Wednesday July 16th. Niabi Zoo, Moline, IL

We had a great opportunity to get together with Jen and Evan while they were up in Illinios, so we took them up on it. Jen and I planned out where to meet and our first place didn't seem like it was going to work. Then we happened upon the Niabi Zoo. With admission of just $5 per adult, we both decided that it was affordable and we would meet there. Little did we know it would be the hottest day of the year so far, but that did not stop us! Our boys were such troopers, too.

Noah stops for a cool drink.

We are all so glad that we went to that zoo! They had beautiful facilities for all of the animals. Some of our favorites were...

First, the baby elephant (well obviously not a live one, but a statue). Our boys posed for a picture for us. Notice matching shoes on our boys! There were two live, older, female elephants at the zoo that were donated by Ringling Bros.

Then we saw some really strange looking monkeys! One of the real White-Handed Gibbons came and sat right next to the glass while the boys were watching them.


We then looked at the fish, turtles, ducks, geese and swans. The gold fish were huge! Deana, Jen's mom said they looked like carp. When we came back later, one of the swans decided to "kiss" Noah's foot. He was not too excited about the idea. I think he finally decided it was ok though when I told him it was a kiss.

The Black Leopard. It (because I do not know the sex of the leopard) was very intrigued by Evan and Noah. They were playing by the fence, more interested in leaves and grass than the large cat and it came right over to the fence to greet our boys. Then we decided to walk around to the other side of the fence and it followed us over there too. We went over to the Reptiles building and when we came out, the Leopard still followed our kids every step. We were just glad that there were two fences and a fence over top between our beautiful boys and this curious cat!

With our boys both being born in Gainsville, I thought it was only natural that they both loved the gators.

The Giraffes. They were definately the favorite of the day! We happened upon one of the employees who was giving his family a tour and got to feed the giraffes with his family! It is a program that they are trying to start at the zoo. We were all so enthused! Did you know that giraffes have a black tongue so that it does not get sunburned? A little piece of trivia I learned being at the Niabi Zoo.

We stopped for one more photo op with the boys. They both did a good job of posing for us. Noah is sporting his new giraffe glasses. His other sunglasses are MIA and were getting too small. I thought it was funny that he posed almost exactly like his last sunglasses photos. Check out the previous post to compare. You have to scroll to the bottom of the post.

The last event of the day was a hippo ride that Jen I decided to take, but the hippo charged our photographer, so the hippo got cut off in the pictures!

Hope you enjoyed our day at the zoo as much as we did! Anybody up for a trip to the zoo?

Playing with our neighbor's grandkids

When Noah sees the red van pull in, he knows what is in store. Two little blonde girls and a little boy his size. Noah get so excited and runs over to play with them. Allison 4, Autumn 3, and Tucker 18mos are Noah's best friends. The little girls just love on him and he plays well with Tucker. The other night, Cindy gave the kids chocolate ice cream cones and I couldn't resist a picture of Tucker with his. Allison and Noah sat down on a little bench together and it was a perfect picture op. Then once Allison had her picture with Noah, Autumn wanted hers too. It is such a blessing to have those kids come over right next door and adopt Noah just like he was their own. Allison asked the first time we met, "Do you have any girl babies?" The innocents of babes, gotta love it!

Before the kids came to Cindy's house, Daddy and Noah chillin' in the front yard.

Tucker enjoys his ice cream!

Allison and Noah

Autumn and Noah

Allison and Noah sitttin on the bench

Autumn and Noah take a picture too.

Pampered Chef Convention in Chicago

I was fortunate enough to get to go to the Pampered Chef convention July 10-12 The girls I went with were a lot of fun. Dawn and I shared a bed at convention and man is she a riot! It was really great to get to know them all personally. I have a goal to promote to director by Sept. 1st. I just need 2 more people on my team and right now we have a half off rebate for the start up kit. If you are interested, or know of someone who might be interested, just leave me a message and I will get back to you!

Our ride to Chicago!

My Tuxedo Cheesecake at the Cheesecake factory.

A cool building in downtown Chicago

Doris Christopher, the founder of Pampered Chef at the opening session of convention

Shelley and Deanne

Becky and Robin

Denise Tiedore's cluster

Dawn and I, isn't it cute that we match? Can you believe that my other foot is actually on the ground?

