Friday, May 16, 2014

Racing shoes

Jed is training for the half marathon, Dam to Dam, coming up at the end of May and has been logging lots of running time.  Some of his co-workers are also training and decided to run a 5K in Johnston at ChildServe a few weeks before their big race.  Our good friend Tim joined in too so it was another Johnson and Laehn family excursion.
Lainey and Penelope got to ride along for the 5K!
While the moms and the boys ate pancakes.  Sounds about right.
Jed pushed the girls for the first half and Tim took over for the second half.  Jed's competitive side came out in full force at the very end of the race as he kicked it into high gear to pass his co-workers.
Jed's co-worker Matt and Tim with the jogging stroller were close behind!
Pancakes for everyone!
Then it was time for the kids races!  The girls got to decorate their own race labels!
Here's their warm up before the big race.
At the starting line!


Lainey's competitive streak also came out as she totally left her best friend in the dust.  Sorry, P.  And I'm also sorry for my annoying voice and laugh.  It was just about the funniest thing ever.  Half of the kids had no idea what was going on.
So proud of their hard earned medals!

It was a really fun family morning and good to be supporting a great cause that helps the special needs population of the community so well!

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Tulip Time 2014

Mid April I asked Jed if he would, once again, take the first Friday in May off so we could take a family day trip to Pella for Tulip Time!  Last year, we got snow in central Iowa during Tulip Time so we didn't make it.  The forecast for the festivities this year was a little iffy but ended up being great.
First thing we did was pick up a couple plates of poffertjes.  Mmmmm.
Then we met up with some of my family and found a fabulous spot to enjoy the afternoon parade!
Mom packed tons o' snacks to keep everyone happy all day long.
Here's Lainey waving to my Aunt Barb, cousin Lauren and cousin's wife Jenny during the baby parade.

After the parade, we had some time to kill before we met up with friends from our Bible study who would join us later on.  We walked around town a bit and then headed over to Central's campus.  I've mentioned a few times recently some things about "friends from college..."  For example she knows that HER friends' Trigg's and Izzy's mommies are my "friends from college."  She has even been pretending and talking about going to college.  This is hilarious because she has no concept of what that means, but anyway...

We walked around campus a little and snapped this photo.

Once our friends' arrived we pretty much just paraded the kids around and made them sit for pictures in a million different places.
The TULIPS!  That is after all, what it's all about.  There were many beautiful blooms to enjoy though I bet there are tons more THIS weekend after a few warm days this week.
Our most important goal of the day was to recreate this photo that we took 2 years ago.
Looking at this picture, I just CANNOT believe how quickly 2 years passes.  I remember that day 2 years ago like it was yesterday.  I love sharing life with our community group and raising our kids together.
The boys first Klompen pic!


These two thoroughly enjoyed Tulip Time!

Proud to say that my kids lasted a whopping 8.5 hours at Tulip Time and we stayed through almost the entire evening parade too.  I thought ahead and packed their PJs and changed them when we got to the car.  Wyatt fell asleep on the walk back to the car and slept through his entire outfit and diaper change and Lainey was definitely asleep before we left town.
Love Pella, Love Tulip Time, Love family days!