back to iowa (again)

Over Memorial Day, we went back to Iowa to visit family.  It was my birthday gift!  The trip went very very well, even with a new baby.  He mostly slept, cried some, but we had a good trip and it didn't take much longer than usual.  We listened to 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' on the way down, and a Ramona Quimby book on the way back.  Nut Brown and I are not as enthusiastic about audiobooks as Mr. Brown and Rose Pink, but they do make the time pass.  Rose Pink produced the above drawing of cars on the highway.

It was lovely.  The older kids had a great time with their cousins, I got to sleep in and take naps, we met our new cousin Georgia, who is four weeks older than Ozzy, we ate fabulous barbecue and we got to hang out and talk with Mr. Brown's brother, sister and brother-in-law and sister-in-law, who are all some of my favorite people.  We invited them all to move to Michigan.

Visiting away from home also gave us a chance to kind of reset ourselves, so that when we got home, we were ready to take on our own life again.  Thank you thank you to Hugh and Jess for having us.  Our friendship is one of the best things about having lived in Iowa.