Adventureland

My dad's birthday was this week so we celebrated on Sunday by going to Adventureland. I was a little nervous with the kids but Harlie did great in the stroller (and the few rides she went on) and Wendell LOVED it. He rode on the log ride, raging river, ski lift, bumper cars, train and many little kid rides. He had a great time and wanted to ride the same rides again, and again. I was surprised by all the rides he could ride and that he actually enjoyed them. Amazingly the weather was nice (after the thunderstorm in the early morning); it was about 80 degrees, sunny and breezy; AND the lines weren't long (nothing like when I was a kid). And the cherry on top was that Wendell and Harlie were free. What a great day!

** sorry some of the pictures aren't the best, it's hard when people are in motion

travels

** sorry this post is a bit unorganized

We're home!! We're back from our many travels. Last Thursday evening we drove to Davenport and spent the night at my moms.. then on Friday we drove out to Germantown, Ohio (near Dayton). My sister Danya got married on Saturday and here are a few pictures of us all dolled up. For the most part the wedding went well, I really enjoyed meeting all my sisters friends and getting to just hang out with her. Although we didn't get to chat much it was fun just being there for this part of her life. Danya was even brave enough to join us for our tradition of eating breakfast as a family before we all depart our ways. So on Sunday morning, our family all enjoyed a hot breakfast at the Waffle House.

Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of just our family so these are just a few candids. I was a bridesmaid so I was extra dolled up (wuwee!). Check (x) one goal accomplished: I did not have a farmers tan for the wedding. Although it's not the best tan ever I'm happy that there are no obvious lines.


Then on Sunday we drove to Maryland and stayed with a college friend of mine, Jenelle. She and I went to UNI back in the day, and basically lived together for 4 years. The first two we both lived at Campbell Hall at UNI, then
we the last two years we shared an apartment. She (and her husband) has three kids so it was fun to see them playing with Wendell and the youngest is three
months old so babies are always fun to hold.

Phil and I had a very relaxing time and felt like we were at a bed and breakfast. We got our own bed, 3 meals a day (not the p,b&j we ate on the way out and the way back) and even a few treats like fresh eggs (they have chickens), mint tea (from their yard) and fresh veggies from the garden.

There's a picture of Wendell with his "binoculars" looking for a bear. We didn't realize there was one here in Iowa waiting for us... as I saw there was one in Jesup.. wow, that's close!

But we did see some long haired cows that were pretty neat looking.

And we also went to Swallow Falls and saw God's handiwork. Our camera isn't the best but the place is beautiful.

Harlie enjoyed her ride in the backpack carrier. I think we'll do some more hikes knowing how much she likes it. It seems that both Wendell and Harlie love being outside so it should be interesting what happens when we go camping in a few weeks.

Jenelle lives in the mountains and this is where we stayed. I'm not sure if you can zoom in but there are some canoes on their deck that her husband built. And he also used some of the tree's as siding for their house. He's quite the outdoors man (compared to us city folk).


















Wendell (and her two older kids) loved riding bikes up on the deck. All they did was go back and forth and around the table following the leader. Between this and the pool that we later put out, Wendell was quite entertained. When we got back in the vehicle to come back I felt like I hadn't seen him in a few days because he was outside playing almost the whole time.


And the ride home was the exhausting part. We drove back and stopped at Richmond, Indiana for the night (border of Ohio and Indiana). We didn't make it as far as we wanted due to a major truck accident on the interstate but it was a nice place to stay. We played in the pool and then pretty much went to bed. We ate our free continental breakfast and got back in the vehicle again. As long as Wendell got to watch some movies then he was pretty happy; Harlie however, was a bit tougher. She was ready to get out and was not so happy whenever we put her back in her car seat.

So we made it back yesterday safe and sound. We had a great time with family and friends and really enjoyed the trip for the most part. Now it's time to unpack, do laundry and get back into the swing of life. There are a lot of fun and scary stories (like emergency car repairs, taking a gravel road without a map, in the middle of no where, to get around a traffic jam on interstate in Ohio, and jogging up a mountain that was so steep I thought I was running place) but can't blog about everything so that's it for now.

tri update

This has been a very exciting week for Phil and I with our triathlon training.


1. We had our first open water swim at George Wyth Lake. And, it was awesome! The water was amazingly plenty warm for it being about 70 degree's outside. The first twenty feet had a lot of seaweed (assuming that's what you call it in Iowa?) but then the water was clear. It didn't look too dirty but was dark on bottom and I didn't end up with a disgusting taste in my mouth. I actually swam the distance of my race but at a leisurely pace. I will have to look up a lot as I can't seem to swim in a straight line. I also came close to a guy fishing off the dock on my way back. I had to go around his fishing line so he probably wasn't very happy with me. Apparently, my point of reference for return wasn't a good one.. I was too far to the right. Anyways, it was so freeing to swim in open water as I didn't have to turn around several times like I do in the pool. I just have to remember to look up every so often so I'm not completely off course. And it was a lot of fun having Phil out there swimming with me. Next time he wants to go further as his race is farther out.. so we'll see maybe I'll go a longer distance too. Unfortunately we won't be here for the next open water swim which really disappoints us as they are going to have a swim coach there. There will be more open swims though so that will be fun.

