An Indian Cave

Unrelated to the Indian cave...Wally just loves building with his blocks. He was quite proud of his stairs. Wally always wants "to go where we've never been before." So, in mid-October on a beautiful afternoon, we found a new trail near the Coralville Lake. I found this tree impressive, and we even got to duck under it to follow the trail to the lake.

At the lake, Wally enjoyed throwing rocks into the water.

Joel and I had more fun looking at the fossils. There were even pieces of coral (hence Coralville) shaped like Christmas trees.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, Wally loves his Bible stories. I guess there are some pretty fun ones. Here, he is demonstrating how his staff, like Mose's, can turn into a snake when he throws in on the ground and turns back into a staff when he grabs the tail.

We found a shelter along the trail that we of course had to try out. And found a log to walk across over a little water.

We finally made it to the cave. Wally thought it was pretty cool, but was concerned about the lack of a door. So, we set to work on building a wall for the door to be in.

Of course, Mom got into the building too. Pretty sure I wouldn't want to spend an Iowa winter in that cave!

That hike was probably our favorite hike thus far in Iowa, maybe because of the beautiful fall weather or maybe because it was actually a single track trail more like we were used to in Montana.

I know that I posted this picture before, but I love it. Chronologically, after the Indian cave is when Wally got his glasses.

An Early October Visit from Grandma Mary and Papa Randy

Grandma Mary and Papa Randy came to keep Wally and I company while Joel was in Vancouver for a conference. It was actually very warm while they were there. Wally was worn-out and very hot... Grandma and Papa always "need" projects around the house when they come to visit. I actually had a list of things for them to do, but then Papa noticed our ancient garage door opener was lacking some important safety features. Therefore, they installed a newer safer one for us. Thanks!

How much do you love Grandma Mary?

We went to dinner at a Mexican place. Wally insisted on wearing his antennas.

If, after the last blog, anyone isn't convinced that I am the world's worst mom, check out what we made Wally try. If you can't tell, it was a lemon from a water glass. Remember, the kid won't even drink lemonade or any kind of juice.

Since the weather was beautiful, Wally and Grandma spent a lot of time in the sandbox. We also had a picnic at Kent State Park.

The trees definitely had some color (as did the poison ivy), this picture is too dark, but it was still pretty.

Wally always loves having our guests read him "sit-down" and "head-on-pillow" books before bedtime.

Wally and Grandma made Joel a birthday cake - oatmeal, his favorite!
Wally definitely missed his Daddy!

Our friends joined us for the celebration. Wally and Sander are sure good buddies (and cute too!).
We also celebrated our 1 year anniversary of waiting for Brother and Sister (as mentioned in a previous post) on Oct 12, 2010.

To celebrate, we had Ethiopian food.

Though it looked and smelled delicious, I have to say that I am disappointed that I didn't enjoy it more. I enjoyed the flavor of Doro Wat the most, but it was just too spicy for me.

While Grandma and Papa were here we all got Free Happy Meals for da Year. They came with tattoos, so before they left, Wally insisted that they get their tattoos. Luckily for me, they were big, ugly and obnoxious!

Thanks for being good sports Grandma and Papa and for the visit!

Why Wally gets Poinson Ivy...

I guess this should have been in the last post. Oops.

OK, so I may officially be the worst Mom in the world. Wally had poison ivy blisters again this year. Looking back at the pictures now, I know why...the stuff is pretty in the fall though!

Ah, dirt!

All of the fun poison ivy and dirt was at Hickory Hill Park in town.Wally really wanted to go with Joel to Brazil, so Joel helped him make his own passport.

Since I've been going through old pictures to put them in photoalbums, I had a pile of pictures that didn't make the cut. Wally found one of him as a tiny baby in his swing that he carefully cut out to use as his picture.

Joel's 32nd Birthday and other randomness

Wally rarely uses things for their intended purpose. Here, he rigged up his swings to catch lions.

We will kill two birds with one stone, ok two pictures. Wally's "Free Happy Meals for da Year" and meeting Daddy at the bus stop have played a large role in our life over the last several months. The people on the bus always watch for Wally because he is always doing something nutty when the bus drops Daddy off. On this day, he was wearing a Happy Meal box on his head. Yea! Daddy's home!

Our cute boy after his first full day at Kinderfarm.

The U of I homecoming parade was that night, so Joel dropped Wally and I off because there was no where to park. Wally was so exhausted, but had fun anyway.

Look at those dance moves! I think he was just trying to stay awake.

For Joel's birthday, we drove to northeast Iowa to see what we could see. This was a huge church in a small town on the way north.

The Mississippi river was flooding. It is hard to see, but there are houses on an island in the middle of the river. Some were definitely taking on water despite being up on stilts. We did actually see a truck driving on the island though.

The Mississippi is huge! This is only one branch of it as we drove from Iowa to Wisconsin.

We had heard that Pike's Peak State Park was beautiful and a must see. We had a little difficulty finding it, likely because it consisted of a small campground and a small parking lot. Joel and I joke that in Montana, something like that would be called a scenic overlook! Joel let the dogs out, and of course Wally helped.

Wally was kept pretending he had a "video looker." I think he meant a periscope. Anyway, he kept going behind this tree and making videos and looking at us with a special stick. I love how I have so many pictures of Joel and Wally in the exact same position. I wonder what it is like to have a "Mini Me."

We had a lovely Hardy's picnic that Wally insisted on eating on the ground (us mature grown-ups ate at a table).

We then went on a "hike." Here Wally and I are at a scenic overlook overlooking the Mississippi valley.
Hiking at Pike's Peak State Park...

A strenuous hike. I suppose if it were rainy, it could be.

I'm guessing the falls would be pretty cool at a wetter time of the year. Wally explained that Moses hit the ground with his stick and water came out to form the falls. The kid loves his Bible stories.

Fungus in Iowa grows every and grows big. This one was bigger than my hand.

This patch of mushrooms was also bigger than my had growing off a living tree.

Wally decided that monkeys probably live in the forest, so he started to call them. They must have been sleeping.

He did find an alligator to climb on though.
We then drove through the town of Strawberry Point, home of a giant strawberry.

Wally got bored with the scenery and played ipod. Daisy still enjoyed the scenery though.

Moose preferred driving.

We drove partway into Backbone State Park, but the road was washed out due to flooding, so we couldn't see much. That is a park I would like to visit again. Potty break!

A fun day hitting a total of 3 state parks was exhausting, but fun. Now we can say we've been to NE Iowa. Hopefully the leaves will be more spectacular next time. Fall has just been plain weird around here, with flowering crabapple trees and all.