Iowa Vacation - Part One

We are back from our fantastic trip to Iowa!!! We had a great time visiting everyone and did soooo many fun things! The girls are completely spoiled and now think we need ice cream everyday (thanks Grandma!)

I apparently forgot I had a camera for most of the trip - I didn't take half as many pictures as usual. I will post some more from my Mom's camera when she brings it over. But here are some!

We left Alaska in the middle of the night - the girls went to bed at the regular time and then we woke them up to go to the airport in their jammies:


We flew for about 3 1/2 hours to Seattle - Avery slept in my lap the whole time and Ella slept about an hour and played the rest of the time. She was so excited to FINALLY be on an airplane she couldn't settle down to sleep for awhile. When we got to Seattle we got to ride on the train which Ella also loved. (She is wearing ballerina jammies and a tutu!) Both girls were awake for the whole flight to Minneapolis but they were really good girls which was amazing considering they were up most of the night!

When we got to Minneapolis we got our two (this will be important later) suitcases in record time and found our rental car. We were all sick of sitting and hungry so we thought - what is close to the airport, has food and is a good place to walk around? IKEA!!! We went and it was glorious! I almost bought one of everything but couldn't think of a way to get it home, so I restrained myself to one GIGANTIC Ikea bag full of stuff.

After Ikea we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We got to see the Hagen side of the family on the first night - Uncle Mike and Aunt Bonnie, Aunt Lisa and Chris and Amy. Then, because we were completely exhausted from anight of little or no sleep we went to bed early.

Saturday we hung out some with Grandma and Grandpa. We watched the totally disappointing Iowa/Iowa State game and I went to Mason City with Lisa. Then we went to Fertile to hang out with the Morses!

We were lucky that so many people could come see us - Aunt Elin and Uncle Shorty, Aunt Punky, Ryan and his girlfriend, Melissa and her fiancee (who made friends with Avery), Tara and her boyfriend and kids (who were much bigger than I remember!)

It was really fun even if Avery was scared for life by an encounter with a friendly puppy. Ella on the other hand LOVED both puppies and won't stop asking when we can get one! After the puppy incident Avery was a little skittish :)

On Sunday we got up early and went to church in Northwood. It was nice to see everyone there again and the girls wore their second set of matching dresses (pictures to come later I hope!) Then we went to see my cousin Ryan's house and we played at the totally amazing Hanlontown playground that is right across the street from his house. After that we went to my Uncle Mike's house for lunch and visiting. I got to hold the tinyist baby I have ever held - Cole - who is totally adorable!

Monday we played with Grandma and Grandpa. Ella had ice cream - like she did everyday!!! She has already asked when we are going back to Grandma's for bunny ice cream :)

In the afternoon we went to Mason City for some shopping - Bath and Body Works was excellent!Ella got to ride this lion at the mall and thought it was pretty exciting! I am glad she is easily amused!!!


Avery's favorite part of Grandma and Grandpa's house was the stairs. She went up and down hundreds of times - we couldn't keep her off them!!!

Avery's other favorite part was going for walks outside with Grandma and Grandpa. She would walk around like crazy, but only holding hands, never by herself. What a stubborn baby! Ella preferred running laps up and down the driveway or in the back yard, especially if you timed her.

On Tuesday I went to Des Moines to visit friends and the Girls and the Grandmas went swimming in Mason City, out to Taco Tico (without me!) and for a marathon playground adventure. They had an awesome time!



Lots more fun things happened on Wednesday (I will tell more when I get pictures) and Thursday when we went swimming again - in the greatest swimming pool of all time. The Mason City YMCA - you should totally go. And to Taco Tico (with me this time). And played cards and dice. And I won at dice because I am the champion!

Friday was Grandma's birthday so we partied all day. We made her breakfast - french toast with AWESOME bread from Target, blueberry strudel and apple fritter. We also made a cake - pictures to come...and went out to eat with the family - pictures to come of that too. And we played dice again but I lost (not a reflection of my skills, I think Grandpa was cheating!). It was a great day!

Saturday we woke up and finished packing. We discovered that somehow our stuff had multiplied and no longer fit neatly into two suitcases but instead took FOUR suitcases! I don't know how it happened! It was really sad saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa because we had so much fun with them. I hope we can get back soon!

The trip home was long and exhausting - but the girls were pretty good. I had to resort to bribery on the first flight because Avery woke up from her nap as we were decending and started screaming. Her first lolipop - she loved it!!!


Ella had one two - while she read "the directions" of the airplane.

We had a three and a half hour layover in Seattle. We saw an airplane with a picture of Tinkerbell on it that Ella loved! We ate some lunch and played.

We were afraid that the airport was haunted by a scary ghost!

But later found out it was just Ella being tricky!

Had some snuggle time:

Some looking at airplane time:

Finally we got on the airplane to Anchorage. Ella fell asleep right away but Avery thought it would be more fun to scream. So she screamed from the second I put her in her carseat until we took off - about 20 minutes or so. I am sure the rest of the people on the airplane were loving us. But once we took off she just sat quietly for about an hour or so and then fell asleep. I watched the Wolverine movie - it was okay. When we landed Ella would not wake up so I had to carry her out of the airplane which is harder than it sounds because she is tall and heavy and a very nice and helpful man on the airplane carried our car seat all the way out of security! It was very exciting to see Daddy and Papa again! We got our bags, went home and went to sleep in our own beds. The girls actually slept well and didn't wake up as early as I thought they would. Hopefully we can make the adjustment to Alaska time without too much trouble.

There are a million more pictures I will post as soon as I get Mom's camera!