The rest of the Iowa trip

The rest of the trip to iowa....a quick photo recap Kennady and I. Dear Kennady, I hope you don't get the Dean family neck/chin thing. It's a curse. Love Aunt Angie. Brooke and Kennady. This was Sunday morning at my brother and sis-in-laws house. We spent the day/night there. My aunt Debbie and my cousin-in-law Jenny came up to visit us for a bit and go to lunch with us. Jenny is pregnant, having a girl, and looks gorgeous!! Jenny, Hannah, Debbie and me. Brooke was holding Kennady on the couch. Again. or still? After lunch, Uncle Ryan took us to the fire department he works for. On weekends it's volunteer staffed so we had the whole place to ourselves. The kids thought it was pretty awesome getting to check out all the stuff in the ambulance and the firetrucks. Uncle Ryan is pretty neat. The rubber gloves were a big hit for some reason. Brooke wearing Uncle Ryans gear, with Aunt Megan looking on.

Back at the house...we decided to let the kids burn off some steam in the backyard later in the day. They have nice BIG trees in their backyard. There was one that I thought looked good for climbing, not that I am going to climb it. Instead, here is a conversation between Matt and I.

Me: You should climb that tree?

Matt: Why should I do that?

Me: To show me you know how to be fun and spontaneous. Embrace your inner little boy.

Matt: (looking at Ryan)...is this one of those Triple Dog Dare moments?

Me: Just climb the damn tree you butthead. Show me you can do it. Be fun!

Matt: I'm going to hurt myself....

But look, he finally did it. Guess he has some fun and spontaneity in him after all :)

Another conversation:

Me to Ryan and Matt: Hey, stand next to each other and I'll take a picture of you guys. I think that is a tradition when we get together right?

Matt: Another one? Don't you have enough pictures of us together anyways?

Me: Just shut up and do it okay?

Them- Okay.

Me: Matt, you should cross your arms like Ryan, then you can be twinkies.

Ryan and Matt look at each other (below) and either mutter or telepathically communicate what they should do instead.

Uh huh. Stubborn boys.

They think they are so funny.

The rest of the day was just relaxing, playing, pizza eating, movie watching. We got up Monday morning and my dad and stepmom came up to visit us at Ryan's house for awhile in the morning and go to lunch. Then it was off to Great Wolf Lodge. We enjoyed some swim time, arcade time, sleep, Chik Fil A, and a stop at the Disney store before getting home on Tuesday.

It was a great little getaway! Thanks to all my family who hosted us, hung with us, and met up with us in Des Moines to see us! oxoxox

Spring Break Road Trip to Iowa, post #1

We are on Spring Break this week, and kicked it off with a trip to Iowa to visit some of my family. I had a new niece that was born at the end of January I still needed to meet, so we were excited to get up there and hang with everyone for awhile! We drove up on Saturday morning. It's a little over a five hour drive, and we always break for lunch in Kansas City.

Neither of my children slept more than about 30 minutes the entire drive up there, if even that. That's just wrong, I tell ya. Even the DVD player did not provide quite the distraction I usually get out of them. Apparently they had ants in their pants and their chatterboxes turned up to max capacity.

Anyways, we spent Saturday night at my mom and step dads house. My brother and his family (including the aforementioned new niece), came down for dinner. The girls were so excited to meet the new baby, especially Brooke.



Hannah was more interested in playing with her cousin Brayton. This picture is a hot item, because it's a rare moment where he is parked in one spot :) This kiddo is a tornado.



So while the little ones were tearing it up, literally, Brooke was soaking up the baby time! She loved Kennady!


And I did too! here she is, being held by her favorite aunt Angie, and smiling away. It was wonderful. I could have snuggled that baby up all day!


We went out in the backyard to mess around while papa Brad was grilling burgers. The kids were fascinated by this old windmill decoration they had. It's one that was in my parent's yard I guess when we were younger. Ryan identified it by the bb gun dents in it. haha.



Sometime during outside play, Hannah hurt her finger or something. She was crying for me and me only, so it was the perfect opportunity for me to pass the baby off to Matt. He usually just prefers holding his own babies... he likes them to get bigger before he olds babies that belong to other people. Fortunately, he did just fine with his niece, and I got some pictures before he gave her back. :) Good timing, Hannah!


