IOWA "vacation"

Yes, yes, yes, I know that I missed two weeks of blogging and at least one of my devoted readers is probably going through 'Siah & Wowah withdrawal.  ;)  As most of you know, (or can tell by my post title) we were on a family trip to Iowa to visit my grandmother, aunt, uncle & cousins in Nevada (near Ames) and to Dubuque to visit Michael's family, plus a brief visit with my great grandpa.  It was nice to spend time with family and I must admit, it was very nice to be with my very special grandma on my birthday.  :)  I can honestly say I was quite spoiled on my birthday this year.... Michael & the boys gave me a Kindle Fire that was wonderful to have on the trip and Grandma took us all to eat at one of my favorite restaurants that can only be found in Ames, IA - Hickory Park.  (though maybe Aunt Becky mentioned there is also one in Des Moines?)  Anyway, nowhere close enough to Lima to eat at on a regular basis.  Grandma also made an angel food cake from scratch for strawberry shortcake (at my request) and gave me lots of hugs while we were there.  What more could a girl want?  How 'bout time with one of my BFFs?  Yep... I got to spend a few very precious hours with my BFF Tracey - we met in Mason City, IA.  But enough about me... I know you don't really care what I write here unless it has something to do with my sweet boys and all you really want is the link to the pictures...

And so... here's the link... still using Winkflash but honestly would like to find something else where it is easier for me to add comments and explain pictures.  Until I get around to that, you'll just have to deal with this method of sharing.  I just noticed that the pictures are also all out of order and no matter what I do, I can't get them in the exact order they belong... errrgh

While in Ames, we visited Reiman Gardens at Iowa State.  The boys LOVED the butterflies and both very much wanted a butterfly to land on them to no avail.  Michael was the only lucky one this time.  Reiman Gardens also had several Lego sculptures scattered throughout, so all of those brightly colored sculptures you see us posing around are all built out of Legos!  We also went down to Ankeny to play at an indoor inflatables place (the high that day was around 60 & rainy) and in Dubuque, we rode the Fenelon Place Elevator, one of my favorite Dubuque landmarks, as well as a picnic lunch at Eagle Point Park.  The water you see in the background of some of those pictures is the Mississippi River for those of you not familiar with the area.  There are also a few pictures of our day at the Wapak Pool the day after we got back.... but not at the end of the vacation pictures - sprinkled somewhere in the middle instead.  Oh well. 

We've been back for almost a week now and have jumped right back in to our activities.  As I mentioned, Thursday, we went to the pool, Sunday we went geocaching with friends and Noah is at Safety City each morning this week while Josiah & I run errands or hang out at home.  Life is never dull around here... unless you ask Noah, who just told me for the 4th time today that he is BORED. He used up his tv & computer time for the day and just can't seem to find a single thing to do.  I gave him a long list of suggestions but apparently he's not THAT bored.  ;)