Iowa...

Well..this year we did our annual trip to Iowa and, for the first time, chose to make stops all along the way going home. The first leg of the trip was quite typical. Dehydrate our children and make it all the way to Indianapolis with maybe 1 or 2 stops. Repeat on day two and end up in IA after 19 hours of driving.

I love this time! I was able to listen to two books: Forgotten God by Francis Chan and The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Brian also listened to the Tozer book. The kids blissfully listen to their own audio books and get a couple of videos along the way as well. It is like a mini retreat that I don't normally get when I see all of my "to do's" at home.

We loved celebrating Grandma's b-day with her and Grandpa along with Aunt Nar and Uncle Kevin.

Seriously fun is this hand game with Aunt Nar -- haven't we all played this one before? Another hit was the thumb war.
Reece with his namesake...

The kids baked cookies for the nursing home staff and handed them out to everyone. Brian also played the piano for the residents. I LOVED how they requested Christmas music in July!!
I lost track of how many evenings we ended the night with ice cream with Aunt Nar and Uncle Kevin. I told the kids they had to have these crunch ice cream cones. A childhood memory of mine...