Iowa Trip
So I'm finally back from my big Iowa trip for my family reunion.
Thursday: I woke up at 4:30am ..Our flight left at 7:30am. Got up and around and me my brother and Abbi headed off to airport. We parked in the fast park because my brother parked there the whole time he was working in Tulsa. I knew my car would be safe there for 4 days. The shuttle greets us and thank god because we had soooooooooo many bags. I need to learn how to pack better, specially when i have a child hehe. We get on the airplane and we were able to have Abbi in her car seat for the flight to Houston. Was only like a quick 40mins flight. From Houston to Chicago we had to have her in our laps because the flight was full and she is a lap child. Only when the flight isn't full we can have her in her carseat in her own chair. It was going to be a 2 hour flight. She fell asleep for the first 1hr 20mins of the flight, The rest of the flight she was awake and wanted to run around. hehe. It wasn't too bad. So we get off the plane in Chicago its raining. It was raining in Austin, and Houston so we couldn't get away from it i guess. So we had them check the carseat and when we got it getting off the plane it was SOAKING WET. We had to use it right away cause we were driving from Chicago to Iowa. It was a 5hr. drive, with a wet car seat screw that. I was pissed. We had no time to waste. So we go down get our bags and go in and Southwest gave us a loaner carseat. It was great, BUT now we had ANOTHER carseat to carry around. We have tons of bags between two people and a child to hold, it was helaously hard. We go outside to wait for the shuttle after getting our bags and its COLD....and raining. We had to wait for like 10mins in the rain waiting for this damn shuttle. hehe. sucked. Then the shuttle comes and we get over to the car rental place and get out of the shuttle at our side where we can choose any car. My brother had reserved a full-size car. All we see are 2door sporty cars. He's mad!!! Well we are waiting IN THE RAIN AND COLD...and no one comes and helps us. It was BS so finally my brother runs up and asks if someone can help us and they finally do. Well the give us an upgraded car from the executive lot. Has leather and sun roof. Pretty cool. So we were happy. We finally get outta there. We are on the road for 5 hours. By this time we are sooooo exhausted its like 2pm and we still have 5 more hours til we get to my aunt and uncles house.
We get there. We eat dinner and im tired as hell. I am pissed because my so called "friends" are starting shit w/ me while im out of town. Rediculous if you ask me...*shrugs*...anyways...so i get through that mess. I try to get Abbi's bed set up and me set up on the couch and I put "NEMO" on for Abbi..Come 11pm the girl still will not sleep. My parents flight had gotten delayed and shit was happening and they were stranded in Chicago so people were in and out of the basement where me and abbi where so it was keeping her awake. Finally i told my brother i was going to sleep in my cousin Brett's room and he would have to sleep on the couch cause i needed to get Abbi to bed. As soon as i put her to bed in Brett's bed w/ me..."she was out"...it was nice. Then i fell asleep.
Friday: I wake up...me and Abbi got a good nights sleep. We ate some breakfast w/ my cousin's and aunt and uncle. We sat outside on there covered patio. It was beautiful and soooo quiet. Something so needed for me and Abbi, all of us really. We just kind of lounged around that morning and waited on my sister her husband Tristen and mom and dad. They get there around lunch time. We have a good lunch again just relaxing and catching up w/ everyone. Me and Abbi go down for a nap again so she isn't so cranky for the day. When we get up a couple hours later everyone is ready and we are all heading to Cedar Falls to see my family's out house, and to see where my mom and dad grew up together. We were in Waverly on thurs. night. Now to Cedar Falls and then down to Marshalltown for the reunion. We do some sight seeing and stuff and then head on the road to Marshalltown. Go figure my mom gets us lost *haha*..What she does best. So we are all kinda up-tight..but we managed to find our way to Marshalltown. We were late but not too late. We went to some Casino/Buffet thingy. It was pretty cool. It was the first time we got to see everyone in the WHOLE family in like 10-12 years. Well most of them its been 10-12 years....some its only been about 8 months or so...
