A Tale of the Traveling Sisters

My sister and I and all FIVE of our kids took a road trip back to our old stomping grounds of southwest Iowa. One of our cousins got married on Friday night, but we made several other stops along the way.

We left at 10:00a on Friday. The first stop (after stopping in Adair to eat sack lunches and feed the baby boys) was to visit my grandma and grandpa in Red Oak, Iowa. Brady and Mya gave Kate and I a hard time because we drove past the Red Oak water tower four different times trying to find my aunt's house! Bummer that they are old enough to know we were lost! Kate and I were laughing hysterically.

One of our cousins and his family (who live in Utah) happened to be visiting at the same time. We haven't seen them in about five years. Below are a bunch of grandpa and grandma's great grandchildren. Only four were missing. Angelica (holding Abram) is half Hispanic and had been looking forward to meeting Abram!
We left Red Oak and drove to Treynor, Iowa, to the friend's house (Josh & Shelly Guttau) where we were spending the night so we could catch our breath and get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was in Council Bluffs. We unloaded everyone out of the car and got three steps away from the car when Kate and I realized we forgot Greysen! Had we gotten further away, it might not have been so funny, but we laughed pretty hard about it.

I don't have any pictures of the actual wedding or the bride and groom (oops). But, plenty of pictures of the kids at the reception.

Sydney only took a nose-dive off of her chair THREE times during the evening. That girl is quite the rough one! Jason and I have her pinned as the athletic one of the bunch.

I mostly hung out with Abram at the reception . . . while supervising Sydney eating her cupcake, which was quite the mess as you can see above!

Mr. Big Eyes!

Kate & Greysen

Good thing Dad was with us. He had Greysen-duty most of the time . . .

After the wedding and the girls had a BLAST playing with Joslyn Guttau, who is four. They were like three peas in a pod!

Saturday morning (late morning) we met Dad and Mitch for breakfast at the Treynor Clubhouse (at the golf course). Kate and I had our very first jobs in high school at this place! Dad's best friend, Kenny, joined us too, of course.

Uncle and the boys (thank you Brady for displaying the lovely menu!)

Papa and Abram

After breakfast (which was now noon), Mitch took the kids for a ride in the golf cart. Sydney wasn't loving it so much.

Our next stop was to visit one of Kate and my best friends from high school, Dana (bummer, no pictures of this stop). She lives in Treynor and her and her husband just had their second baby last week. So, it was good timing to stop to see them.

The other great timing is that our cousin Donell had her baby on Friday. We knew she was due that day, but didn't know if we she would have the baby during the time we were back for the wedding. At the beginning of last week, we found out she would be induced on Friday. So, Saturday afternoon, we got to go see her in the hospital in Omaha.

Donell with Courtney Lois Kvall

She is such a doll!

It was such a blessing to get to see her!

Unlike Mary Greeley Hospital, the kids got to be in the room. Aunt Janell (Donell's mom) held Abram the whole time.

And she entertained Mya. I learned on this trip that Mya is introverted. We were in several different situations with several people she didn't know very well. At first, Kate and I thought she was tired, but when she would get in the car and just her and Brady would play or when she played with Joslyn (who she knows), she would be SO happy and like a whole different girl. I identified it easily because I am introverted and know the feeling of being with a lot of people you don't know very well.

Meanwhile, Uncle Wendell (my dad's brother . . . can't you tell!), entertained Sydney and Greysen . . .

Brady became obsessed with the camera and must have taken this one of Uncle Wendell and Sydney being so silly!

We got home around 8:00p on Saturday. I think we got in and out of the car a total of 19 times in the 35 hour trek! At one point I was carrying Abram in his car seat in my right hand and carrying a very sleeply Sydney on my left hip. No wonder my shoulders were killing me yesterday! Even though Kate and I were WIPED OUT by the time we got home, it was such a fun trip and definitely something I'm sure we will do again. Praise the Lord for allowing me to be a mom and not work so I could do this with my sister. It was priceless!