It's been awhile

ok, ok - I am here to give my readers a Johnson family fix. I have gotten several friendly comments about not having blogged for awhile. All I can say is...we have been so busy. I decided I better MAKE time though.
So where did I leave off? Ah, we were about to leave on weekend camping trip with my family. We had a great weekend at Lake Rathbun. I really wish my family would do this more often. When I was younger, we went boating and camping often but haven't gone camping with my family for at least 10 years. Anyway, when we arrived on Friday it was super hot. It was an uncomfortable night for sleeping. Saturday was beautiful and we slept much better. We went boating a couple times, played with Ryan and Myles, cooked some good food including cedar plank salmon with dill sauce, ate some smores and just enjoyed time as a family.

Ryan and Myles being goofy

Ryan and Myles being pulled in the inflatable

Riding bikes

Swimming - Me, Ryan, Wendy, Myles and Emilee

We took Ryan to his first rodeo. I think he had a good time. I wanted him to wear his western clothes to the rodeo but it was way to hot outside. We actually went to the Travis' house for supper first then headed to the rodeo in Maxwell. Ryan didn't like the calf roping. He thought the cowboys were hurting the calves but the bull riding was pretty exciting. It was a good night.

watching the rodeo

Brave man!

Oh, daddy bought Ryan cotton candy but mom wouldn't let him eat very much of it. Mean mom!

Another new place that we have visited in the last two weeks is a place called Natural Playscape in Jester Park. The best way is explain it is by adding the description the Polk County Conversation uses:
A "natural playscape" is a play area constructed using natural materials such as boulders, earth mounds, and water features, while avoiding plastics, metals, concrete, lumber, and signs explaining how to play.

IMAGINE Children that roll down hills, scramble up rocks, dam up water, and hide in grass experience natural play. This type of play frees the child's imagination to limitless learning opportunities.
EXPERIENCE Play is a natural behavior for humans. Where better to experience a natural behavior, than in nature.
EXPLORE The following are a few of the activities you may explore during your visit.

Will you find your way through the winding maze of the TALL GRASS TANGLE?
Marvel at the mysterious STONE HENGE. Can you unlock its secrets?
Visit the FOREST OF THE DEAD. Are decaying trees still important?
Hike you way to BISON BLUFF and slide down the grassy hill. Choose your own path back to the top, up the LOG STAIRS or through the BOULDER SCRAMBLE.
Visit the ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG. Can you uncover all 8 secrets?
Bushwhack through the PINE GROVE and make it to the LOST BRIDGE. What's on the other side?
Wade through the WETLAND and cool off. Be sure to check out he BUBBLING ROCK and WATERFALL

It was a nice little area. Ryan never got bored and we there were for a long time. We will definitely go back even though it was a bit of a drive.

Look at all those boys creating their own fun

A bunch of our friends sitting on a hollow tree

Ryan and I went to southern Missouri for 4 days to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins.The drive down there was awful. I hit so much road construction and two state fairs (Iowa and Missouri). The 9 hour drive took over 11 hours. YUCK!It was worth it though.We went swimming, bowling, out to eat a couple times and we had a little early birthday celebration for Ryan. Ryan's favorite part of the visit was the water slide at the swimming pool. He was able to wear a lifejacket and go down this HUGE slide all by himself. He probably went down the slide twenty times. Payton, Peri and Clay took turns helping him up the three flights of stairs and I stayed at the bottom just to make sure he was okay but he never needed my help. We love hanging out down there. Ryan adores Peri, Payton and Clay. It was a great time can't wait until next summer. I can't believe how well Ryan travels, I guess that is why we travel so much. He didn't complain at all during the 11 hours trip down there or the 9 hour trip back. Wonderful little boy and a great traveling companion. He definitely keeps me alert while driving because he pretty much talks non-stop!

Ryan and Clay

Clay, Payton, Peri and Ryan

Birthday cake

STATE FAIR! What else can I say. Everyone knows about the the Iowa State Fair. We went on Wednesday so that we could go to the Tractor Pull at the Grand Stands. There were lots of people and it was pretty warm. I don't even want to know how many calories we consumed. Ben and Ryan discussed all the way down to DM what foods there were going to eat. Let's see between the three of us we had corn dogs, a lamb burger, a turkey leg, fried twinkie, fried snickers, strawberry smoothie, lemonade and root beer. Oh can't forget the ice cream. UGH! The boys liked the tractor pull. Wow, it was loud. Good thing we had ear plugs. We were at the fair for about 8 hours. It was a long day.

Oh Maddy

what a mess!! The result of a one old eating an ice cream cone on her own.

Finally, the Ames Public Library has put on a couple neat programs this week. On Tuesday we went to the Hot Dog Dinner Theater. They served us a free hot dog meal then we watched a Magician. Today we went to storytime at the firestation. Ryan really liked being at the fire station. We took a tour of the station, the fire fighters talked about fire safety, read a book and the kids got to climb all over the fire trucks.

I had to pull him out from behind the wheel

Cainan, Treyton, Jaden and Ryan

Besides the things that I have posted about, Ryan had a dentist appt which was great. They took a x-ray, did a flouride treatment, cleaned his teeth and a general check up. No cavities and has perfect teeth at this point.