Christmas Day!

Christmas Day was pretty relaxing for us. Kabe woke us at 5:30am to see what Santa had brought him.









His favorite gift was Guitar Hero for his Nintendo DS.











He even got to play outside in the snow.








And so did grandpa!







Kabe learned how to play marbles and was really good at it!







And at the end of the day, we watched 'House' and had our own sort of slumber party.






My personal favorite of the whole trip...proof that Iowa brings out the hillbilly in all of us! ;)

Where to begin?

Last week when we left Illinois it was cold. We'd had snow and ice earlier in the week, but it had melted rather quickly. We'd gotten word that we were headed toward snow in Iowa....lots of snow, but that didn't really worry us. We've traveled through some pretty severe conditions to see family.


But after being on the road about 45 minutes, we were in complete white-out conditions and after two hours, we were routed off the interstate to some county highway .... completed ice covered where travel was a mere 40 miles per hour due to ice. Not cool. This is the view of the Mississippi River as we crossed.

A little while later as we headed north, we saw a rainbow ... just before we began driving through snow drifts.







Kabe was so excited to see Grandpa Gene...







and Grandma Gene (aka Connie). He had to give them his presents right away.







And Adam was put to work helping his dad put the tree up so it could dry out (covered with snow) and then Kabe could help Grandma Gene decorate.








Of course, Adam was also assigned to figure out the lights.

We thought we had it bad...

I've been amazed at the amount of rain we had around here. Although it has rained a lot, it hasn't seemed like it's rained enough to leave all the water standing and flood so many places. We went for a short drive today and although we aren't farmers from the looks of it there appears to be many fields that won't be planted this year.

We received a call from my mother-in-law Sunday. She lives in Northern Iowa where much rain was received in a very short amount of time. The beauty shop she rents doesn't have a sump pump. The basement in the shop is completely flooded - one more step and it will reach the main floor. The sewage plant flooded in the town where Adam's aunt lives so there is no sewer available and no potable running water. Fun, huh?

It does give perspective.