Meet Jazmine!

Even though losing Augie was a traumatic experience for all of us, we knew we had to have another dog. The good far outweighed the pain. And we knew we wanted another Lab. We also knew we didn't want to get a puppy until we returned from our vacation at the end of September.

Turns out, we probably would not choose to get a puppy the very same day we return from vacation again, but we will keep Jazmine, nonetheless. We definitely forgot what it was like to have a puppy. Man are they cute, but man are they a lot of work! And, we didn't have a young child with lots of toys the last time we had a puppy. Again, we will still keep her!

We brought Jazmine home on September 28. Her birthday is July 22. Jazmine is a black lab and she is bursting with energy. She is now 10 months old, full grown, yet still on puppy behavior. I can't believe how fast she went from tiny to big. It was a whirlwind! Thankfully she is on the small side for a lab, about 60 pounds. She is extremely athletic and LOVES the water! We chose her name based on our trip to Disney. We wanted to pick a Disney name and tried out several. Aria wanted her to have a princess name. Since Jazmine is a black Lab, she wanted it to be a princess with black hair. Snow White didn't fit, but we all liked Jazmine. We very often call her Jazz.

We are glad to have a dog in our lives again. It is a lot different, but still very fun. She is smart and happy and very much a retriever. 

Here is a recount of her life with us over the past 8 months.

On the car ride home.

She still sleeps in weird positions

Aria loved when she could pick her up. It didn't last long.

Who me? A very common expression

Jazz is definitely a chewer. She has destroyed just about every toy we've given her (and some of Aria's, too.)

Jazz gets to be buddies with CJ, too. Although I think CJ would prefer something with not so much energy.

Under our bed is a favorite hiding spot.

An extreme chewer needs an extreme bone.

A Day for Adventure

Justin doesn't have much travel involved in his job and we are quite thankful for that.  In fact, I can count on one finger the number of times Justin has traveled overnight for work.  But, last week he had to attend a meeting in Dubuque.  When he first shared he would be going there for the day, a light bulb went on in my head.  Our really great friends, Heather and Ryan, live in Dubuque!  There is a fun river museum in Dubuque!  Aria and I are hitching a ride and coming to Dubuque with you!  What turned out to be even more special was that Justin's meeting in Dubuque just so happened to fall on our dear friend, Heather's birthday.  So we got to enjoy the museum and take Heather out for lunch.  She picked a fabulous place where we got to eat outside right next to the river.  Ironically, Justin was at the same restaurant and we didn't even know it!

It was such a fun day to travel to Dubuque as a family in the middle of the week and have a fun adventure.  Aria and I had a great time at the museum.  My absolute favorite is always the otters.  They are just so adorable.  Aria says her favorite was the alligator.  We also enjoyed their new turtle exhibit and the eagles.  We tend to like animals, in case you couldn't tell.  Except snakes.  We explored the old riverboat, drove the little remote control boats, played in the water tables, and learned a little along they way.  The fact of the day was that girl turtles are bigger than boy turtles.  And even though Daddy didn't get to enjoy the museum with us, we did get to find a yummy ice cream shop for a special treat after he was done!  This is certainly a great stage of life we are in!

Exploring with Grandma

About a month ago Aria was headed to spend the weekend with Grandma and Papa, but before she went we decided to do a little adventure with Grandma.  We headed out to the Raptor Center near Lake MacBride.  What a cool place!  Basically the Raptor Center is a home for raptors that have been injured and can no longer survive in the wild.  We had a great time visiting eagles, owls, hawks, falcons, vultures, and more.  It was a beautiful day so we had a picnic and threw rocks in the lake, too.  Aria really enjoys birds, so she loved talking to and seeing the birds.  At first when walking on the path to the lake, Aria didn't want to get to close, for fear of falling in.  However, with a little coaxing from Mom and Grandma, she was soon throwing rocks in and climbing all over.  Here are some pictures from our day.

Omaha

No this post has nothing to do with Peyton Manning...

On the Saturday after Christmas we got to go to Omaha for the wedding of a family friend and childhood neighbor of Justin's.  We left relatively early in the morning and made the surprisingly easy drive out there.  We arrived a little after noon and it was 60 degrees...weird!

It was a super fancy wedding, so we got all dressed up!

Seriously, it was probably the fanciest wedding I've been to.  It was in a humongous cathedral in downtown Omaha and the reception was at a fancy art gallery.  Aria got her own kid's plate of food that included mac and cheese plus a cool kid package of fun things to do.  It was assigned seating with fancy name tags and beautiful decorations.  It was quite the occasion and was fun to be around a lot of Justin's childhood friends!