Lazar our waiter. He was such a good sport and took really good care of our table! I figured someone should take their picture with him?!? He even called Carol "your majesty" because she told him she was the queen. HA!

While I was gone, Matt and Noah spoted a rainbow. And Noah promptly learned how to say "Rainbow!" Here is the picture of the rainbow that taught Noah what a rainbow was...

The 4th of July

Well I have been really behind, so I am going to do some power posting today to see if I can get caught up. On the 4th, we went to the Shell Rock Parade with the Bolin grandparents. Noah enjoyed the parade and we got more candy than we will eat in a year. Sam, Nick and Deb also came and sat next to us. We didn't take any pictures at the parade this year, but we did get the annual 4th picture of Noah. to see how much he has grown, check last year's post out. We went to the fireworks that night with our friend Jenna and Pam and Dave. During the fireworks, Noah held his ears pretty much the entire show. They had lots of the small really loud ones which was kind of disappointing. Hopefully next year Noah will enjoy the fireworks more.

Garden, shower, and etc.

I took a few shots of our garden about a week ago and wanted to share them with you all.


From the left, three rows of lettuce, two rows of collards and two cucumber plants by the gate at the ends of the rows, then a row a baby asparagus, followed by collards and lettuce which are the original rows where we thinned from. Then onions, and the next row is partially sweet potatoes and partially broccoli. The following row is beefmaster tomatoes, bell peppers, and jalepenos. The last row is tomatoes also.


This past weekend we had a shower for Nicole, James' future wife. It was enjoyed by all in Pampered Chef style. Pam and Nicole made a cheese ball together...there were only a few mishaps;) I am so excited for Nicole and James and all of their new kitchen stuff.



Tuesday we went to Waverly and visited Dan Wardell, the PBS spokesperson in Iowa. It was a really cute presentation, but I think Noah was a little distracted by everything else around. He looks a little lsess than thrilled to be sitting in Dan's lap. Oh well.



One afternoon, Noah was lounging out in the grass with Sandy. It was so cute, but of course as soon as the camera came out he sat up. This is what was left of the moment.

Going to the fair...

So for the past week, the Butler County Fair has been going on. Wednesday we went to watch Emily and Kelsey show their heifers and even witnessed Dave showing one. Noah had a dry diaper all day at the fair! Gramma Mavis and Grampa Neil treated us to ice cream at the dairy promoters booth. The following evening we were supposed to meet some friends at the fair, but they ended up having to deal with some stuff from the flood because their house was also flooded (different than the friends whose dog we are watching). So we went as a family and had a good time walking around looking at pigs, cows and rabbits at the fair. Noah did not think too much of the pigs even though mommy showed him it was ok to pet them. We got ice cream again and Noah just was a little ham eating it!

On Sunday it was back to the fair. Dave Jensen (Matt's 2nd cousin) and I were judges for the county fair cook-off contest and got to sample some really good grilling! We again got ice cream (only $1 for a double scoop!). This time Gramma Mary and Grampa Jensen treated us. It was fun to have ice cream three times in one week! This is a short video clip of Noah eating ice cream from a cone. It isn't quite as funny as seeing him do it in person, but you get the gist. He also refused to eat chocolate ice cream when there was strawberry and butter pecan to be had.

OO-OO-OO

For those of you who know the song, "Fishing in the dark" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt band, Matt and my rendition seems to be- "OO-OO-OO, you and me goin' gard-ning in the dark. Diggin' lil holes and thinin our plants, where the weeds always grow. Down by the cow lot in the pale moon light, we'll be squintin' really hard cause we need a little light, where the weeds seem to grow..."

Yes, that is right. This is actually the second time we have been working in our garden after the sun has gone down. Why you ask? It is a time when the pitter patter of little feet will not be seen trampling all of the plants we have worked so hard to get established. We go out after Noah's bath and bedtime and work way past dark. Last night we were out until 10pm thining and transplanting our lettuce. I think we probably have about 70 heads of Romaine and 50 bunches of Collards started; lookout farmer's market, here we come!

The other night escapades were when we planted our strawberry plugs. Needless to say, they were moldy when we took them out of the package and did not survive being planted in the ground. So no strawberries for the Bolin's this year- not home grown at least. We now have lettuce and collard green thinings transplanted to the area "where the red strawberries don't grow."

