"Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland" {Iowa Part 1}

I cannot believe I haven't written since March 8th!  I suppose that's what vacation does to ya.  I have finally gone through the 300+ photos I took on the trip (mostly of Carly and her only first cousin, Cora), edited them and chosen which of each bunch would be the best to share.  I didn't realize how much of the trip I missed until I looked through them, but that's okay.

If you can't tell by the title of this post, Iowa was very cold while we were visiting and snowed I believe what was three times!  I couldn't stand it...I've grown so accustomed to not wearing socks and a coat that I was in complete discomfort.  Whenever we go to Iowa, though, I always talk about how great it would be to live there, so the entire trip Brian is always giving "points" to Florida.  Florida certainly started out ahead when we were welcomed by snow. ;)

Writing about the trip by breaking it down into days has been a format that works well, so I will do that again.  I have to split the trip up between two posts, however, because otherwise it would just be tooooo long!  So here it goes!

Day 1:

Brian and I were up early Saturday morning and got the car loaded up, turned on and backed out of the garage before going to get Carly.  We figured we would just transfer her over to the car and she would sleep the hour drive to the St. Petersburg airport.  But, she most certainly did not!  She giggled, yes, giggled the entire trip!  What a great way to start a vacation, listening to your sweet baby girl giggle in the back seat.  Brian dropped us off at the airport and after a few bumps of being misguided about the qualifications one must have when traveling with a lap child, we were on our way.  The flight was great once we found our own row to sit in, but the first hour was a bit rough.  I had exhausted all of our food, toys and books 25 minutes into our flight and the only thing Carly wanted to do was climb on the folks next to us.  We took a trip to the bathroom and discovered an empty row!  We jumped at the opportunity to have our own space and waited with anticipation to arrive at the homeland.

When we landed we were greeted by my parents, Grandpa & Nana.  My mom said that my dad had been so excited all morning he could barely stand it!  And rightfully so!  We headed to their "lovely" apartment in Urbandale so Carly could get a quick nap in.  Tiff joined us there and we had lunch at Legends.  We then ran some errands and headed to Ames, where I was greeted by a wonderful group of women who I was in Bible Study with the last few years of college.  There are 7 of us and at the time only 2 were married.  5 years later we are all married and 5 of the 7 of us have children.  Most of the kiddos were napping, so Carly & Silas were the only two babes present, but all the ladies who live in Iowa were able to make it (and only half live in Ames!).

That evening Brian arrived from his connecting flights (C & I always fly direct, Brian generally opts for a cheaper flight with stops) he joined us for dinner and it was off to bed.  Little did we know that Carly would be up for 4 HOURS in the night.  She wouldn't take anyone but me, despite multiple people volunteering, so I just rocked her while we stared at the ceiling.  By 4am I had only slept 2 hours in a 24 hour span of time, can Carly had only slept 7 hours.  We were both exhausted and she was quite hysterical.  She finally did sleep for about 3 hours and then went back down around 10am and slept for another 3, when we decided to wake her up.  I bet she would have slept all day.

Day 2:

It was a bummer that Carly didn't sleep in the night, because I didn't get to take her to church with me, but such is life.  At any rate, that's the first thing we did on day 2.  I was greeted so warmly by many people at E. Free and as always, enjoyed visiting. 

After church we woke Carly up and headed to Brian's parents for his brother, Nathan's birthday celebration.  Despite there being snow on the ground, Rhonda made us some delicious steaks with fruit and salad.  One of my favorite meals at the Weiss home.  G&G also have an abundance of toys, so Carly very much enjoyed exploring.

After leaving G&G's house, we drove down to Altoona for a joint 1st birthday party for Carly and Zola.  Shayla had super cute outfits picked out for the cousins to wear and ordered the coolest cake I've ever seen!

We very much enjoyed our time with my extended family and it was fun to get to celebrate Carly turning one even a month after her birthday.  We are still praying for a miracle to bring Devine home.  Shayla is a busy, busy mama, so she outdid her self by throwing such a great party!!  Here are some pics from the bash.

Trey & Piper, Shayla's youngest

Bow thief!

Carly, is that chocolate cake I see on your chin??

At the end of the party we got Carly in her jammies and she was out before getting on the interstate.  Fortunately, she slept much better the next night, and continued to only wake up once each night for the remainder of the trip to nurse and go back to sleep.

Day 3:

Monday morning we got up and laid low around the house with Nana, Trey, Tiff & her friend, Mikayla.  Carly started showing off her walking skills and improved every day we were there.  By the end of the trip she was walking like a pro!  Everyone loves spending time with Carly, but the men of the family give her extra attention.  Trey & my Dad always jump at the opportunity to get on the floor and play with her.  Carly also figured out that Trey likes to snack, so she joined in anytime he went into the kitchen. ;)

Brittany picked me up for lunch and we enjoyed some much needed catching up time at Great Plains Sauce & Dough Company.  MMMMM!!!  She also hadn't met Carly yet, so we came back and hung out with her a bit afterwards.  Britt was my personal attendant in our wedding and as been a good friend since my Sophomore year of college.

