Our Little Dancer

My mom found this dance/play outfit for Brenna. As you can probably guess, she found it on a garage sale :) I love my mom's garage sale finds....Brenna does too! Brenna enjoyed trying it on for the first time and performing a variety of dance moves for us. After her water break she decided to relax for a while and read some books in her fancy attire!

Iowa State Fair

We went to the Iowa State Fair last week with some new friends, George & Raluca. They just moved to the area from Louisiana and are originally from Romania. Jared helped them find a home this summer and thought it would be a good idea to give them a feel for Iowa through the fair! We had a great time and are hoping to spend more time with them this year.

We didn't take many pictures, but here are few we snapped of the night.

Family Pics

We went to a wedding last weekend in Burlington. Below are some family pics my mom took after the reception.

Farmer's Market

I'm a big fan of the Des Moines Farmer's Market. We went on Saturday morning and had a ton of fun.

We ate breakfast burritos & pastries, bought some local veggies, a bouquet of flowers, and kettle corn, listened to live music, and did some people watching. We even caught a few vender's taking a mid-morning snooze. I couldn't stop laughing after we took these pictures. It's the hardest I've laughed in a long time :)

Jared's brother, Caleb, and his family joined us towards the end of the morning too. Brenna was so excited to see her cousins, Easton & Marlee.

Brenna & Easton danced by the stage to live music and were a big hit with the people sitting near by. They did look pretty darn cute!

Hasta la vista, Farmer's Market! Hope to come back soon!

Road Trip to Chicago

We took a road trip to Libertyville, IL (north of Chicago) with Jared's parents and sister last weekend for Jared's cousin's wedding. The drive was long, but we had some good bonding time and lots of laughs in the van. The wedding & reception was so much fun too. The food was amazing and they had a really fun dance. Brenna was a hit on the dance floor! I think she danced more than all of us! :)

Jared's Aunt Jo Ann and her sons, Josh & Jeremy. Josh (left) is the groom.

Josh and his beautiful bride Maggie with his mom, brother, and Jo Ann's boyfriend.

We had prime rib, sauteed chicken w/spinach & mushrooms with a yummy sauce, green beans & carrots and mashed potatoes. Doesn't it look so gourmet? My favorite was the chicken even though I'm a big beef fan :)

Brenna dancing with her grandpa.

Jared's parents cutting a rug!
Brenna enjoying a slow dance with her daddy. So precious!
Myself and Anna (Jared's sister).
Brenna was a trooper during the entire trip. She did great in the car and at the wedding and reception....and we didn't even leave the reception until after 10:30.
She was winding down at this point and I thought she looked so cute!

Weekend with Grandma & Grandpa Bohlen

Brenna and I took a road trip to visit my parents and grandma last Thursday and stayed through Sunday. We had a wonderful time with them. Brenna's favorite part was playing outside with all of the outdoor toys my parents found at garage sales this summer: Little Tykes purple convertible, mower, and trike.

Besides playing outside, we went to the farmers market (which was on the riverfront so Brenna really enjoyed looking at the "waber" and boats)

played at a park,

browsed through an outdoor puppy show,
went to garage sales, and went swimming.

Another highlight for Brenna was receiving and riding her very own Dora Explorer 4 Wheeler! One of my mom's co-workers wanted it out of her garage, so she just gave it to Brenna. How generous!!! Brenna definitely needs assistance, but she caught on pretty good and didn't fall off once (see video below). I think she'll have it down by next summer.

Brenna got to see her uncle Ryan & aunt Dana too since they were in town for Ryan's 10 year class reunion. Brenna loves her uncle Ryan!
We had a great weekend with family, but we were ready to get back home and see our "main man" who was working hard all weekend on house projects.