Iowa weekend

Has anyone missed me? ha. We were in Iowa for a 3 day weekend. We had a wonderful time!!! Last week the kids had 3 1/2 days of school (parent/teacher conferences) and had Friday off so we left on Thursday night. Here is the run-down...

Friday~ Madison went to school with Jenna for the entire day. She goes to a private Christan school and you can bring a visitor if you plan ahead (and may be because your aunt is a teacher there?!). Tony, Quinn and I met my mom and bro-in-law, Jeff at "Grandma's mall" (you didn't know she owned a mall huh?) for lunch. The 3 of us then went to Best Buy for almost 2 hours and finally bought a new video camera!!! We've been without a video camera and I could hardly stand it that I missed getting snips from the last 4 soccer teams! Quinn was so patient!!... he thought he was going to throw-up from "lack of clean fresh air" by the end but overall he did great. I was just as ready as he was to go kicking and screaming out of that store! Ughhh! Friday night we went to celebrate my grandma's 93rd birthday with her. There were 2 of my aunts, an uncle, and cousins that I haven't seen in a LONG time! The party was great. We celebrated Madison and Jenna's on the side too. The party had a rough ending though... my grandma fell right at the end of it. Long story but she wasn't hurt and we are soooo thankful for that!!

Saturday~ Uncle Jeff some how got tickets on the 4o yard line, 12 rows up, behind the Iowa bench for Quinn and him to go to the IA vs MI ST game. Quinn of course wanted to go so bad and I was debating about giving him my ticket again... this way we all 3 got to go. I'm so glad too because it was a GREAT game... finally winning in double over time! After that we went to the IA basketball game, a scrimmage. A cheerleader threw Quinn a basketball t-shirt and then after the game he got the free player's trading cards and the back of his t-shirt signed. According to Quinn, Saturday was a "sports-tacular day!" Ha! I thought that was pretty good for an 8 year old. We roasted hot dogs over a bonfire at Amy & Jeff's in the evening and the kids "sat" in the hot tub. During the football/basketball game, Madison and my mom shopped around at the mall, ate Chinese and then met the girl cousins to see the movie, Get in the Game, which I guess they all loved.

Sunday~ Went to church with Amy & Jeff. Their church plant is really growing...they have purchased land for their own building and hope to break ground in a year of so. We ate lunch at Hu-Hut... a Sanford & Mary Lou recommendation. It was good and unique too! After that we drove home and got home around 7:45pm.

It was a great weekend. We love going to Iowa and our kids love it too!

Thanks for reading! Love, Leah

Some more Iowa pictures

Here are some snapshots from Iowa that I wanted to make sure to include on my blog. This is a picture of my mom and dad's house... and the home where I did most of my growing up in. When I was in 2nd grade my dad built this house amidst 20 acres of timber. It is in such a beautiful setting. Even as an adult I can say "There is no place like home" and that it is still possible to be homesick! I'll admit that I told Tony, just yesterday, that if I could have things my way, I would live in Iowa. That will always be my favorite place to be. Anyway, I tried to include some far-away pictures to give you a taste of what it's like. Grandpa is giving pony rides in some of these snapshots.

Last Day in Iowa

Today was our last day in Iowa (sniff-sniff). I watched 3 of the 5 kids in the morning so Jeff could go to work, while Amy, Jenna and Madison went to volleyball camp. We went to my mom and dad's in the afternoon and also went to see my grandma in Wellman. The above is a picture of Quinn giving his great-grandma a picture that he drew for her of an airplane (what else?). See below for more pictures. One is of my great aunt Lydia coming down for a visit. My grandma lives in assisted living and aunt Lydia lives in the dependent side of the nursing home. They don't get to see each other much. Aunt Lydia is like another grandma to me. My grandpa passed away when I was a baby. She moved in with my grandma and so I've pretty much had 2 grandma's on that side of the family. My grandma told Amy and I that she misses being able to read. She has Parkinson's and holding a book up and getting the pages turned is a task that we all take for granted. Amy had a great idea. She will be reading to her class every day in school for 15 minutes. She is going to tape the books being read out loud at that time and then send them to Grandma. Isn't that a good idea? We could do that at home too. Grandma said she didn't care if they were 4th grade level books. Ha! : )

Grandma and me

Great Grandma, Mikayla, Haley, Madison, Quinn and Jenna

My mom is on the far left, my Great Aunt Lydia (97) and

my Grandma Dortha (92)

Tonight it was more 4-wheeler rides and pony rides. Mom made funnel cakes with apple pie filling as a special treat and we had another Cubs party. This time they are winning! FINALLY! Tomorrow we are leaving here at 9:30am to head to Kansas City, MO to the airport to pick up Tony in the afternoon. It's a 5 hour drive. We all can't wait to see him. He sent me an email from work at 10:15pm tonight. I think all he did this week was work, work and more work.

