School Starts

Today is the first day of school for Joe. It has been a great summer having Joe home more than previous summers. With only 5 weeks of 1/2 day summer school, and 1 week of training, it allowed Mia to spend mornings and a few weeks having daddy home. Plus we were able to do a lot more this summer, and I feel like we were always on the go. We are so thankful for the nice long summer, and will try to keep ourselves busy while daddy's at work. On Wednesday, football will start, so I need to get started on Mia's "cheerleading" onesie. Her and Parker (Coach Stecher's son) are going to be the team's and their daddy's biggest fans. Today I also will continue my training to teach a deep water fitness class at the YMCA. I'm excited, because it will give me a break in the day from 24 hour baby care, and will be a good way to get into shape. The pics are from our last minute trip to the Quad Cities for one last fun day before school.

St. Louis

Early Monday morning, we took a trip down to St. Louis to visit the St. Louis Zoo as well as Grant's Farms. We arrived around 1:00 pm, and spent 4 hot hours at the zoo. They had great exhibits, including the elephants and the penguins which were our favorite. Mia even had her first ride on a carasel.

After the zoo, we checked into our hotel, ate dinner, then spent the evening in the indoor/outdoor pool swimming. We had a great stay in the hotel, and then left to go to Grant's Farms, which is where the Budweiser clydsdales are. They had lots of cool animals like tortoises, goats, elephants, yaks, buffalo, etc. Joe's favorite part were the 2 free beer samples per person! We invited the Marlin family, and had a great time spending time with them too. It was fun seeing their two girls get excited over the animals.

Summertime

Yesterday I got a few cute pictures of Mia with Taylor. She loves that girl!

Just a little while ago, we got back from a photo shoot with Jodie McNally! We got some family pictures, Mia pictures, and even some Joe & Amanda pictures. Just from looking at a few on her camera, I know that they turned out awesome, and I can't wait to see all of them! Mia was a great little model, and looked beautiful in all of her outfits. She didn't start to fuss until we got into the car, and then crashed when we got home. Smiling and looking pretty wears you out!

Tonight is Mia's first Maple City Cruise Night. We're going to go to the car show to volunteer at the Rainbow Riders food booth, and also to hang out with friends. Joe wants to get a picture of Mia on the hood of a car...we'll see about that! The summer is slowly fading away, and soon Daddy will start school back up. His official first day is a week from today. But we have had a fun summer, and it was been great having him home more compared to summers in the past. Next week we're taking one last mini vacation to St. Louis before school starts.

Amelia's Dedication

On Sunday, August 1st, Amelia was dedicated to the Lord at River of Life International Church by our new pastor Robb Duffie. We had over 20 guests in attendance, including my parents, Joe's parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and close friends. It was great to have everyone there, and Amelia looked absolutely beautiful in her dress! We were able to get lots of good family pictures, and afterwards, we had all of our guests over for lunch. Amelia had a busy weekend with Grandma & Grandpa Havens visiting, and now she's taking a long nap to recover!