Jumping Daisy

>Last week Andrea and I set out on a trip to Walcott to visit Papa Carey and take the kids to see the trucks at the Jamboree. Here are a few pictures from our fun day with Papa. Leila was so excited to go she started asking me as soon as she woke up, “when do we get to go to Papa’s work?!”

Now Andrea and Sawyer can both say that they have sat in a racecar!

We all had a good time checking out the trucks…and ourselves!

And of course enjoyed a cool treat on a hot day!

Thanks Dad for slipping away to spend time with us last week!!!

>We had a great weekend, and I hope you all did too! Now that Leila is getting a little older, we are working at helping her understand things, like what it means to be an American. When we were at the Ski show last week the moment came when they played the national anthem and everyone stood quietly, except for Leila. We decided then that we needed to take the opportunity to teach our little lady a lesson.

On the way home we talked about what it means to be an American. I want Leila to feel pride in her country and appreciation for the sacrifices that others have made, and continue to make for our freedom. The problem is, I am generally not a patriotic person. That is not to say that I am not grateful to live in a free country where I have had many privileges, but I do my best to think of myself, and everyone else as equals. There is a fine line between pride and arrogance, and I want to be sure that my daughter appreciates the privileged life that she leads, without believing that she is better than anyone else, or more deserving.

As I tried to explain to her what makes America a special place to live, I was torn. I wanted to point out the nice houses we have lived in, the wide open spaces we have to play in, the abundance of food and the comforts of the western world that we experience every day. But I can’t help but think of all of the Americans who don’t have those luxuries that we have come to expect.

I spent a lot of time pondering this, and my own feelings about America in the days leading up to the 4th of July, and on that day I was reminded of my patriotism as I watched the 4th of July parade and later as I sat at home with Leila, playing patriotic songs on youtube. Lee Greenwood singing God Bless the USA brings tears to my eyes every time.

The National Anthem now nearly always reminds me of the first football game I attended at Kinnick Stadium after the September 11th attacks. I had stood in that stadium for the anthem countless times before, without giving it much thought. That day I know I had tears in eyes as the 70,000 fans in Kinnick stood in stoic silence during the singing of the national anthem, all of our hearts and minds were in the same place. Independence day takes me back to that place, that feeling of pride. I am so thankful for the privilege to call myself an American. Having lived in a time when our country was attacked has changed the way that I feel about a lot of things, but most notably: I am so proud of the American’s who put their country first, and grateful for their sacrifices. 2. I hope that as I age I continue to see American moving towards respect and understanding of those that are different than us.

God Bless America!

>On to the fun stuff!

We had a great time at the parade. Leila picked up more candy then she could ever eat on her own. (I personally am very happy that tootsie rolls are such a popular parade treat…my favorite!)
We made a birthday cake for America, and we shared it with our dear friends the Weber’s.
I have a couple of pictures from the parade that I stole from Cory’s Facebook page…I have been so exhausted I haven’t uploaded any pictures myself…not to mention that it is very difficult to take pictures with my new fancy camera while also keeping at least 1 child under control. I have much higher hopes for my photography ability than I probably should. I think I am going to see about signing up for a class somewhere…I could use the help.

After the birthday cake we were able to check out Coralville’s fireworks show. I had been looking forward to taking some fireworks pictures but with the view of the fireworks slightly obstructed by hyvee’s parking lot lights, I decided to just sit and enjoy the show with our kids. Thea slept through the whole thing, and Leila, Bryce and Eli went back and forth between enjoying the show, and terrorizing each other. I think there were some tired kids out that night!

>The older they get, the better the playing gets.  Even though Leila is so often guilty of making her sister cry, that this evening when Thea fell and hit her face on the floor, a whole room away from Leila, Leila yelled out, “I didn’t mean for her to fall!”  Thea loves her big sister, and is always quick to follow her lead, and Leila is happy to oblige!

And totally unrelated but so cute, and so Leila…She was dancing along to the music at the ski show, loving her new dress from Aunt Cassie! 🙂

>I try not to gush (really!) Because nobody likes a sap, but Daddy Coobs is a true gem.  This man is adored by the ladies in his life, as you can probably tell.  Love you Daddy!

And of course there are some other special Daddies that get lots of love from the Coobs’ girls….

Even though Uncle Steve is helping Sawyer squirt Leila in this picture, he is still on the good list! 🙂

And a couple other favorites of mine! : )

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This will be my last summer of part-time employment, and I am trying to make the best of it.  Starting in October it will be back to the grind full time, and in the mean time I am working on finding as much fun, cheap or free activities that I can enjoy with the girls as possible.  My goal is to load up on memories (though I am probably the only one who will remember them) and tire my kids out so I can manage to get them to sleep even though Leila says, “I don’t want to go to sleep when the sun is still awake!”

So far we have made a couple of trips to a splash pad, we are working on earning a T-shirt through the library summer reading program and we have explored several area parks (Free!).  I am on the look out for out of the ordinary and so I was excited to see that after seeing the Richmond’s post about the ski show in Cedar Rapids, that there was another performance that we could hit.  My kids love to boat, and watching Daddy ski is always a high light.  Hopefully after seeing the barefoot skiers, and the skiing pyramids, they will still be impressed by Cory!

Here are some pictures of the Coobs’ (And Smith! 🙂 Family summer so far!

Splash pad!!

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