managed him, Kahle, and shopping by myself.

The 25th was the four year anniversary of my dad’s death.  Micah was gone the whole day, so the boys and I spent it playing and thinking of him.  We had a playdate with friends, Bodee picked our first watermelon from our garden, and we had a youth group meeting that night.  It was a beautiful day outside….just like the day of Dad’s funeral.

The boys and I went to the first football game Friday night.  Bodee was a busy little man, so I didn’t see much of the game.  Kahle had fun playing/cheering with his friends, Alec and Colby.  We went out to eat Sat. night with both neighbors.  It’s great to have such fun neighbors!

Kahle went to Sunday School for the 1st time!  He loved it, and he didn’t cling to me!  We ate dinner with our neighbors, again.  Micah used his new smoker and smoked some ribs and a chicken.  It was tasty.

We’ve been laying low this week so far.  Micah comes home for lunch, so it’s fun to see him.  We’ll take every minute we can get.  His JV squad started their games now, so that’s another night he’s away. 

I’ll try to insert pictures soon!

Last week was our annual “vacation” to the IA state fair.  Boy, it was a hot one! Just when we thought we couldn’t sweat anymore…..sure enough, we did!  We were there from Wed. until Friday.  We saw all the sights and got nice and dirty!  Our nephew, Wyatt, and Kahle were hanging out in the pig barn….coming up with an idea to pass the time.  Of course, Bodee found the nasty wood chip pile the FFA exhibitors threw out from their pig pens.  Lovely, huh!?  He also loved the water sprayers for the pigs…On a positive note, we got to see a couple of my “old” West Lyon students show their dairy cows, and Micah’s students did really well with their swine.  The best part of the fair was getting to see Dusty and Julie!  I really wish they lived closer to RV! We met them for supper, and then Bodee and I stayed the night with them.  They even had a tub of toys for him to play with.  Bodee had to show them how to use one of them.  Bodee and I were lucky again and got to stay at a hotel the next night.  Micah, his dad, Kahle, Garett, and Wyatt all stayed at the Youth Inn on the fairgrounds.  Dean said it was the hottest that he’s ever remembered!  I’m so glad I got to postpone my first experience one more year.  :)  Regardless of the heat, we had a fun time.  Until next summer fairs (all four of them).

I guess we’d have to be home long enough to be able to post.  We joked that last week was going to be a pretty uneventful week for us….boy were we wrong.  We ended up filling our our days just fine!  I have to backtrack and start with the Johnson visit was made on the 16th.  We first stopped at Medford at the outlet mall.  We didn’t have enough time, but I still managed to find something for each of us.  Micah’s sister and her family live in Byron, MN, and they had their town celebration.  We decided to head up there for the annual Johnson parade, food, and firework party.  It was fun to see familiar faces again. We enjoyed hanging out with their friends, the Dursts, who smoked a turkey and pork loin Sat. night.  The boys…James, Evan, Garett, Wyatt, Kahle, and Bodee had a blast cooling off in the sprinklers.

After a routine physical for me and story hour for Kahle, we headed over to Reid’s to help clean out a couple of sheds.  It’s a good job to have done.  We also helped Mom set up a king-size bed that she had gotten for her downstairs bedroom.  My brothers, sister, and I all have king-size beds…..so we’re excited to be able to use it if we ever stay overnight!  Mom thinks a full-size bed worked just fine all the years Dad and her were married.  Well, it was probably less than five hours later when half the town of George flooded!  The rain kept filling up basements, parks, rivers, etc.  Mom had to ditch her king-size mattress and many other things in her basement.  Reid, Ryan, and my grandparents also had lots of water to deal with.  We headed back to George on Thursday and Friday to help clean up the mess. It was neat to see everyone helping each other out in whatever way they could.

Two fairs down…two to go!  Micah and I both grew up with the whole fair frenzy weeks, but it’s fun now to have our boys experience it with us.  Kahle and Bodee both showed another pig during the Sioux County Fair Open Swine Show.  They did awesome…it’s adorable to watch them pat their pigs with a whip. Bodee told the judge, “Piggy,” when he walked by.

