Another fun and busy weekend!

This weekend we headed up to NW Iowa to hang out with family and friends! We left Ankeny as soon as I got home from school, stopped at Subway for dinner in Stuart, and arrived in Sgt. Bluff between 8 and 8:30. The past 2 roadtrips we have done have been to Michigan and Indiana, so MUCH longer than this trek up north. So in comparison to those long trips, we figured this small trek would be a piece of cake with Jeremiah-- and we were right! I will say that the DVD player that we bought that attaches to the back of the passengers seat has proved to be a good one-- one Melmo and a couple Gab-Gabba's and we were there! :) And I used to be one of those people (before Jeremiah came along...) who said, "I will never let my kids watch DVD's in the car! When I was little we traveled across the country and did just fine with tape players, travel games, and books!" And then we had a kid. And I justify this by saying that the DVD player only comes out for long road trips (2 hours or more) and not for a quick run to the grocery store. ANYWAY, we love the DVD player. Amen.

Once we arrived at Meema and Boppa's house in Sgt. Bluff, Jeremiah burned off the last of his energy by running laps through the kitchen and living room (one downside to the DVD player is that J rarely falls asleep when he's watching, so if we want him to nap or sleep we have to turn it off...). He went to bed well and slept great!

Saturday morning we drove up to Orange City to Adam's sister's house for brunch. Jeremiah LOVED playing with his cousins, Kyan and Kobe! It is fun to see that Jeremiah is getting older and more able to interact and play with his big cousins!

And of course they have trucks, tractors, and trains galore (and a toy vacuum!) at their house, so J was in heaven!


Playing with Kobe!


Eyeing Kyan's tractor...

We also went outside to check out their property-- I think Jeremiah has a little bit of farm-boy in him!


Kyan and Kobe have a motorized Gator and tractor... and Jeremiah jumped right on for a ride!


Kyan made sure to hold on to J and keep him safe while he was driving. How cute is that?!?!

Jeremiah also took a liking to the barn kitty (much to his mother's horror!). I don't know what's wrong with him!


Little boys having quite a serious discussion about that kitty...


Cousins!


J even hopped into the driver's seat of the Gator to take a spin. He thought that was SO cool! But he didn't really go anywhere-- doesn't quite get the concept of pushing down the gas pedal yet.


And then Saturday afternoon I was able to meet one of my former co-workers (from when I taught in Sioux City) for coffee-- it was great to catch up and hear about how things are going there!

Saturday night was the event that we made this trip for-- Steer & Beer at the Dykshorn's! :)

It was a beautiful fall evening and we were able to eat our steer and drink our beer (I had the root kind-- I'm not a huge fan of real beer) outside!

I also got to meet my friend Natasha's new little guy, Levi! Don't be fooled, he actually did very little of this over the course of the evening!

Adam took baby duty for a few minutes, too-- he's a pretty good baby rocker!


Me and my besties!

And yes, they always dress like that. Weird, right? Okay, no that's not true. The theme for Steer & Beer this year was "90's Cowboy." Makes more sense now, right? Yeah, and only 2 party-poopers didn't participate in the dressing-up:

Me and this guy. What can I say? I choose not to relive my horrible fashion choices in the 90's.

Sunday we enjoyed church, lunch at the Pizza Ranch (quickly becoming Jeremiah's favorite restaurant, by the way!) and then we headed back home to Ankeny. We had to turn off Gabba-Gabba in order for J to take a nap, unfortunately he only slept an hour which is SO not long enough! He was in bed early tonight, needless to say. We had a great time and are so glad we made the trip (I just wish that maybe I could have 1 day to recover before heading back to school...)!