Quad Cities Trip-Niabi Zoo

Before heading back home on Sunday, we took a trip to the zoo. It was a really neat zoo, and we all definitely thought it was much better than the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines.

Riding the train.

Cael's expression when we went through a dark tunnel.

Ayden liked feeding the goats.

Cael on the other hand, wasn't too sure about the goats.

Joel and Ayden feeding some birds nectar.

Riding the carousel.

Ayden had to sit on all the statue animals :)

Ayden and Angie.

Le Claire, Iowa - Home of "American Pickers"

As I mentioned before, my sister, Angie, and her husband, Jeff live in Le Claire, Iowa. It also happens to be where the show "American Pickers" is located. Their shop is in town and we stopped by to check it out. Mike and Frank weren't around, but there were a lot of people there checking it out. Angie and I also went to all the cute little shops downtown and did some shopping, and checked out the local distillery while the boys (and Joel and Jeff) napped. That evening we met my parents, and my aunt and uncle at a nearby campground where they were camping. We stayed for grilled hamburgers, but it was horribly hot that weekend with a heat index of 110-115 degrees so we didn't hang out long enough to sit around the campfire, plus the boys were getting tired from such a busy day.

The outside of the American Pickers building.

Inside...

One of their vans.

Angie is pretty excited :)

Quad Cities Trip-John Deere Pavillion

Next up that day was checking out the John Deere Pavilion. They had a lot of activities for kids to do that day, and there were lots of tractors to climb on and look at. The boys were in heaven!

Petting Zoo.

Planting corn seeds.

Fishing.

Milking the cow.

Feeding the horse hay.

Collecting eggs.

Collecting apples.

Pedal tractor pull.

Driving the gator, his favorite part.

Grandpa and Cael.

Playing with tractors in the John Deere store.

They loved it there.

My favorite picture of Ayden that Jeff took.

Quad Cities Trip-The Family Museum

In July, we took a trip to visit my sister and her husband in Le Claire, Iowa, which is near the Quad Cities. They bought a house there about a year ago, but we hadn't visited them yet. We got there around 8:00 on Friday night, and the first thing on the agenda for Saturday morning was taking a trip to the Family Museum. The boys had lots of fun and didn't want to leave.

Ayden cooking up some burgers.

Clifford was their traveling exhibit.

Cael loved running around inside the heart and pushing all the buttons that made noise and dancing to the beating heart.

Putting gas in the car.

My little musicians:)