2. We also attended a free triathlon clinic on Tuesday night. It was held by the people who put on the Peregrine race at George Wyth so it was extra helpful to see our race course. We also got some good tips and idea on how to set up the transition areas, mostly swimming to biking. It's amazing how simple it really is. Some things I learned was that I might want to change my bike tires to have no traction as they'll go faster, I am okay with just wearing a sports bra and tank but might want to look into special shorts that are for triathlons and there are no porta potties along the way so I have one chance to use the bathroom (right after I swim). Phil is most likely going to get a wet suit since his swim portion is so long so I think I'm going to get a new sports bra and tri shorts.

Anyways, we're getting really excited, it will be here before we know it!

favorite meal

I think if I ever had to do a top 10 of my favorite meals then this would go on it. It's a mini Thanksgiving feast to me. The only thing missing is the green bean casserole and homemade dinner rolls.
This is stuffed chicken breast, roasted mashed potatoes, carrots and corn.

I have no official recipes for any of this but here is how to do it if you're ever interested in trying it.

Chicken - thaw out a chicken breast or two and pound it out (I have a meat tenderizer), mix up stuffing (I use about 1/2 of box and save the rest for next time). Spread the stuffing over the chicken, roll up and bake about 30 minutes.

Potatoes - peel, and then bake in oven for about an hour. Put them in pan or bowl and mix them up like you do normal mashed potatoes. Baking them gives them an extra roasted flavor.

Carrots - peel, cut, cook then throw in a little butter and brown sugar.


Very satisfying and fairly easy to make!

summer is here...

You know summer is here when life starts to get busy.

We opted to go ahead and plant a garden. Crazy with the thought that we're trying to sell our house but 1. it will help keep us busy so we're not twiddling our thumbs trying to sell this house and 2. it was easier than putting grass seed down and tearing up the trim. 3. We can plan on selling about two weeks before the harvest.. isn't that how life goes? So anyways, we planted green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, sugar snap peas, watermelon, musk melon, and popcorn. Half of these are leftover seeds from last year. I wish we would have done some yellow beans, oh well, next year.

Some where floating around is a picture of Wendell and Harlie playing through the vents between the living room and our bedroom. It was just cute watching them play together.

And another floating picture is our summer bucket list (thank to Sarah for the idea). We have a few more things to add but it's exciting to see the fun things that our family wants to do this summer. Some will be easy, like Wendell's idea to drink chocolate milk. But my idea to eat lots of ice cream because well, there's never enough ice cream.

Harlie's new trick and that is to climb the stairs in a matter of seconds. We now keep a baby gate at the bottom of the steps. And we cut Wendell's shaggy hair, mostly in prep for the upcoming wedding.

Wedding you ask? my sister in Ohio is getting married in less that two weeks so we're going out for that. If you remember from a previous post I said you might see me riding my bike strapless so I wouldn't get a farmers tan. Well, luckily I've made it (without riding my bike) and no major farmers tan. I go to my parent tomorrow to drop off Wendell for VBS (that's another story) and hope to lay out in their pool and get some more sun. Back to my original story, we're off to Ohio next Thursday (1 1/2 weeks) and come back a week later. After the wedding we are going to Maryland to see an old college friend Jenelle. Lots of road tripping for the Hunt family and I'm staying positive that it will be a fun trip (if we can convince Harlie to not scream her new piercing scream that she does when she's not happy - we may want to take some earplugs along).

How about another wedding? Nope, my brother decided to elope a couple of weeks ago. Congrats to him and his new wife!

.... every baby has a picture of them snoozing in the highchair. Me and my baby girl AKA "chubsies" or "sweetie pie" as I call her.

Another update: haven't sold house, doesn't look like we're going to anytime soon. We're waiting patiently, right now I'm so busy with other things that I'm not to worried about it.

Triathlon training? Glad you asked! We have our first open water swim tonight at George Wyth that I'm super excited about. I even dreamed about it last night (Phil and I forgot our swim caps and couldn't participate). I'm nervous but think it will be fun. Tomorrow we're planning to go to a free triathlon clinic that I just caught wind about so I'm excited about that. Phil and I decided to both do the Peregrine Charities Triathlon here at George Wyth. I am doing the sprint and he will do the Olympic. Mine will be a 1/2 mile swim, 15.8 mile bike ride , and a 3 mile run. It will be a tough race but I'm confident I can do it. Honestly, the biking will probably be the hardest and longest. (Phil's will be a 1500 meter swim, 24.9 mile bike ride, and 6.2 mile run - CRAZY.) I have slowed down my training a bit so the workouts don't feel overwhelming. I still work out but not as much. Maybe in September I'll pick it up a little, we'll see. GOAL: to complete a triathlon, not win it (maybe not get last place).

Well, so much to write about but I have other things to do so .. hope your summer is going well! Sorry if there are typo's, I'm tired of proofing.