Thursday, June 21, 2012

Trip Down South

The day after school ended we headed down to visit our family in Iowa.  Mike's aunt was so nice to let us stay at her house.  The kids were beyond excited because during our previous trip there she had shown them her attic that had been finished with three bedrooms.  We got to sleep up there and the novelty of sleeping in an attic (!) was not lost on them!

Mike's aunt is an extremely busy woman.  One of the things that keeps her so busy is her volunteer work for the hospital.  She knits several items for them to sell in the gift shop each week.  She also crochets.  She also sews two little fabric books each week for the gift shop.


Doris kept Maddie and me busy!  She helped Maddie gain a better understanding of how to crochet, but specifically left-handed.  Both Maddie's grandma's have tried to help her by having her mirror them, but it never really worked well.  Doris is left-handed and it was so much easier for Maddie to follow.  Doris also found and copied some basic instructions for Maddie to take home and study.  I think one of Maddie's goals for the summer is to crochet something other than a long string.

Doris also taught me how to knit a nifty little scarf from a netting-like ribbon that I had never seen.  I haven't knitted in awhile, but this got me itching to find another project at home!

Doris is also a huge Cub's fan.  While we were in Iowa the Twins were playing the Cubs and a game was always on.  We stayed up late one night to watch a close one.  On the last day of our trip Mike was bold enough to wear his Twins shirt and Doris was kind enough not to mention it.

We also got to meet up with Mike's brother's family.  They were pretty busy though, so we had some downtime between visits.

We spent some time at "Hobby Lobby".  Dear Hobby Lobby: Please build a store in Shakopee.  I would love you dearly.  My kids would not - but they don't know what's good for them; their brains are still developing.


We spent far more time in the fake flower section than we expected to.  I think we all learned that Mike is a little pickier about his fake flowers than we might have imagined.  But, I think we came up with a nice arrangement to place out at the graveside for Mike's parents.  The vase had finally arrived and we wanted to help fill it out.


One afternoon we occupied ourselves by driving around and randomly stopping.


The kids were goofy and thought it would be fun to pretend to fall down this incredibly steep hill.  It had just been mowed and Jake thought it would be fun to have a grass fight.  Maddie: not so much.

But, we rounded up the troops and Mike got an updated picture with the kids.


Maddie decided to take a picture of Mike and I and didn't do too bad!


We had a photo shoot of most of the cousins, which I'll post next time.

On our last night we took Doris out for a delicious meal at the "Iowa Machine Shed" as a thank-you.  Really tasty food and afterward we were given a tractor ride through the parking lot.


A very successful trip where we got to catch up with family and have a great start to the summer!

1 comment:

Sheri said...

I love your blog. It's awesome sauce!!