Midwest Roadtrip: Iowa

I love my sister-in-laws. They are all really good women that anyone would be glad to have as a friend. A couple of Mark's sisters live pretty close to us, one more used to and has since been visited, another is just in the process of moving across country (TX to WI), and another has lived in Iowa a long time now without us ever having visited, so it was about time! Laura is so cool - super smart, talented, thoughtful, beautiful, and going to have a seventh child this fall so you know she's got major reserves of both faith and patience. Her husband is also a smarty-pants, an immigration lawyer with his own practice, with loads of energy and ideas, and very fun-lovin'. And their kids are smart and fun and match up in ages pretty well with ours. AND they live pretty much in a forested park. So, yeah, we had a great time staying with them a few days.

Day Six, we set the kids up in teams and had them do a scavenger hunt on the property. They also played in the tree house, attempted tennis, set up Beyblade tournaments, and played a lot of dress-up and wii.

The next day was more of the same fun, but also included a water balloon war, jumping on the tramp, planting the garden, and finally fishing and s'mores by the river.

Isaac and Myra are the closest in age, though of course gender plays a large role in who you're better friends with. Luckily James & Myra are close, so it became a nice threesome or foursome (with tag-along-Sam) or five-some (if they allowed Grace in their reindeer games).
The adults stayed up extremely late each night talking (so did the kids!). One night we played a few rounds of Sequence, which was really fun. Another we watched the newest version of The Three Musketeers, which just may be the worst movie I have ever seen. 
The next day (Day Eight of our trip) was Sunday. We drove to their church building, nearly an hour away, and counted our blessings that back home we live close enough to walk to church. That evening we went into town (Iowa Falls) to a nice park and then walked along the river a bit. 

David and Owen became great pals, with a slightly ornery twist as expected of two-year-olds. Poor older Owen kept falling prey to David's "no" game, in which he denies anything and everything you say. Pretty humorous, if you're not a frustrated toddler yourself.

Grace was also a good friend to David - always willing to help him or be on his team. Charlie and the twins enjoyed each other, too. Especially Anson & Charlie. It's so fun to watch cousins bond!
In general, Iowa earned fairly high marks as an idyllic place to live.
We loaded up the next morning - so did Laura & the cousins - and drove off to vacation together in the historic city of Nauvoo, IL.