Iowa

As I previously mentioned, I was able to go to Iowa for a week to visit my family.  We had so much fun!  My adventures started Saturday morning (August 3) at 7am when Andrew dropped me off at the Lafayette Amtrak station.  The cute little girl in the bottom right picture (I didn’t realize she was in it until much later) and I became friends before we even hopped on the train.  Well, she and the baby in my stomach became friends anyway.  She came right up to me and started talking about “baby”.  After we got on the train she was sitting a few seats up and she was still talking about my baby.  Before we got off the train she came back, waved, and said, “Bye, bye baby”. It was a rather tender moment :)I arrived at Union Station in Chicago at 10am where I was picked up by my family and we went to explore the Navy Pier.  After some exploration we hopped in the car and finished the last 2.5 hours of my trip to Iowa.  Now the real fun begins.  In no particular order, here are some highlights:

As it was the week before school started, Brian had band camp all week.  Each day had a different theme that the students were supposed to dress up for.  It is his senior year and he is a section leader, so he went all out.  On animal day, he figured it would be pretty cool to be a moose (and who could disagree?).  Well, Brian was really really really busy all day, every day, so his sisters and mom decided to take it upon themselves to make some antlers.  After many variations and plans, we came up with a headband that would fit on the back of his head which we would then form metal coat hangers to (this involved hammering, lots of hot glue, and electrical tape), sandwich the coat hangers between foam cutouts, and put a brown headband around all of that (which my mom knitted that day) to help conceal and hold up the contraption.  It took all day, but it was so much fun to work on something out of the ordinary that required lots of problem solving.

Christine came up with the idea to make a small moose to fasten to his clarinet. Ingenious!The final product:

Next on the list would have to be my mom’s insistence at finding me a maternity swimsuit (which I had totally given up on) so I could experience the joys of floating in water.  We were successful on both accounts; first “mother-daughter” swim took place on August 8, and it was a magical experience.  I did not feel pregnant at all – at least until I got out of the pool, which was kind of miserable.  But I went swimming again as soon as we got back to Indiana.  I’m converted!

Another huge project that we took on was making our own mixes for staple recipes with the dry ingredients.  We made 21 chili seasoning packets, 21 cornbread mixes, and 31 dinner roll mixes.  We set up assembly line style, with Mom often keeping supplies replenished which meant grinding LOTS of wheat.  We made great progress on food storage rotation :)  This is hopefully just the beginning of our food storage supply of mixes, which is a lot easier to store in our little apartment than the dry ingredients separately that would equal the same amount of food. Plus it is way easier to make dinner from mixes, which is what we are going for with a baby just around the corner.

A few months ago my mom sent me a picture of a baby quilt pattern that I absolutely fell in love with.  My mom offered to make it (she is so amazing) and a few weeks ago we got on our computers and found fabric online so we could discuss the options long-distance. When I got to Iowa she had already cut out most of the squares and just had a few left to finish.  We were then able to lay out the pattern for the quilt while I was there.  I am really excited with how it is turning out.

 

I didn’t get a picture, but while we were working on the quilt project, my sister finished sewing her own gymnastics leotard and her second pair of gymnastics shorts.  She has surpassed my sewing knowledge with these projects, and I would never guess in a million years that they weren’t bought from a store.

While Andrew and I were there (he arrived Wednesday evening after he finished up things for work and class), we were able to go to Christine’s Olympic Trials (essentially a gymnastics recital where they do all the routines they will be doing in competitions this year).  I haven’t seen her in a gym for over a year, and it blows my mind every time we go at how awesome she is.  On a photography note, it was so dark and she was moving so fast that ISO was 6400 – if you ever wondered how grainy photos can get, here are some great examples.

Vault

Bar routineBalance beam routine

Start of floor routineYes, I have VERY talented sister.

A few other fun things we did during the week included trying out a new frozen yogurt place (frozen yogurt didn’t exist in that city when I lived there – this is a great addition), playing Dominion, and meeting up with a high school friend and hearing about her post-college adventures (she is about to go on a mission trip to China for at least 1 year with her church to teach English and share her belief in God).

On Saturday we went down to Nauvoo as a whole family.  The youth in our ward had a temple trip and both my parents and siblings were involved, so we decided to go down early and tour Nauvoo for a bit.  We checked out the Gunsmith shop and Bakery, grabbed lunch, and then Andrew and I went to the temple.  Afterwards while we were waiting for the youth to finish, we went and found Erastus Snow’s home (Andrew’s ancestor) and learned how to make bread at the family living center.

After the youth finished in the temple we met back up with them and went to Carthage to tour the jail and grab some dinner before heading home.

Andrew and I left Iowa Sunday around noon to drive home.  We were a little sad to discover that the air conditioning we had fixed the week before specifically for this drive wasn’t working.  Thank goodness it was cool(ish) outside! We drove with the windows down almost the whole way.  Good times.

As soon as we got home we had to see how the rug we found in Iowa looked in our very brown living room/kitchen area.  I was pretty worn out so Andrew did the honors. I know this is a slightly strange moment to record, but it is a big deal for our humble abode.

This trip was so good for my heart and soul.  I absolutely loved spending so much time with my family (it has been about 3 years since we had that much quality time together).  Spending time with my mom only reiterated to me how amazing she is and how I have so much to live up to.  I’m excited to make the return trip in a few months, but next time it will be with three Jacksons instead of two!