Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Unexpected trip to Iowa

I had an unexpected trip to Iowa in June to help Holly when she had emergency surgery. Jeff happened to be out of town on business and Holly called me from the hospital one night at about 8 p.m. telling me she was going into surgery for complications from a miscarriage. I tried to get on a plane as soon as possible, but didn't get there until the next day at noon. Her friend, along with Claire and Ethan, picked me up from the airport at the same time her other friend was picking Holly up from the hospital to bring her home and we all got to her house at about the same time. Jeff couldn't get a flight out and we decided that with my being there, he could stay for his conference - although he did come home a couple days early. The circumstances of my trip to Iowa weren't happy, but I was glad to be able to spend some time with all of them and help clean and take care of the kids. Their ward was fabulous and brought meals almost every night I was there. It allowed me time to play with the kids and help Holly.

While I was there, I was able to go to Claire's Safety Village. Holly enrolled her into a week-long safety kids class and Claire loved it. They had the cutest little village with stop lights, railroad crossings, houses and little bikes the kids could ride around and they had to obey the traffic signals. They also had other stations where the kids could dress in fire fighter uniforms, etc. I was very impressed and would love to have had something like that when I was a kid!





Ethan had just learned how to ride his bike without training wheels (he's only 4 1/2!) and he zoomed all over the place on his little bike.

The fireflies were just starting to come out at night, so we spent some time watching them and the kids loved catching them. Claire was REALLY good at catching them and Ethan was too by the time I left.


I caught this one lighting up as it flew away. That light is a firefly. They are so interesting to watch!
I was able to take the kids out to dinner and to a movie. We saw this:
We also went to Lowe's and built a flag holder, the Children's Museum and on the carousel at the mall.

Here is a picture of Holly on the day I left. And a picture of the kids before I left. It was so good to see these guys. I love spending time with them.



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