This past weekend, we took the kids down to Iowa for the first time to visit with Angie's parents. At the same, time, we didn't want them getting too hyper prior to the trip, so we didn't tell them ahead of time.
I covertly packed some things for them in a suitcase and put it in the car the day prior to the trip. When we were ready to go, Angie told the boys we had to "run some errands" and that they should grab a few toys and head to the car.
I will admit, we made it 40 minutes out of town (long than I thought we would have driven) before Sasha asked, "Where ARE we going?" Angela raised a hand and said, "Don't worry about all that," which only caused him and Aiden to wonder more, so we finally told them. They were happy and surprised for the little adventure.
A few hours later, we crossed the Illinois-Iowa border at the Mississippi River on Interstate 80 and stopped just over the over the bridge...and then I saw more bugs in one place than I think I have ever seen. It was the caddisfly hatching season and it was pretty unbelievable (In fact, I cut short a planned 7 mile run to just over four miles over the weekend as I was just eating too many bugs on the run).
We made it to the hotel without issue (aside from a car caked with caddisflies) and then had the unenviable task of trying to get the boys to settle down to sleep. Sasha spent about 45 minutes tossing and turning on the bed like a bag of snakes while Aiden kept complaining about Sasha stealing the covers. Eventually, though, they succumbed and slept.
The following morning we stopped at Angie's parent's place. Her mom has had some health challenges, but has been doing extremely well lately. It was great to see her looking and feeling good. Angie's dad took the kids to a nearby park with water slides. We hung out with Angie's mom and ran some errands.
The kids were wiped out Saturday night and had a much easier time going to sleep.
Father's Day meant we had to head back home, but we were able to spend more time with Ang's parents before we left. We even got Aiden to smile nicely for a family picture.
