Albert's Iowa visit

My cousin Albert told me that he would have a week long break from Princeton and planned to visit us the first week of November. YAY! What exciting news! We love having family visit us! It proved to be a fun week for all.

While Peter was off to school, the girls and Albert got some two-on-one time. As Albert tossed leaves up in the air, Elaine found the concept of gravity hilarious.

Natalie had a nice picnic lunch with Albert, talking about who knows what!

A little bit of chase was good fun. Elaine showed her "fierce side".

Who wouldn't run from this little monster!

The ever-popular duck-duck-goose...at least our kids' version of it!

Albert was impressed with Natalie's gymnastics class stunts and tried some himself.

It was fun to see Natalie show her stuff, and a quick way for me to realize how old my body is and what it's not capable of anymore!

One day, we ventured to Pheasant Hill Park in search of the "Mighty Sword" geocache. With so many clues and exact coordinates, we could not find the geocache. We searched high...

and low...

with no luck but some good times in a park on a nice evening.

Despite the chilly air, we headed toward a park one day for some playground and (finally) soccer action. Since Albert had played soccer for ten years, we thought it would be good for Peter to learn a few things from him!

Natalie showing us a treasure she found in the sand.
(if by chance you are reading this, and see that this is your lost bouncy ball, please let me know and I'll return it to you!)

A nice afternoon topped off with a good tire swing.

Another fun and most popular fun the kids had with Albert...hide-and-seek. This by far was the best time had by all. (I got some free time to actually clean up the kitchen every night while they played). Elaine had some crazy counting skills (2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 14...).

No trip to Iowa and the Burer house would be complete without the John Deere tractor drive. This may not be a big deal to most Iowans, but to us, it's cool to have a John Deere. It completes the "Iowa" in us and is something we like to share with visitors.

Sam gives the lesson to Albert on how to operate the mower.

Albert took a couple laps around the property and loved it.
I think his words were "This is awesome!"

Thank you cousin Albert for visiting us in Iowa! We hope you had a great time! The kids loved having you here and surely do miss you, "Abert"!

It's a Halloween! Let's a go!

"Wii" are the new Super Mario Bros!

We started off the festivities with a neighborhood party. Amazingly, in attendance were over 50 people (30 of which were children)! We got most of them in the group picture!

Peter "Mario" might have met his match in Jakob "Darth Vader"!

Elaine "Toad" most definitely was having fun trick or treating. She even managed to say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you!" very clearly! I guess the positive reinforcement of a piece(s) of candy was all it took!


With the largest loot to date, we made it back home just in time for the kids to enjoy some of their treats before hitting bedtime. Natalie "Princess Peach" gives this year's Halloween a thumb (and sucker) up!