Later in the afternoon we ran down the street to visit the Roeth's, who we had actually just seen on their vacation to Orlando the week before.  I used to teach their oldest daughter piano, and we've kept in touch over the years.  They come down every year and we always make sure to see them!  They gave Carly a big bag of bows, DVDs and some other baby stuff while we were there.  She also had her first taste of an Oreo...and of course, loved it. :)

Monday evening we hung low and had a nice family dinner while we worked on our NCAA brackets.  Little did we know how wrong we would ALL be when making pics.  Ahh, the fun of sports!

Day 4:

Tuesday I got up and headed to Ames Racquet & Fitness Center to workout with my friend, Carley.  Her and I were workout buddies all throughout college and boy were we good at it!  We even trained for and ran a half marathon together before moving to Florida.  Carley and I also have such wonderful conversation, and we are good at bouncing ideas and advice off one another, always seeking spirit-filled dialogue.  We both realized just how much we have missed those great convos and workout buddy!!

Carly & I had lunch with Shana & Sophie Wilson while Brian was out with his mom.  Shana has always been a mentor to me and once again encouraged me to walk faithfully with Christ as I continue to pursue contentment here in Florida.  To me she seems like she has life all figured out, but I'm sure she would disagree with that.  She's been a blessing to me for as long as I can remember!

Tuesday afternoon was more family time and high energy play time for Carly & Grandpa.  Carly's personality is almost a replica of mine at her age, so my Dad plays with her just like he used to play with me. It's fun for me to picture him doing the same things with me when I was little.  In the next post I will insert a video of a game we played throughout the week.  It takes a special toddler to enjoying being tossed & jostled as much as this little peanut.

Tuesday afternoon Carly also took her first field trip to the basketball court for shooting practice!  She was really showing off her walking skills and was so excited when she found that she was able to walk while holding a basketball!  I absolutely love this picture as it will be one I'm sure we use 17 years down the road when she is a basketball super star! ;)

Tuesday evening Brian & I headed to Ankeny where we met Ted & Lindsay Gerber for dinner at HuHot.  What a delightful meal we had chatting with one of our favorite couples. :)

Day 5:

Wednesday it was off to work for my parents and off to North Liberty (Iowa City) for us.  But first we made a stop at the Office of Admissions, where I worked throughout college.  I always stop in there to say hi to my old supervisors and catch up on ISU life.  I miss working there I sincerely hope to work there again someday.  The ladies were so happy to see Carly and showered her with ISU cookies, rice crispies, toys and a T-shirt that said "Future Cyclone."  We shall see, we shall see.

Next up was play time at G&G's while I went to lunch at Olde Main Brewing Company with my dear friend, Renee.  Like many of my friends, I hadn't seen her in exactly a year, so catching up was a must.  I got to meet her new puppy and she came over to see Carly.  After she left we loaded up an overnight back and it was off to see Carly's godparents, Chris & Nikki in their BRAND NEW house!  We left right at nap time, assuming Carly would sleep on the way down, but boy were we wrong!! She did great for the first hour, but after that said "no more!" and wanted out!  We had to pull over for 10 minutes and let her roam about the car.  She did get back in her car seat to get back on the road, but complained about it the rest of the way.  Silly girl.

The Voss' house was modern, chic and absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed getting a tour of all the design elements they were able to pick out.  We are so excited for them and hope they start filling those bedrooms with littles in the near future!  They are currently parents to the two cutest dogs ever, Mia & Limit. It was a good thing we didn't bring any toys for Carly, because she was completely occupied with those dogs.  We heard so many giggles out of her that night! Exibit A:

And here are some photos of us with our littles:

I laugh every time I see this photo...

Spending time with the Voss' is one of our absolute favorite things to do...and the night did not disappoint!  I think we laugh harder with them than anyone else.  Chris' sarcasm is right up our alley and it's so fun to beat him in a game of cards! ;)  We wish we could have stayed at their place longer...maybe next time.

Day 6:

We are halfway through our vacation!! See, I told you I would need two posts to crank out the summary of our trip.  Thursday morning we got up and spent some more time with the Voss', then attempted to get in the car at nap time again so Carly could sleep on the drive to my Grandma's in Pleasant Hill.  This time, thankfully, she did sleep most of the drive, so Brian & I got some much needed chat time in.  When you have a child, you don't realized how many conversations you don't have that used to just happen without thought.  Hence why it's so important for parents to date.  We truly need to work harder at that...but our frugality of not wanting to hire a babysitter gets in the way every time.

We arrived to Mimi's house at noon hungry and ready for some NCAA March Madness!!  We stuffed our bellies all day long, played multiple games of ping pong, and glued our eyes to the massive TV she has in her living room.  She had a nacho bar set up, monkey bread, coconut-strawberry ice cream dessert, hoagie sandwiches, dried beef and chicken casserole and her famous homemade spaghetti.  Mmmmm, delicious!!  Carly bounced from person to person and I got some snuggles in on the love sack.  :)

Once again we got Carly in her jammies and headed to Ames where we would spend the next half of our trip at G&G Weiss'.  Stay tuned for our Iowa March Vacation Part 2!