Hannah quickly recovered from her booboo because uncle Ryan, Brayton, and Brooke were being silly with her. Jumping out from behind a tree in some peek-a-boo sorta fashion. She was cracking up.








After dinner I finally got all four of the kids in a picture together.


Ryan, Megan and the kids left around 7 and we hung out for awhile. Hannah was "tiword" so she and matt went to crash in the spare bedroom, and Brooke and I camped out in the living room and watched Shrek II for awhile. I spend a lot of our trips to Iowa playing musical beds because I just can't get comfortable anywhere.

This trip was pretty laid back and fun, and not as multi-post worthy as, say, our Disney vacation posts from last May.... but I'm still tired and am going to have to cut this short. I'll post about our Sunday part of the trip soon!

Have a great day!

Family Found

When I posted my year-in-review post on New Year's Eve, I said that we had a family get together with my mom's side of the family in June...but I couldn't find the pictures! I found them, so thought i'd post a few!

My cousin, Danica. She is two years younger than me and we've always been close. We grew up spending a lot of time together, some of my happiest memories are ones spent at their farm. We don't see each other as often as we should now, nor do we talk as much, but we've got one of those relationships where we will always know we'll be a BFF to each other no matter how long it's been. She's the one that came down to go to the New Kids on the Block concert with me in July 2009....and I'll be heading up to go to one with her in July 2011!! :)

Here are Danica and I's children... my two girls, and her daughter Kaisa, and son Thorstan.

Thorstan is just a few months older than Hannah, and Brooke is almost 2 years older than Kaisa.

The other two "Iowa" grandkids (this side of the family has the "floridians" and then the "Iowans" even though we "Iowans" are now in Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas). This is my nephew Brayton (in the blue) and Danica's nephew Joshua. (Joshua belongs to my cousin Derek and his wife Kelly). Both of these little guys turned one this past summer.... and Brayton will be a big brother in a few weeks and Joshua will be a big brother in June I think. Since this get together, our family had another new arrival-- Blake... born to my cousin Nick and his wife Katie. We've got babies everywhere! (Except here! lol).

A family get together with these guys is not complete without some games and without breaking out the poker table. Kelly (in red) is always the only girl to jump in on the poker action.

The little girlie cousins... Hannah, Brooke and Kaisa.

Love my family get togethers!

This One Is For You, Aunt Debbie

My aunt Debbie (on my dad's side, I've got one on each side) has been telling me she's ready for another blog post. I'm eyeballs deep in flour, sugar, and chocolate, and that's the extent of life right now...so this post is going to be all about HER :)

I adore my aunt Debbie. She's the baby of the four siblings (my dad is 2nd oldest). I'm not sure how old she is...She's close to cracking 50 if she hasn't yet. But she doesn't look a day older than.... 39. :) heehee. (That's a compliment, by the way!).

We have been close for as long as I can remember....though as with all relationships, there has been various ebb and flow to how much we talk, etc. We're on a roll these days which I am loving.

We spent a lot of time together back when I was very little. She still lived in the same town I did (I think), and she hadn't yet met this hairy guy, Gary:

Somewhere in this disaster pit lovely home of mine, there is this cute picture of she and I together when I was her flower girl. I was about four or five years old. I'm sure as soon as I post this entry, I'll find it. I found this one instead:

A few years ago, Brooke was the flower girl in Debbie's son/daughter in law's wedding. I loved that I was hers, and Brooke was theirs. Hopefully Lindsey, her daughter (who is soon to graduate from the best school in Iowa- ISU) will get hitched while Hannah is still of flower-girl age (hint hint) so she'll get a turn too! Here's a few pics from that wedding. Better pics, cuter flower girl if you ask me.

I think the Adams' family gene runs strong in my veins and in my girls. She told me that some people have said that my girls look like they could be her grandkids.

A few other shots of us in more recent years:

Anytime there is a family get together, she makes sure she has something special for the kids. She did it when my cousins, brother and I were the "kids" and she does it now with our kids. The last time we got together, she brought a Pinata for the kids to do. She is so fun and thoughtful that way.

Here are some things I LOVE about my aunt Debbie.
1. She's fun and funny.
2. She and I have always connected in a special way.
3. She loves me (almost) like one of her own.
4. She adores my girls.
5. I'm not sure there is anyone else in my life who makes me feel as encouraged/affirmed/ complimented than she does. She's so sweet in how much she...gushes...to me. Which I love. It fills my love tank. She is good for my self esteem.
6. She doesn't blow sunshine up your ass is genuine. Even when she's gushing over me, I know she means it. She just knows how to make a person know they are loved.

