{Good ol' Iowa}

As if we hadn't been on the road enough lately....

Why not throw in an 11 hr. drive to Iowa?

Yes a week after the kids and I got back to Casper from Utah we loaded

up the van with ourselves and 3 of our favorite people and headed

out to Iowa.

(but that week in between...we spent packing up our whole house!

so fun, I know!)

It was a pleasant drive and all 3 kids did very well.

We rolled in late Sunday night but woke up Monday

morning ready to hit up the zoo with our friends,

Rykker, Brigham, and Mindy Stromberg.

After a year of being apart, Addie and Rykker reunited

like they had seen eachother yesterday! They had so much

fun exploring the zoo together and the new Dinosaur

exhibit they had there. They were side by side the whole time.

We saw lots of fun animals and we even got

to ride the zoo train. Trey thought riding the train

was heaven. He was grinning ear to ear the whole ride.

And the other kids loved it too. Thanks again Mindy

Rykker and Brigham for inviting us to the zoo.

Next stop on the list:

PELLA!!!

And when I say list I mean list. Addie had a list

of places we had to go when we were in Iowa.

The zoo being one of them and Pella being another.

She loves pella. And who wouldn't love this sweet

little dutch town full of dutch charm.

The morning started out stormy and rainy so I was hesitant

to make the 45 min drive. But Addie convinced me we

should still go. Well, as it turned out we had beautiful

sunny weather the whole 2 1/2 hours we were there!

And you can't go to Pella without having a treat from

the awesome Jaarsma Bakery. Dutch pastries of all

sorts and chocolate and nuts galore! The kids

always go for the brightly colored frosted

sugar cookies.

I have yet to go to Pella when the Tulip festival is going on.

The town is covered in beautiful tulips and i'm dying to

see it. Maybe at Ty's graduation we'll be able to see them!

You also can't go to pella and not watch the

Klokenshpel. This is Addies favorite part.

The clock goes of every odd hour and plays a 10 min

chime/song and little figurines that come out at the windows

below the clock. Each figure represents some sort

the Pella history. Yet another great trip to Pella!

And no more than 5 min after getting on the road to

head back to Des Moines it started to

DOWN POUR rain, and not just sprinkles. I mean

the classic Midwest down pour! I miss that kind of rain....

We couldn't have picked a more beautiful time of year

to go to Iowa. Yes it was hot and sticky because of the

humidity, but it was also so GREEN and lush. With

wild flowers everywhere!! I miss the tall green cornfields

and flowers that grow where ever and all over!

Our trip was short and sweet. After 4 fun days of being back

in Des Moines, IA we made the 11 hr. trek back to Casper.

Ty was amazing as usual and drove the entire way home.

I got to sit back and watch the MILLIONS of bugs splatter

on our windshield...yes those are all bugs on our windshield in

that picture...not rain. Our windshield was covered inch to inch

with bug splats! But even more fun was the rain/lightning storm we drove

through at about midnight. The lightning was amazing and lit up the

entire sky around us. I love lightning storms and they don't get much

better than in the Mid West!

We had such a great time in Iowa. It made me miss it so much

and all our great friends that are there. A huge thanks to

one of those good friends for letting us stay at their house

while we were there! And a thanks to Ty's school for making

him come back to do some mandatory testing at the school so

we could come back and visit. So I guess in reality, the kids

and I were the ones that really had fun...while Tyler was

being tested everyday and studying more every night.

Although, he did manage to go out shopping with us at all our

favorite places for an entire afternoon!! And believe it or not

we ALL had a fun time shopping...yes even Tyler!!