Swimming lessons

Vance started swimming lessons last week and he loved them.  I knew after our trip to Arizona that he would do really well.  He is getting more brave with every lesson.  He loves to walk around and squat in the little pool so that the water comes up to his chin and bounce up and down.  He is really good at kicking as well.  His favorite activity would probably have to be jumping from the side of the pool into my, or daddy's, arms.  It is a really fun thing to be with him and I am so glad that we chose to do them this year instead of waiting.  Now everyday he comes up to me and says " Po poo?"  It took me a little while to really figure out that he was saying swimming pool and not the other thing.  The worst part about swim lessons is leaving the pool at the end.  He screams the whole way home and is grumpy the rest of the night.  But it is worth it I think because he loves it.

Vance throwing a ball.
He tried to catch it but it fell and splashed him. So much fun!!
Silly boy!
This is him squating down.  Pretty funny huh?
Another squat.
On the noodle when he put his face in the water.
He loved this exercise.
He really wanted to just kick and swim around when he was in the noodle.
And here he is climbing out of the pool, yes he did succeed, so he could jump into my arms.
Swimming on his back.  We are still working on it.
Pushing the ball around to get to know the other kids in class.
It is kind of dark but I think you can see us in the middle when he is jumping off.
Daddy's day for the lesson.
Just chilling.
Kicking his way around in the big pool.

The Flood

So thank all of you that have been praying for our area. It has been a tragedy but we are coming out of this as a stronger community. It is going to take some time to recover but we can recover and that is such a blessing. Thankfully our home was not in danger but we do know some families that have lost their homes so that is very difficult. I can tell you that I have never seen anything like this in my life and I will never forget it as long as I live. To see the businesses you go to and the streets that you drive on under water is quite a shock. I can't imagine how the owners of the businesses and the homes that were flooded feel. My thoughts and prayers go out to them at this time. We were given the amazing opportunity to go and help sandbag to protect some of those businesses and homes and what a blessing that was. There are so many great people in our community and I was reminded about that during this time. It gives me hope that the world is not falling apart. There are many good people that are willing to stand up and help and that is amazing. So thank you to all of those people out there, what a great example you are to me. Anyway, here are just some of the pictures of our area during the flood so that you can see it too.

This is looking down the Coralville strip.
There is the Pita Pit.
This is a picture of them pumping water of the bridge down by campus.
This is a street is Iowa City that is right by the river.
Here we are getting ready to go sandbag.
A bridge in town.
Look at the water at the Village Inn.
Us on a road in down town Iowa City.
The guys sandbagging.
A pile of sandbags that the boys worked on one day.
Some cars in a parking lot.
A carousel in a park that we used to go play in.  There is a train track that goes around it too.
A view of the Coralville strip from the air.
The Walgreens in the upper left and the Days Inn  in the lower right.
Another view with the Hardees in the bottom left.
The Wig and Pen restaurant.
The Sonic parking lot with the National Guard going in to check on things.
The University of Iowa Softball fields.
Taco Bell
The Hardees

Our trip.

We had a blast going home and visiting our families in Arizona, except for the heat!! It was so much fun to be back though. We had many fun adventures during our two and a half week stay. We started out with some fun by the pool at Amie, Curtis' sister, and Jeremy's house. By the way, thank you so much for letting us stay with you guys it was great. Of course we were introduced to the world of Guitar Hero and it was so much fun. We had a BBQ with our families on the second day. It was great to see them all again. Vance learned his first spanish word while we were there, Mas which means more. It is pretty cute to hear him say mas instead of more when he wants more of something. We were able to get together with my sisters and brother and my cousins and their spouses for a little Cafe Rio salad dinner and some good conversation. We lived next to Bryan and Jen for about a year and it was great to see them again. Colby is about 10 months older than Vance but they had a great time together, as you can see in the picture of them watching tv together. We really enjoyed seeing RJ and Ashley, my little brother and his wife, Hans, Holly, Kelsie, and Breann that night as well as Tim and Cara, my cousins, and there three adorable kids. Our families are the best. That first weekend we went down to Thatcher and Safford to see Curtis' Grandparents who haven't seen Vance since he was five months old. How great it was to see them. On our way down we stopped and looked for Apache tears which is a black rock that is somewhat see through. That was fun. We also got to see Curtis' Uncle Terry and Aunt Claudia. They were so great to let Vance ride there horse. She was beautiful. I had to stop and see my best friend Emily (Ellerman) Curtis while we were in town. Her house was beautiful and she is just so great. I miss being around her so much. She is expecting in October and I tried to convince her to come out here and see Nauvoo before she has her baby. We will see. After our stop in Thatcher we headed up the mountain to Show Low. The weather was so nice up there. Vance thought he was in Heaven because Grandma and Grandpa have a backyard with all kinds of swings and a slide with sand all around it. He loved to play outside. We had many great adventures while we were there but I will just name a few. We went on a day trip to Hannigans Meadows, a beautiful place where we found that wonderful little lake in the pictures below. There we had a picnic and Vance tasted his first Smore!! He loved it of course and boy was it messy. Another trip we took was to go and find geodes and arizona diamonds up on the rim. That was so much fun. If you want to see what we found I will post some pictures of that sometime. We really just loved being up there and spending time with Mike and Janette. Their neighbors the Judds let us borrow their four wheeler for a day and Vance loved it. Then we went back down to the Valley and spent some more time with my sister Breann. She is awesome and Vance loved his Aunt Nana. We brought Mike and Janette back to Iowa with us just in time for the floods to shut the roads down all over Iowa City and Coralville so they couldn't really see much of out town here but we were able to help sandbag and that was a great experience. We took them to Nauvoo and got to see some of the beautiful sites there. My mom and sister Holly met us there and we got to spend a great day with them as well watching shows and seeing some of the sights. Then we took a trip to Chicago where we discovered it was free week at the Aquarium so we went there and then we ate real Chicago pizza at Giordanos, thank you all those that recommended it it was fantastic. The next day we went to Wrigley field and to the Zoo. The zoo was probably the best zoo I have ever been to and it was free!!! What a deal. Well that concluded our "Little" vacation this summer. Hope you all had a great time as well.

