Aunt Alissa's visit

We had a visit from our dear Aunt Alissa a few weeks ago. We showed her the main attraction of our city--the river. And we all practiced up on our rock skipping abilities.

It has been difficult for me to post the fairly frivolous activities of the Horn family as my thoughts have been frequently taken to our dear friends and extended church family in Cedar Rapids impacted by the truly unbelievable flood. It is very surreal to see your old stomping grounds completely underwater and recognizing all the landmarks in the pictures. Three of our four children were born at the hospital that was evacuated (which, I might add, is normally no where near the river). Disasters like this truly put life into perspective. Our prayers are with you in Iowa. Now and as you prepare for the months of clean up ahead...

do you know how to spell roly poly bugs aka potato bugs?

John's quips of the day:

• As I stumbled blurry-eyed out of my bedroom this morning this was the question posed to me from John--still in his bed: "Do grasshoppers eat roly-poly bugs Mommy?" Do you know the answer to that question? Fortunately, Joe did and he happened to be awake enough to answer it. (and just now Joe and I had a waaay too long of a discussion on how to even spell roly-poly bugs)
• "Mommy, I'm wicked hungry" (okay, so maybe we've watched The Incredibles one too many times)

More pictures

Here are some more priceless pics of the kids. Thanks again Lindy--you truly manage to capture their personalities in a snapshot of time.

the summer tradition begins...

Today we kicked off a summer tradition that we started last summer. However, last summer it was a very sporadic tradition to say the least since we were in the process of selling a house, packing, moving, etc. Anyway, the tradition is Sunday afternoon at the pool. We go to church, come home and take a nap (of course!) and then head to the pool around 3:30pm. We swim until we drop and then we stop for ice cream on the way home. Then we usually settle in for a family movie since everyone is so whipped from the pool. Tonight the movie of choice was The Incredibles--one of the Horn family favorites ("That was totally wicked!"). Anyway, I don't have any pictures to share with you because my batteries in my camera are dead. So you will just have to trust me that there were some priceless moments--Sara's first time down a serious water slide, Nathan wearing my goggles around the pool, Ashley's first time down a serious water slide, John looking his normal adorable self with his blue goggles on so tight that they made his eyes bug out... I'll take my camera the next time. BTW, meaning no offense to all you Iowans, but our pool here is waaaay cooler then the one we had there and so much less stressful to me. They have a huge kids area with a kiddie slide, water guns, sprinklers, etc--kind of like a splash pad on steroids. It was great and now I'm whipped so I'm sure we'll all sleep well tonight.