The Highlight Reel

As a mom and a writer sometimes days and even weeks go by without so much as a glimmer of writing inspiration hitting you.  Whether it be from lack of material or from the fact that days fade into other days and at the end of each one you are just too tired to move a muscle.  Muscles included in that strike are the muscles in my fingers that I haven't been able to make fly across the keys for a while.

Too be honest with you we've gone on many fun adventures, the inspiration is there, so the only culprit left is the exhaustion. Oliver's molars have been trying to come in for about a month now. All of my fellow mommy friends warned me, "the molars are the absolute worst". Its not that I didn't believe them, its just that you are naive to it until it actually happens to you. And oh, are they happening. I'm not sure if the molars are causing tantrums or if it is just the time in toddler-dom that tantrums seem to start and I'm lucky enough to experience both at the same time. It's kind of a chicken and the egg kind of thing.  Either way it's miserable.  However there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Thursday I'm leaving on a child-free, moms only, no whining allowed vacation on the beach.  My friend Irene's parents were kind enough to allow four of us girls to spend a long weekend at their beach house.  There will be lots of trashy magazine reading, cocktail imbibing (except for the pregnant mommy, sorry Kristel), food enjoying and SLEEP, glorious SLEEP!!! I plan on coming back from the Gulf with no more bags under my eyes and a killer tan. (Pipe down Desi, I promise I'll still wear sunscreen.)

As I mentioned before we have been lucky enough to enjoy many great adventures over the past month or so.  Here's the highlight reel.

Camping at The Big Barn Resort, Preston, MN


Camping didn't start out as well as I would have hoped.  It was a very long two days of driving and towards the end there was lots of crying, yelling and whining.  Mostly from Oliver...mostly. About an hour outside of Galena we made a pit stop at a tiny little gas station slash diner.  As in most situations ice cream made things better. We took a little time stretch our legs and fill our bellies with chocolately deliciousness.

After the drive was behind us, the drive that involved an hour of being lost on a gravel road and passing the same herd of cows five times (yes, five) we finally made it.  It was great to catch up with family. Oliver doesn't have any cousins but my cousins kids are so great.  He loved playing ball with them, riding their bikes and in general just following them around and basking in their big kid-ness. It was so wonderful to sit back and watch them all interact with each other, I can't wait until he has little cousins of his own. Hint, hint, sisters.

Sharing a plum with Aunt Edie

The gang.

A makeshift water table....a cooler filled with water

Looking groovy in Aunt Desi's shower cap

Visiting Friends and Family Across Iowa

Corey rode in RAGBRAI again this year (riding your bike across Iowa? No thank you.)  While he was riding his bike on pavement that was reading 126 degrees Fahrenheit the little guy and I made our way across Iowa visiting family and friends. We visited my dad, stepmom and brother in Des Moines. Then we were back to Cedar Falls to visit Grandpa and Grandma Rekers and Corey's brother Ryan.

Enjoying some fruit with Grandma Stacey

He loves himself some Uncle Carson, the feeling me thinks, is mutual

Grandpa and Grandma Rekers have the best tractor collection, circa the 1980s

But nothing compares to the real thing at Grandpa's work

Maybe one of my favorite pictures, my heart melts. With Uncle Ryan

Catching up with old friends, we didn't have much time but the amount we had was cherished

The Indiana State Fair

Last weekend we took advantage of a day that was finally below 90 degrees, it was actually in the 70s, gasp!  We packed up and went to visit the Indiana State Fair.  I have to preface this with saying we come from Iowa, home of the superior state fair. No other state fair and can compare.  Not even the Minnesota State Fair, which I hear is nice but based off of my HORRIBLE experience there I will never believe it.  I won't go into the gory details but it involved eating chocolate chip cookies and drinking milk when it was 100 plus degrees out and a line at the bathroom that was nearly unbearable. I didn't embarrass myself but it was touch and go there for a while. Anyway, I digress, basically I went into the Indiana State Fair knowing that it would never compare to the Iowa Fair and it didn't. But it was still a lovely day.  I ate delicious corn on the cob, had a yummy corn dog, a mediocre lemonade and some decent salt water taffy. Oliver got to see cows, horses, goats and pigs.  The swine flu has been sweeping through Indiana so there weren't many pigs to be seen but we got to see piglets and they were magical.  The goats were by far his favorite, probably because they are pint sized just like him.  So the Indiana State Fair, worth the trip, we came we saw we conquered.

He's making plans for a break into the cage, the goat is making plans for a breakout

The temperatures are becoming more bearable around these parts.  Halloween candy has made it's debut in our grocery store and the Hobby Lobby shelves are filled with pumpkins, leaves and all things Autumn.  I haven't broken out my fall scented candles yet, I have rules about these things, September 1st is when they are allowed to start burning.  I'm starting to see fall on the horizon though and after the dry and HOT summer we have had I say "bring it on".   I'm going to send this summer off in style with my Girls Trip to the Gulf, the Real Housewives of Bloomington if you will.  If you need me I'll be sipping Mai Tais and getting to the bottom of this Robert Pattinson-Kristin Stewart debacle. Cheers!