Where do I Begin?

It's been a crazy last week at our house. Carl's Grandma passed away last Saturday night so we knew we would have to head up to Algona sometime during the week. Wednesday we picked up Carl's sister Em from the airport, poor girl was here the week before visiting Grandma since we knew it may just be a matter of time then she flew back to DC because she had a planned vacation to the Bahamas so she flew there for vacation then flew back to DC for a few hours and flew back to Iowa for the funeral. Talk about lots of traveling. At least we didn't have to travel that much. Tuesday before we left I filled our little swimming pool in the backyard. The water was pretty cold but Gabe still jumped in and liked to play. Ty liked putting his hands in but was more interested in the ball, truck and plastic hose:)They discovered a new game that day as well, Gabe pushing Ty around in the back of the dump truck. They both thought it was pretty fun. Tuesday night we discovered the jeep was leaking coolant again, we just had the radiator replaced a few months ago so back to the repair shop it went. Apparently the radiator was bad again, luckily all under warranty still so no cost to us this time but it is hard to drive to Algona with 5 people and no vehicle. We ended up renting a car for the trip up as we weren't sure when ours would be done. We got a Ford Explorer which did have more space then the Jeep but the back hatch did not seal correctly and we all almost asphyxiated driving down all the gravel roads, the whole back end of the car was completely covered in dust along with all of our stuff in the cargo area and even all the way up to the front of the car somewhat, I think we should have gotten a discount for it being a hazard to our health:)(although the boys didn't seem to mind too much) Grandma's funeral was very nice, she would have appreciated all the people. She was a special lady who we will all miss very much. While we were in Algona Gabe and Ty got to spend some time at Mawdsley's farm and at Grandpa Matt's farm. They were so excited to get to go for tractor rides. Ty had his first tractor ride on Grandpa Matt's tractor and he seemed to like it a lot. He did not like it when big brother climbed up there too and touched the steering wheel, if Gabe's hands were off he was fine but the minute Gabe put his on the wheel, the waterworks began. He is our little firecracker. The day we left it was pretty windy so Grandpa Matt got out the kites. Gabe loved to watch them fly and of course wanted to help fly them too. Ty even got in on the action a little bit. We headed home Friday afternoon, as we were all tired and ready to sleep in our own beds. Saturday Carl cleaned out the garage after all the wood working and building he had been doing in there, it needed it pretty badly. Sunday we had some friends over for lunch and walked down to Fan Fest. Gabe and Ty got their picture taken with Cy. Ty was brave enough to have his picture taken with the cheerleaders, in fact he was mad when we picked him up to keep moving. We also got to see the stadium renovations and new sky box suites they put in. They were pretty nice. We only had one minor mishap when Gabe feel down the concrete stairs, I don't know how he fell but I turned around and there he was somersaulting down the stairs. Luckily he didn't go the whole way down and had no scrapes or bruises or anything, I think it just scared him. Despite his fall he is sooooo excited for the football game on Thursday. He is ready to go cheer and eat some popcorn. Go Cyclones!