978 miles

This post is long overdue, but it has taken me awhile to find the time to assemble the pictures….
A few weeks ago, we embarked on what turned out to be a MAGNIFICENT road trip across Iowa! While our roadtrips used to include such destinations as Arizona, Puerto Penasco ~ Mexico, and San Diego, we’ve traded in the mixed CD’s for a car seat. While our “kid friendly” trips may sound a little drab they are filled with amazing memories and lots of laughs 🙂  I must admit that I am full of nostalgia at different times and for different reasons.  I can’t help but think back to the many wonderful – and oh so annoying- memories that I shared with my family packed into the backseat with my two brothers and mom and dad driving across the states.  It’s almost surreal that I am now seeing life from the other side of the car…. Instead of being the kid in the backseat saying “Are we there yet?” and “I’m HUNGRY!” (okay, I still say both of these!), I am the one navigating and driving and making decisions.

We started the trip with a late night trip to Nevada, Iowa to stay with Eric’s parents. Unfortunately, despite the fact that this was the kick-off to our fun trip, we didn’t get any pictures 🙁

On Thursday, we drove to Grinnell, Iowa where we visited the Collings. It was great to see Scott & Kara and fun to look at their new house and meet their pup! Brecken had fallen asleep on our drive there and being the (selfish),er, I mean, GOOD parents we are in valuing our kiddo’s sleep, we didn’t want to wake him. We let him continue his nap in the car (CAR ON, AC CRANKED!) while we toured their ground and talked. Before leaving, we did wake him up so he could at least say hi and show off his cute Hawk outfit that he happened to be wearing that they had given him as a gift. Again, we unfortunately didn’t think to snap a photo. You’ll soon see that we eventually DID get on the ball with photos!

From there, we met up with one of Eric’s college roommates and a good friend, Reed Woodford, who was making his ragbrai debut! It is ALWAYS a blast to catch up with Reed as he is uniquely interesting and just an all around great guy! We shared many laughs and I can honestly say Brecken liked him. So much so that over the next few days Brecken actually commented, “My nike Weed.” (a.k.a. My like Reed!).


While Eric stayed and hung out Reed and the New Belgium crew that evening, Brecken and I decided to beat the heat and head to Newton…. The NEW home of my brother and sister-in-law and their kiddos! It worked out great as they just moved in last week and it ended up being a wonderful opportunity to stop by and say hi! Hopefully we weren’t too much of a burden as we just showed up last minute…. We loved seeing them and were super happy to spend this special day with family.
You see, Thursday, July 28th was more than just our first full day of roadtripping…. It was my mom’s 53rd birthday! Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her and wish she were here to share in memories, stories, laughs, tears, and life. That said, I am able to keep going because we have shared in so many of those things during our short time together on earth. I grew up feeling like birthdays were special and wanted to continue that tradition for her. Steph had made cupcakes in honor of mom’s birthday and the kids were able to decorate them together after we arrived! We lit a candle and sang Happy Birthday to grandma 🙂

Next, it was time to send Grandma’s birthday balloons up to heaven!! The kids loved this and I enjoyed seeing the shades of purple floating “high up in the sky” as Brecken kept yelling 🙂

After saying goodbye to Steph, Emma, Ava, & Grady, Brecken and I went back to Ragbrai to see if we could find Eric. He was just getting back from a late night bike ride with the guys and just in time- The New Belgium crew needed Brecken’s muscles to help shut their trailer for the night. I’m not sure what they would have done without him!!!! 🙂

After goodbyes, it was late night driving to Coralville where we would spend the night in a hotel.

After a wonderful sleep-in the next morning, it was time to head to the Children’s Museum which was SO FUN! I had seen pictures from mom from their visits with the girls last fall and I actually teared up several times knowing Brecken would never get to experience it with her. It had so many fun exhibits and such great hands-on resources for the kids!! Brecken loved it and I would argue that we loved it just as much!

Cooking pizza in the restaurant…

Playing trains…

Whose ball will go down faster?
Building a car with Daddy….
Look how fast our car goes down the hill!
Look how many flips my ball can do!
Grocery shopping just like mommy & daddy.  At one point, he even told me to sit in the front of the cart, as he does when I take him grocery shopping 🙂  Ha!
It was really cute when an older boy wheeled his cart up to Brecken and started unloading his groceries while B was at the cash register.  I was expecting the “two-year old” response of “MY CASH REGISTER” or “MY FOOD” as I didn’t know that he would understand the interactive play.  He seemed to understand though and had a GREAT time playing with the big kid!!
Visiting the “farm…”
Hmmmm…… This looks a bit different than Papa Gott’s green tractors.
Brecken even visited the bank to learn about money….

Funny hat photo booth with daddy…

Brecken surprised me by going down the BIIIIIIG slide all by himself!

Our little pilot…

Brecken and Daddy’s first paper airplane!
Following our trip to the Children’s Museum, we walked around the mall to find B a Hawkeye cap.  He was VERY excited to see this extra large Herky and walked through the store yelled, “Go Hawkeyes!!”
Any place that has sinks at Brecken’s level is a WONDERFUL place to him!!
After leaving Iowa City, we drove a few hours to Davenport to check into our next hotel for the night.  We were meeting friends that night, but enjoyed the pool in the afternoon after nap 🙂

I will continue on with the rest of our roadtrip in an upcoming post!!!!!

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