I'm not sure if I'll have access to easy Internet use at Lake Doniphan so I may not get to update as often. Tomorrow we're on to the Vander Werf family reunion!

Shopping and Happy Anniversary!

I rarely ever go shopping at home but when I come to Iowa I always make a point to go! It helps that I have a shopping loving mom and sister and one of Iowa's largest malls only minutes away. Mom, Madison and I went to the Tanger Outlets for only about 1 1/2 hours in the morning and then we headed to the Coral Ridge Mall... 7 hours later we limped out of the mall! Ha! The kids picked out their school supplies. Grandpa and Quinn ran around together... they went to watch the sheep sell at the Sale Barn etc... and then he took Quinn, Mikayla and Haley to the Children's Museum for about 3 1/2 hours. It's also in the mall and a kid-loving place to be! Now that 7 hours for us wasn't shopping the whole time...! We ate lunch at the food court and then we had supper with everyone. Good news for Tony... a Chick-Fillet has come into the food court. Sonic is coming to 2 locations outside the mall. All 10 of us went to Bennigans for supper (which is attached to the mall). We celebrated Amy & Jeff's 15th wedding anniversary with them. It probably wasn't their first choice for a romantic evening but hey, Grandpa had 5 FREE kids meals that expired at the end of this month. Who can beat that? After that, G'ma and G'pa went home and the kids and I went to Amy & Jeff's for the "Cubs Party" which has now become an inside joke. Too bad the Cubs have not realized that they are ruining the Cubs Party with each and every loss we've seen this week. Jeff made us allowed us to watch their wedding VHS tape. There were quite a few laughs and some begging for it to continue stop by both Amy and me. You would think the former bride would be interested but Come On... the whole thing??? I thought it was a Cubs Party!

It thundered/lightning/stormed/poured so badly when it was past time to leave so they convinced us to stay overnight at their house. It's a 25-30 minute drive back to Mom and Dad's in good weather. Jeff carried his (sleeping 4 year old) bride over the threshold tonight. Mikayla and Haley pretended to have a wedding... Jeff was the minister. So cute!

Since it is Amy & Jeff's anniversary... this also means it's Jenny & Troy's anniversary too. So Happy 15th to them too! 15 years ago we had two family weddings in one day. Jenny and Tony are 1st cousins and Amy & Jenny were good friends but it just worked out that they needed the same day so they didn't get to go to each other's weddings. We'll be seeing Jenny & Troy at the reunion this weekend.

PS... Today at the mall we ran into Sherry Libby and her 3 kids and also Betty Buckwalter.

Tuesday in Iowa

Today was much like yesterday... as far as the hot/humid/horrible weather. Madison stayed overnight with Jenna last night and went to her volleyball camp with her this morning. She had no intentions of playing because she said, "I will look like a dork out there"... never having really played before. Amy offered to sign her up for camp but I said no way... she doesn't need another sport to play! Well... she had a great time and actually did get to play a little bit and low and behold did not feel like a dork either! ha! And NO... I don't want her to pick up another sport, even though I played volleyball all 4 years in high school!

My mom, Quinn and I ran a couple of errands and then met up with the rest of the girls at McDonald's for lunch. Original huh? ...I know, it was a split second decision. According to Madison, "our McDonald's is lame" compared to this decorated one! The kids are sitting on motorcycle-like seats!

We also went in to Amy's classroom with intentions of helping her get her bulletin boards up and ready etc... With 5 kids along, it didn't quite turn out as planned. We basically got the bulletin boards measured and that's it! She has the supplies that we all punched out on Sunday afternoon... they just didn't make it up on the wall. Later on we put together some worksheets in 3-ring folders for 2 different subjects and that's about it. She has much more to do.

Later this afternoon there were more pony rides and 4-wheeler rides at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandpa, Amy, Jeff and I got this wild hair that we would stop by the auction place in Frytown since it's so close and fairly new. We were only there about 1 hour because none of us could stand the humidity! We ran into Theresa (Bushart) Yoder and Angie Bushart (I can't remember her married last name!) while we were there... childhood friends. That was fun to visit with them. We knew they were probably around because her family always gets together for the Iowa State Fair. She said they are planning on spending 8 days at the fair. They even camp at the same exact spot. I remember going up with them one summer as a kid. I bet they've gone every year for 30 years or more! Angie lives in Dallas now.

That's about it for today. It's storming outside now and the kids were scared when they went to bed. My mom and dad live amongst 20 acres of trees. They are scared of a tree falling on the house or getting struck by lightening. They finally have fallen asleep.

I feel bad for my dear sweet husband. The kids tracked him down at work tonight at 10:30 Indiana time to tell him good-night. We miss you Daddy and wish you were here! xo

I'll post pictures another time.