We have a good time just hanging out there eating our brains out cause it was a sea-food buffet w/ TONS of desserts.
We leave there around like 8:45. We get back to our hotel and me my mom brother and sister want to go swimming. So i get Abbi ready we go down there and she has NO FEAR for water. Its cool but kinda scary at the same time. She just would walk right into the pool and hot tub. Someone was there to catch her but it was like OMG...anyways we all swam til it closed at 10pm. I had to share a room w/ my brother. One king size bed..*me and my brother* not a good combination. ALSO IT WAS ME AND MY BROTHER TRAVELING TOGETHER THE WHOLE DAY ON THURS. Everywhere we went it was me Abbi and Judd in a car and everyone else in another. This trip was testing both of us on how long we could manage eachother. It worked fine for awhile but...of course my brother has to be my brother and just start shit to start shit.
Anyways...we get to sleep.
Saturday: Today is the BIG family reunion day. We all get up and dressed and we head to the park to see EVERYONE and have a good time eating and catching up w/ everyone. We get there and there is TONS of food TONS of people. Abbi literally played her heart out. She played for hours and hours w/ all of her cousins she had never met yet. All of my cousins who were the kids last time we came to a reunion like 12 years ago all had their own kids NOT JUST ONE KIDS but KIDS...like at least 3 or 4 a peice. Me and my sister felt we were lagging behind in the baby department. LOL. We all sat down after awhile of catching up and letting the kids run free and ate our butts off. We had all kinds of stuff. They ordered out Maid Rite's..Its an Iowa thing. They are hamburgers BUT...not just a regular hamburger. The meat is REALLY REALLY FINE...and its steamed so there is no grease and they are on small hamburger buns STUFFED to the brim w/ meat. You only put like mustard and pickles on them...Ketchup not aloud. hehe. All kinds of sides and tons of desserts again. Finally after a full day of playing and just relaxing in the park w/ everyone me and Abbi were exhausted. We went back to the hotel and took a nap together. It was nice because evertime Abbi took a nap it gave ME an excuss to take a nap hehe ;). Woke up and went over to the Farr's house and ate pizza with everyone and just hung out somemore. Then went home and packed because we were leaving Sun. morning.
Sunday: We get up and get ready to go back over to the Farr's house for breakfast before we all head out. They had all these egg casaroles and donuts and all kinds of breakfast things. It was good stuff. We all say our goodbyes and eat and stuff and head out on the road at about noon. Mind you me and my brother have another 5 hour trip til we get to Chicago for our plane that leaves at 7:15pm. So we drive and drive and drive we make it to the airport at about 5pm and get the car checked back in and to the airport get our bags check ...all 2039809384 OF OUR BAGS hehe. Finally we get rid of the 2nd carseat that we have been tuggin around all weekend. The plane leaves on time which was nice i was TOTALLY ready to get home. We had to fly into Nashville and we sat there for about 30mins but didn't have to switch planes which was nice. Since both flights wern't full Abbi got to sit i her own seat in her carseat which helped ALOT. Cause we flew 2 hours to Nashville and another 2 hours to Austin. I sware the decend into Austin TOOK FOREVER. It was like they were decending for an hour of the flight and just kept lingering over austin...blehh HEHE..We hit the ground and got to our car right away and on our way home. It was good to finally be home.
Over all it was a nice relaxing weekend w/ family we hadn't seen in YEARS. The next family reunion is actually going to be in Austin at my mothers house. This is the first time we haven't had to drive to a family reunion. Everyone is excited and so are we.
I want to tell Cory i am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry it didn't work out that we were able to meet up in Cedar Falls while i was there. I sware thats where everyone told me we were going to be the whole weekend and then out of no where when i get to Iowa on Thurs the plans were that everything was in Marshalltown. :( I sware i'll make it up to you somehow. Just wish we could of chilled. We've known eachother for years i just wished we could of met up .... Luv ya hun...please don't be mad.
