Aunt Ruth's Iowanian Birthday Party

I am back home from Iowa, I think I'm gonna slam you with photos. I definitely earned the privilege (in my logical thinking that is). Three hours, twenty minutes up, forty-five minutes down (I'll explain down the post)! We packed the fun-mobile, tagged it (John is responsible for mis-spelling Orient, although I'll admit, I didn't notice until we WERE in Iowa, which launched an all-out scramble for the wipes to clean off and re-tag pronto at the gas station! We were getting stared down by the locals.). We're off...Niki brought the b/f...he looks very afraid and not gonna lie, he maybe should be, idk.

Behind Alex's bottle of Bug Juice, Cody sleeps....we aren't even a mile down the road!!!! Clearly Cody doesn't find us as entertaining as we find ourselves. Can he turn this around before the day is over?

Just over three hours later, we're looking for a State Park something something something. We're about to give up, all the country roads look alike, we're not getting this county road thing. Suddenly, and as we drive past a white house-ish building in the middle of NOTHING (all sides of the building look this way), we realize we are here! Slam brakes on dusty road, skid a few feet and back up....I am not saying yes, not saying no, but the Iowa side of the family that was in the parking lot gave each other knowing glances as we pulled in with our tagged car. We forgot the card, when in Missouri, everyone knows if said card is forgotten, just write it around your car. Geeze!

More view of the landscape behind us:

Aww come ON Cody, this is fun stuff!

You too! What's up with the teenagers?

This is a lot of John's fam--one brother some nieces/nephs missing. We always have to the "the big photo". I'm just to the left and behind the niece with the yellow shirt. Will I? Oh yes, I will. Sorry Mom & Dad

What? I said sorry!

This is Aunt Ruth (lovely inside and out...like her sister, my MIL) Okay, one meal down, cake cut, flames safely extinguished....here we are on the way to Platte City where we will do dinner at SIL Jeanne's house. John's brother Jeff leads three of us out of Iowa, lots of hills, two lane roads...going at a swift pace of only, ehh....let's see........95 miles an hour! Much of the way. Can't dog Jeff too much. Johnny didn't HAVE to keep up...yet in his head he had to. He couldn't compromise his position on the extended family "cool totem". Doesn't he know by now it couldn't ever happen--together we make one cool totem piece---just ask Cody (hehe!).

After awhile, we get used to the pace and relax a bit. Can John and I take a photo driving through the countryside at 95 mph? Yes, it can be done. Note: hair and makeup have stayed behind in IA. We were the only four cars on the road most of the way; to the few Iowanians we saw, we must have been a bit of a sight.

Niki's b/f enjoyed a little fishing

Nobody told me it was niece Julie's birthday party, BIL Jim's birthday party and BIL Pat's retirement party. So....we were the losers with no gifts, nothing. But...Pat made margaritas, so after a few, I don't think some of them noticed.

This is great nephew, sending all y'all his very best! Now isn't that just sweet...in a Children Of The Corn kind of way I mean?
I think it's time to go home. And...if you hung with me through all those photos, let me know, I'll return the favor. xoxo