a peek inside

11.06.2020

30 Things that I am Grateful for in September 2020

Although a little late, here is my September 2020 Gratitude List! You'll notice from the photos especially, that we had tons of outside time as well as family time which was great. It really made September a special month but also went super fast once school started on September 8!

1. Atomic Habits by James Clear - highly recommend!

2. Long car rides so I can listen to my favorite podcast - ChooseFI - a podcast about financial independence but also personal development

3. Adorable Halloween decor from RosellaMargaret

4. Sunsets are still pretty stunning in my neck of the woods

5. Our expandable dining room table from IKEA

6. A newer version of Just Dance - Owen is now obsessed with a song by One Direction...

7. Spending time with Nadia and Leta's in-laws!

8. Walking to the park with all the littles

9. Trusting the older kiddos to run back home

10. Sleeping Queens

11. Randomly discovering a place we've driven by so many times - the Coralville Lake and Dam area

12. The first day of virtual school

13. Magnesium supplements

14. More cousin time! This time with the Hellers!

15. Citrus Salmon from HyVee

16. Celebrating my birthday with Amanda and Bridget at Biaggi's in Cedar Rapids

17. The ice maker with my fridge!

18. Making small batches of canned tomatoes and not having to buy a ton of cherry tomatoes

19. Early morning walks with the boys

20. The ability to make adjustments to the boys schooling - at home/at daycare

21. Bed head - the boys both have this on point!

22. Spending a weekend on the lake with my parents and Bridget's family

23. The boys got to fish for the first time!

24. Oven sheet pan nachos

25. Dominating the game of Sequence with my mom

26. Joining a Hydration Challenge on the Way Better better

27. School supplied chromebooks

28. Finding enough pants that actually fit Owen's teeny tiny waist and between sizes height

29. The first day of in-person school!

30. Fall and the changes colors of leaves

10.17.2020

A Day at Pinters {2019}

If you didn't catch my last post, we attempted to go to Pinters in mid-October 2019. Sadly, it was raining so we decided not to go and had other fun instead! It was great to be in Decorah but also a little sad we couldn't go to Pinters. If you haven't checked out that post, be sure you do because we celebrated my niece's birthday too!

Thankfully, we just tried again another weekend! So up from North Liberty we drove and were FINALLY able to go to Pinters! Honestly, I didn't really remember how the weather was or how the kids behaved until I was looking through all the photos but it was still TOTALLY worth it! I'm just so thankful it wasn't raining since no one could have predicted 2020 would be as batsh!t crazy as it's been. That trip was the last time I had been to Decorah until THIS year's trip to Pinters so it's about time I get this one posted!

From the photos, it does appear that it was a cloudy day but thankfully not too cold. The kids had a great time as per usual and I do remember that Jack had quite the time trying to run up the jumping thing. Meanwhile, Gspice was over playing with some random people beating them at chess. He then came over and hung out with Owen for awhile too so made up for not helping with the craziness of the jumping thing! Some of those photos still make me laugh. Somehow, we all forgot to take family photos so that's too bad! Oh well, we can't win them all.

It is so fun to look back at these but man doesn't it feel like an entire lifetime ago?