We decided to stay an extra day because how can a family go to Omaha and not go to the zoo?  Even if Sunday, the day after the 60 degree weather, was a lovely -5.  We ran from building to building and took our time inside enjoying the animals.  There was still a lot to see.  Our favorites of the day were the 5 lion cubs who turned one year old that day

the awesome giraffes

a silly orangutan

and of course, the penguins!  Especially this one that just hung out by us in this bubble.

We also stayed an extra day because our hotel had a mini waterpark in it, but it was soooooooo cold!  Of course the play structure had one of those ridiculous buckets that Aria won't go near, so we spent our time in the frigid pool.

But the main reason we stayed an extra day was to see these people.

I wish I would have taken a better picture, but I was too busy catching up with my very dear friend, Gina.  She brought her family over to swim with us and we let the dads swim while we chatted and stayed where it was warmer with her one month old baby.  Then we got to go out for lunch with them, too.  It was so fun to connect with them!  It never matters how much time passes or what is going on in our life, we are always able to pick up right where we left off in college.  It does still seem a bit weird that we are all grown up with kids and stuff.  :)

So glad we got to have a fun little trip during Christmas vacation!

Pony Ride

We get to do such cool stuff for preschool!

Thanks to a family from our church, our preschool had the opportunity to ride a pony today!  Aria was thrilled to ride Chip!  It was incredibly adorable watching them all go around the yard atop the little pony.  They looked so grown up and proud of themselves.  Yay for a fun experience!

And at the end, the kids got to give Chip a special treat, carrots.  For some it was easy to hold out their hand and let him eat it.  For others, like Aria, poor Chip didn't know what to think as they pulled their hands away and dropped the carrots.  :)  He was such a friendly and good natured pony.

Vacation Part 2c -- The Last Tidbits of Niagara Falls

Our last day at Niagara Falls was kind of disappointing. We saved the aquarium for last and also planned to visit the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center because I was interested in learning about the history of the falls. Yes, I do love history. Both places were disappointing. The aquarium was very small. There was a brief sea lion show and a magic show, otherwise we wouldn't have been there an hour. I'm glad it was part of our Discovery Pass and we didn't pay outright for it. Aria did enjoy seeing the few animals we did see and she came away with a super cute hat!

The sea lions were cool and so were the seals and penguins, but that was about it. The magic show was super cheesy. Oh well. When we were done, we walked over to the even more disappointing Discovery Center. It was really small and didn't have much. Needless to say, I didn't learn much history.  We were able to salvage the morning a bit by going exploring, complete with walking sticks, along a trail outside the Discovery Center. Aria's imagination was running wild, so it was a lot of fun.  From there we headed for Pennsylvania, which was an amazingly beautiful drive!  It was all green, rolling mountains with beautiful rivers and lakes.  We were even on some non-Interstate roads, which was even more fun to see rural New York and Pennsylvania.  Next stop, Williamsport!

This was a huge wheel-like structure on our great exploration!

I have to just add that our hotel pool in Niagara Falls was quite incredible.  It had a play area with slides and tunnels, a horse (which only took Canadian coin)

a snack stand, two hot tubs, some video games, a large deck area with tables and chairs, and a very nice, large, warm pool!  It is kind of ironic that I barely took any pictures of us swimming in this pool while I have lots of pictures and videos swimming in the Pennsylvania pool that was less than average.  I guess I was enjoying the awesomeness in Niagara Falls instead of taking pictures.  Aria made a friend named Olivia who was 5, almost 6 (June) and wanted to do everything she did.  I thought we were going to get Aria to go under the water because Olivia did, but she didn't quite make it.  She did run and jump into the pool like her, though.  It was a great time!

Blank Park Zoo

Aria got a free pass to the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines for her library summer reading program, so naturally we took four paying adults and our one free child to the zoo.  It was combined with our real reason for the trip to the middle of the state, The National Balloon Classic.  See above.  Anyway, it was our first trip to this zoo and it was a fun one!  We had to visit every animal and try out all the other fun stuff the zoo had to offer.  My favorite was the otters.  I just love them and could watch them swim all day.  Aria really enjoyed the prairie dog exhibit where she climbed through a tunnel into a little viewing area to see the prairie dogs.  She went in at lest three different times.  And everyone's favorite was the baby camel who happened to be born on Papa's birthday in May.  It was so adorable and so soft! I wish I could own a zoo!  They are so fun!  Definitely worth the visit!

I love it when the kangaroos, or in this case wallabies, roam around freely.  They are pretty adorable.  This one, however, is not real.  :)

The super fun prairie dog exhibit.

Always love family pics with everyone looking and smiling!

A ride on the carousel

A ride on the train

The adorable baby camel

A ride on a big camel

Feeding the fish

The fun otters