A Fish Out of Water

Little Miss Lila started swimming lessons with Daddy again this weekend with our good friends Brad and Danielle! We were hoping that Lila would remember the pool and low and behold she remembered! She was a splashing fool, she was so excited!

Jumpin' in!

Saturday afternoon found Mike & I in Iowa City for the big Cy-Hawk Series game! This game is always a lot of fun to attend because there are generally several thousand more people since it is an in-state rivalry. And man...the fans really are hard on each other, mostly in good fun! It was a black and gold victory, the Hawks won 35-7. We had a lot of fun cheering them on!

Today we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to Bever Park & Old McDonald's Zoo! We met up with Jason, Jen, Celia and Ruby for some outdoor fun!

Lila enjoyed seeing the animals and was happy to show them how well she can make their sounds! She enjoyed them so much that she cried when we took her away from them. Next stop...the park for some fun on the playground!

Lovin' life!

The girls have an absolute blast together! We are so lucky to have them so close so the girls can share special moments like this!

Up for Anything!

BIG NEWS in the Eddins household! A few weeks ago Lila took her first true series of independent steps! She has been walking for months using her walking toys, in fact she would pick them up and walk with them, but she is a cautious child and letting go of those safety nets are hard for her! Low and behold, when she was ready she finally let go! YAY!!!

Last weekend found us heading north to Strawberry Point to celebrate my grandparent's anniversary (54 years) and several birthday's in our family! Gram and Gramp had the back pasture all cleared and we had a picnic, it was beautiful! Quite a backdrop with the horses and the green grass!

Looks like Mike might have a helper someday!

Lila with one of her most special people, Jorden!

Labor Day weekend marks a most treasured family tradition for us. The first Hawkeye game of the season! Once again, Lila joined in on the festivities, making this her 2nd Annual Hawkeye game! She continues to prove to us how amazing she is with her willingness to go along with anything!

BE BOLD, WEAR GOLD!!!

Looking for some munchies!

Hangin' with the girls!

Future Hawkeye cheerleaders!

Sam and Magdalena Oshana, our extended family, came into town with their daughter Stella for the big game. Stella and Lila are two days apart in age and they were fast friends! It was so cute to watch them interact, they really enjoyed each other a lot. And it was great to see them!

Let's Go Hawks!

Daddy's Little Hawk!

Kickoff was at 11:00, which happens to be right in the middle of Lila's naptime. She proved that the roar of the crowd, the loud band and the bright sunshine wasn't going to keep her from getting some much needed rest! She snuggled right in and slept the whole second quarter, into the third!

Dreaming of a Hawkeye VICTORY!

Winding Down!

The Hawks won 37-7 making this their 10th season opener win in a row! We are having a blast sharing in this tradition with Lila. Mike thinks it is neat that she will be able to say that she has been to at least one game every year of her life! Here is to a winning season and to the start of many fall memories to come!

Spinning Circles!

Wow! We are in full blown toddler mode! Lila literally has us spinning circles! We have been having so much fun with her, we are definitely along for the ride. There is no sitting back and watching any longer for fear of being left in the dust!

We still haven't taken our true independent steps, but it is just a matter of minutes as she toodles around everywhere, maneuvering around furniture, motoring all over the house with her stroller or ever so lightly still needing your finger for comfort! She is a very cautious child, we comment often that if she just got the confidence to let go she would surprise herself!

When she isn't taking laps around the living room and kitchen she can usually be found tearing things out of cupboards, her toy box...anything that can make a mess! Who knew lids and dish towels could be so exciting?!

Our good friends the Hahn's came over last weekend for a BBQ! Their little girl Henley could not be cuter! We had so much fun watching the girls play together. They are 9 months apart in age, it was neat to see their age gap closing and before we know it, you won't know that there is any time between them!

We had a nice, quiet weekend this weekend. We didn't have a single thing planned, which is unheard of for us, so we were sure to take advantage! We attended an employee appreciation night at the ballpark for TrueNorth on Friday night, despite the weather the game was really fun and Lila enjoyed sitting in Daddy's lap cheering on the home team!

Saturday we took advantage of Lila's early hours and went downtown to the Farmer's Market. This was a first for Mike and Lila, we had a great time! If you get down there early enough you beat the mid-morning rush. We even got a breakfast burrito from Victor's and only had to wait for five minutes in line (normally this line is 40 people deep), another first for Mike! YUM!

Saturday afternoon found us heading to Iowa City for lunch and shopping! Lila is into her books, in fact she was telling us a story on the way to Iowa City and she was easily entertained at lunch with another literary favorite!

After some good food and successful shopping Lila was ready to get out of her stroller, so we stopped at the big carousel for her first ride! Daddy and Lila picked the horse with the crazy hair, just like our little girl's wild hair!

You can tell by the look on her face that she was having the best time! I wish I would have had the video camera because you could hear her squealing with delight as she went round and round! It was so cute!!! Once the ride was over it was heartbreaking as she cried and cried because it was time to get off.

Much like Lila's first carousel ride...Mike and I are on the ride of our lives with this little girl and we are loving every minute of it!

Through the Years

This past week has found us celebrating some of life's milestones! The moments that help pave the way to the person that you are today, the moments that have created some of life's greatest memories.

On Tuesday, August 3rd Mike and I celebrated the 12 year mark of our relationship. We had a nice dinner together discussing the summer (1998) that started it all! Neither of us having any idea that many years from then we would be looking back recounting all that twelve years can bring a couple! We have laughed together, cried together, but most of all grown together and it truly has gotten better with each passing year! Here are a few pictures from our younger years:

This Saturday was my 10 year high school reunion. We started the day with a tour of the high school which was really neat to see. They had started making a lot of changes, some of which we experienced our senior year, but the changes they have made since then are pretty amazing!

In the evening we all got together for dinner, drinks and entertainment in Marion at the Prairie Hill Pavilion. We graduated with quite a lot of people, just shy of 400, and it was a bit disappointing at the lack of attendance, but we still had a great time and it was good to see those that did come.

Waiting to take our class picture

After dinner we went downtown CR for some dueling pianos and more cocktails! It was a really great night and I am thrilled that I got to see a lot of my classmates that have moved away from Cedar Rapids. These people hold my history, considering I attended Linn-Mar from kindergarten through my senior year of high school I have literally known some of them since I was five, it is really quite amazing!

It is crazy to think about where we will be in the next 10, 15, 20 years! I can only hope that we are all just as happy, healthy and blessed as we are today!

Sweet Face

We were blessed with two sweet faces on Saturday afternoon!

Meet Enzo! He is my Dad, Laura, Carson & Cade's new English Golden Retriever! He is about as sweet as he could be. They brought him home yesterday and he wasted no time wiggling right into all of our hearts!