Grandma & Grandpa Visit!

Following our trip to Michigan, we were blessed with a visit from Matt's parents (Ken & Connie Hart). They were able to stay for a week and we did lots of stuff during that time. Matt & I enjoyed their company and their handywork on things throughout the house. Ken connected electric to the new deck - we now have 7 outlets throughout the deck!! He also helped us finish our threshhold from the kitchen to the dining room. Connie built a stone downspout/fountain for us along the driveway (I haven't gotten a picture of that yet). Ken & Becki put up new lights under the kitchen cabinets. We kept them busy for sure! The best part for us was sitting around in the evening, enjoying each other's (and usually Whitey's ice cream!) company. The kids LOVED having their grandma & grandpa around - and Grandma & Grandpa were lucky enough to witness the kids in their true form!!

Here is Ken with the 4 kids...

One of the days, we headed to Iowa City to find a few indoor boxes and to visit the Coralville Lake again. We just had the twins since the girls had started school. We were fortunate to find the 4 boxes in Iowa City ("The Book End", "If Winter Comes, We'll Letterbox Indoors", "Carya Ovata" and "Rutilus Persea Americana" ) and to see the Lake. We enjoyed our time, but it was hot and we were happy to be home that evening (again, enjoying Whiteys)!

We have tried to find "Carya Ovata" 2 times before today...we reread the clues and found where we needed to be (we were pretty sure!). But no luck. We headed the other direction at the trail head to see if we were going the wrong way...no luck. I encouraged Matt to head back to the first location and look better (while the rest of us headed back to the van). He came back a while later and said that there was good & bad news. Good news - he found it (where we had looked previously). Bad news - there was a wasps nest right in front of it! After lunch and a few other boxes, we stopped at Target and purchased some Wasp spray. Matt & Connie hit the trail - ready to tackle the nest! They were able to get the box safely!!
A butterfly along the trail...

Maddie & Will taught Grandma & Grandpa EVERY game that we have in our closet! And they played every game a couple of times each day!! It's safe to say that Grandma & Grandpa have met their game quota for the year!

We enjoyed our time together and it came to an end too quickly. We always think that a week will be long and we'll accomplish so much...but the time was gone before we knew it! Ken & Connie - thanks for your hard work around the house. Thanks for not making a big deal about the kids meltdowns (as well as ours!!). Thank you for being flexible! We look forward to seeing you again - hopefully before next summer. We love you.

More House Stuff

Here are a few more finished products for the house...

We finished up the front porch/mudroom this past week. We had wanted custom built shelves and benches for this room (and that may still happen down the road), but due to finances & time issues, we opted to purchase the 2 benches and a basket shelving unit. This should work great for us for many years!

Here is the porch before we closed it in.

http://hartx6.blogspot.com/2010/02/our.html

The garage is now finished!! Here is the before shot...

And the after shot!

Another little project - new cabinet lights.

Using the New Deck

We hoped that by adding on to our house with a bigger deck (Massive was the word our contractor kept using!), we'd be extending our living space. The first day after the deck was done the kids asked if they could go out on the deck. I came into the kitchen a bit later and found this...exactly what I had hoped for!


It continues to be a great gathering place - we look forward to many years of fellowship, playing, eating with friends & family.

Family Pictures

These posts are going to be a bit out of order, but I am trying to get some of the easier entries done first...and then I am realizing that I don't have all of the pictures uploaded onto the computer...so, I am going to list these, which in theory should be the last entry!

We wanted to get some professional pictures taken while Ken & Connie were here last week. We hired a friend from church and she got some beautiful shots!!

First Day of School

We got back from vacation (see Michigan posts, soon to come!) on Sunday evening. Monday night was the annual "unpack your backpack" night at the girl's school. The girls are very excited about starting 1st & 3rd grade! They loved seeing old friends & teachers and seeing who would be in their classes.

First official day of school...

Haircuts

I didn't get a before picture due to major time restraints, but I did get an after picture. I will soon be adding our Michigan trip to the blog and you will notice the girl's longer hair in those pictures.

799 and counting!!!

Prairie Rose has been a busy lady!! She has been working on a cemetery letterbox series and many of them are planted around the Iowa City, IA area. We headed out Sunday morning to try to find as many of them as possible. Matt's personal goal for the day was to reach our 800th find...my goal was to enjoy the day with the family, including a stop at the Coralville Children's Museum. You will find as you read this post, that Matt missed his goal by 1!! But, my goal was attained!!! We had a blast and really enjoyed our time together.

Our first stops were two cemeteries on the way to Iowa City - one in Rochester and the other in Springdale (Can you find the hiding box??). We were able to find both of these boxes and continued to trek toward Iowa City.

Once in Iowa City, we located the school for "School's Out"....check out their playground!!

While I played with the kids at the playground (we only had 3 that day - Maddie was spending the day/night with Becki's mom & dad), Matt hunted for the box. Here he is (with Alex (Bug-a-Boo)) stamping in.
Next stop was Ryerson's Woods Park - location of 2 boxes, "Sunday Funnies" and "Hello from Utah". Amid the humidity and mosquitoes, we were able to find the 2 and then headed to lunch.

Next stop was "Iowa Cemeteries: St. John's German Lutheran: Spring Crocus". We first went to the wrong cemetery...but we did get some pictures of this beautiful little country cemetery.

We finally found the correct cemetery but we weren't lucky in finding the box. The tree had a lot of tall overgrown grass so we aren't sure if the box was there or not. We also couldn't find "Iowa Cemeteries: Towlbridge".

"Little Black Buggy" in Kalona, IA was next. Kalona is an Amish based community and we were fortunate to witness a handful of buggies on the road. We had some problems in locating the box due to 2 young men being very close to the tree where the box was hidden. After a good diversion of picking up Will to show him a "nest" in the tree, we were able to discreetly grab it, stamp in and put it back without much notice! We turned back towards Iowa City, stamping "Summer Swallow" along the way.

The kids ABSOLUTELY loved our next stop...the Children's Museum in Coralville...

We stayed at the museum until it closed, then went to get dinner. After a nice dinner with the kids, we headed to "State Flowers: Iowa Wild Rose" at a rest area along I-80. Here is Katie, making a "statue of Katherine"...
We had two boxes left and we needed both of them to get to our 800th find...we left the rest stop heading towards Coralville Lake to look for "Devonian Fossil Gorge". We couldn't believe that we had never heard of this place! It is beautiful! We enjoyed the water hydraulics and getting wet...

I love Alex's eyes - she's watching for another big wave!

After a big wave, the kid's laughter was priceless!

And the fossil gorge...

It was getting dark and we got to see a handful of baby deer...but no box! We then knew that the goal would not be achieved, but we had one left to try to find. Our last stop was "Iowa Cemeteries: Sts Peter and Paul's Cemetery: Heaven's Embrace". By the time that we reached this cemetery, it was dark...so we sent Matt in with his head lantern and waited for him. He told us (after coming back in from finding the box) that he came across a family of possum or raccoons! At that point, he made lots of noise and sang as he walked! Oh the joys of night boxing.

We are looking forward to heading back to Iowa City soon to finish out the remaining boxes that we had to pass up due to time constraints...and hopefully find our 800th soon!!