Time to Blog

I've been having a hard time making time to blog lately. I have some time now, so I thought I would write about our trip to Iowa last weekend to celebrate my grandmother's ninety-first birthday, as well as the birthdays of my sister and my cousin's wife. We drove down to my mother's home Friday night. I think this really messed up Maximus's sleep schedule. It took a long time to get him to sleep. Fortunately, this meant he ended up sleeping much later than usual.

On Saturday we had lunch at the Colony Inn in Amana. Lunch was terrific! The mashed potatoes and gravy were delicious, and the Swiss steak I had for my entrée was quite flavorful as well. We then returned to my grandmother's house where we later had a small dinner followed by cake and ice cream.

My mom, sister, Mel, Emma, Max, and I went to the Other Place in Waterloo for pizza on Sunday before returning home. The drive back went pretty well except for the last half hour or so. By that time, Max had woken up and was tired of being in his car seat. He wasn't shy about letting us know it either. I hope we all survive our trip to Iowa next month for a wedding reception. That trip is going to be much longer than the one we took last weekend.

Birthday Party

We went to Waterloo, Iowa, yesterday for Emma's birthday party. She shared a party with her cousins David and Benjamin, both of whom have birthdays either this month or next. While it made for a long day, driving to Waterloo and back in one day, we had a good time. Emma really had a great time. She got quite a few presents, and seemed to like them all. She even liked the clothes she got. When we told her that she needed to try them on tonight, she couldn't get to it soon enough. It is good that she got some new clothes, because she was lacking on summer clothes that fit her still. We gave her several T-shirts on her birthday, and yesterday she ended up getting quite a few pairs of shorts.