Monday, June 14, 2010

Visiting Iowa

Our family had a fabulous trip out to Iowa to visit Mike's grandma. She is a wonderful, giving, and loving person. We always wish that we lived closer to one another. Below are fifteen of our favorite memories...

(1) Making waffles with Grandma Norma and sampling the bacon "because that's the cook's job."


(2) Playing in Grandma's garage in big boxes

(3) Swimming in the community pool in Avoca, IA...the boys first time down a water slide. Over and over and over and over...that's Eli near the top


(3) Belgian Hill Farm in Oakland, IA - Grandma's extended family


(4) Taking a ride with "Charlie the Cowboy" on the farm. You know that anyone who wears a cowboy hat must be a cowboy

(5) Sweetness - Sadie and the hay


(6) I would buy a farm and fill the barn with hay just to smell it every day...reminds me of my Grandpa Givens' farm


(7) Luke telling Grandma, "...When we have pot roast at home it is hard, but this is really tender and yummy."


(8) Seeing horsey sperm wiggling around under a microscope at the farm, learning more than I ever wanted to know about artificial insemination of Belgian Horses (fyi - they send their goods all over the country in case you need some) and thankful that we weren't there for the collection process that morning. Even more thankful that after seeing the sperm, the boys didn't ask questions on the spot.


(9) Did I mention that we loved swimming?

(10) Dominoes with Grandma and getting lots of hugs


(11) Playing outside Grandma's house WITH Grandma, a spry, young octogenarian

(12) Grandma's got all the connections - we're out in her friend's field examining a windmill up close

(13) "Whoa, that is tall!" Iowa is full of corn, pigs, and wind farms - a big change since we were out two years ago.


(14) Elijah saying, "I hate it when family leaves our house, but I hate leaving our family's house even more." Sniff, sniff.


(15) Deafening silence as we waved our final good-byes and drove away with tears in our eyes not knowing when we'll get back to Grandma's again.

5 comments:

Liana said...

Seeing the picture of you smelling hay made me...gasp. THEN it made MY eyes itch and I sneezed.
Hay & I don't get along.

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful gramma!

Angela said...

love u smelling the hay, luke's quote and the pic of the kiddos in the box. nate is looking at the pics and missing his friends.

Olivia said...

It's obvious Gramma loves you all and that you had a blast! I, too, loved the one of you smelling the hay.

Mrs. Guthrie said...

Luke's quote was hilarious! Gotta love kids' honesty!! :) Totally understand the tears and the silence! We go through the same every time we leave my grandma's!! Glad you had a great time out there! (And thank goodness those boys didn't ask questions on the spot! lol)