Driving

Just thought I would get a video of Noah out on a joy ride. When the camera comes out his normal routine is disrupted and he is not as much of a ham as he is in person. But I still wanted to share the videos with everyone cause they are funny!

Sunsets...

I cannot believe humans can look at magnificent sunsets like we have been having and believe that the universe and everything in it happened by chance. Just about every night we have been having gorgeous sunsets. I know I posted one a few days ago, but I just can't help myself from posting a few more that I have capture recently. The glory of God is truly calling out to us every new day that dawns. I just hope I can do half the job creation does to testify to the glory of God.

This is uncanny I know

but I have one more thing to share... We have been doing so well with potty training lately that I am getting tempted to try training pants! Then yesterday, I decided I should tell Noah that he could go outside and he is really enthralled! He keeps wanting to go more even when there is no more to go. SO I break down and put a diaper back on him cause I do not want him to strain too much and hurt something trying to use his new found method. But when we switch to training pants I will surely have to document that and take a picture of Noah in his big boy underwear.

Since I am on a roll...

Well two posts in one day...Wow I know this could be overwhelming for some of you who know me well;) but anyway, I wanted to share with you one of the best things about living where I do. I push Noah out the door early in the morning and I let him play in the yard until it is time for lunch. I check on him regularly of course because he is 2 and I love him and would never want to hurt him or loose him, but this yard is such a blessing and the location is great too. If we lived anywhere busier, I would have to be out there with him and constantly watching so that no one would steal him (or I guess the correct term would be kidnap). Then after lunch he goes down for a nap and when he gets back up I push him back out the door. Now that is alot of pushing in one day I know, but I actually don't even have to coax him. He is usually running over to the door before his feet hit the ground from his highchair:)

Daily Blogging?

Well my friend Julie is so diligent in blogging and besides being home with her little guy, also has many chores on the farm to do. You can check out her blog ten Hoeve's It is amazing to me for anyone to be able to get this done everyday especially when there is always so much going on.

On Saturday, we will become foster parents for awhile for our friends Allie and Andrew's little dog Zara. These are our friends who are newly married and their entire house is being gutted right now because of the floods. Sandy and Zara have already met a few times before when the Potratz's brought Zara over to play and they love each other. It will be nice for Sandy to have a play mate for awhile and for Zara too I am sure. So our family is growing again for a while, but only with a little fur ball!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Matt, I just wanted you to know that you are the best daddy any little boy could have and I cannot wait to watch Noah grow up to be like you. Love you lots

Ashley and Noah

Singing in the rain...

Well, as everyone knows since it has been in the national news, Iowa is full of water right now. We live between two rivers, 5 miles from the Shell Rock, 12 miles from the Cedar. We have friends who now have to gut their house, our church also has to be gutted, and Pam and Dave have to gut their basement. We have also had water in our basement, but it doesn't have any "guts" so no problems there. This disaster is very stressful for everyone in the situation, so I would ask that everyone that isn't in the midst of the stress, pray for peace...and I guess anyone who is here can do the same.



In this picture, the building I marked with one dot is our church. Across the street (which is under water) from the church with two dots is Fareway where we do most of our grocery shopping. Across the river with three dots is the Post Office and the building with four dots is the movie theater. This picture was taken on Tuesday about 8 hrs before the river crested that evening. This is the Cedar River and we are about 12 miles from the bridge in the middle of the picture. The ripple in the water is the dam. If you can't see the dots I am talking about, double click on the picture to enlarge it.


This is especially stressful for the farmers here, who have acres of corn and beans underwater and hay fields uncut, and no hay for their cattle, which is their lively hood. So just remember that when you are complaining about rising food costs, the people who are supplying your food have flooded houses and fields and wish food were cheaper too. For a little more on rising food costs, check out this website. It may be enlightening...you may already know the info, but just for good measure check it out.


On a lighter note, Noah found out what mud puddles are a few days ago and we caught it on video. Hope it makes you smile and remember to sing in the rain.



I also have a video of Noah really going on about a bird that flew into the window. It was rather entertaining when it happened.


Just a few pictures of a beautiful sunset we had this past Sunday. The farm and house you see in the picture is where we live.