More spring break...

We wanted to do something special with the kids after our big trip, so after orange belt testing we went on to Dubuque to spend the night at a fancy hotel (Hotel Julien). The kids actually chose a hotel suite with a kitchen over a room at the water park hotel!! Wha??! Honestly, that was OK by me!! We had fun in their little pool (just the right depth for M4) and hot tub and watched multiple episodes of Must Love Cats on a large television.

We also sauntered across the street to the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. Much fun was had:

M4 checking out the otters...they come close to cats in cuteness!

Driving a riverboat!

This giant catfish sure was ugly, but it was very friendly!


Balancing on Huck Finn's raft. It's a sweet little museum and aquarium. We also toured an old river dredge (high in spook factor because we've read some of the Skeleton Creek books). It was tough to come home after that and know we had to go back to school the next day, but we survived.

Now we've got lots of events coming up: the kids' choir concerts, M3's all-city band concert, Nana and Boppa's visit for Easter, a fundraiser for Japan, M3's performance in the spring dance concert, the college president's inauguration, various college graduation functions...whew!! I'm tired just thinking about it all! No weekend getaways for a while...

Spring Break Art

I wanted to take the kids to do some fun stuff on spring break (although they're pretty happy just staying home and playing). But y'know...the big people went to Europe! So I took them to the Des Moines Art Center one day. It's actually a really sweet little museum with many works by the biggies.

And a great outdoor garden with a park connected. Much fun was had:
Knights on their funeral pyres.

Peekaboo!

Check out this odd structure in the pond down the hill!

I love Andy Goldsworthy. He built a cairn here and at Grinnell College's CERA biological research station, and he built one on each coast as well. He does amazing natural art.

Before we went to the museum, I took the kids to La Mie French Bakery in Des Moines. Again, post-European vacation guilt. It was delicious!

Spring break!

Oh my, I have been lax here! Well, it was spring break for the kids last week, so I didn't have my usual leisure blog time. Ha!

The first weekend of spring break we took a mini-vacation at the Honey Creek Resort, a new place south of here on Lake Rathbun. It's a state DNR facility, but it's a swanky one! Of course I forgot the camera, so there aren't any pics of the kids cavorting in the water park. Oh well...we stayed two nights and had a great time! It was cold out, so the fact that the park-ier aspects of the place aren't finished was OK. The water park is a great size for smaller kids. Mark and I could sit and read while the kids played but could easily see them no matter where they were, and the water wasn't deeper than about three feet anywhere. The rooms were nice, but I really want to stay in one of the fancy cottages! When the park trails are finished and the lake is more accessible, it will really be fun to vacation there: hiking, biking, boating, water-parking.

For the rest of spring break, the kids and I did some of their favorite things:

Fossil Gorge at the Coralville Dam:
The spillway was pretty violent and scary (at least to Mom, who didn't trust the perfectly stable fence).
Taking scientific notes.
Looking for fossils.The Children's Museum in Iowa City, which has a new aviation exhibit. M4 took great joy in continually crashing during his flight simulation run.

We also went to the zoo on an 85 degree day! And can you believe that Dairy Barn opened the SAME DAY??!! The gods were smiling down on us!