Friday, July 19, 2013

Is this Heaven?

No, it's Iowa! Jason and I took Ted to Iowa to visit all my family and friends. I love Iowa, especially in the summer! I love long summer nights where it doesn't get dark until late, seeing the fireflies come out at night (Jason saw his first one!), and summer rain.
Ted can't wait to go to Iowa and show off his new roll-up pants!
Perfect on the flight!

I love, love being from Iowa and now that I am a mom I miss it even more. I have an amazing family in Iowa. It all starts with this amazing lady!
I pray my life will be half as blessed as hers. She's 92 years young and has amazing faith. She raised 8 wonderful children who went on to give her 26 beautiful grandchildren (yours truly is number 8) and 25 great-grandchildren (so far!). Ted is number 22. Yep, three more great-grandchildren just since April! 

My grandma LOVES to cook for us! I don't think I've ever been home to visit without having breakfast with her. Her pancakes are amazing! What's her secret? I'm sure some form of lard. :) 

Also, without fail she always serves...
JELLO!!

Did you know more Jello is sold per capita in Iowa than any other state?! Seriously, it's because of Grandma Millie. You can always count on it including some type of fruit and if you're lucky, some marshmallows, too.

My family loves celebrations too. My mom's cousin turned 50 this year and she decided to celebrate with 50 journeys in one year! We were happy to join her for one of them at Ashby Park. I grew up across the street from this park. My sister and I used to tell the neighbor kids our dad owned it. He may have...
Some of the crew celebrating with Coleen
This was after a LONG car ride from
Anamosa, IA. More on that trip coming!

Like I said, my family LOVES celebrations. They don't really need a reason for one, but since I would be in town with Ted, my aunt Jane threw a party! It was so much fun! I think 11 of 23 (at the time) great-grandkids were there! 
We were missing a few, but how cute! Nine great grand-children were born last year from July 11, 2012 to July 10, 2013! Can you say Irish Catholic?
Meet the Roosevelts...Eleanor and Ted
3 1/2 weeks apart
This is my Godfather...he is such a trooper. 
The only son of eight. He has 7 loud and crazy sisters. 
He was pretty excited to meet Ted!













I was so happy for my parents to meet Ted. They have three other grandsons! We all really thought Ted would be a girl!

We went back to Ashby Park with my brother and two of his kids, Jayden and Colton. They are super adorable and loved playing in the water!















They loved meeting Ted too!



Here is Ted meeting my nephew Nick! Nick is more like my little brother. Ted was so happy to meet Uncle Nick and I was so happy to see him!
Love this picture so much!
Seriously...aren't these the cutest roll-up pants?!
They kill me!
Vacation is exhausting
Representing the great state!
Playtime with his buddy Jonas!




Weekly photos, Iowa edition!










It really was a wonderful week with my family. I love being there and I love living here. My heart gets pulled between two places so much. I never thought I would or could move back, but now that I have a child it's different. It would be amazing to raise Ted around such a big, awesome family just like I was raised. My cousins were my best friends growing up. At the same time, I have an amazing group of friends here that is rooted in my church that I love! 

If only I could somehow move my church and all my friends to Iowa, or...my whole family moves here! Then I wouldn't feel so torn.

So to all my family members that might read this...it really is awesome to never shovel snow. :)
Heading home...

1 comment:

  1. First off, I didn't know that Jason had never seen fireflies! It's so cool. He is seriously like the 10th person that came to Iowa last Summer and saw fireflies for the first time! (that I know of anyways) Love the jello! Love the pics of cousins!

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