Berry Patch

On Saturday we were baseball-free and I realized that we hadn't made a trip to the Berry Patch in Nevada yet this summer. It was the last day for strawberries so I "surprised" Aaron with the news that we were going on a family outing. He was thrilled! :)

I think it's a great time to go and pick your own berries because they're so fresh and taste so much better than anything you can get in a store. Aaron admitted it wasn't as bad as he was expecting and Jenna was a good helper too! Although, I did catch her stealing strawberries from my box and putting them in her bucket once in awhile. :) Brody spent half the time in the wagon and the other half eating my strawberries.

On Sunday Jenna and I made homemade jam. Jenna was the "masher" of the strawberries and I will say she did an excellent job! Here are some pictures from the Berry Patch:

Aaron and Jenna finding some berries.

Brody eating my hard work!

Jenna chowing down.

All finished!

How good do those look? We ended up picking about 7 lbs of berries!

Rose Festival

We had a busy few days over the weekend. For those of you that don't know, State Center is the Rose Capital of Iowa and the third weekend in June is always a 3-day celebration known as the Rose Festival.

Friday nite Aaron was supposed to have a baseball game, but they got rained out. It was nice because usually Aaron does nothing during the Rose Festival except hang out at the baseball field, so he got to enjoy a little bit of it Friday nite. We went to the chili cook-off and they also had a BBQ contest, so they gave away free samples of ribs (yum!). Friday I had a slow-pitch game, which we lost!

Saturday, I did my run at 7:30 AM and then had to hustle over to another slow pitch game at 9 AM. My dad came down and helped me watch the kids and for that I was grateful! We won our game and then headed to the baseball game. The Trojans had a rough weekend, to say the least, but we're hoping they bounce back this weekend. Then it was another game for me and then another game for Aaron (do you see a pattern?).

Saturday nite we had a sitter come over and we went uptown to listen to the band. It was actually Greg (my boss's) classmates from 1979. They rocked! They played some good 70's music and I enjoyed it.

Sunday for Father's Day we did...absolutely nothing! Literally. And, that's how Aaron liked it. We all took naps in the afternoon and tried to stay out of the heat. Naptime=perfect day in Aaron's world!! :)

My 5K

I am happy to report that after a couple months of training, I did my first ever 5K. Every year they have one for the Rose Festival, so for some reason I thought I should try to run it this year. I don't know where that came from, since I don't really like running...at all.

Anyway, it was hard, but I did it!! It was so humid and I felt like I couldn't catch my breath from the get-go, so that was a struggle. My goals were to finish it under 35 minutes and not walk at all. I did both, finishing in 32:05. I realize I didn't break any speed records, but I'm still proud of myself for doing it.

A big thanks to my family and friends for their encouragement and checking in on me on race day. That meant a lot to me!!!

Flowergirl Pics

All smiles BEFORE the wedding!

Doesn't she look excited? :)

Me and my baby girl


Dancing with her pal Abby Sue

Scared Flowergirl

Our weekend went by so fast because we were busy with the wedding. Aaron ended up getting rained out both Friday and Saturday, so he was able to come both to the rehearsal and the wedding/reception.

Friday at the rehearsal Miss Jenna didn't want to walk down the aisle at all. After everybody else had left Aaron ended up getting her and the ring bear to walk down twice, so we were thinking that she would make it down fine on Saturday.

Saturday rolled around and Jenna was hot and cold with the shyness thing. At times she was really outgoing and talkative and others, she wasn't. During pictures we couldn't get a smile out of her, but she warmed up a little. The photographer went outside for some pictures and the ring bear, who was a little too touch-feely for Jenna, chased her down and kissed her and she CRIED! It was kind of funny actually.

When it was time for the wedding Aaron was in the back of the church and I was at the front. Jenna started to walk down, but as soon as she saw all the people she just froze. The ring bear literally had his hand in her back and was trying to push her. I guess somebody overheard him say, "Everybody's here, we need to go now." So cute! Anyway, I was waving at the front of the church motioning her to come to me. She walked up, with the ring bear dragging her, and she didn't crack a smile, and she definitely didn't drop any flower petals.

It makes me nervous because she's the flower girl again in a month!

I'll post some pictures of the scared flower girl as soon as I can...

Baseball & Wedding

It's going to be busy at our house this weekend. Aaron has a baseball game tonite and a tournament tomorrow. Jenna is the flower girl in a wedding this weekend in State Center, so we have the rehearsal tonite and the wedding tomorrow. I have slow pitch practice on Sunday and have to try to find time to write a few articles for the paper. Should be crazy!

Baseball-Free Weekend

We just enjoyed three whole days at our house without baseball. That is a rarity this time of year! Friday was an off night and then Aaron's tournament got cancelled on Saturday because we got some rain (although not much), and of course there was nothing on Sunday.

Sunday seemed to be the day we had the most "excitement." I did a bunch of housework and cleaned out Brody's closet in the morning, while Aaron and Jenna went to Marshalltown to get some diapers and tubs for the clothes.


So, we had this thing stuck to our shutter on the second story of our house. We have a REALLY tall house, so from the ground it looked like a wasp's nest. Well, I looked out the window from the guest bedroom and it was a small bat! I about freaked out because even though it was dead, I swear it was still looking at me. Aaron and I tried to get it unstuck from the shutter (it got it's wing caught) but to no avail. So, we ended up hosing the heck out of it until it finally came down. DISGUSTING!!!

We also got the sprinkler out and let the kids play in it. They were so cute! Jenna even managed to get Aaron in his swimsuit too and run through the sprinkler.


I somehow got roped into playing on a slow pitch softball team for the Rose Festival, so we had practice on Sunday. I was so nervous because I had never played before, but I did just fine. Less than two weeks before our tournament!

Cherokee Weekend

Saturday morning we headed up to see my mom in Cherokee. When we got there her, Jenna, and I headed to Storm Lake so I could get my hair chopped off. I'm pretty sudden when it comes to my hair, but I like it so much better!

When we got back we went to the Cherokee Rodeo parade. It was a pretty long parade and in the middle, they stopped throwing candy, so Jenna didn't like that too much! It was good though because they had horses and tractors, two things Jenna loves.

I also had a bit of a "moment" at the parade (Mandy this reminds me of your movie theatre incident). These 12-13 year-olds were sitting about 10 feet away from us and when they'd throw candy over by us during the parade, they would come and grab most of it away from Jenna. I didn't say anything because she was still getting some. However, I looked over at them a little later and they were taking their candy and throwing it at people in the parade when they weren't looking. Sooooo, that really annoyed me that they were stealing candy from my 3 YEAR OLD to throw at people. So, I asked Aaron for a piece of candy and threw it at them when they were getting ready to throw some more. When it hit them they looked pretty stunned. I nicely told them that if they didn't want their candy they could quit stealing from my 3-year old! Needless to say, they behaved the rest of the parade.

Anyway, after some quality time with my mom on Saturday and Sunday, we headed back and stopped at Jess' in Fort Dodge and met my dad there and hung out for a little while and caught up with each other.

Here are some pictures from the parade:

Jenna and Grandma Jo

Getting ready for the parade to start.

Horses, horses, everywhere...

Brode Man looking WAY too big!