Iowa City 2009

It has been a flurry, but I wouldn’t give it up—no way. 

 

Beth has been visiting since Friday, May 1.  You saw the last post.  Too busy to write, but I wanted to get the pictures up, especially for Mike, because he was missing his baby, I am sure.

Now I’ve had time to reflect.  And I have many more pictures to post.

Beth and Verena’s visit to our home was fun.  I feel for Beth because I know it has been an exhausting trip for her.  But she sees the end now.  That new fresh tile floor awaits her.  It’s calling her name. 

Beth…Beth…Come home now.  I miss those baby toes crawling all over my cool surface…Come home.

Anyway, I digress.  We had so much fun having them around.  Verena is so cute you could eat her up.  But she wants her Mama most of the time.  She’s largely off the menu. 

Gertie likes Verena much of the time.  And sometimes she likes her toys more than Verena.  Well, maybe that’s not true.  Maybe she just knows that her toys like her more than they like Verena.  Anyway, she protected them with valor, only releasing them to Verena’s clutches on threat of punishment.  Much of the time, Verena didn’t seem to notice, really, so all was well.

 

THE ROAD TRIP

 

Julie and my Mother came on Thursday morning and Beth and Verena and Gertie and I hopped into Julie’s van to drive down to Iowa City.  We had lots of fun listening to the ipod and fighting over the temperature in the car, and we made it safely to Iowa City in time to enjoy dinner with our cousins Christy and Nicki.  I’ll be tempted to say it time and again during this post, but I just love this family of mine, and getting reacquainted with them is all joy.

The only thing squishing the joy was that Verena arrived in Iowa City with puke down her front and a fever of over 102 degrees.  But we chatted over pizza, and I visited with these cousins that make me smile.  I got to meet Christy’s daughter Heidi again.  She is a young lady now.  We were laughing and eating, and then Beth felt she needed to have Verena looked at by a doctor.  So our party split up, and things got a little crazy.  Some were driving to the Urgent Care, some were staying for pizza and visiting—no, wait—some were coming back to take the chatters to the EMERGENCY room to join the ailing one, and the rest were going home—no, wait—some were turning in for the night while the rest braved the ER—no, wait—nobody wanted to brave the ER after all, and we all went home and tucked ourselves into bed.  Whew.  It was crazy for certain.

And my Gertie, whom Christy had been trying to win over during dinner with seemingly little success, suddenly became desperate to be with Christy.  She needed her.  She needed to see her again.  To know where she was.  To touch her.  To say goodbye.  That’s just like her.

All told for that reunion, I got this picture.  We are waiting out in the rain for our ride (Nicki) to arrive and deliver us to the emergency room.  No picture of Nicki.

Then we met the next afternoon with my cousin Becca and her husband Ian and their adorable little Annabelle at the local children’s museum.  Annabelle was born just a month before Gertie, and they were fun to watch.And this was a fun sort of place. 

  There was grocery shopping, complete with shopping carts and way too many vegetables and fruits and danishes and money. 

And this big red fellow is supposed to be Elmo.  Gertie was convinced.  Gertie liked him, but still a bit skittish about getting too close.

  And then there was the baby nursery.  Gertie’s all-time favorite past-time:  babies.  This was the area she didn’t want to leave, the one she begged to go back to.  The one she left only by being picked up and carried out of kicking and screaming.

 

But that didn’t last long, because then we found this room.  This is Gertie and Annabelle on the slide.  Aren’t they just the sweetest.

 And Verena didn’t forget what the slide was all about.  She’s a pro by now.

 They had golf balls everywhere in this area.  It was a very cool room.  Lots of room to run around.

 But Verena didn’t forget about those slides.  (Did I say that already?)

 Annabelle.

  This was the closest I could get these girls for a picture.  And that is even blurry because they were on the go.  I love these girls.

We followed this adventure up with some much needed rest before we went to Aunt Ann and Uncle Bill’s for a family dinner.  She made a delicious taco salad.  I love taco salad.  Aunt Jean and Uncle John were there.  I took no pictures, but had the biggest smile on my face the whole time. 

John and Julie talked high finance.  Beth started in with politics and everyone joined in.  Gertie and Annabelle had the very best time being chased around and giggling and hiding and giggling until I drug Gertie home and she collapsed into bed.  I just love this family and listening and watching and learning.  They are simply dear to me.  Watching our girls run rampant reminded me of our old times playing with the cousins during those happy reunions.  These times are so precious.

And the last leg was the grave tour.  Maybe only interesting to a few, but a sweet melancholy for me.  It’s good to be reminded of where you came from.The first stop was in Iowa City to my Great Grandmother Verena’s grave.

 This is Baby V at her cherished Great Great Grandmother’s grave.  Needs a frame if I do say so myself.

 

You know, we left there and Beth and I and our little girls headed out to Grandpa and Grandma’s old place.  We had the best hike around their place.  The weather was beautiful.  We were able to keep a slow but steady pace, disappointing no one because it was just us.  We hiked our old trail out to the picnic table and down to our swimming pond.  It was quiet and peaceful and brought back so many memories. We headed up to the old spring shack and back around to the house.  It didn’t take too long, and really it was the perfect distance.  The kids survived it pretty well.  It is heaven to me.  I am so glad that the new owners are agreeable to letting us visit, and I look forward to doing that until I’m gray.  I love that place and the memories it holds.  I loved doing that hike with my sister and our girls.  It was perfect.  Julie would have joined us as well, but she woke that morning not feeling so well.

We were determined to see it all, so we headed over to Tipton to visit the family gravesites there.  Another melancholy spot, but it means so much to be able to do it.

 

  Grandpa and Grandma Furnish.

Great Aunt Betty. And is your last little baby ever so cute you just can’t stand it?  You want to freeze time because you know it won’t last forever?  You would eat her up if you could?  This was one of those days.  I love her up.