Road Trip to Iowa 2008

I am happy to say we all survived 32+ hours in the car together for the trip to and from Iowa. I must admit that as a mom of three I was a "little" apprehensive about the car ride--that's a lot of time in a confined area with little to do! But my kids surprised me because not only did we survive the trip, I think we even had fun (in the car, that is, I KNOW we had fun in Iowa...but I'll get to that in a minute). Ok, there were a few stressful times in the car when Emilia was just tired of being in her carseat and would scream for 30 minutes or so, but other than that, things were good. Who knew it could be so good? In fact, we're already planning the next road trip up there!

While we were in Iowa we had a BLAST! The boys went swimming almost every day, got to play with toy guns with great-grandpa, played games with the cousins, went to the playground at Camp Okoboji and stayed up waaaaaaay past their bedtime every night. We spent one evening at Arnold's Park, but next year I think we'll spend a whole day there because none of us were ready to leave but it was 8:30 and we hadn't eaten dinner yet! John and the boys went paddleboating on the lake, John and I went kayaking, and we tried to teach Josiah how to play "PIG." But the highlight of it all was getting to spend the week with family. We had such an awesome week. John was surprised at how much fun it was, afterall, what is there in Iowa other than corn? (which, by the way, we saw TONS of, but didn't eat any) But he's even excited about going back again next year.

My favorite part of the week was watching the boys play and just be with my grandparents. I love my grandparents because they're just awesome, but also because I have so many great memories of being at their house and being silly, eating cookies and just being loved on by them. It was beyond words to watch my kids getting to experience the same things. And I know they felt it, too, because when we were coming home Micah asked to go back to their house because "great grandma and great grandpa's house is fun-er than our house." And every night when we left to go to bed Micah would start to cry and say he didn't want to go home. I would tell him we were just going to the house we rented to sleep and we'd be back at great grandma and grandpa's tomorrow and just like that he would stop crying and say, "OK" and be fine. Josiah is already coming up with list of things he wants to do next year....Oh, and he wants to go to Riley's house tomorrow. If only she didn't live in Idaho! But he assures me that "Riley's mommy....what's her name again?" she said that they were going to come over. And beyond all of that, how many kids have a chance to play with their GREAT grandparents? It was awesome. I'm kicking myself for not taking any video while I was there, but I've got lots of pictures that I'll try to get into a slideshow to post tomorrow.

AND...a very, very happy SIXTIETH wedding anniversary to my grandparents!! How amazing is that? I love you both so, so much. It was so good to get to spend the week with you.