October Trip to Iowa

Obviously I'm still playing catch up since I'm writing about an October event in January. All I can say is, thank heaven November was boring as can be, that will help me catch up on my blog history.

In mid-October we took a road trip out to Iowa to visit Jeremy's family (Papa, Shelly and family, and Cody)

We over-nighted in Laramie, Wyoming and drove straight to Kaiden's football game, stopping only to fill up our tanks and empty our other tanks :)

Fall was in full swing and the huge trees around Chris and Shelly's house provided for tons of inexpensive entertainment.


First, we would look out the 2 story windows and watch the leaves fall like rain. Then we would rake them or leaf-blow them. Finally, we would jump in them. Endless entertainment.

Let's talk a little about me discovering my hidden passion for leaf-blowing. Have you ever used a leaf blower before? MAN - it is FUN!!

I plugged that baby in and I was in my own little leaf blowing world. The hum of the motor, the dancing of leaves .... **sigh** And when I had cleared a patch of leaves, I felt immense satisfaction. I found myself saying to myself, "Ok, I'll quit after I clear just this one little area of lawn." But once I'd cleared the area I just couldn't stop. I was addicted to leaf blowing. Finally, Jeremy made me come in for dinner.

All I could think of through dinner was getting out there and clearing more leaves!!! I was lucky, because the sun was setting and I was able to use that as an excuse to resume my leaf-blowing activities immediately after dinner.

The following day it rained and I was unable to leaf-blow. :(



Besides leaves, there was another theme for our Iowa trip
***CATS***
Or better entitled ***Porter and Cats***

Chris and Shelly have two cats. One is a black cat named "Sunshine" (go figure) and the other is an orange and black cat named "Flash." Porter became obsessed with these cats. And you can only comprehend the deepness of the word "obsessed" if you truly know Porter.

Those poor cats never had a clue what was coming to them. Porter would wake up and hunt them down, rub his face against them, taunt them with string and other toys, and then torture them as much as the adults would let him get away with before being put into time-out. Then he would repeat, until it was time for eating or bedtime.

One particular morning he was experimenting (torturing) with the cats in Chris and Shelly's room. Little did he know that Aunt Shelly was still snuggled in bed watching his every move. Porter would pick up Flash and throw him towards Sunshine to try and get Sunshine to hiss at Flash (or something like that.) He repeated this several times until he heard Aunt Shelly's convicting voice from behind the covers, "Porter.. what are you doing."

Again, if you know Porter well, you also know he can be a pathological liar. Apparently, he is also a very quick thinker.

With outstretched arms, he dropped the kitty and continued extending his arms and replied, "I'm stretching my arms" Nice cover up kid.

So, the cat issue literally dominated our trip. But it didn't end with Chris and Shelly's house. We went to visit Uncle Cody and not only did HE have cats also, but he had THREE, (count 'em 1,2,3) KITTENS. Well, the intensity and obsession was just exponentially increased with those cute lovable, soft, kittens!

This is turning into a long post, but the other highlights of our trip included:
*Watching Kaiden's football game.
*Going to Reiman Gardens
*Playing with science at the science center in Des Moines
*Eating breakfast at a quaint restaurant in Plymouth, Iowa
*Eating an early Thanksgiving Dinner at Cody's house.
*Watching college football