Rock Valley Trip

While we were in California, Korrie and Sarita watched the boys. They had a great time together during the week we were gone. But late Friday night, Jonathan and I arrived in Rock Valley. I couldn't sleep because I was so excited to see my boys in the morning. ;) We had a great time on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday
In the morning we totally vegged out. It was great. The boys played and we gave each of them a little souvineer from San Diego. Then in the afternoon we had a birthday party for Phin and Isaiah. Kristin made the cutest cupcakes decorated like baseballs, basketballs and footballs. I brought the drink and ice cream. ;) The boys had fun opening gifts. And each child left with a balloon. The simple pleasures. We hung out with Micah and Kristin and Philip and Liz at Korita's house. We got pizza and let the kids play. It was really fun to be together. We did miss Jeremy and Beth and Levi, but we'll all be together at Christmas.
Sunday
After a never-ending hour-long church service (both boys were not the picture-perfect children I would have hoped for them to be during the service) we headed over to my parents for Thanksgiving lunch. We celebrated Phin and DJ's birthdays too. The boys had fun playing with their cousins Will and Jaelyn. DJ brought his dog, Ruby, over and Phin loved him. My boys were so tired and Phin almost fell asleep behind the wheel a few times while they were playing outside. Before we left Rock Valley, we stopped at DJ and Maria's house to see how it was coming along (they had a housefire in August and are rebuilding on their acerage). It looks like it's going to be a lovely home. She said we could stay any time we wanted to and I think I'll take her up on that, as soon as they get plumbing, electricity and some insulation. ;)
The drive to Ames was pretty quiet. Phin was asleep about 1 1/2 miles away from my parent's house and they both slept for about 2 hours in the car. We had McDonald's in Carroll and then they watched a little Nemo. They sat in the van and kept watching it until we had unloaded all of our stuff. It was a great weekend and we're excited to spend more time with family at Christmas.