Kahle got 4th place with Westra’s pig, so he got $5.  He was very excited to add that to his piggy bank…he’s a conservative.  He’s saving up for a real payloader…anyone want to donate to his fund?  :)  The boys got so filthy each day at the fair, but they had a great time.  G’pa Weber came for the swine show.  He spoiled us with ice cream shakes! (He also made his famous cinnamon/caramel rolls for Micah’s ring help during the show).  We’ll leave you with this good lookin’ cowboy…

You’d think two teachers would have somewhat of a relaxed schedule in the summer, but that is not the case.  We’ve been on the go since last weekend, so I’ll do my best to recap since then.  My sister, Rachel, and her family came to stay with us on Friday.  We devoured Pizza Ranch pizza and hung around in the backyard.  We saw our first Inwood parade on Sat. morning…I was impressed.  

After some shopping and more hanging out, they left for Mom’s.  Our whole family got to celebrate Noah’s 2nd b-day (a little early) in George.  Kahle and Jack were in the kiddie tractor pull in George.  Jack got third place…way to go Jack.  We drove around the Little Rock/Sibley area and saw some of the tornado damage from a couple of weeks ago.  My uncle and aunt, Burt & Deb, had mostly trees go down.  They filled us in on what went on while the little boys ran from one piece of machinery to another.

The next morning began George’s 4th of July celebration.  Rick, my bro-in-law, was brave enough to run in the 5k! I’m proud of him…but definitely not jealous.  Maybe next year, I will join Rick (if I start training now).  We got tons of candy at the parade.  Rachel and I had a hay day sorting it…and sampling it.  I love small towns where you know almost everyone in the parade.  We even got to see our friends Brad, Ashley, & Baby Taylor.  The downpour began right after we got back to Mom’s.  Kahle and Micah love playing in the rain, so the swimsuits were on in no time.  They did the same thing with our neighbor in RV a couple of weeks ago.  Boys will be boys!  After another Pizza Ranch gorge fest, we shot off fireworks at my brother Reid’s house.  The boys loved them…..my nephew Noah did not!  Silly G’ma had some sparklers for them, too.  We called it a night and left for RV after that.

We reloaded our suitcases and took off for Rockwell after a quick dinner.  We met up with Micah’s family at the new swimming pool.  It was refreshing!  The next day was  the craziest of them

all.  We were up and at ‘em BEFORE 6 A.M.  Dean, Micah, Me, and five of the nine grandkids took off for the North Iowa Fair.  We got the pigs and veggie entries in and saw the sites to see.  It was a long day of washing, clipping, etc…..but it all paid off when the grandkids showed their pigs in the Open Show.  They did wonderful.  This was Bodee’s very first time showing!  He walked around the ring for about half of the time, then Micah carried him. Kahle showed his pig all by himself.  He even got in a wave to the family sitting in the bleachers.  It was great to see our Bormann friends there.  Matt & Nancy (& Baby due in Nov.) and Joe, Val, & Baby Emmett all came to see the Weber clan.  Kahle, Bodee, Matt, & Joe drooled over the tractors when we walked around the displays at the fair.

It was another late night as we stayed up and talked to Ben & Mandy (Micah’s sister & bro-in-law).  Thursday was back to the fair.  We were soon home-sweet-home by that night. The boys missed their toys, books, and bed!  We had a great week of seeing family and friends.

Well, the piles of laundry tell me that vacation is over.  Micah and I took a trip with two of his Ag students to Washington D.C.  We flew out of Sioux Falls on Tuesday morning and got back Sunday afternoon.  We had a great time seeing the sites.  His students had their own agenda (it was a leadership conference) and the adults could do as little/much site-seeing as our body’s could handle.  We put on a lot of miles last week.  I think we saw about every monument/memorial in D.C.  We got to eat at awesome restaurants and hang out with fun people…we met up with the West Lyon clan.  Micah used Google Earth to figure out how many miles we put on in one day, and it was over 8 just doing our site-seeing…that didn’t count the other random things we did.

Kahle and Bodee got to stay at G’pa and G’ma Weber’s house the whole time we were in D. C.  They  had a blast being on the farm.  Bodee loved the piggies and chickies.

Kahle couldn’t get enough of the feed shed.  He filled enough pails of feed to last Dean a long time!  

We are SO thankful that the boys got to spend those days with their grandparents.  We knew they’d be loved (and spoiled).  Micah and I were so anxious to see them when we got home on Sunday.  We did a few things around the house quickly, then we took off for Rockwell.  We’re pretty sure the boys grew an inch during those six days.

We’ve been playing catch up back here in RV.  Kahle and I did get  to see BHRV play West Lyon in softball last night.  We cheered for both teams!  Bodee went to Micah’s meeting with him.  His attention span is much shorter than Kahle’s, so it was nice to sit and watch a game for once. Kahle started Story Hour today at the library.  He loves it!  We read so many books each day.  I actually get sick of them, so we make quite a few trips to the library.

