Flying to Denver, then Phoenix

Jamie called this morning after her Dr appointment, and it looks like this baby will probably come today!

Thanks to Aunt Catherine, Jayci and I were able to hop on a plane and head to Phoenix.

The hard part was leaving Margaret and little Shannon in Iowa- when we pulled up at the airport Shannon said, "Daddy, airplane". When we told her Jayci and I were going to get on an airplane now she started crying, "no go Jaygi" I'm so glad they will soon be living at our house!

We flew from Des Moines to Denver- Catherine met us at the gate :)

It was fun to go see her office

Jayci loves 'favorite Aunt Catherine'

She got us right to our next gate, and we then flew from DEN to PHX

Science Center of Iowa

The girls had a fun time together at the Science Center of Iowa.

There were so many interesting things to see!

Shannon putting on a puppet show

Bubble blowing

Giant Legos

Did you know that liquid nitrogen is more than 300 degrees below zero?

Jayci loved the science demonstrations.

 The girls got to see and touch a real turtle, snake and salamander. 

On this wall they made balls blow through the tubes.

Another favorite thing to see was the Star Theater.

State Capital

Des Moines is the Capital of Iowa. This is their majestic State Capital building 

Twister (and I don't mean the game)

Jennifer's family experienced a 'Twister' (a step below a tornado) yesterday. They were driving home when the storm hit, she said it was so dark and things were blowing all over, so they drove to a family in their ward that lived close and went into their basement with them. When Jennifer and Dylan were able to go home, they found big trees and power lines down. The power was out (so the pump to their well didn't work so they had no water) and cell phone lines didn't work. But she was able to get a call through to me this morning to let us know that they are safe and ok.
 I talked to Jennifer just a few minutes ago, and she said that the power is back on now (yea, air conditioning again!) and cell phone lines seem to be working again. Dylan just posted pictures of their yard and their neighbor's yard on facebook if you would like to take a look. And here is a link to a video someone posted of the twister. Jennifer said that what they saw was a lot darker and stronger wind than even what you see in this video
http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/local/rensselaer-twister-caught-on-video
   We are grateful Jennifer, Dylan and Dallas are ok. Interesting that today was our family Fast for Jennifer with her diabetes, I'm sure that counted towards their protection, too! Dad and I pray for each of you children and your families every day, and I am grateful for the Lord's blessings of health and protection! Love to you all!!!

Farmer's Market

We went to the Farmer's Market in downtown Des Moines.

At the Market I got to buy some great Rada knives 

with my birthday money

In the evening we went for a walk around Gray's Lake

The bridge lit up at night

Friday's happenings

   The heat and humidity didn't stop us from Garage Sale-ing today. We found some fun little bargains, the favorite one being a Barney CD Margaret got for Shannon- we were dancing and singing with Barney all the way home!
    I spent some time today figuring out how to enter info and pictures that we took at the cemetery for Memorial Day to a genealogy site called "Find A Grave" so it is searchable. This is Jayci pointing to the picture she took which can now be found online. Jayci also likes to help me with Indexing, she is turning into quite the little Geneaoligist. (OK, so some of her childhood experiences are a bit unusual :)

Jayci and Shannon riding the scooter

Chuck E Cheese

We had a fun time at Chuck E Cheese today. 

Jayci met a new friend at Primary on Sunday,

 It was fun for Jayci to have Charly come with us.

Shannon knows how to put the token in herself

 She loves Barney!

Shannon wasn't sure she wanted to be close to that guy...

Choosing matching prizes