On Monday morning we packed a few things and headed out for the three hour drive to Albia, Iowa and my Great Aunt Ruth and Great Uncle Bob's house. The kids did well on the drive; Wes refused to take a nap, but other than that we made it there unscathed. It was so great to see Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bob! They came to California for our wedding in 2003, so it's been quite a while. We arrived around 11:00 and my mom's cousin Jane and her husband Ernie arrived shortly after. We were so thankful that Jane and Ernie made the drive from Corydon since Jane had just had hip surgery, (hope you are healing well Jane!) and had a nice lunch and visit in my aunt and uncle's new enclosed porch.
I was so excited to come to Iowa this trip since I figured the last time I was here I was 19! It was great to be able to come as a family too, though I know my dad was bummed he missed this trip because he always loves coming to Iowa.
When my mom called Aunt Ruth when we got to Omaha to tell her we were in town and were wanting to come to Iowa, she made some phone calls to all the local relatives and we ended up having an impromptu family reunion! Uncle Chris, Aunt Michelle and the girls even made the round trip drive from Omaha on Monday so they could be there too.
We took a walk into town to see how things have changed since our last visit. Albia is a small mid-west town with the traditional town square and I was a little bummed that we were there on Memorial Day because everything was closed. Even the old fashioned soda fountain, where I was looking forward to getting a banana split! (next time for sure!)
After our walk, Aunt Ruth got out some water balloons for Wes and Mike to play with and it turned into a bit of a water fight between those two. But they had fun and Aunt Ruth's plants got watered, so it was a win-win!
Our family started arriving a little bit after that and we enjoyed a dinner of pizza, salad and pie for dessert plus lots of visiting.
Such a great day and evening!
On Tuesday morning Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bob took us to breakfast before we needed to hit the road back to Omaha.
...and Mike had to go fetch them. Wes wasn't interested in getting into the car, I think he really liked Iowa!
Before we left we made a quick stop at Uncle Bill's house for a little visit.
The kids both slept on the drive home and were a little bit rested for one more trip to La Casa when we got back to Omaha.
We decided to leave Wednesday morning because the loads looked ok and we had definitely squeezed in everything we wanted to do on our vacation. We made it out of Omaha to Denver with no problem, then grabbed some lunch while we waited for the connection to Orange County. And unfortunately we had to split up again to get home - Grammy, Wes, Cora and I got on the flight to SNA, but Mike had to go to Ontario. But the bummer about it was there was an empty seat on the flight to Orange County! With all my years working in the airline industry and with all of today's technology, I don't understand why they can't figure out who's butt is in what seat!! We were the last ones to get on the plane and when I told the flight attendant my husband was trying to get on this flight too, the pilots actually had them pull the jet bridge back and had the agent look for him (totally unheard of, but much appreciated!!) Unfortunately I pretty much knew he had already booked it down to the Ontario gate at the other end of the airport. But he got on that flight, Grandpa Al was able to pick him up and drive him home, and he arrived home not too long after we did. We had a great vacation, and are so thankful to all our family for letting us stay in their homes and hotels :) And Mike and Cora definitely enjoyed their first trip to Nebraska and Iowa!
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