Jason and I mentioned our excitement about visiting family in Iowa, and that is exactly what we did for Thanksgiving. We drove 1,000 miles for me to meet Jason’s family for the first time, and for Jason to finally see them again. A thousand miles may sound a little crazy, but we love road trips and were so excited for the opportunity to see everyone!
Our road trip started right after work on Tuesday. Each of us left work as soon as we could, double checked that we didn’t forget anything, and said goodbye to our little Bandito and Jebadiah (the fish). Our plan for the first leg of the trip was to make it to Cheyenne Wyoming. Our 6 hour drive resulted in tons of laughing, reading, and eating a taco salad without a fork in the dark. We had fun, but were excited to find a hotel and crash for the night. After a full day of work, driving makes you so sleepy.
Wednesday was our big journey of 10 hours to Iowa, and it actually flew by. I love road trips with Jason J We read The Hunger Games, sang He is We and other random songs at the top of our lungs , talked about a possible black Friday expedition, stuffed ourselves with tomato basil wheat thins, stopped a billion times for me to pee, and laughed at random memories. It was pretty awesome…
When we finally pulled in to Jason’s cousin’s house, I was so excited and nervous. I really hate meeting people for the first time after driving in the car and looking rather gross, but couldn’t believe I was finally meeting Jason’s family! Two adorable little girls greeted us in the driveway and deemed they would be glued to our hips that very moment for as long as they could help it. We were whisked inside, given a very nice tour of the house, and pampered with recliners, pillows, and one of our favorite movies Despicable Me. Later we had a delicious dinner, played I spy, and played a very memorable game of hide and seek.
Thanksgiving Day was amazing! I love stuffing my faceJ It was especially wonderful, because of the people we spent the day with. We actually ended up going to Grandma’s house (the girls’ grandmaJ) and were greeted by the friendliest people ever. We were family right away and felt so welcome. The food was amazing, and the day was filled with football (a must for most people on Thanksgiving), a nice nap, racing outside, hitting a volleyball around, and eating more food. We also learned how to play a new game called Acquire, in which I didn’t understand and completely failed at wining. We had fun playing though.
Friday was a little sad, because we knew the following day we’d have to say goodbye, but we made the most of it and had so much fun. We spent the day with the girls playing all kinds of games and watching movies. We stayed in our PJs all day and even decorated a Christmas tree. The girls loved every minute and Jason and I loved making memories with them. Come dinner time we headed to Pizza Hut for a family dinner out and headed to the movies. Wreck it Ralph in 3D was the feature presentation, and it was so good. We really enjoyed ourselves J
Saturday we woke up early to get ready for our long drive home. We also wanted to get a head start to visit more family in Nebraska and hopefully make it to Cheyenne in hopes of a short drive home on Sunday. The girls weren’t happy with our decision to leave early, and pleaded for just one more game. We played a quick game of duck, duck, goose, and had many group hugs. It was sad to say goodbye, but we made promises to see each other again.
On our way up to Nebraska, we stopped in Omaha to yes… do some black Friday weekend shopping. You know since black Friday is now the entire weekend. It was at Burlington Coat Factory that we made our first baby item purchase. We found a fantastic deal on a travel system for our sweet little one. Our car is now equipped with an awesome matching car seat and stroller. It even matches the color of our car!
Visiting Jason’s cousin in Nebraska was really neat too. As soon as we got there we were greeted with hugs and food. We visited with everyone for a bit (his cousin has 6 kids and all of them came home for Thanksgiving) and then taken on a pretty intense tour of their cattle farm. The smell wasn’t really my favorite, but it was neat to see what Jason’s cousin does for a living. Raising about 40,000 heads of cattle is definitely not a walk in the park. It was incredible to see all the hard work that goes into their family owned business.
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