More Iowa Reunion

This is a blog post only a grandmother could love. Just a bunch of pictures of the family visiting and playing around together in Iowa. 

The nightly slumber party. (Does Rachael seriously have not one, but TWO binkies in this picture? Isn't she like three and a half or something?)

An old, pretty church in Ottumwa where we went to see Kung Fu Panda II and eat some tasty Mexican. (Food, that is.)

I have pictures of Kate pushing these same carts around the Iowa Children's Museum when she was three-years-old. My kids never tire of going back to this place:

If you can get your behind in a bilibo and spin around, you've still got it:

We have to run the whole gamut of favorite activities at the mall every time we come to visit, so after the museum we headed over to the carousel:

My mom and Kate were just going to watch the younger kids, but I shoved them both on at the last minute. My mom said she couldn't remember the last time she had been on a carousel so I thought it was high time:

Elizabeth and Will have a funny little bond with Bob the Builder. They joke about it all the time so we had to get this picture. Right after Elizabeth was born and the two older kids came into the hospital room to see her for the first time, Will spontaneously started singing the Bob the Builder theme song to Elizabeth to welcome her into the world. I guess there are worse ways to start your life:

How is this instinctive?

Out in the rain:

Liz and Jason are now the proud owners of a stray, outdoor cat. Will spent HOURS with it outside when it came around one day, eventually begging us to let him feed it. (It is scrawny.) I offered tuna, Jason adamantly refused (until he relented) because he knew what would happen, and he was right: 

Friday night dinner--they had some yummy pizza concoctions at this all organic restaurant:

There are shelves and shelves of books you can read while you wait. Not to purchase or borrow like a store or library, just to read while you're there:

A big part of the Maharishi movement involves wholistic health practices, organic cooking, etc. so I got a kick out of the books on this shelf by our table. Elizabeth told me it's Fairfield in a nutshell:

All the dinner plates were different and "vintage." What a blast from the past! This is what I got:

Most smaller towns in Iowa have very similar looking town squares, and Fairfield is no different. It's so Music Man. (Incidentally, Brandon did a four month rotation in Mason City, the setting for The Music Man. Elizabeth was just a baby at the time, and we'd go up every other weekend to stay with him in the nasty bachelor pad they provided for the residents. Of course there is a Music Man museum there, so you know we went.)

Water towers! So mid-west:

After dinner we walked across the town square over to the Chocolate Cafe where Uncle Jason had everyone choose a chocolate:

 Fairfield is the county seat of Jefferson county, and this is the courthouse:

Dinner, chocolate, and an after dinner stroll over to the Sondheim Center to see the BYU International Folk Dancers. How weird is that? I've never even seen them in Utah!

Homemade waffles and bacon on a Saturday morning:

In the afternoon we drove two hours to the Quad City airport to pick up Brandon, and then met up at Cracker Barrel in Davenport with my parents, Aunt Jan and Uncle Les (my dad's sister and husband), and my oldest sister Joanna's family:

These rocking chairs always make we want a house with a big front porch:

Tired yet? I am, but we're getting in bed early tonight to prep for another day of fun and frivolity tomorrow . . .