Iowa 2011 - Day 4

How did I ever let the last day recap end without putting a picture of the sunset on here? My grandparents live on a lake in Iowa and for as long as I can remember I have loved watching the sun set on the other side of the lake. It's so beautiful. Here is the sunset from our 3rd day:





The next morning we went to the fish hatchery.


The boys were most impressed with the albino catfish,



but Emilia was quite taken with the turtles. She stood up on the rail and watched them most of the time we were in there! She even had them all named. There was the momma turtle, the baby turtle and the daddy turtle.


Here she is holding her baby up so she can see the turtles, and I quote, "Look, baby. Look at the turtles. Do you see the turtles?"

This is my fantastic grandpa, playing along and pointing something out to the baby.


She was particularly excited when the momma turtle gave the baby turtle a piggy back ride!


Audra just had fun being cute :)


After hanging out with the big fish for awhile, we went to see all of the tiny, hatched fish. There were a LOT of them! The kids were all very impressed by how many little fish they had to be put in the lakes.




On the way home from the fish hatchery, we stopped at the store to get some night crawlers for fishing. I'm not much for fishing...too much patience required for that! But the kids and John had fun out there, even if they didn't catch any fish. I'm actually not sure if Emilia had more fun fishing or playing with the night crawlers, but either way, I know she had fun. :)








And then, that night--that's when it happened. The moment the kids had been counting down to the whole time. The moment we'd all been waiting for:

THE COUSINS ARRIVED!!!

Audra though Preston and Grammie (my Aunt Pam, but all the kids called her Grammie) were worth checking out. Turns out they're pretty fun to play with!


Poor Grandpa had so many more people from whom to defend himself



Emilia LOVED having GIRLS to play with! She latched on to Rylee almost immediately and wasn't far from her side for the rest of the time.


Audra enjoyed my cousins' girls, too. :)


That night Emily and Grammie took the kids to the park. We wish YOU had been there, too!







Grammie led all the kids in an obstacle course!


Time to calm down! Hanging out with Grandpa and cousins before bed.




What a wonderful day that was. So much fun. So much laughter. So much excitement. So much love. It just doesn't get much better than that. <3