Thursday: I woke up at 4:30am ..Our flight left at 7:30am. Got up and around and me my brother and Abbi headed off to airport. We parked in the fast park because my brother parked there the whole time he was working in Tulsa. I knew my car would be safe there for 4 days. The shuttle greets us and thank god because we had soooooooooo many bags. I need to learn how to pack better, specially when i have a child hehe. We get on the airplane and we were able to have Abbi in her car seat for the flight to Houston. Was only like a quick 40mins flight. From Houston to Chicago we had to have her in our laps because the flight was full and she is a lap child. Only when the flight isn't full we can have her in her carseat in her own chair. It was going to be a 2 hour flight. She fell asleep for the first 1hr 20mins of the flight, The rest of the flight she was awake and wanted to run around. hehe. It wasn't too bad. So we get off the plane in Chicago its raining. It was raining in Austin, and Houston so we couldn't get away from it i guess. So we had them check the carseat and when we got it getting off the plane it was SOAKING WET. We had to use it right away cause we were driving from Chicago to Iowa. It was a 5hr. drive, with a wet car seat screw that. I was pissed. We had no time to waste. So we go down get our bags and go in and Southwest gave us a loaner carseat. It was great, BUT now we had ANOTHER carseat to carry around. We have tons of bags between two people and a child to hold, it was helaously hard. We go outside to wait for the shuttle after getting our bags and its COLD....and raining. We had to wait for like 10mins in the rain waiting for this damn shuttle. hehe. sucked. Then the shuttle comes and we get over to the car rental place and get out of the shuttle at our side where we can choose any car. My brother had reserved a full-size car. All we see are 2door sporty cars. He's mad!!! Well we are waiting IN THE RAIN AND COLD...and no one comes and helps us. It was BS so finally my brother runs up and asks if someone can help us and they finally do. Well the give us an upgraded car from the executive lot. Has leather and sun roof. Pretty cool. So we were happy. We finally get outta there. We are on the road for 5 hours. By this time we are sooooo exhausted its like 2pm and we still have 5 more hours til we get to my aunt and uncles house.
We get there. We eat dinner and im tired as hell. I am pissed because my so called "friends" are starting shit w/ me while im out of town. Rediculous if you ask me...*shrugs*...anyways...so i get through that mess. I try to get Abbi's bed set up and me set up on the couch and I put "NEMO" on for Abbi..Come 11pm the girl still will not sleep. My parents flight had gotten delayed and shit was happening and they were stranded in Chicago so people were in and out of the basement where me and abbi where so it was keeping her awake. Finally i told my brother i was going to sleep in my cousin Brett's room and he would have to sleep on the couch cause i needed to get Abbi to bed. As soon as i put her to bed in Brett's bed w/ me..."she was out"...it was nice. Then i fell asleep.
Friday: I wake up...me and Abbi got a good nights sleep. We ate some breakfast w/ my cousin's and aunt and uncle. We sat outside on there covered patio. It was beautiful and soooo quiet. Something so needed for me and Abbi, all of us really. We just kind of lounged around that morning and waited on my sister her husband Tristen and mom and dad. They get there around lunch time. We have a good lunch again just relaxing and catching up w/ everyone. Me and Abbi go down for a nap again so she isn't so cranky for the day. When we get up a couple hours later everyone is ready and we are all heading to Cedar Falls to see my family's out house, and to see where my mom and dad grew up together. We were in Waverly on thurs. night. Now to Cedar Falls and then down to Marshalltown for the reunion. We do some sight seeing and stuff and then head on the road to Marshalltown. Go figure my mom gets us lost *haha*..What she does best. So we are all kinda up-tight..but we managed to find our way to Marshalltown. We were late but not too late. We went to some Casino/Buffet thingy. It was pretty cool. It was the first time we got to see everyone in the WHOLE family in like 10-12 years. Well most of them its been 10-12 years....some its only been about 8 months or so...
