More Flood Photos

If you want to see more photos of the flooding go to www.thehawkeye.com and they have slideshows listed at the top to look at. If you are looking at ones of Burlington or the aerial shots of Burlington, to give you an idea of how bad it is...if you see photos of the bridge here in town, you will see buildings lining the Iowa side, and then on the other side of the bridge, just beyond the first tree line should be the town of Gulfport, but it now looks like just more of the river for a few miles!

Flooding in Burlington

Here are photos of the flooding in Burlington taken today, which is the day the river crested here in town. Thankfully, unlike Cedar Rapids, Burlington doesn't have a ton right on the river front.

This photo was taken of flooding that was a good 5-6 blocks up from the river front

Here are the kids...in the far background you can see the grain elevator on the river front that is now in the middle of the river!

Here is a closer look at the elevator

More flooding..the river's edge should be about 3 blocks back from where it is

Parts of a man made levee..

I will post more photos of other areas as I get them

Highlights from San Antonio

Time for photos from the trip to Texas..these are just a sampling of the 250 that i took!

Carter was a little unsure of his first experience on the beach..

Time for Kayla to check out the ocean for the first time with Grandma

Now Carter is getting the hang of all of this

Time for Mommy to make an appearance..it was really windy this day

The kids decided to just go for it and get all wet as the tide was coming in

Then they decided heck with the standing and just sat right down

The kids and I on the USS Lexington for Patricks graduation from Pilot training

Checking out the old bunks on the Lexington

In true Kayla Lange fashion, she managed to cut her head open on the Lexington when her folding chair at lunch collapsed on her throwing her backwards..thankfully no stitches were needed!

Guess what...Daddy came for a visit!! Here he is at the airport after 24 hours of traveling!

No daddy..I promise you I can jump in by myself!

We headed down to the Riverwalk one day after Adam got out of class early

Carter and Mommy on a cruise down the river..he fell asleep not to long after this photo

Checking out a waterfall along the riverwalk

I love my brother!!

Here we are at Sea World...ok Daddy and Carter the map can help us when we don't know which way to go!

Carter looks so grown up! He was not a big fan of the heat and humidity that day!

It's Shamu! Kayla loved it when Shamu got her all wet!

Time to build a pillow fort with daddy the night before he left

The kids hanging with their new friend Hannah

Another Vacation Update

I promise that I have not forgotten about all of you! We are still in San Antonio...the kids and I had decided a long time ago that after Adam left we wanted to stay a few days with a very good friend of mine whose husband is also gone. Since I couldn't buy plane tickets until 2 weeks before we flew we were really limited on flights and are actually staying with my friend for a little over a week because that was the earliest they could get us a flight home.

Adam left on Sunday to head back and while we were all very sad, we will hopefully see him in Sept for 2 weeks for his R&R break (where we get him all day and he doesn't have to go to class etc!). The kids are having a blast here making new friends and getting to see all sorts of things. Last week before Adam left we spent a day down at the Riverwalk which was alot of fun, and it is beautiful! We took the little boat ride with the kids and they loved it. Then on Saturday we took the kids to Sea World for the day. I truly think Kayla was in heaven! We sat down in front for the Shamu show and he got her wet with his tail splashing and she loved it! Sea World is definitely a place we will frequent when we move down here!

Since Adam left, we have spent some much needed down time relaxing around the house and also doing shopping at an amazing Outlet mall north of San Antonio. In the next few days we are going to take it easy and let the kids just play. I have eaten at lots of good restraunts since we have been here (I know all of you in Minot are jealous!)

Otherwise nothing terribly new. I promise that next week when we get home I post a bunch of photos from our trip for everyone.

Take care and if you are in Iowa..stay dry!!!

Family Vacation Update

I apologize for no pictures, but I am using the hotel's computers. Well we made it to Texas last week. Friday we drove down to Corpus Christi and surprised my brother-in-law for his graduation from pilot training. We spent Friday afternoon at the beach. My kids love the beach and the gulf!! They both just plopped right down in their clothes and let the waves hit them!Afterwards, Kayla stripped down to her underwear to run around the sand and dry off.

Saturday we got up early to head to the USS Lexington for Patrick's graduation. He is in the AF but trained with the Navy, thus the aircraft carrier for the graduation. Afterwards, we spent the whole day touring the ship. For those of you that don't know, the Lexington is decommisioned and docked in Corpus for tours. The kids really enjoyed exploring it. We did have a small mishap at lunch when Kayla's chair decided to "eat" her and throw her backwards. She cut the back of her head open a bit, but not enough for stitches. THANKFULLY!!

Sunday we headed back to San Antonio to see Adam. He landed around 5:30pm after about 24 hrs of traveling! The kids were so excited to see him, but when he came down the escalator, Kayla ran to hide from him!! They warmed up very quickly though, and are loving having Adam back. He had a small surprise for us as well. He was supposed to fly back on Saturday, but his flights got changed at the last minute and he is now flying back on Sunday! In addition, his class is only going to be Mon-Thur as Friday is reserved for testing, but they don't have to test this week, they have up to a year to take the test! So that means we will have 2 whole days as a family to spend together!

The plan right now is to take the kids to Sea World on Friday and then head to the Alamo and Riverwalk on Saturday. Once he leaves Sunday, we will be staying with my friend Kim here in SA for another week.

So right now, the kids and I are just hanging out at the hotel while Adam is in class. We had some excitement outside of our hotel last night. If you would like the details, go here http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/crime/stories/MYSA060308.2B.BHshooting.566b286a.html
It was a nice introduction to life in San Antonio for us!

I would take the kids swimming today, but it seems that Carter has developed a wonderful case of ringworm on his knees! I am pretty sure he got it on the beach in Corpus. Thankfully with medicine, it is going away quickly!

So needless to say, it has been a rather exciting trip so far! I hope everyone is doing good, and I will try to get photos up soon!