7. She loves to shop, decorate, cook, etc. We have all those things in common.

8. She thinks I am her go-to girl on recipes. I think she is my go-to girl on recipes.

9. The great thing about an aunt that is the baby of the family, she's almost close enough in age to you to really feel like a sister sometimes.

10. She is a happy chic.

Here are the things I do not love about my aunt Debbie:

1. She lives 6 hours away.

2. She is a road-trip/vacation wuss. Meaning she has not brought herself to drag her happy butt down here to visit me.

3. She lives 6 hours away.

4. She laughs when I suggest she spend big money on me for Christmas/ Birthday. (refer to #3 above haha).

5. She's skinnier than me.

A conversation with Debbie that I will never forget, circa 1985:

We were driving in her car up to my parents house. This was a short drive because I'm from a little bitty small town.

Debbie "Have you had a Blizzard yet?"

Me "Mmm, not really, but we have had a lot of snow"

Debbie, laughing "No, I meant the new Blizzard ice cream thing that Dairy Queen has!"

I think of her almost every time I get a Blizzard at DQ.

My dear Debbie V.... I love you very much and am so glad for all the memories, chats, and emails we have shared over the years. Thank you for loving me like you do!

The Annual Trek to the Pumpkin Patch...

The annual trek to the Pumpkin Patch could also be known as "one of my favorite days of the year."

I love going to the pumpkin patch. I don't recall doing it as a kid...not really many pumpkin patches in rural Iowa that I can remember. It has become a tradition around here for the past 4 or 5 years, and I think I might be dragging the girls to the Pumpkin Patch when they are in High School. I love it.

Fall is my favorite season. The weather is perfect...differing from Spring in that it means winter is coming. I much prefer "winter is coming" to "summer is coming" because I hate hot weather. Fall is perfect. Jeans and tshirts. Shorts and hoodies. No profuse sweating. Mums. (Have you locals noticed how fabulous some of the mums are looking around here this year? makes up for the lack of vibrancy in the trees I guess?!).

Anyways I'm getting off track. We went to the Pumpkin Patch last week and as always, had a wonderful time. We went on a Thursday evening and there was no crowd at all, which is the way we like it! Here are some pics from the outing, not in pumpkin-patch-touring order.

This is the one we like to go to. It's wonderful.

The annual picture by the measuring stick. These will be great if I ever get back into scrapbooking every year of their lives. Right now I just want to get the Disney trip from 2009 scrapbooked before our Disney cruise in 2011. Off subject, again, I know.

We could have saved $7/per person and just gone to the pet store. The girls were most happy to play with the farm dogs and cats. These girls need a dog. It just ain't right for two little girls to love dogs as much as they do and not have one. I'm getting off subject again, aren't I. You can read more about the dog debate here anyways. On with the Pumpkin Patch.

This sweet dog has apparently given birth to a zillion litters, because her nipples were seriously dragging. My girls loved her. There was another one who rode out to the patch with us too. Screw the pumpkins, let's pet the dog!

They also loved the slide. This was Hannah's first time down it. Matt was not in the mood to go on it with her, so he sent her down alone. A little caddywompous coming out the first time, but she was ready to go again. and again. and again.

They trudged up that hill about 20 times I think. Hannah always wanted to do it herself. Which was pretty much fine with me. I think they are ready to go sledding at Chatauqua Park in my hometown if they could handle going up this sledding hill!


I have a serious thing about pictures of people walking away over a bridge. I just love the shot.

Children of the Corn...and I am not talking about Cornhuskers. Poohpooh on Nebraska, regardless of their mascot, I will always think of Iowa as the corn state.... hence why I had to snap some pics in the corn pit.

The jumping pillow. I LOVE this thing. I want one in my backyard.

Hey look! It's a cat! If Brooke wasn't allergic, that might solve our pet problems. bummer.

On the trailer/tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch in their matching witch shirts made by Grandma.

"I got one! I don't need help!"


The girls and their goofy papa.

The girls and grandma!

The obligatory forced family picture of the four of us. For the record, Matt did survive being forced to take this.

z girls.

and there ends the 2010 Pumpkin Patch Report. Bring on the Christmas trees!