While we were in Idaho we stayed at my Uncle Jeff & Aunt Tiffany's house! We love them to pieces, so we were thrilled that they let us stay with them. All the little kids were in heaven and having so much fun. Anytime we would leave the house all the grandkids would just keep saying...

We just want to go back to Jeffany's house.

(Not sure which kid thought of that...But they all caught on. It was pretty cute).

"Jeffany" have a canal that runs right behind their home.

Yes, we were all a nervous wreck any time we didn't know where the kids were.

But at last, we all survived their beautiful backyard. 

As we were outside roasting hotdogs one day Jake threw out an awesome idea. 

Boat races down the canal?...You betcha!

We all teamed up and made a boat. Only rule was it had to have some sort of "flag" on it.

Team Chake

Jake and Chanel went Huck Finn style and built a raft.

Team Bratt

Dad and Britt were brilliant and went all natural and very simple.

Team Taynner...or Tannler (I don't remember)

Tanner & Tayler went chunky. Big blocks of wood, lots of tape, and even spray paint:)

Team Skrooke

Skyler and Brooke thought they would be cool and build a pontoon style boat ;)

What happened to the other boats you ask? Well, they struggled...all the way to the finish line. Ryan fished a couple of the boats off the bank, sending them on there way to hopefully finish the race. 

1st Place - Team Tanler

2nd Place - Team Bratt (finishing 1-2 seconds after 1st place)

3rd Place - Team Skrooke (finished 3 mins. later) Turns out our boat went faster after it took on water.

4th Place - Team Radie (coming in another 2-3mins after 3rd place)

5th Place - Team Chake (finished about 8-10 mins after 1st place) Practically got pushed through the finish line!bahaha

An eventful day at Jeffany's raceway!

And we can't wait to go back.

We took a little family drive to City Park.

Only to find it COMPLETELY UNDER WATER....whhatttt???

Ok, so we actually drove around to look for cool places to take pictures of the flooding, but we really didn't know it was already this bad.

Yeah, that's right. Iowa City is flooding again.

There was a major flood in 2008 that ruined like half the town. I don't think they're predicting that much water this year, but enough to cover roads, walking/bike trails, and apparently parks ;) 

This kind of water is mind blowing to me.

I grew up in a town with a DRY river bed. We prayed for rain in every prayer we ever said...and still do. You couldn't even turn your sprinklers on sometimes...I guess the farmers needed the water more than our green grass :) I'm so used to being in a drought warning NOT a flood warnings.

So crazy!

The Iowa river runs right through downtown Iowa City, and right by the University. So everything downtown right now is surrounded by giant sand walls/bags. Some buildings had big metal walls built around them(probably in hopes that it will protect the brand new buildings that were reconstructed after being destroyed by the 2008 flood.)

This is City Park. Yep, a park...not a lake. The river runs to the right of it and as you can see overflowed into the park.

Below you can see how close the river is to the bridges. The walking bridges to get across the river are boarded off already.

When my mom was 14(I think) she lived in Rexburg(Idaho). The Teton dam broke and completely flooded her town. Almost everything in town was washed away, including her house...(if I remember correctly). We loved hearing stories and seeing pictures of the flood, because it's not something you can even imagine as a little kid. Although these pictures don't even come close to the pictures my Mom showed us, I thought it would be fun to get a few "flood" pictures of my own.

Don't worry, we don't live close to the river. We're safe...at least we think we are:)