Iowa 2014
Our most favorite part of summer besides getting to sleep in and do nothing all day long is definitely our annual trip over the border and through the country to grandfather’s house we go!
After not being home from Alabama for very long and being tired of sitting in a car, we only decided to go halfway the first day and then halfway the next day.
6 hours to ol’ Joplin, MO for night 1. While this was my view in the passenger seat the whole way….
And two days later we are at the farm! Ahhhh, how could you not love coming to this place?
And um, only in Iowa do you see a semi carrying chickens or hens or whatever they are. Honestly, I was still raised in the city so I can’t tell chicken apart. But I thought this was cool, I definitely knew I was in the country.
The majority of our days were spent playing with doggies from my Aunt and Uncle’s Dog Farm. Need a puppy? You can’t resist these cute faces.
Some early farm mornings called for mother/daughter coffee time.
You know when most of one side of your family grows up in Iowa you’re pretty much related to everyone…so one day we went to A cousin’s house and picked veggies from their garden.
One of our first mornings there we made a trip to Dutchman’s store, owned by the amish.
It’s a pretty neat place. Told you, amish folk. Most everything is in bulk and very cheap, we go straight for the blueberries!
We got fresh peaches from a fruit stand off one of the highways and I made a fresh peach pie. And pumpkin pie requested by my siblings. See, grandpa is enjoying the peach pie.
On the first Friday of every month his little town has a fish fry, and of course we go every year.
One of our favorite things about Iowa is that since few people live out there we can drive on the highways when we technically aren’t allowed. Well besides that, in Iowa you can have a permit at age 14. COOL. So, Ryan got to drive some.
Morgan took some senior pictures with our uncle’s corvette in front of a corn field. Because why not? That totally goes together.
On Sundays, grandpa always goes to his favorite chinese restaurant (of which I have to wait ’til he gets home from to have our weekly phone call), so we tagged along with him…and had his favorite frog legs. Ryan tried them, but I don’t think he was too impressed. He was happy he got $10 from our cousin for eating two of them.
Morgan and I cleaned grandpa’s cars for him. Seriously…93 years old and still move around like it’s nothin’, i’m so impressed.
Rick celebrated a birthday, of which it took 4 people to make his “camo” cake.
And all he really wanted to do is sleep.
The day before we left we went to the Sweet Corn Festival to eat some chicken and ride the rides. It’s been years since we’ve done that. And look grandpa even came too 🙂 Now is he not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen??
The next day we had to pack up to say our goodbyes, which is never fun.
But we are always thankful for every year that we get to travel over the border and through the country to grandpa’s house and visit him part of the summer. Gramps is truly my best bud.
Go to Iowa if you haven’t been…it’s so out of the ordinary and very county. I love me some mid-western folk.
And check it out:
Looky what I found…
“Colore of Life”. So fun to see this at one of the jewelry stores.
See you back here tomorrow for some #FoodyToosdy
Colors of Life 