Children's Museum & Ice Cream

The girls with a little friend they made this summer. So there's a story behind their outfits. I saw the t-shirt on Zulily and thought the "Turn out for what" was rather clever combined with the ballet slippers. They weren't really expensive so I bought them not realizing that peachy blush color would be so hard to match. I tried a pair of leggings from Target but they were too pink. I searched high and low and finally found these at Dick's Sporting Goods. I also noticed there was a matching sports bra and on a whim decided to get one for each of the girls. 

Throughout the week as we made our way to swimming lessons at the University of Iowa, students who were there to workout would pass us in the hallway and apparently Sydney took notice of their outfits. When we entered the building she shed her t-shirt and said, "I'm just going to wear this." Not picking up on what she was getting at, I said, "Fine" since she was going to be in a swimsuit soon anyway. Then she followed up with, "Like, this is an outfit." Ahhh, she wanted to look just like the many college students wearing their sports bras and leggings for a workout- haha! The penny dropped.

Liesel was sweet to play with the younger kids at the Children's Museum but again, she's just ageing out of that kind of thing. Pride month is a big deal in Iowa City and she was excited to get a picture by the rainbow stairs and show her support for the LGTBQ+ community, which is really important to her.

After the Children's Museum and after swimming, we made our way to Dane's Dairy for some ice cream (they'd pre-burned the calories, right?). You can tell their hair is still wet.

Sydney made an absolute mess.

Clearly it did not bother her and this is exactly why I have no infants or toddlers but will always have baby wipes handy.

 From there we headed out to Stringtown Grocery in Kalona for a little shopping. It's an Amish grocery store and among our favorites are their egg noodles, flavored baking chips (not just chocolate- cinnamon, caramel, cherry and mint!), and jam. Our favorite is wittingly called "traffic jam" and it's delicious. They only take cash or check and I thought I had enough when I passed the honeycomb on the way out. Ooooh how I love honeycomb!!! I asked the girls to search the car so I'd have enough to get some honeycomb and luckily we had just enough. YUM!

Tiger's Blood

We met up with family for shaved ice. It's really not a big deal. Just a stand in the parking lot of the HyVee, but to the girls it was a big deal. Anytime they can see Tim and Whitney is a big deal. Anytime they can get a sugary treat, it's a big deal. The panoply of flavors makes it all the more exciting- Tim's favorite is Tiger's Blood. 

Sydney was pretty proud of herself for getting that spoon to balance on her nose.

Later that evening we went to dinner at Big Grove Brewery which is one of the trendy places that has cropped up in Iowa City in recent years. It was insanely busy and a bit cool out and honestly I was just exhausted so I wasn't very chatty with family. The girls enjoyed the playground along with some corn hole- which I discovered I am horrible at playing. There was a little boy throwing gravel but when he wasn't around Liesel wanted so photos. 

 I have friends who's kids hate pictures- they complain every time they have to get them taken and when they do, the pictures don't turn out well because they are so miserable. I'm so grateful the girls have fun with photos and I can record these moments.

Coralville Dam Fossil Gorge

Pre-pandemic we were fairly opposed to physical activity like hiking or camping on the sabbath. During lockdown I found that if we couldn't be in church, the great outdoors was the next best place. We made sure to join our sacrament meeting zoom. At the end of the meeting a member of the bishopric flips the camera around to the congregation and the girls were so excited to spot Brent. It took a bit of coordination though as evidenced by the text messages:

Make no mistake, we have a lot of fun without him, but we still miss him. 

Anyway, connecting with nature has become more and more important so after our sacrament meeting zoom, we headed to the Coralville Dam Fossil Gorge. There's a pretty sweet fountain near the entrance the girls can't help but play in:

I love it when Gita laughs so hard her little button nose wrinkles up!

While the girls scrambled over boulders and looked for fossils I was on the phone catching up with Brent. However, I put him on hold so I could get some power girl photos of Gita on this rock:

Our time in Iowa City is over half way over and I'm looking forward to another week. We are steadily checking things off our list and I'm surprised and delighted at how many new little adventures we've been able to have- I truly thought we'd been there, done that. However, now and again it's nice to go back to an old favorite like this place.

Nauvoo and the Final Frontier

This year's trip to Nauvoo began as it always does- with a trip to the Fudge Factory. I grabbed a couple packages of chocolate covered cinnamon bears while the girls picked out a pretzel stick covered in yogurt and sprinkles.

We also bought some fudge to nosh on throughout the day.

Normally I would have just gone straight to some of our favorite sites but I decided to stop by the visitor's center first. Good thing I did because the sites weren't open to walk-in visitors. Due to Covid-19 they had a handful of sites packaged in a tour that we needed to sign up for. The missionaries asked if I had signed up online and I just stared blankly at them. I've been visiting Nauvoo for years- decades even! I knew nothing about all of this. While the girls did a scavenger hunt around the visitor's center, I picked a package and signed up. The scavenger hunt was a really cute way to get them more involved in the displays and when they found everything, they got a little Nauvoo brick as an award.

