Happy Belated Fourth of July!

A family picture on my Grandpa's restored 1955 combine

Hello from the great state of Iowa! We made it down safely on Thursday evening, leaving after Violet's swimming lessons that morning. Violet is having a blast with her grandparents here, and Ben and I are enjoying a little bit of 'vacation' from the parenting thing, as Violet has plenty of aunts and uncles to entertain her. She still wants to snuggle with her Mom and Dad at night though, which is, I believe, one of the greatest feelings in the world.

We haven't been too busy since the last post; Violet is still a little fish, although a fall off the side of the pool at swimming lessons instilled a little bit of fear in her about the water. I really shouldn't say fall; she was jumping off the side (which she loves) and didn't get close enough to the edge before she jumped. She didn't make it to me, and ended up doing her first head-first dive into the water, and we believe she probably caught her feet on the edge. She'd jumped in and put her head in the water before, and still will swim with her face in the water, but she doesn't enjoy jumping quite as much. That's why we think she must have clipped her feet. That, and the fact that we found a blister/scrape on her toe a couple of days ago which led to this:

Violet's first Band-Aid.

And now, of course, she is fascinated by Band-Aids, so she has begun asking for Band-Aids for every little ouchie she has!

She also loves, as I mentioned, to imitate her Mom and Dad. Here is a picture of Violet putting in some good hours 'working':

We had a good time watching the fireworks; Violet loved the sparkles, but not the booms so much--she asked very politely to have her ears covered the whole time. She also did her first sparklers, which she loved. These pictures are from the fireworks display in Grinnell; I love the 2nd one because you can see by Violet's face that this is the exact moment that the first fire work went up.

The weekend was also highlighted by attending my great-grandmother's and therefore Violet's Great-great-grandmother's 97th birthday party. It's been a very tough year for her; she broke her hip (she didn't fall--the doctor said that she's just lived such a long life that bones get brittle and just break) which caused her to have to move out of the home she was in to a full-fledged nursing home, which she did not like at all. But, the hip has repaired nicely and just a week ago, she was able to move back into the assisted living facility where a lot of her friends are, and is much happier. It was just cool that Violet got to see some of her extended relatives, and have another opportunity to meet this wonderful, strong woman.

Violet and Great-Great Grandma Cobie


The family picture

The rest of the week will be spent relaxing and getting ready for my brother Eric's wedding. Violet will be the flower girl, so look for pictures of her in her little purple princess/fairy dress. I must say, it is the cutest thing, and I can't wait to see her all dolled up in it. I'll tell the story of the buying of the dress when I get those pictures.

To close, here are a couple of pictures of Violet 'modeling' her Winnie-the Pooh shades! Isn't she just the grown up little lady? :(