Iowa Visit Part 1

We all headed down to Iowa last Tuesday and were there until yesterday. All but a few hours were spent with Nate's family. His brother's family came up too to visit. The kids had a wonderful time playing and it was so much fun watching them spend time together. It was also really special for Grandpa and Grandma to have all four at one time. We spent the week, going to the local water park, go-carting, celebrating Thanksgiving, shopping, seeing Nate's entire extended family and lots of playing. Just a few pictures from our week, sadly we were having so much fun that we did not take too many.
A special thank you to Mike and Kathy for hosting us for the week and making it a memorable Thanksgiving holiday.

Labor Day Vacation

For this Labor Day weekend, Nate, Elyse and I headed south, and I mean way south to Albuquerque, NM. We decided right after the loss of baby boy that we needed to get away. So we booked flights to see Nate's brother's family. It was wonderful, relaxing and just what we needed. Besides Elyse's lack of sleep, it was a perfect vacation.

While down there we spent a lot of time watching the kiddos play together, playing cards and eating delicious food. However, we also spent some of our time...
going to see rhinos, elephants, and hippos at their beautiful zoo,...
putting the kids in tutus (Liam will HATE this picture in the future),...
swimming in their indoor hot tub, (super fun and relaxing),...
playing at the park and...
celebrating Elyse's 2nd b-day, that's right, she turns 2 Wednesday!

A special thank you to Shawn, Amelia, Liam and Greta for hosting us. We love you all lots and look forward to doing it again soon.

Fourth of July Weekend

We were super busy this past fourth of July. We hopped into the car on Friday with my mom and drove south to Nebraska to celebrate my mom's family's reunion. We went to a log cabin resort and it was super great to see everyone. The only bummer is we didn't take a lot of pictures and it rained on Sunday. We were able to play lots of games, go to a great look out tower, mini golf, feed horses and even Elyse got to play in the big indoor playground. (If I can get some pictures from my mom and sister-in-law I will upload those later.)

Although one of my favorite things to do was help my mom host a surprise baby shower for my brother and sister-in-law who are expecting in late September. It was so fun and we can't wait to meet our new nephew or niece soon.

Mother's Day Weekend

This past weekend, Nate, Elyse and I headed south to Iowa to visit Nate's family. His brother, sister-in-law and thier kids were in town visiting from New Mexico. We had a wonderful time and it was nice to see everyone at one time. We spent most of the weekend watching the kids play, playing cards, eating great food and talking. Only down sides were that it just went by too fast and we only got a handful of pictures.

Since we were in Iowa or in the car, I never got to wish all you mom's a Happy Mother's Day. Therefore, Happy Belated Mother's Day!

Road Trip to Iowa

This past weekend, Nate, Elyse and I traveled south to visit Nate's family and one of my best friends, Joni (Stauffer) Bowman. Even though six hours in the car with a 17 month old can get tiresome, the trip was worth it. We had a wonderful and very relaxing time. It was great spending time together and we look forward to doing it again soon.

Thanks for the great hospitality and all the goodies, Dad and Mom/Grandpa and Grandma.
Nate, Elyse and I with Nate's parents, Mike and Kathy
Nate and Elyse with Nate's Grandpa Kaiser and his Mom Elyse giving Great Grandpa Kaiser a kiss, precious
Elyse and I with my girl, Joni. Best picture I could get. Elyse and Joni hanging out. Thank you Joni for the gift!

Memorial Weekend

Last Friday, Nate, Elyse, my mom and I traveled 6 hours to a Chicago suburb to visit my Nana Speckman. Nana hasn't ever seen Elyse so it was extra special. Elyse is her first great granddaughter and like Elyse, Nana is also adopted. Elyse loved seeing her, she was constantly smiling. After staying for an hour, we got back in the car and drove another 4 hours to Michigan to stay with my brother, Steven and sister-in-law, Kim. Elyse did wonderful in the car, but does NOT sleep well at all. I expect her to spend the next few days catching up on her zzzz's. While in Michigan we played games, went to the park a few times, visited goats at a nursery, went to a parade and visited with Kim's side of the family. We think of them as family, they are amazing people and Kim's sister has a precious five month old girl. A special thanks to Aunt Kim for buying them adorable matching outfits. Overall, it was a very fast and wonderful visit.
Thanks for everything Steven and Kim, we love you lots and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Out with the Old, In with the New

OLD: NEW: Since Elyse's old car seat was a older Graco Snug n'Ride, it only had two slots to raise the straps. Therefore, since she is getting so long we knew for her safety and comfort it was time to get the next size car seat. Plus getting her in and out with the old one was really getting harder and harder. We found this one at Babies R'Us and love it! It's an Evenflo Symphony and goes all the way to a booster seat at 100 lbs. As you can see from the picture below, Elyse loves it too.

By the way,does anyone know why a child has to be rear facing till 1?

Wonderful Saturday, HORRIBLE Sunday!

Wonderful Saturday: spent the morning enjoying sometime with our amazing friends and hosts, Brandon and Kelly Fischer. Then Elyse and I got to join Kelly to visit our friends Mark, Mandy and their son, Callen. Lastly and the best part of Saturday was attending Nate and Jess Eagles' wedding. It was beautiful, Jess looked beautiful plus it was awesome to see old friends!!!! I felt like we knew more people that attended their wedding than their parents may have. Elyse also went and did great; but who wouldn't when you constantly got so much attention? Overall, Saturday was wonderful, so wonderful I even forgot to take 1 picture...sorry

HORRIBLE Sunday: rumor had it there was going to be a blizzard in IA. So we woke up, got dressed right away and headed home at 9:00. We knew we only had to make it about 50 miles and would be fine. The snow was coming down pretty fast, plus the wind was getting more strong. Got pass Story City and realized it was getting thicker and we should turn around and stay in Ames another night. So we were going to take the next exit...133. We saw the sign, got closer and then right on Interstate 35, no movement! We sat for about 1 hour. We only needed to go 50 feet. Finally we moved those 50 feet to the exit. Proceeded on the ramp, but in previous 1 hour, the snow feel like crazy and we got stuck! Now we were on the ramp stuck, yet the cars in front of us were still stuck on 35 anyways. This is the part where my amazing husband told me it was going to be fine. We had God on our side, plenty of extra clothes, water, food and gas. Therefore, we sat!!! It was now about 11:30 and the fun began. A snowplow was coming down our ramp, yeah he was going to rescue us, so we thought! However, as he tries to get past us he got stuck! That's right, a snow plow is now stuck. He tells us he has to call another snow plow to get him out and us. So we sit some more. By this time, both Nate and I have to pee!!! So what's our solution, use Nate's coffee cup. That's right, even I peed in a cup, desperate times call for desperate measures. Elyse however is loving it, she got to eat and play in the car. Finally it's 12:30 and the second snow plow comes. He quickly does get us out and tells us to drive to KC/Subway rest stop off the exit and stay for at least 1 hour. As we drove away we saw the cars on 35 still stuck! Therefore we safely arrive to Subway and it's packed. People are telling their stories and finding ways to try to make it home. After two hours at Subway, we heard a county highway was open and we could get to 35 from it. We proceed and made it. Once we hit 35 about 20 minutes north of where we were, we were fine. In fact, once we crossed the border, it was 48 degrees and sunny. I felt like we left Iowa in January to fast forward to Minnesota in April, it was such a weird feeling. Overall, very happy to be home and very thankful for an amazing leader of a husband and a prayer answering God!!!