I don't remember this wagon being there but then again I don't seem to be remembering a lot these days! The girls were excited to take a picture by it.

Ireland wanted an individual photo:

Gita balanced her way up that beam and then hopped off at the last second. It's funny how something so simple can be so fun for kids, eh? That would end up being a theme for the day.

We were able to attend a performance about the founding of the Relief Society.

After that, we had some time to kill so we walked to the red brick store. It's hard to see but above the semi-circular window at the top it says Priesthood. Our stop here happened to coincide with a wagon ride of visitors and as the tour guide described the store I did my best Vanna White impersonation which made them laugh.

We continued on to the mansion house, homestead and burial place of Joseph Smith Jr, Hyrum Smith and Emma Smith. I'd seen a car with Massachusetts license plates and asked the people we ran into if they were from there- turns out just the rental car was- haha! But they were really nice so we chatted a bit. We also ran into what was clearly a polygamist family. One dad, a wife in an Amish type dress and lots of girls around the same age in dresses with thick tights. I knew it was going to be near 100* and humid so my girls were wearing very cool, light outfits- honestly some members of my own faith might judge me for it. However, these girls clearly clocked the bare shoulders and legs. We tried to be friendly but they didn't smile or really even look at us. Nauvoo is certainly part of their history too, it's just the first time I've ever seen polygamists visit! Now I wonder why I haven't seen more. They also checked out the graves.

We caught another performance- this one was about the various missions the men served. Like a lot of people, we aren't fully back at church yet. Either Brent or I take Liesel while the other stays home with the little girls. For some reason our ward isn't very vociferous when it comes to the hymns. When these young men harmonized so beautifully, I felt my soul fill up with the Spirit and for just a moment I remembered what it felt like to truly worship. 

I really enjoyed our site tours. We visited the homes of a farmer, a builder of the Nauvoo temple and a relatively wealthy family. The sisters who conducted the tours were great and I had to smile when one of them began the tour by saying they wouldn't have every answer to every question. Whitney was a site missionary in Palmyra and she's told many stories about the questions visitors would ask- kind of missing the point of the tour altogether. One of the questions she was often asked revolved around a bowl of beans. Visitors would play with the beans and then ask what they were for when clearly they were just a prop. I sent Whitney this picture- no beans on our tour! Whaaat??? She laughed.

We couldn't leave Nauvoo without stopping by the temple!

I wish we could come here more often. It's so peaceful!

Some individual pics:

Gita lucked out and the sun was behind a cloud for her picture.

Unfortunately, Sydney and Ireland had to struggle with it in their eyes for their pictures.

I think they turned out ok though!

On our way back to my parent's house, we made a little detour to Riverside, Iowa. It is touted as the "future birthplace of Captain Kirk" from Star Trek. Even though they aren't into Star Trek (truth be told, neither am I), I thought why not check it out? Oh man, we ended up having so much fun in this tiny little town!

The plaque is in kind of an alleyway and across the street on the side of the post office are these posters:

Clever...

I told them I wanted to take a picture with the "Beam me up Scotty" sign and Ireland looked at me quizzically. She thought I said, "Beat me up Scotty" and that was somehow a part of the Star Trek plot. 

Something about that struck us all as funny and it became a running joke.

In an inconspicuous parking lot there is a replica of the starship Enterprise and across from that is a playground. We snapped some pics before heading over to play a bit.

I'm super proud of Sydney for getting that Vulcan salutation down- it's really hard for tiny hands! One of her fingers always wanted to wander and she was so excited when she finally had the placement right.

Even though Liesel and Ireland have really kind of grown out of parks, this one was pretty cool. They had a statue of Captain Kirk (more photos!)

Liesel cleverly gave him Vulcan bunny ears- haha!

The weather had cooled just a bit and the girls were happy to play. How cute is this little spaceship?

I probably would have twisted my ankle on this thing but the girls really loved it.

It was such a random stop and it ended up being one of the most memorable parts of the trip.

Model A Tour

Unfortunately, I don't have much background for this post as I was not there. My parents kindly volunteered to take Brigitta and Sydney for a little trip in the Model A. Even though Liesel is old enough to babysit them, they thought it might be fun to get out a bit. Liesel got to hang out with Whitney and Tim while I took Ireland to her checkup. Have I mentioned how much I love that these girls get to make memories with their grandparents? I adore this photo!

While you can see a Model A in the background of this photo, my parents Model A is the one next to it. You can see a bit of the open door. 

There's a tiny bit more in this photo but what you really can see is Brigitta's beat red face. It's fun to ride in the rumble seat on the back of the car, but aside from the wind there's no air conditioning. I put them in their coolest top and lathered them up with sunscreen for the day.

Apparently there was some kind of a bird demonstration but Sydney and Gita couldn't remember the details very well.

They remembered the sandwiches Grandma packed for them though! 

I'm so grateful to my parents for doing this with them- after a night of no sleep I just needed to focus on Ireland and getting her better. Brigitta and Sydney had so much fun with the antique cars.

In case you are wondering, Gita's wingspan isn't quite as wide as a broad-winged hawk- haha!