Update

Ok so this is going to be a small post but I just wanted to let everyone know what is going on. Our internet is knocked out because of the flood so I won't be posting any new pictures for a week or so until they can fix it. I don't want to have to deal with the library people every time I want to post something. Second we are fine. The flood isn't close to our house so we are safe but there are many in our ward who have had to be evacuated and have lost a lot of their posessions so please keep them in your prayers. We are working to help sandbag and protect local businesses and homes so we have been busy. I will post as soon as I can but in the mean time have a great week and keep our area in your prayers. Thanks!!!

The time, where does it go?

So this is going to be our last post for a while since we will be going to AZ for our vacation. I just wanted to say how proud I am of my baby Curtis. He finished his first year of PA school and we only have one more to go so that means we are half done for those of you who don't want to do the math. Anyway, this year has been full of ups and downs and through it all we have grown closer as a family. Curtis is such a hard worker and I know that he is going to be a great PA because he just has that way with people that makes them feel comfortable around him. He also has a sensitivity that is necessary when doing anything in the medical field. I am just so proud of him. So Vance is loving being around daddy more and more each day. He is constantly asking for him all day long. I think this is the funnest time for Curtis because when Vance was little it was all about mommy and now it is all about daddy. I knew it was only a matter of time but I think it is well worth it. It was so cute last night we went to a baseball game and Curtis was so excited to get Vance his first baseball, it didn't happen but it was still cute to see that excitement in him. He is like a kid again. Vance is growing more and more everyday. And, believe it or not, he is really getting to be a blonde boy. It just seems like his hair is getting lighter everyday. He is so smart. He can count to three, he knows what circles, diamonds, hearts, and triangles are, he loves to play with his ABC magnets and will sing the ABC song with them, it seems like he learns a new word or phrase everyday and loves to copy what ever mom says. My favorite phrase is "You made a mess!" he says "My ma messssss!" it is so cute. He now knows how to put his train tracks together and loves to build things with his legos. Books, books, and more books that is my life during the day but I don't mind it is great to see his enthusiasm for learning. Now that the weather has gotten better he loves to fly his kite and draw on the side walk with his chalk, another favorite word, and he really just loves being outside and like any boy enjoys throwing rocks and sticks whenever possible. He is just growing so fast. Well I guess that is enough chit chat on to the pictures.


I don't know how I get so lucky as to have these cute little kodak moments with my boys but this is precious.
Vance loves slides he just says wheeeeee the whole time.
His first go down the big slide and he loved it.
He climbed up there all by himself and just kept going down.
This is at a carnival our ward had and Vance loved the bubble station.
That is him under the balloon hat. One of the brothers in our ward gave it to him. Thanks Jared.
He was good at the ring toss because this is what he did. Sis. Anderson thought it was so cute.
Again with the walking up and putting it right in.
This time he actually stood back and threw the ball. He did get it in. Good throw baby!!
Our first/last snow cone. Just kidding he can have more but this one sure made a huge mess. But how can you get angry about a stain with a face like that.
These are just some pictures of Spring finally coming to Iowa. This is on our drive home from church. All the trees just blossomed these beautiful purple, pink, and white flowers before they turned to leaves. It has been gorgeous around here. We do have a video but I can't figure out how to get it off our camera so Curtis will have to do that.



This one is in front of our apartment. It is so pretty. We have loved it here in every season we have been here. The lord is amazing in that he created such beautiful things for us to enjoy. What a blessing it is to be able to see the beautiful colors, smell the wonderful scents, taste the delicious fruits and vegetables, touch the soft grass, and here the birds returning to there nests. We are so blessed.