We have a good time just hanging out there eating our brains out cause it was a sea-food buffet w/ TONS of desserts.
We leave there around like 8:45. We get back to our hotel and me my mom brother and sister want to go swimming. So i get Abbi ready we go down there and she has NO FEAR for water. Its cool but kinda scary at the same time. She just would walk right into the pool and hot tub. Someone was there to catch her but it was like OMG...anyways we all swam til it closed at 10pm. I had to share a room w/ my brother. One king size bed..*me and my brother* not a good combination. ALSO IT WAS ME AND MY BROTHER TRAVELING TOGETHER THE WHOLE DAY ON THURS. Everywhere we went it was me Abbi and Judd in a car and everyone else in another. This trip was testing both of us on how long we could manage eachother. It worked fine for awhile but...of course my brother has to be my brother and just start shit to start shit.
Anyways...we get to sleep.
Saturday: Today is the BIG family reunion day. We all get up and dressed and we head to the park to see EVERYONE and have a good time eating and catching up w/ everyone. We get there and there is TONS of food TONS of people. Abbi literally played her heart out. She played for hours and hours w/ all of her cousins she had never met yet. All of my cousins who were the kids last time we came to a reunion like 12 years ago all had their own kids NOT JUST ONE KIDS but KIDS...like at least 3 or 4 a peice. Me and my sister felt we were lagging behind in the baby department. LOL. We all sat down after awhile of catching up and letting the kids run free and ate our butts off. We had all kinds of stuff. They ordered out Maid Rite's..Its an Iowa thing. They are hamburgers BUT...not just a regular hamburger. The meat is REALLY REALLY FINE...and its steamed so there is no grease and they are on small hamburger buns STUFFED to the brim w/ meat. You only put like mustard and pickles on them...Ketchup not aloud. hehe. All kinds of sides and tons of desserts again. Finally after a full day of playing and just relaxing in the park w/ everyone me and Abbi were exhausted. We went back to the hotel and took a nap together. It was nice because evertime Abbi took a nap it gave ME an excuss to take a nap hehe ;). Woke up and went over to the Farr's house and ate pizza with everyone and just hung out somemore. Then went home and packed because we were leaving Sun. morning.
Sunday: We get up and get ready to go back over to the Farr's house for breakfast before we all head out. They had all these egg casaroles and donuts and all kinds of breakfast things. It was good stuff. We all say our goodbyes and eat and stuff and head out on the road at about noon. Mind you me and my brother have another 5 hour trip til we get to Chicago for our plane that leaves at 7:15pm. So we drive and drive and drive we make it to the airport at about 5pm and get the car checked back in and to the airport get our bags check ...all 2039809384 OF OUR BAGS hehe. Finally we get rid of the 2nd carseat that we have been tuggin around all weekend. The plane leaves on time which was nice i was TOTALLY ready to get home. We had to fly into Nashville and we sat there for about 30mins but didn't have to switch planes which was nice. Since both flights wern't full Abbi got to sit i her own seat in her carseat which helped ALOT. Cause we flew 2 hours to Nashville and another 2 hours to Austin. I sware the decend into Austin TOOK FOREVER. It was like they were decending for an hour of the flight and just kept lingering over austin...blehh HEHE..We hit the ground and got to our car right away and on our way home. It was good to finally be home.
Over all it was a nice relaxing weekend w/ family we hadn't seen in YEARS. The next family reunion is actually going to be in Austin at my mothers house. This is the first time we haven't had to drive to a family reunion. Everyone is excited and so are we.
I want to tell Cory i am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry it didn't work out that we were able to meet up in Cedar Falls while i was there. I sware thats where everyone told me we were going to be the whole weekend and then out of no where when i get to Iowa on Thurs the plans were that everything was in Marshalltown. :( I sware i'll make it up to you somehow. Just wish we could of chilled. We've known eachother for years i just wished we could of met up .... Luv ya hun...please don't be mad.