June 24

We are finally back home from our trip to visit my grandparents, so I'll be working diligently to get the blog all caught up with vacation pictures! I only have the energy for one post tonight, and even that is questionable, so please bear with me.

Grandma and Grandpa live in a small town that's about 8 hours away, when one is driving with normal human beings. When one is driving with small children, all bets are off. Because I had to drop off diapers for the diaper study we're doing, we couldn't leave town until nearly 10 am. That meant that, after only two hours of driving, it was time to stop for lunch. Boo.

Luckily, I packed enough food to feed my family for a week.

Even luckier, we happened to find a lovely roadside park almost immediately after we decided it was lunch time.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch, and then Chris and Caleb played some baseball while Daisy finished eating and I nursed Lily.

Caleb spotted some lilies in the distance, so Chris picked one for our Lily. She was appropriately appreciative.

And then we got back in the car and drove. On and on and on we drove. By 6 pm, we were about an hour away from our destination, and we needed to stop for dinner. I googled the next town to see what our dining options were, and discovered that there was a Village Inn. Poor Chris' heart nearly skipped a beat at that news; in our college/newlywed days in Oklahoma, Village Inn was a special treat for us after a long night of waiting tables at TGI Friday's. We both have fond memories of Village Inn, but there are none within 4 hours of our house, so we were willing to make a slight detour to eat there. 

When we walked into the restaurant, I thought that the couple entering before us looked familiar. The gentleman held the door for us, and I knew he was familiar. As we perused the menus, it hit me: that couple looked just like my mom's cousin Judy and her husband Tom! But Tom and Judy live in Minnesota, and we were in Iowa. There was no way it could possibly be them.

But the resemblance kept bugging me.

I texted my mom, asking her if there was any reason they might be in this small town in Iowa, and she thought it was possible they might be there. So I approached them, and it was them!

We hadn't seen Judy and Tom since our wedding, nearly 12 years ago, but there they were, at Village Inn. It was such a crazy coincidence! We had a nice little visit, and then were on our way.

We finally arrived at our hotel around 8 pm, after 10 hours on the road. The kids were so excited! Really, I'm not sure if they were more excited about the flash on my camera, or about the fact that Chris let them ride on the luggage cart, or that we were finally out of the car, or that the hotel had a water park attached.... They were just excited.

And Chris and I were exhausted.