On the road

Tomorrow am (Wednesday) the kids and I are headed to Pender for a few days. I will come back Thursday night due to having to work on Friday. Kate and Ben are very excited to stay until Sunday without me! Looking forward to some fun memory making moments in Pender with Papa and Nanny Suhr.

More Cairney cousins

Ben, the perfect ending to a great weekend - cuddle time with
his best puppy buddies - Peter, Spike and J.B. Sleep tight
buddy - mommy loves you!




More cousins, from left: James Cairney, Josh Cairney, Amanda Cairney,
Kyle Cross (s.o. of Maddie) & Maddie Cairney, playing some cards and beer of course!




Luke and Jeremy Cairney having too much fun with T.J.'s marshmallow
gun.

Cairney Golf Outing

Ben loves his stepping stone that he created with Grandma Cairney


Uncle Greg, Aunt Lynne and Grandma C. - finally relaxing and putting her feet up at the party

All of the cousins at the pool

Mr. Ben - enjoying the water

Kate loves trying to tackle these lilly pads

We had a fantastic weekend in Indianola with all of the Cairney's. Every year, Dick's siblings and as many of their kids try and get together. They golf, drink a few beers, tell stories, enjoy some wonderful laughs, food, and mostly love getting to reconnect with one another because a year goes by so quickly! It was wonderful to see so many people. Celie and Dick were amazing hosts and we all had a great time trying to keep up with them and make all of the guests feel at home. Thanks to the Jensen family for hosting the get together on Friday night - that was alot of fun! While some were golfing, others of us took the kids to the pool for a gorgeous afternoon out doors. The kids all have so much fun with their 2nd cousins.

Also, on Wednesday while Ben was at Grandma's, they were able to complete his stone and he was very excited to show this off to everyone - it turned out great.

We are all already looking forward to Uncle John and Aunt Pam hosting in Earling (Shelby County) next summer!

It was wonderful seeing all of you - take care!

Ragbrai 2009

Taking a break in the many cornfields that you ride by. I had to watch my step, because others use the corn fields for other things.

Our last big climb riding into Chariton

Ragbrai is known for the fabulous food that you get to eat along the way. We stopped in Milo and had an awesome pancake breakfast and then finished off our meal with delicious apple, rhubarb and raisin pie - YUMO!!!

We rode as "Jack's Team" today and you were our inspiration Jack. These shirts got so many compliments and comments. As I was climbing up the hills, thinking that my legs were really aching, or that I could not push one more pedal, I thought of you Jack. Everything that you have to go through each and everyday with being diabetic (finger pricks, shots,rotating pump sites, watching your diet, Dr. appointments, etc), this one day of "aches" for me was nothing. You are such an inspiration for us Jack - we love you!

Taking a little break in Milo

Today, was yet another one of those days in my life that I will cherish always. This Spring when the Des Moines Register released the route of the ride, Doug said immediately, "We should really do a day or two this year, I think that you would like it." LIKE IT??? LIKE IT?? I absolutely LOVED IT!!! I of course thought that I would be more prepared as far as my training went. But I did just fine. I could not believe we were done with our 45+ miles by noon. Tuesday night, we drove our van down to Chariton to drop it off. On our way back we drove the route and did notice that there were some killer hills. This did worry me a bit, but I was just trying to focus on how much fun it would be going down the other side. Then the Yankees had a game last night, so we had to get back to West DesMoines for Ben's game. Another very entertaining one for all of us. On his first at bat, he swung so hard that he spun around and landed right on his tushy! - Too cute! He just rubbed his bumper and got right back up and got the next one. He made a few good plays at 1st and 3rd and had alot of fun.

After the game, we headed back down to Indianola to stay with Dick and Celie. Just as Doug predicted, when I have something fun going on the next day, I can hardly sleep. I was up around 5:30, we ate some Cheerios, and then were on our bikes a little after 6. Riding around Indianola on our way to the official route was very cool. There is nothing like seeing 1000's of tents and people all getting fired up for another day of riding. The weather was very cool, damp and foggy when we started out, but turned out to be a gorgeous sunny afternoon with temp's in the 80's. I had such a great time. I loved that Doug and I were able to spend the day together, laughing, chatting, pedaling hard, eating, drinking and meeting people from all across the world. I may be addicted to this biking thing now - watch out! And for any of you who would like to come along next time, we would love to have you join us.

Thanks again to Grandpa and Grandma Cairney for entertaining the kiddo's for us. We really appreciated it!

Summertime, Summertime, Summertime, Summertime

What says summertime but YUMMY sweet corn! We all love it and enjoyed our first batch last Sunday night. This year, Mr. Ben is finally enjoying biting it off of the cob. We were very busy last week with vacation bible school. Our theme this year was "Basic Training" Jesus style and it was so much fun!!! I helped out in Ben's class on Tues- Wed - Thursday. There is nothing that fills your heart up more than seeing 1500 kids all on fire for the love of Christ - singing, dancing, playing and praising him! What an amazing week......

