The second half of the trip was spent with my side of the family. My mom had all the baby stuff sitting out when we arrived and I melted when I saw the quilt my grandma made for me as a baby. I’m a total sap when it comes to stuff like that.
When we planned our trip to Iowa weeks ago, I mentioned it to my friend Kristin and invited her to visit Iowa. She and her boyfriend (they were both in our wedding!) live in Florida so the Iowa humidity wasn’t much of a shock to her. However, we don’t have any nice beaches… But can I just say, this girl is truly a blessing. She has traveled all over the world to visit me: Colorado, Minnesota, Texas, Germany, Alabama, and now Iowa! Life can throw a person some tricky curve balls and we have been together through it all. She saves my sanity and is my 24/7 BFF – this is no joke! She was the first person to know I was pregnant with Della (I called her in the middle of her night from Greece to have her confirm that the pregnancy test was in fact positive because I was in such shock). She loves wine as much as me and loves my babies as her own.
Our little county fair was going that week so we spent an evening looking at the animals and tractors – Owen loved it!
The big kids loved it too… 😉
Della was fascinated by the horses, she couldn’t take her huge eyes off of them!
There were so many people staying at my parents house, but we had so much fun staying up late playing Apples to Apples, spending time together, playing in the yard and I know my parents loved every single crazy moment.
It’s a tradition to take the kids to Reiman Gardens, everyone always enjoys walking around the gardens. Della was fascinated by the butterfly garden and the boys got a kick out of the very impressive Lego displays scattered around the gardens.
Later in the week, we went to my grandparents’ farm for a day which is always a lot of fun. Other relatives stopped out to say hi and it was so great to see everyone! The kids had a lot of run running around (just like my cousins and I used to do) and they all got driving lessons on the Gator from Alex (ha, ohh the irony). My grandparents are very special to us and we are so fortunate to have them in our lives!
And we got Della’s first picture on the pig. She’s officially part of the family now.
The kids found a tiny baby robin that couldn’t have been more than a day old. Its mama gave me quite a scolding but I couldn’t resist taking its picture quickly.
Oh, how I have missed Iowa sunsets…
Our last day in Iowa was spent at the zoo. Della went crazy watching the animals — it was her first zoo trip. Owen has loved the zoo since he was 4 months old. We had a blast watching the monkeys and the giraffes. And laughing at everyone playing Pokemon Go (which is not a thing in Korea so we were totally blown away by the obsession).
Weeks like this with my family all together are so precious to me. Living overseas is incredible and I embrace every aspect of it to the best of my ability. I’m not saying I don’t have my days when I hate it because believe me, I do. These kids are growing up…the three oldest will be high school freshman this year! Whaaat?! So needless to say, I’m soaking it all up. This is the life, these are my people, God is good.