Love, Leah

Taffy, the new pony

Hello Everyone from HOT and HUMID Iowa! Here are the highlights from today...
Earlier in the summer my dad borrowed a horse, "Lucky," from a farmer so that the grandchildren would have a horse to ride when they come out to the country for a visit. Well, the short version of Lucky's story is that he would not walk because he led a pretty "unlucky" life and his hooves had gotten too long. My dad had them shorn and he still wouldn't allow himself to be led... or rode. He only would walk if you were behind him giving him a swat on the behind. He was like 25 years old or something and a little on the big side which scared the little girls some. SOoooo.... he had to go. SOoooo my dad arranged to borrow a pony this week and was to pick him up today. He hadn't seen this pony but the Amish man said that his kids rode her all the time and she was so kind and gentle that they just rode her bare back. "Alright!" is what my dad was thinking. Madison was so excited for today to come, she could hardly contain herself. She and Quinn went with Grandpa to pick Taffy up. Well when they came driving back in with the pony in the huge trailer, I could hardly contain myself. Scroll down for your first look at Taffy!











"Look Mom, no hands!"

Isn't she the cutest LITTLE pony you've ever seen? I mean, she is darling but not exactly what Grandpa had in mind! Madison looks like she could squash her any second. The Amish man was right... she is very gentle and tame and doesn't even need a saddle to be rode!!! It actually has turned out fine because the kids can be outside with her, riding her all around, and no adult is even needed! Mikayla and Hailey have done really well with her. I don't' know how old she is but she just had a foal this summer and the foal was just recently weaned. That foal must be the size of a small dog I'm thinking.


I teased the kids that they looked like Mary and Joseph... in reverse, since Quinn is riding. Madison said, "Well since I'm going to have a baby, I'm going to be healthy and walk!" Ha!

Grandpa had planned all along to go to the horse sale in Kalona which is the first Monday of the month. He's been thinking about buying a pony/horse instead of borrowing. (He's borrowed several times over the past years for the grandkids). We all traipsed along even though you needed gills to breathe today because it was so humid and jungle-like! Here is a picture of the horse auction... The funny story from this hour was me catching Quinn out of the corner of my eye... wildly waving his arm at the auctioneer... trying to BID!!! I pulled his arm down and asked him what he was doing(!!)... and he said, "Well, I want that horse!" and yes, he thought I would just pay for it later!! Later tonight I was teasing him about almost buying himself a horse for $500 and he said, "Well, I thought that was a really good deal!!" OH MY STARS!




We ate at JW's for lunch (a tradition) and then we headed back to Grandma & Grandpa's house. Of course you can't be in Kalona without running into several people you know! Today we ran into Tony's Aunt Margaret at the Sale Barn (she was working in the office I think!). We also saw his Aunt Barb and cousin Carmen and her girls, Olivia and Mary at the sale barn. I took a picture of Barb, Carmen and the girls but she has forbidden me to post it on my blog. Let's just say we were all sweating just a tad. I honestly can't remember the last time it was this humid!
At J-Dubbs we ran into some people from Mom and Dad's church and also Linda Schweitzer's mom, Dot. SOooo, we got all those people visited after just being in town for 2 hours.

Addi- I actually run into people I know all the time in Iowa! Now you can say "Of course you know them!" like we say to you constantly! (She knows just about EVERYONE in Goshen somehow).

The kids spent the rest of their day riding the 4-wheeler that Jeff brought out to the country and riding the pony. Pretty much they rode something all the time. We also played some Monopoly and cards too. (Don't worry, Quinn had to have an adult with him for his driving!)

OK, well, that's the news from Monday! Hope you are all having a good week. WE ARE!!!! I can post some more pictures later. Amy helped get these on my blog from her house. We are staying with my parents this trip... so thanks Amy!

Love, Leah

Sunday in Iowa

Today was our first day in Iowa. We went to Amy & Jeff's after church and grilled hamburgers for lunch. We checked out their pictures from their 2 week vacation out West. It looks like the scenery is amazing!! It sounds like their trip was pretty awesome. This afternoon was filled with fun for the kids. They had a ball sliding down their huge water slide. Quinn is still outside on that slide... at least 2 hours later. They drove their 4-wheeler around their large yard and felt (and looked) so big. Jenna entertained us with her guitar and singing. She has a beautiful voice... especially for a 10 year old! She takes guitar lessons and is very good at that too! Hailey told Amy she needed "to relax" and requested cucumbers to soothe her eyes. Ha! How much relaxation could a 4 year old need? Actually she fell asleep for a cat nap soon after that.

Tonight we are ordering pizza for supper and watching the Cubs game. A whole house filled of Cubs fans... wow. No jeers from Tony tonight! Ha!