Iowa Adventure

We headed out on Friday for an adventurous trip to IOWA. A few places to visit and a few things to accomplish.
The benefits of Jason's many travels....hotel points for free rooms. Happy kids! We had a stay over in West Des Moines so the kids got a chance to swim in the pool with Grandma and PJ. And we managed a successful dinner out with 5 kids under the age of 6. Luckily they placed us in a separate party room to make things less stressful.

This hotel had a fantastic pool set up. A kiddie pool just the right size with bubble fountains and a regular pool to do some big jumps in.

 

Owen is starting to get REALLY good at treading water without going under using a life jacket.  

And Olivia is taking less and less time each time at a pool to stop being nervous and ready to swim.

The reason for our stop over in Des Moines was to attend the Ovarian Cancer Walk in honor of my Aunt Jana who passed away last year from the terrible disease. Here is a pic of some of our group, we didn't get the whole shot of the people on the ends (I had the wrong lens on my camera, darn it)

We miss her so much. I think of her every day. She was taken way to soon.

After the walk we headed to "the barn". Both my kids can't say the "f" sound very well so when we say we are going to the farm, they call it the barn.
The farm is always a good time and we are so thankful to have family to provide that experience for us.
What is a farm without a new batch of kitties? I can't believe these kitties survived the day. Olivia was attached and started calling it hers. Luckily that kitty decided it needed to stay in Iowa.

Talking to the cows. Also lucky that these cows needed to stay in Iowa ;)

Wow, that is a lot of kids! (14 under the age of 9) Tried to line them up from youngest to oldest. It proved a bit difficult even if we had some of them hold on to a kitty.

There is nothing better than family. Especially when they read to you!

And to top it all off there are always gator rides to be had. No need to panic, it wasn't turned on, she was just pretending. Plus, she can't reach the pedals ;)

We are so lucky to have such an amazing family to visit. Wish we could make it down there more often. But it does make our visits that much more special.