A Girls Trip to Iowa

Emily and I took off on Monday morning to head to Iowa for the week. Andrew had his thesis to officially finish before Friday and was teaching all week at the GERI camp, so we left him to a distraction free week. Emily was a great travel buddy and even though there were some tears, the overall experience was very positive. Emily was really excited to go to “Grandma Moose’s house”, which she repeated over and over and over again during our five hour journey. The night before we left she started talking about swimming at grandma’s, probably because we went swimming a few weeks ago when visiting Grandma Jackson. I talked with my mom about just setting up sprinklers, but after almost a hour of tears in the car with sobs about swimming at grandma’s, I asked my mom if picking up a cheap swimming pool was an option so I could assure Emily swimming was an option. I guess I discovered my weak point as a parent – road trip alone with lots of tears from the back seat.

When we did arrive Emily immediately took to “tine” – my wonderful sister who more than lived up to her role of aunt this week. She fulfilled all of Emily’s fun ideas and wishes. Emily discovered nerf guns and slinkies. She got Christine to lay on the stairs with her to sleep.

Anything Christine did, Emily did.

Monday afternoon Brian discovered that his out-of-state tuition had been waved for school, which saves him thousands of dollars for the upcoming year. We all went to Whitey’s to celebrate and spend part of Brian’s success. Derick joined us as soon as he got off of his shift for work.

Emily enjoyed all of the fun games Derick, Brian, and Christine came up with. Most of them involved flipping her around or other rough housing which was really fun, but I only peaked at occasionally for my own sanity.

My family had returned from Hill Cumorah Pageant early Monday morning, so we spent Tuesday trying to clean up from their trip and my trip to make room for the Nabrotzky’s to join us for the evening and part of Wednesday.  We were all thrilled to see our family that is currently living in England and grateful they were willing to drive a couple extra hours to come spend the night at the Moose home. Emily also played some tetherball with Christine and Brian.

We took advantage of the few hours we had and I took their family pictures at a friend’s yard. My mom, Brian, and Christine followed Emily around and gave her a photoshoot of her own and had lots of fun.

Emily signing “Moose” – an obligatory part of her heritage.

Emily running and my cameo appearance in the background.

Emily signing “apple”.

Two pictures I snapped of Emily.

When we finished taking pictures, the Nabrotzky’s sang for the lady that lives there. Emily preferred playing in the dirt.

After we got back from taking pictures my mom, Aunt Michelle, Emily and I went to the store to pick up food. On the way there we saw a young teenage boy get hit by a car as he was crossing the street on his bike, and the lady driving the car yelled sorry and drove off. After the reality of what happened settled, my mom made a U-turn and we joined a few other witnesses waiting with the teenager until the police and ambulance arrived. When we had given all of our information to the police, we headed to the store and then said our good byes the to the Nabrotzky’s.

Thursday was a day spent fixing my car so that we could drive it home safely. On the way to Iowa our car shook like crazy any time I approached 60mph. The diagnosis was given at mechanic A, the tires were replaced at store B, and the alignment adjusted at store C. The process started at 8:30am and was finished by 6:15pm. I was so grateful that my mom was there to help drive me around and watch Emily while I waited or wait with me. We also took advantage of the locations we were waiting and ran some errands. It turned out to be a fun day even if it wasn’t exactly how I was hoping to spend my last day with family.

After dinner we finally had a moment to pull out the pool that Emily was so excited about swimming in. It was a huge hit and Christine and I were invited quickly and repeatedly to join in on all the fun.  Emily has been talking about swimming in the pool at Grandma Moose’s house all week since we’ve been home.