Iowa Trip

We are back from our trip to Iowa, and even though it was for a sad reason (my mother's memorial service), it was a good trip, and we enjoyed seeing everyone. Last Thursday we started out by picking up my son, which was about a 3 hour round trip, so he could spend the night and then we got up at 3:00 AM Friday morning, and went to the airport. Our flights were good, and we flew into Kansas City and then drove about 3 hours to my niece's in Diagonal, Iowa. She had it set up with 3 RV's (hers, her SIL's, and the neighbors, Iowa people are very helpful), one for my DH and I and our 2 children, one for my oldest brother (who is younger than me) and his son, and one for my youngest brother and his 2 kids. She had a party going on for her son who was graduating from 8th grade so there was a crowd already.

The picture above is one I thought that some of you ladies who have jeans parts around, and like the country style might be interested in. They made a real cute valence, and the loops were already there, just a matter of cutting and arranging. This picture is from my niece's living room.
My youngest brother's daughter is a horsewoman, and so while we were there my niece's husband decided to bring his horses from their winter pasture to their yard. They have 3.5 acres in town. I was teasing my niece telling her about the blog, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, and how she calls her husband the Marlboro Man, and telling her she had one of her own, but I was too late, as she said the guys at work already called him the Marlboro Man (he doesn't smoke either).
The dog is Gus. He is one of the best dogs I have been around, even I, who am afraid of most dogs felt comfortable around him. He seemed like a puppy, but is 5 years old. Nick, the Marlboro man says that he takes him bird hunting, and Gus is a natural. The hunters with well trained expensive bird dogs are jealous, as Gus usually is 1st to do whatever bird dogs do, and without training. The palamino, Nick raised from a colt, and I don't know if he is really not a smart horse or if the kids just don't give him credit for still being young, but his name is Blaze, and they call him blockhead. He was not happy at all to be kept from his pal. This is Nick and their 3 year old Logann, she is a fearless little girl.

The picture above is me, I usually don't do pictures, but this one wasn't as ugly as usual. Maybe because I have my hand in front of my face. The other picture is my DH. Kerri, my niece, has a beautiful yard, the little girl across the street says she is going to the park when she visits, and the weather was beautiful, so we spent a lot of time outdoors. It rained one time while we were there, a pretty windy storm, but their part of Iowa, so far has escaped the floods. There had been a small tornado a day or two before, outside of town, and we passed a little damage, but no one had been hurt.

This picture was on the way home. We passed a bunch of high tech looking windmills, and my daughter wanted me to take a picture.
It was a very nice trip, and we got home about 1:30 AM on Tuesday morning, took my son back home after we slept, and have been recupperating since then. I missed everybody, it's funny how attached you can get to people you haven't met.


P.S. My niece is pregnant, so I think she did very well with all that was going on. She had about 30 or more people at her house 2 days in a row. I gave my cousin the Crazy Big Block quilt, and she seemed to like it. I hope that she uses it a lot.
P.P.S. My daughter took the pictures of me, DH, and Gus. Also, when we got home it looked like the baby birds were gone. The nest is still there, so I hope that Mama Bird moved them.