Recap Of Our Iowa Trip + Low Key New Years

Happy January! Anyone else feel crazy when that happens and a new year is already here? We had such a whirlwind of our last trip to Iowa last week that I wanted to recap, plus our super low key New Years plans!

Tuesday
Christmas Day was such a fun time for our little family. Christmas was such a big moment that we loved being able to relax and enjoy our time with Zach’s parents. We had family friends come over who we played a few fun games with ( Jenga included and a huge hit! ) and loved catching up!

Wednesday
Our little family packed up for a full day of fun! We brought the kids to an indoor water park in Dubuque called The Grand Harbor. We met up with some friends and their kids who we went to college with which was such a blast! All our kids loved the slide and even Landon got in the water for a little bit. ( PS- did you know chlorine really helps kids with eczema to dry it out? Landon’s legs were SUPER smooth afterwards! I was actually was impressed)

After a few hours we took the kids back to get a nap in and wait for Zach’s parents to come bring them back to their home, while the adults were able to get some quality time together. We went out to a delicious restaurant that had great beer tasting and food.

Thursday
We woke up early from our friends house and drove about an hour and a half to visit our friend Stephanie’s sweet little boy who she had a few weeks prior. I forget how small these little ones are when they are first born! I loved some extra baby snuggles that’s for sure! Zach and I ventured back out to drive to Cedar Rapids to visit our Iowa Crew for lunch and catch up. We try to get together once a year when we are back in town to see them so we were so happy a few could make it out! Afterwards we picked up our deer meat that Zach had purchased from his Deer Camp weekend earlier this month and came back to his parents house to enjoy a delicious dinner and get to bed early.

Friday
Zach and I drove to Union, a town about an hour away, where my FIL works. He had just remodeled his shop and we were anxious to see how it looked in person after so much talk about it over the years. We took him to lunch and then drove home in the freezing cold. After we got home, we had a babysitter come over and watch the kids while we ventured back out and went to a winery called The Promise Land. We loved sampling all the different wines and I settled on the “Kid Sister” which is a red wine which was mostly a dessert wine and lots of grape flavor. It truly tasted like an adult grape juice! Afterwards we met up with our cousins for a late dinner and ended our long week in bed by 10pm ha!

Saturday
We were going to drive home Saturday afternoon but Zach had a great idea to surprise my parents and stop in Chicago. My parents were sad that we weren’t able to be there for Christmas so what better yet then a little GOT YA moment! Luckily Zach’s parents home and my parent’s are only 4 hours away so the  drive was pretty easy and we were there early enough where we could relax and enjoy spending time with my Dad before my Mom came home. If you saw my Insta Stories, you know my Mom’s reaction was priceless when she saw us! It was nice catching up with my sister, her boyfriend and my Grandma as well! Any extra time with family is much needed!

Sunday/New Years Eve
Ugh this was such a long day ha! You know driving in the car for 12+ hours with 2 kids..yeah it was brutal but we made it after 2 blow outs, 3 melt downs and one long and tired Dad who insisted on driving the entire way. Actually, about a few hours before we were expected to get home ( it was around 9pm) our neighbors told us they extra food and wanted us to come over! What a blessing since so many restaurants were closed and we were not really wanting any fast food. We raced home, I gave the kids a bath and we enjoy about an hour of being out of the car, eating delicious food and recapping our long week for them.

Finally around 10:30 we took the kids back home, put them to bed and Zach and I spent the rest of the night getting laundry finished and put away, putting Christmas gifts away and making lists for the following morning..

and yesterday was just that! Getting our house put back together, cleaning and packing for another crazy adventure that we’re doing on Thursday. Stay tuned on my Insta Stories. You’ll want to find out where we are going! Hope you all had a great New Years!