Christmas Break Trip #1- Day 1 and 2 (Iowa)

That's right. We took more than one trip over Christmas break. The first trip was a 7-day loop through Iowa and Minnesota. My mom had planned spending Christmas in Minneapolis with my brother, Kelsey, and Eva. When we found out that Eric's schedule was going to have him flying over Christmas, I asked if she would be willing to drive so the boys and I could go with her. Originally, we planned to drive to southwestern Minnesota to visit my grandma, Minneapolis to David, Kelsey, and Eva, and finally Iowa to my aunt and uncle's farm. Sadly, my grandma passed away a week before we left, so we modified our route so we could attend her memorial service in Minnesota at the end of our trip.

Saturday, Day 1:

I furiously completed grading on Friday so my mom and I could hit the road right away on Saturday. The boys volunteered for the first shift:

All loaded up and ready to go:

My mom drove all but about an hour of the trip. When I drove a short stretch in Nebraska, the boys threw big-time fits. I guess they wanted to make sure I could still cater to their every need.

We had a little snag in our plans when we hit stand-still traffic out by the Denver airport. There must have been quite the accident to clean up because it took about an hour before we were moving again.

Still in Colorado when we stopped in Ft. Morgan for lunch:

We found a McDonald's with great play area:

It had a slide (not pictured) and this water area. Later in the trip, the boys asked to go to the place with the water slide. My mom finally figured out that they were referring to this McDonald's. I'm glad she figured it out, because I had no idea why they were talking about water slides in the middle of winter.

Match box cars for Aiden and a Leap Pad from Grandma for Reid:

A good nap for Aiden, but none for Reid. Who can nap with an in-car DVD player showing non-stop episodes of Caillou?

I actually really enjoyed all the time in the car. The boys did a really good job and I was able to do some crafty projects. Plus, no grading! I finally finished a family cross-stitch that I started this summer. I found the idea from Martha Stewart on Pinterest. I had done most of it before Aiden had glasses, so I added those in. I also put a baseball on Reid's sporty shirt and added the words above and below. Now, to get it framed before this summer.

Finally saw more snow once we hit Nebraska:

Good to see familiar landmarks along the way. The Maranatha Bible Camp:

Giving the monkeys some bananas:

Half-way there?

For supper we stopped at a Wendy's in Grand Island, NE. When we first arrived there were a few customers, including an older gentleman who offered each of the boys a dollar bill for coming over to say "Hi". Stranger-danger or just nice Midwestern charm? I'm hoping the latter. By the time we sat down to eat, there was only one guy, so the boys had a chance to run around a little bit after being cooped up all day.

Hello, Iowa!

14 hours after we left, we arrived in Huxley. Luckily, the boys slept for a few hours in the van, but they were a little out of sorts when we woke them up. Reid wasn't sure he wanted to greet anyone:

Marita set out some beautiful luminaries to greet us:

Sunday, Day 2:
The boys were friendlier in the morning and enjoyed playing catch with my cousin Paul:

When in Iowa...

Paul took the boys for a ride in the truck over to the see the cows. The boys loved it!

Watching their new best friend Paul as he went to go put the truck away:

Bonding over a game of Temple Run on the iPad:

Julie was allowed to watch too:

Monkeying around:

With Uncle Gene too:

Water break. These two crack me up:

Naptime! Instead of Pack-n-plays, we took sleeping bags along this time around. It was so nice to not have to lug around and set up the Pack-n-plays at each stop. Obviously, the boys are used to sleeping next to each other:

Even better- The pig has lights!