Morning at the zoo.

The girls and I went to Des Moines for a couple days to do some fun "end of summer" activities before Norah starts preschool. We got to visit some friends, have lots of grandma/grandpa time, see Keaton, Rose, and my sweet niece Jorie, and hit up the zoo and several parks!

Sometimes it's still surreal to me that I have three girls. I know I'm biased, but they are the cutest. One day it will be nice to not have to lug the stroller(s) everywhere, but I also know I will miss it. Stroller life is pretty great. (Plus having room to store all the jackets, cups, bags, etc. in the stroller is pretty awesome too!)

Grandma, Aunt Rose, and cousin Jorie came with to the zoo too! What fun!

Checking out the petting zoo. Lucy and Ellory loved looking at the animals! Well, Ellory was a bit more actually interested in the animals, Lucy just liked running around. :)

Playing at the park. My girls love parks, no matter what else is around or what other options there are- parks beat all to them. 

Trying to feed the animals. I could tell Norah was nervous, because she kept saying she would feed them later, but right before we left the area she said she would do it. She absolutely didn't want them to touch her hand, so she would find the open spots and set pieces of food on the wood. But she tried it!

Giraffe watching! 

Riding the carousel with Norah! She was so excited to ride it. (Excuse the bar in the middle of my face- oops!) Doing special things with your kids is such a treat!

Having a cousin is so fun! So glad Rose and Jorie could join!

And that Grandma could come too! It was the most gorgeous weather and we had a great time!

Alexandria vacation with the Schuts- part 3 finale.

We definitely enjoyed vacation! Norah ate ice cream before bed in her underwear, and people commented that that is the definition of vacation life! Love this picture of her catching her hat in the wind!

We went to the farmer's market one morning, and no one was impressed except me. Everyone said it was lame, but it was much bigger than our small town!

We had to take a picture by Big Ole- America's largest viking statue. It happened to be next to the farmer's market, so we didn't intentionally go visit it, but we had read about it in the Alexandria magazine of things to do here in the house we are staying at and laughed that it made the list of top activities because the statue was literally it. There was nothing else around it or anything else accompanying it. We were there for about one minute total, but now we can say we visited one of the top places to visit in Alexandria!

Walking around some of the local shops.

Fun at the water park! Norah and Lucy had a great time. Norah went down the slides a lot and Lucy was in the water the entire time we were there! Ellory was content just watching. Love getting family pictures!

Rose and sweet Jorie!

Lucy cracks me up. You could tell that she did not like the parts that sprayed water in her face, but she was so brave and never cried! Look at her face on the slide! She's so determined. 

It's so fun and crazy to watch and discover how different Lucy and Ellory are. Ellory is more cautious and was content just watching. She put her feet in a couple times and rode on Grandpa's lap around the lazy river once, but mostly just sat with Grandma.

Lucy went down the big slide a couple times!

Norah LOVED the slide! She even went down a more steep one that sprayed water in your face at the end by herself twice- she's getting so brave!

Aunt Karlie even convinced Ellory to try it once with her, but she didn't like it. She cried and promptly went back to Grandma's lap, but glad she at least tried!

Lazy river. They also had some adult slides that were really good! Keaton even said the best ever!

We enjoyed several boat rides! (Poor Ellory is not a fan of her life jacket. It looks like it was jabbing her right in the eyes in this picture, but I assure her ride really wasn't that bad!)

The brave souls who jumped in.

Making s'mores. Lucy is a smart girl and positioned herself directly at the snack table. No fire needed for her. She loved it and cried when we made her come in for a bath.

Ellory enjoyed having people hand her snacks and eating them on people's laps.

What a wonderful week we had!

Norah took one bite and said the marshmallow was too gooey and ate all her parts separately.

So thankful for family and time together!

Alexandria vacation with the Schuts- part 2.

While on vacation with the Schuts, we took some family pictures and they went pretty well! The key is to snap loads of pictures in 15 minutes and delete later. What a good looking family!

Norah is such a cutie!

Four granddaughters with some pretty wonderful grandparents!

Our best shot of the five of us. Not the greatest, but not the worst. Love my family!

Jorie's aunts!

The girls.

Attempting to get more of my girls.

Lucy was really not into it.

Trying to get one of the three of them together, but Lucy and Ellory didn't want to sit without me, so I just went in, but it turned out nice and I like it!

We also got some super great ones of the entire family, but my mom wanted to save that sweet surprise for their Christmas card, so I can't post them now. I know you will all be anxiously awaiting until Christmas time!