Sweet Corn Festival = Heaven

I love Adel. It's so cute, and so fun, and just absolutely perfect.

This weekend was the annual Sweet Corn Festival. Saturday consists of a fabulous small town Iowa parade, some vendors all over the square, and you guessed it! Sweet Corn. We were lucky enough to meet up with some of our best friends, The Palmers. Julian loves them, and they are so fun!




On Friday, the whole town gathers to shuck the delicious corn. After the parade, they have all you can eat sweet corn. The best part {for a poor struggling Med Student and his family} is that it's absolutely FREE!

I've eaten corn my entire life. Who hasn't? This was the best corn ever! So delicious. Gabe thoroughly enjoyed himself. Julian, uhm, he liked the candy that they threw at the parade.

Here's Gabe riding the shuttle to the parade-the only way to go, in my opinion


Julian riding the bus


It was super hot! Like 90ish degrees with tons of humidity. Gabe was a thirsty guy


Julian obviously needs a haircut!


I love this crazy baby!


This was the best part of the parade....ok maybe not the best, but the most appreciated. That water felt amazing, because it was SO hot!


There were a lot of firetrucks {or were they engines?} from the surrounding cities. The boys enjoyed them, aside from the loud siren. Gabe didn't like the sirens so much.


We promised Julian that there would be tractors, and were there ever!


There was also a fabulous marching band. Barry and Julian loved it. Barry was a bit jealous though, that the students were able to wear jeans or shorts, and a marching band t-shirt. He had to wear one of those funny marching band outfits.

The Adel Rotary Club rode this crazy bike. There were probably 10 or so people riding it!


I just love how this one turned out


I've never in my life been able to do a cartwheel. I was always too tall or too awkward. In the middle of the parade was this tumbling troupe. These less than 10 year old girls doing super duper fancy tricks in the middle of the street. I was very impressed!

We know this guy a little TOO well


I love these little kids in the corn suits!


LOVE this car


You can't read this sign, but it says Raffle for 1/2 hog!


Town Center


Here we are waiting for sweet corn


Here it is! The sweet corn!



Barry cheesing with his corn



Here's James



Natalie


Brov going to town


J was bummed-he ate all his ice cream.


SO sweaty, and drinking shakey water


It was so much fun! We can hardly wait for next year's festival.

Honestly...

...I have the best kids possible.

We flew from Seattle this morning home to Iowa. Our flight left Seattle at 6:10 am, which means we had to be at the airport SUPER early. I literally set my alarm clock for 3:00 am! I honestly have never seen that side of three am before! Gabriel woke up shortly after I did, we all 3 slept downstairs at my MIL's house. Gabe slept in the crib, and got the best night's sleep for the whole week. Julian fell asleep shortly before 9, and woke up at 3:30 when I was attempting to get him dressed without waking him! HA! We all got dressed and piled into my FIL's car (bless him for taking us soooooooooooooo early this morning), and battled no traffic to the airport. There weren't many people at the airport, which meant security wasn't absolutely horrible, just a little bad. Also, bless the TSA agent that after my stroller went through the x-ray machine, popped it open so I could put Gabe in instead of watching me struggle with the 29347329874032 bags and baby paraphernalia that I needed to travel with! We got to our gate with time to spare, so I tried, with no avail, to get Julian to potty. I then decided pastries would be fabulous, and spent the best $8 of my life.

Seriously. If traveling with children, buy this, or something like it. No lie, Julian colored almost the entire flight from Seattle to Chicago. Insane. Gabe and I napped, and Julian colored. We had a 3ish hour layover in Chicago. I was starving, and I assumed the boys were starving as well. I stopped at the first restaurant I saw, McDonalds, and ordered lunch. I packed everything into the basket under our stroller, took 2 steps and dropped my diet Coke onto Gabe's head. It bounced off his head and splashed ALL over the floor. Oh man! I was sooo embarrassed. A fellow traveler helped me mop up the soda/pop from the ground. I could tell he was mortified for me, as well as praying that I and my 2 kids weren't going to the same town he was! We made our way to our gate, and thus far the Chicago O'Hare airport wasn't living up to it's horrid reputation. I kept imagining that I was seeing celebrities, ha! The boys are like birds, and then were soooo done and we still had 3 hours until we boarded! Yipes!
Enter Alex! The most adorable 19 month old girl I've ever seen. The boys were both in love, and I think that she might have had a thing for Gabe! She hugged and kissed him so much. However, Julian was more her speed...like fast wise. They ran together and were sooo cute. Yeah we got dirty looks for letting our kids run a muck, but seriously, I didn't blame them for going crazy! They weren't totally a muck anyway, we were riiiight behind them, most of the time. Alex and her mommy boarded their plane, and we were back to square one. Restless & bored. We ran to the bathroom, where Julian finally peed, and then went to a book store. We bought this at Barbara's Bookstore. (Carly, that's what I'm getting Big G for his birthday. He will looooove it.) Both boys played with it. <3

Chicago sort of lived up to its reputation. They changed our gate twice about 15 minutes before we were going to board. Serious stress out by me! OI! We made it on the plane, and the boys were super fab! I have the best travelers ever! Never made a peep, except for Gabriel laughing because he kept stealing J's bink, and J was sleeping!

Next up for us, operation bye bye binky! Wish us luck! This operation starts tomorrow. We're also going to buy a Beta fish.