This morning after picking Kayla up from preschool, we were walking along the sidewalk back to the car and I heard the sweetest conversation between the 2 of them! They were walking behind me holding hands.
K: Carter I really just miss you alot when I'm at school
C: I miss too sissy
K: Oh Carter I love you so much...your my favorite brother
C: Love too sissy!
I love how much my kids love each other and get along! They are best friends!
Well Adam left on Saturday morning to head back to the Middle East for his last 4 months of the deployment. Between having to drive him to the airport (which is an hour and half away) at 4am and just the shear fact that we had been going going going for 2 weeks I AM EXHAUSTED!! Last night I collapsed in bed around 9:30 and slept until 8:30 this morning (Thank goodness for children who sleep in!)
To top it all off, my backup computer crashed (my main one died in Aug) and since this is the backup, I dont have all of the cd's I need to fix it...they are in storage in ND. Thankfully my in-laws have a very new very dependable computer for me to share with them for the next 4 months.
Today has been my catch-up day (emails, laundry cleaning etc etc etc) which means that the kids have gotten lots of cartoon time (I know not the greatest thing in the world, but with it raining all day its all I have to keep them quiet!) So anyways, I hope to start blogging again in the next day or so on some of our adventures...it got to be too much to blog all of the events of the R&R so if you are curious to see the photos let me know and I will email you a link to them!
Today, we had the opportunity to go to a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids for John McCain and Sarah Palin. The only glitch in the day was sitting in a traffic jam for over an hour trying to move a mile along with the 1000-1500 other people attempting to go to the rally! 
Here we are just after going thru security and walking up the hangar for the rally.
In the distance, that is Sen. McCain's airplane getting ready to land.....and yes Carter was in heaven with all of the airplanes around!
Time for the "Straight Talk Express" to pull in to town. We got right up near the barracade, but you had to hold the camera above your head to get photos taken , so some may be a bit crooked!
A view of just part of the crowd waiting for the Future President and Vice-President to get off of their plane.
Carter and Mommy posing for a photo...he is doing so good for being up since 5:30am!
This photo fo the 2 of them is a bit blurry because we had the camera on extreme zoom...I need a new camera so bad!! John McCain is to the left of Sarah Palin, and her husband Todd is to the right.
Not the greatest photo of her, but again, the camera was held above my head.
Another view of their airplane.
Gov. Palin as she gave her speech to the crowd.
The whole family waiting to shake hands with McCain after his speech.
Time for Sen McCain to give his speech...again the camera was on extreme zoom which is why it is so fuzzy.
Looks like we are in luck and will get to shake his hand!! Although Kayla commented that she wanted to shake Sarah's hand instead..
Getting a bit closer to us.....
That is Adam's hand at the bottom that he is shaking, and after that he shook Carter and I's hands.
Time to head to their vehicles to tour the flood damage from earlier this summer.
All in all, it was a great day and I am so glad we had the opportunity to attend! It was great to see the candidates and get to hear their whole speeches, not just the snippets that the news media give you. If you have never attended a campaign rally before, I highly suggest you try to!
We decided to venture down to Dubuque for an afternoon and take the kids to the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. It was a blast!!! We spent nearly 4 hours there looking at everything!
Right as you walk in the door, they have a huge tank with fish and turtles from the river swimming around.
Time to look at the turtles from the top of the tank.
They had an area where you could reach in a tank and touch some sturgeon as they swam around. Carter thought it was the greatest thing!
Kayla however, was not so hip on the idea, and refused to put her hand in the water.
To represent the Louisiana areas of the Mississippi they even had alligators. There was a baby albine aligator and a normal baby gator in this tank. Kayla was rather fascinated with the albino gator.
Time to learn about erosion and water movement. I love how they had so many interactive exhibits for kids to learn about the river from.
Touring an old boathouse on display outside of the museum.
I swear I can never get all 3 of them to pose together!
Time for Carter to check out a train moving by very slowly.
Hey I think this is what Aunt Kally's daddy said drives the boat...but I think he was wrong too..
But hey, Carter figures that if that is what Marvin says, then he will give it a try!
A view of the Mississippi from the dredger that they had on display outside of the museum.
Pull...pull...pull!!!!
They had a whole area about steamboats, and the kids even got to practice driving a steamboat.
Daddy decided that he needed to get in on the action as well...sometimes I think that I have 3 kids instead of 2!!
Ok guys...I am going to go explore this cave!
Time to pose with the big paddlewheel out in front of the museum!
On tuesday, after we dropped Kayla off at preschool, we decided to go get breakfast with Carter and have a picnic at a neat overlook on the river.
This kid loves his orange juice!!
Time to go on an adventure after eating!
Heading down to the lookout platform.
Time to teach Daddy all about the river and bridges.
See Daddy...that river! Fish live in river!
Time to pose for a photo on the rock.
Daddy evn figured out the timer on the cameral for a photo of all 3 of us.
We decided to spend a day in Iowa City shopping. At the mall there, they have a really nice playzone for the kids. They loved being able to run around!
The giant pieces you see are all made out of a really durable, strong foam type of material. This way even Carter can't get hurt!
Hmmm...how do I climb up here to slide???
Time for Kayla to use the piano keys as a slide
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SCORE! I figured it out! Now if my sister would just move out of the way, I could slide down...
Before you even ask...no we didn't take a trip to Colorado! Iowa happens to have a state park called Pikes Peak State Park which overlooks the Mississippi. Coincidentally, Adam and I were supposed to have our wedding there, but it got rained out way back when..
Just hanging out on a bench on the peak..
A picture of the river looking down from the peak
More photos
Hanging out with Daddy looking at the river...don't you love Kayla's face!
Just spending time with Papa talking about the river.
Here comes Daddy and Kayla after venturing into the woods
This is a little chipmunk that the kids were feeding acorns too...he thought he was in heaven with all of the nuts raining down on him!
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