A Jumpin' July!

July began with a bang!! My sister Stephanie and her husband David came to Iowa with their little Helen. We had so much fun together doing things like visiting the Farmers Market...

going to the Ashby Park wading pool...

and putting together patio furniture! (Well, David had fun doing that!)

While David worked on assembling the furniture, Helen and Nathan took the opportunity to play in all of the big boxes!

I love my boy's crazy curls! So cute... you can tell the humidity was high on this July day!

And no visit to Des Moines is complete without a trip to an Iowa Cubs game. Nathan got into the spirit of things by practicing his pitch outside the stadium.

The Fernandez's were here over the 4th of July holiday so they got to experience the Urbandale Fourth of July parade. It's such a fun parade with tons of treats! I think it's the best town parade I've ever been too.

We met up with our neighbors, the Olsons and the DeBruins, to watch the clowns, bands, and trucks go by!

On July 9th, Chris and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary.

He surprised me on Saturday morning at work with a dozen roses. What a wonderful surprise! I've told him NOT to send me flowers at home because the cat likes to dine on them. But he definitely has my permission to send them to work. Every time I would look at them, they would brighten my day.

Later in the month, Chris, Nate and I made a trip to Minneapolis to visit his parents. Chris and I had tickets to the Drum Corps International show in the new U of Minnesota stadium. It was a fantastic place for a drum corps show...

however, the weather was horrible. It was a stormy night so we had a few rain delays and then we all had to take cover in the bathrooms because a storm was moving through the city that had a tornado warning associated with it.

I was lucky enough to run into a high school buddy (from Georgia) at the Minnesota show! Crazy I know. I was standing in line for cheese curds, when I recognized Eric. I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him if he was from Georgia (it had been 10 years since I'd seen him). He says... Megan, It's me Eric!!! Wow. Small world.

Luckily, we had a lot of time to catch up in the women's restroom while we were taking cover from the storm!

The next day, the weather was fantastic - it was perfect baseball weather!! Ideal because it was Nate and I's first trip to the new Twins Stadium.

Nathan LOVES baseball. Chris has done really well at teaching him all of the players name... and like any good Minnesotan, Nathan's favorite player is JOE! Even it's not the Twins we're watching on TV, ever player is named JOE!!

It was a great day to spend with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Gary. The game was right during Nate's naptime, but he was very well behaved and then slept the whole way home to Iowa!