Zimmerman Reunion

Yankee, taking a break from playing


Ashlyn, Kate & Alex


Front left: Marie, Terese, Marge & Celie.
Back left: Joe, Don, Jerry & Mike.

Ben is really into taking pictures lately, so he took this one of Doug and I.
I thought that he did a pretty good job.

Last weekend we spent the day in Minden, Iowa with Celie's family, "The Zimmerman's". Celie (my mother-in-law) is the youngest of 14 kids and there are 8 still living. What an amazing family! Doug has over 50 first cousins so it is always fun to try and touch base with everyone at least once a year. Kate and Ben also enjoy getting to meet some new second cousins every year. This year we met (Ashlyn, Alex, and Ava Kowalczyk). They were down from Sioux Falls. When we got home that night, Doug and I headed out to church for the David Crowder Band concert - which was fabulous by the way! The kids had a fun evening here at home with their good buddy J.J. Micka.

The Paulson's visit

We tried to get a group photo of everyone - thanks to Mr. Ben, our photograper!


the other half of the couch ( and the group)

Our good friends The Califf's (Nancy and Randy)

Stephanie and I love to chat about our blogs, and now are are actually on each others!

Here we are with the kids (The Paulson's - Lindsey, Daniel, and Hilary) and Kate & Ben


All of the small group kiddo's, starting from the top left:

Kate, Elli Churchill, Maddie Churchill, Lindsey Paulson, Trevor Churchill.

Bottom row, left: Hilary Paulson, Danny Paulson, Ben, Wil Cooper and Payton Cooper.

What adorable gifts that God has given all of us. The Califf's have 2 handsome boys, Max and Gabriel, not in the photo.

We have been waiting for this day for so long and it finally arrived. Our very dear friends, the Paulson's, were in town today for a visit while back in Iowa visiting family. For those of you who don't know them, we have been blessed to have them in our lives for the past 8 years. They moved to Gainsville, Floriday last May and we have missed them so much! Doug and I met Scott and Stephanie during our Alpha class at church and we all became wonderful friends. Our small group relationships grew very strong over the years with the Cooper's, the Churchill's, the Califf's and the Paulson's. We have prayed together, cried together, celebrated together, studied the word, watched our families grow, greived the loss of parents & loved ones. We have prayed for employments, adoptions, healthy births, new personal businesses and mostly, have all became closer to Christ in our relationships and with each other. It was been such a blessing to have all of these amazing people in our lives. Today, we all celebrated having the Paulson's here with a brunch at our house after church. What a fabulous day we had! The kids are all getting so big and had a great time......even the adults enjoyed some quality time together for a few hours. My only complaint was that it went way too fast. Stephanie and I have been chatting back and forth about this date for months. Now, we can start to look forward to our trip to Florida in February when we will see them again. Thank you Paulson's for spending some time with all of us today - we loved having you here and are all so blessed by having you in our lives. We love you all and hope that the rest of your travels go smoothly!

Ben is on the Yankees!

Our little Babe Ruth


playing short stop

what a hit Ben

He was very excited to be the catcher.

Well, for those of you that know Ben, the day that he has been waiting for for about 2 years, has finally arrived. He is playing ball and is on the Yankees. #3, just like "the Babe". I can not describe to you how excited he is - I just love it! Of course, I am a bit partial, but he is too cute out there! Last week he had his first 2 games and all day long, he asked me when he could get his uniform on and wore his cap all day......Big sister has been very entertaining as well, she is finally realizing what it is like to have to sit and watch someone else and at times, does not think that it is very fun. But, Dad came to the rescue once again, and told her that she could probably help him keep them coralled in the dug out between innings or help with base coaching. She is thrilled about that. I will keep you posted on how the games are going throughout the season.

Day at Adventureland

Kate and Ben in the "chuck wagons"


Ben and Grandma Cairney on the sky glider



Ben, Grandma & Kate

the kids and I on the Ferris Wheel

It was so nice here on July 3rd, that I decided that it would be a perfect day to surprise Kate and Ben with a trip to Adventureland. Luckily, Grandma Cairney was able to come along and hang out with us for the am and afternoon. It was wonderful having her there. We had such a great time. The perfect weather, no lines and the kids loved riding the rides. We got there around 1030, stopped for a delicious picnic lunch, took Grandma to her car around 6:30pm and then the kids and I went back in after some cheeseburgers from Mc. D's and more of our picnic snacks and closed the place down at 9 pm! What a day! This year, the kids had really grown and were able to ride more of the rides. Ben even went on the "Outlaw" ( the big wooder rollercoaster) with me! Although, he did not like it and told Kate that is was WAY TO SCARY! She then decided to not go on it with me - bummer! Some of our new favorites for the day were the skyglider, the tilt-a-whirl (which really made us giggle) the sawmill splash, the G-force and of course the Bingo Hall. Ben and I got a bingo, and they were able to pick a very cool prize! We will definitely be visiting there again....a very fun, but exhausting day. I loved it!!! Even after 31 years, I still love that place - thanks again Grandma Cairney for coming with us!