Midwestern Roundup

On Wednesday afternoon we got back from a weeklong tour of the northern plain states.  1200 miles in all, covering parts of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Minnesota (of course), and I don't think I've ever been more happy to be back in my own bed!  We had a wonderful time visiting with family and the weather was perfect every single day.  We really couldn't have asked for a better trip!

When we arrived in Des Moines on Thursday, Ryan took to helping Grammie with her garden right away.

Friday we made our way down to Kansas City and stopped at a petting zoo to stretch our legs. 

Baby blue

Saturday morning, Ryan learned the ins and outs of maintaining a "bug box" from cousin Quinten.  Ryan just LOVED being one of the big boys.  I, however, did not love scraping the dead bugs out of the box when the box was pushed under a seat in our van and I found it on our way home.  :)

Then we headed over for a graduation party for Dennis' cousin.  Congratulations Sean!

Sunday we were back in Des Moines and we were able to meet our new nephew Rocco!  He's three weeks old here and is just a little peanut!

Rocco practicing his "Rocky" moves - nice left hook!

Proud uncle Denny

Monday we went to the Des Moines zoo which was very fun.  A lot of the animals were uncaged and just milling about which was interesting.  Thankfully I had an overstuffed diaper bag that could easily have been transformed into a weapon if we needed it.

A joey for a day

We also got pictures with two types of catepillars,

This one......





And this one!

 And, of course, no send off would be complete without sharing a puffed cheese ball from an industrial sized container!  And in case you were wondering, that jar of cheese balls is sitting in my basement right now - you think I could find a project for those on Pintrest??