Me Auntie

What is a visit to Iowa without spending some time in the corn fields!  I know, right?  :) We were waiting for a tour of my Uncle Bob's work, and there was a corn field next to the parking lot.  Tristan was totally amused and we honestly almost lost him in some of those rows!  He sure loved it.

This is my Grandma's old house on Courtland Street.  As you can see, when she lived there in the 1940's it was a beautiful neighborhood.  Just beautiful.  Since then it's gone to heck.  I thought my cousin was joking when he asked me NOT to drive there by myself with Grandma.  I still listened, but I totally thought he was joking.  He wasn't.  That neighborhood is seriously scary-we were lucky not to have been stabbed/shot/mugged in the 5 minutes we were there to take a few photos.   Grandma was perturbed about the bushes in front of the house.  "What!? She let those trees grow up and they block the whole house, GOSH that's AWFUL!"  I'm glad we went by though. Grandma is getting forgetful, she might not remember what she had for breakfast, but when you go through her old stomping grounds she can tell you exactly where she is and what is going on.



Anyway, we survived.  We also toured the Wonder Bread factory.  It smells like heaven in there and honestly, I could have watched them bake bread all day.  They were making regular white bread when we got there.  It was like being in a giant's kitchen.  A giant mixer. A giant tub of flour.  A giant scoop of yeast.  A giant oven.  A giant everything.  It's mesmorizing to watch the entire process of bread being made.  Loved it.  Then we all took home a hot loaf.  Loved that even more.  Just don't carry the bread by the open end of the bag or it gets all squished.

Tristan was in love with his cousin Raegan.  He thought she was the bee's knees, if you will.   We went to the John Deere festival in Waterloo and enjoyed the activities.  They had bouncy houses, face painting, corn stuff, sand decorations, tractors, and more tractors.  Tristan loved that the girls carried him around like a giant doll.

We went to one of my darling cousin Jack's games.  I made sure to run up to him after and tell him how cool he was.  And take a hundred photos.  I think he wanted to die of  embarrassment. His friends gave me a fist bump though and told me I was hot.    I didn't tell him I was old enough to be his mom.  I just said, "Thanks!" We spent the night over at my cousin Chris' house. Tristan was spoiled... Raegan and her friend fed him anything he wanted.  Then Cathy fed him anything he wanted.  Then I fed him anything he wanted.  Then he came back and ate everything from everyone else's plates.  He kept us entertained the entire night.  ... then he was up at 3am for an hour with a stomache ache...

When we were driving around Grandma kept commenting how no one ever goes on picnics these days. We decided to grab some food from HyVee and have a picnic at the park up the road from my Aunt's house. After we ate Grandma said she hadn't been on a swing in forever. So she went swinging.

It was funny to see her swing. She kept saying, "Well this isn't as much fun as it was when I was a kid!" 

I was walking back to the car with Grandma and Micheale and tried to get a picture of Grandma and Micheale holding hands.  I just love the bond they have with each other.  Micheale has always been a good friend to her.  Grandma refuses to use a walker, wheel chair or cane.  They're for old people.  She isn't old.  Well, she admits she's old, "How old am I?"  "You're ninety seven and a half.  Getting close to a hundred!"  She pauses,  "Gosh I'm old!"  It cracks me up.  But, she won't use a cane.   That's Grandma.  Not old yet.