A Summer Trip to Iowa, Part I

I haven't been on a plane since my honeymoon in 2008, but every year I make at least one trip out to Iowa in the car. This trip was five days long, and I started out traveling with my friend Lyn and her two boys (aged 5 and 12). Yup, that made four boys all together. It was a sausage fest except for us mommies. 

One of the things Nick especially remembers about our trip is the stop we made in Coralville. It's about the halfway point in our five-hour car trip, so it's a nice place to stop for lunch. Nick remembers it because of the carousel and the cars he got to ride on in the mall. After three hours in the car, the carousel was pretty appealing, especially to Nick. Can you see him in the background in the picture above? He was wondering why Henry was getting his picture taken instead of him. I loved the animals on this carousel. Check out the bunny!

I was very glad that Lyn's older son came with us, because he was a big help with the little kids. 

Nick's latest favorite movie is Stuart Little 2, so he really got a kick out of driving Stuart's car. 

Henry was thrilled with the race car until we told him he had another 15 years until he could get his license. He was like, "What?! No way!"

We stayed at the Ramada Tropics in Des Moines, which has a really nice water park. Our room was pretty big and had a pull-out bed and even a little kitchenette.  

I'll write about the water park tomorrow, but one thing I want to remember about the trip is when the boys put on big shoes. Nick stepped into them and started stomping around the hotel room, declaring, "I am a daddy!" 

Soon, there was lots of stomping. All the young men, it seemed, wanted to be daddies. Henry was perturbed that he couldn't find any big shoes to stomp in. 

Tomorrow's post will be all about the water park. It was really fun, and I will tell the story of how there came to be three finger-shaped bruises on the inside of my left arm. (It has been a week, and the bruises are still there.)