This is Nicholas. Our friends adopted him from South Korea this spring. We love this little guy. He’s always so smiley and happy.

We were lucky enough to get to celebrate Korean Liberation Day with them all when we were in Des Moines this year. Nicholas waved his flag…

and we all had some Korean pancakes (Hoddeok)

They’re described as “a fried yeast dumpling, flattened to a pancake, with sticky cinnamon sugar centre.”

And let me tell you…they’re tasty!

If you’re interested in learning more…or trying to make them for yourselves…check out this site.

http://www.lastappetite.com/korean-street-food-recipes-hoddeok/

Every year, we travel to Des Moines in mid-August to take in the state fair…we LOVE the state fair. The crowds of people, the hot, the food….

but this post isn’t about the fair…that one’s coming in part 2…its about the other fun things we did while we were there that weekend.

We are blessed with wonderful friends who let us crash their party every year. The invite my circus into their house and we spend the whole weekend playing and seeing Des Moines.

Last year when we were there, we went to the science center…but only got to stay an hour or so. Not nearly enough time to explore it all.

I love this place. Kids can touch everything, and you don’t have to be afraid to let them do it!

Abbie and Ellie playing with the air.

Ev’s hands…I’m surprised he touched it…

Captive audience…

but i don’t think the ending was what he hoped for.

my little weather girl

and my future scientist…trying to figure out how the ball wall worked.

I loved watching all the kids try and figure stuff out. Fun seeing their little minds at work!

although it may seem like all we do is vacation…by the immense number of posts about them…i will reassure you…we do work. It just isn’t as exciting to post pictures of me at the reference desk of the library or my husband in his cubicle doing whatever it is he does there… 

We went to Des Moines to visit some good friends, and some of the hubby’s fam for the second half of our vacation extravaganza…and man, what a good time!

we took in THE ZOO! and the SCIENCE CENTER! and the Des Moines Farmer’s Market…which is way cooler than any farmer’s market i’d been to – not that the local one isn’t nice…it is…this one is just massive!!And, it gave me inspiration for my new jewelry obsession. You gotta love that. The hubby probably doesn’t like that it takes up whatever free space we had left…but it makes me happy, so there. Maybe posts about jewelry are coming soon…we’ll see what i get excited about in the next couple days.  

For now, enjoy the pictures 

the little one last year – so afraid of the “big thing”   

what a difference a year makes! She still didn’t want to pet it, but since we were very into feeding the animals…feeding the “big thing” was okay, 

 
although a little snotty. Here is Ellie telling daddy “i got snot, because it had a runny nose.” How cute is that?  

feeding “llama, llama red pajama” We didn’t ask to see his red pajamas…we just assumed it was him.   

and feeding the fish…  

She thought the swinging bridge was awesome. If only you could drive a stroller over it, I’m sure Ev would have thought so too. 

 A group shot before departing…Ellie said we had to get one of our backs, and since one knows never to argue with a 3 year old, we obliged her.  

Later that day…onto the science center. The pushpins were a favorite…of all! 

Even baby Ev got into it. Literally.   

There was so much great stuff to do there, and so much stuff that is meant for kids to touch. There just wasn’t enough time that day. Its one we’ll have to return to soon.

Enough vacation for now…hopefully more posting soon! Thanks for hanging in there with me through the blog-drought.  

Back to the mountains…

sorry for the unscheduled break in vacation posting – sometimes i just get too excited about other things and lose my train of thought for what seems like weeks…is this what ADD is like? Should I be concerned?

Anyway…the vacation…right… 

 
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK!!! and…on my birthday nonetheless. ( I just love the word nonetheless) 

What a great way to spend the day celebrating being born…with hiking through 2 feet of snow to see breathtaking scenery…
  

driving up skinny little roads to the top of mountains, and to have it start sleeting and eventually snowing at the top…(wishing i had a picture…mom…can you help me here?) 

and having your husband hike into nature to get you that perfect picture of elk, at the closeness you specified (“i want to see his nostrils, dear”).  

What a great birthday! Thanks to my fam for celebrating it with me! 

The whole reason we chose Colorado for our vacation was that my cousin was getting married over Memorial Day weekend…so it was really chosen for us. Not that I’m complaining…the car ride was a bit extensive, but we had a great time, and who knows if we would have ever chosen to go on that long of a car ride without a little push.

While we were there, we thought we should take in some sights. We attempted to trek to Boulder Falls, but the trail had been closed due to falling rock. I suppose that is a good reason to close a trail. While I wished we’d gotten to see it closer up, the scenery around the area was still nice…and proved to be fine for a new family photo.

and it had a fun climbing rock…this is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip.
They are so stinkin’ cute.

Ellie kept saying how she wanted to climb a mountain…a little creative photography helped her get there. Thanks, Dad.

On the way back down into Boulder, we stopped at the Boulder creek recreational trail and “hiked” a bit. Really, it was quite flat, so hiked may not be the appropriate term. We walked around and watched some guys climb a mountain…and took some cool pictures…and let Ellie touch the creek.

All she had to say was “brrr, that waters cold mama…”

Before I had the fancy camera, I didn’t really care much about flowers, now they just provide a challenge to me. Its fun to see what kind of pictures the camera can take.