After the boys got done inhaling tons of cotton candy at neighbor Brekyn’s 1st b-day party, we were invited to take a dip in our neighbor’s parents’ backyard pool.  The boys had a blast.  Kahle had fun squirting everyone with his new noodle sprayer, and Bodee loved practicing the motorboat.  That definitely made retired lifeguard daddy happy. It was relaxing to sit by the fire and wind down for the night.
We ate Sunday dinner with my family in George and got to see new baby Nicholas!  He looks just like brother Jack!  After lots of digging in Silly G’ma’s dirt outside, we walked on the George Trail.  Bodee and Kahle both fell asleep along the way.  Brad & Ashley stopped by before they headed back to SF.  Taylor still looks like a tiny peanut!  She got to stay at Brad’s parents’ while Brad & Ash had a weekend in the cities.
Well, we had two busy days of summer so far.  The next two and a half months will be just as crazy.  :)

Even though it rained quite a bit this weekend, we still managed to get a lot of stuff done.  We rearranged Kahle and Bodee’s rooms.  They are once again separated.    We got to see the cute Rypkema family during our SF trip.  Taylor is a peanut! Brad, Kahle was saying that you are sometimes Spiderman…..what exactly did you tell him?    After a couple of errands, we hurried home to enjoy the sunshine! The boys and neighbor Brekyn played for a bit while the men did outside work.  It ended up raining, which canceled our fire pit plans.

We (I should really say Micah) shampooed two rooms on Sunday as well.  It is quite a chore, but we are VERY excited to use our new shampooer we got with our vacuum.  Again, THANK YOU to the four people that so kindly listened to demos for us!!  Kahle got to sleep on an air mattress in the kitchen with Micah while I slept in Kahle’s bed.  (The carpets were too wet in the bedroom and living room to put furniture in them).  Kahle thought it was awesome.  I guess it’s kind of like camping!?  Maybe we can get some ambition to put up a real tent in the backyard.  I’m guessing I’ll be sleeping out there with Kahle.

We are in love with Baby Faith!  My mom, the boys, and I drove down to KC after school on Friday.  It was about 10:20 when we got there.  Of course, the boys woke up and wanted to play with all of Noah’s cool toys.  It was a chore to get them back to sleep….I needed Micah there to sing to Bodee.  We got to hang out all day on Sat.  Noah and Bodee are exactly three months apart, so it was fun seeing them play. Rachel noticed that Bodee is a little taller/chubbier.  Rachel said that Noah ranked high for size at his 18 month appt., so we’re anxious to see where Bodee fits in.  Rick & Rachel have awesome neighbors, so we sat outside in front of the fire pit with them.  It was relaxing!  Faith was baptized on Sunday.  She looked adorable in her outfit and shoes that Rachel (and I) wore when we were baptized.  Rachel was a good sport and didn’t yank off the headband we put on her, too!  It was a big day for mommy and daughter.    The trip back to NW IA is always a long one.  Kahle was Mr. Talkative.  He had Silly G’ma (my mom) cracking up with his non-stop chatter and singing.  I think he was overly tired!  He even said, “Thanks for driving, G’ma.” without me saying anything to him.  Also, he claims that Faith is his sister…and he wants to keep her.  He was in love all weekend.  He wanted to hold her.  It was pretty cute.  Bodee would get her a blankie and give it to her.  We need to work on where he puts it though….on top of her head isn’t the best place.

We were excited to get home and see Micah/Daddy.  It had been since Wed. after school–when he left for Des Moines.  He said it was pretty weird not having his boys/me around.  Luckily, he got his “farm fix” in by going to Reid’s.  They even got groceries on their way back from seeing G’ma Krull in the hospital.  We pray she’s released and feeling better very soon!

Micah’s brother, Wade, moved out today.  He’s been living with us since January…ever since he started his new job in NW Iowa.  His wife and four kids are finishing the school year in Kansas.  They are hoping to sell their house soon so they can buy a house in Spirit Lake.  Thanks, Wade, for  your positive perspective on life and being able to connect with our boys!  We love you.

Micah and some students left for State FFA in Des Moines Wed. after school.  It makes me appreciate him even more when I have to get the boys up and ready to go by 7:20.  Let’s just say, I was late for the 7:45 bell at school.    Luckily, class doesn’t start until 8:25.  Also, we are planning a trip to KC this weekend to see little Faith as she gets baptized on Sunday.  We can’t wait to meet her!