Every Day with Eli: June 18

My husband is such a good man. He was willing to spend his Father's Day in rural Iowa, visiting my grandparents.

We started the morning with breakfast in our hotel room, and then a quick visit to the park next to it while Mom and Grandpa went to mass. (This park was the site of the music festival last night, so there were lots of people tearing down scaffolding and stages and whatnot.)

There is a cool spider web/climbing pyramid in the playground, and Caleb felt like hot stuff when he climbed to the top. Then he dared me to climb it, so I did. He was shocked that I was able to make it up there, so we took a selfie to celebrate.

It was much cooler than I thought it would be, and I hadn't packed appropriate clothes for the kids. I forgot cardigans, pants, hoodies, anything long-sleeved... So Chris agreed to take the kids to the water park and I stopped by the one store I thought would have something: WalMart.

I was wrong. It turns out that WalMarts in rural Iowa have a lot less stuff than the ones back home. I found a pair of pants for each kid, but no long sleeves at all. Boo. But I also happened to check in with my mom, and she and Grandpa were breakfasting at a nearby restaurant. I was able to join them and chat while Chris and the kids swam, and it was so perfect. Since it was Father's Day, I even paid for Grandpa's breakfast, which tickled him to no end.

After (second) breakfast, I picked up Chris and the kids and we went back to Grandpa's condo. Caleb brought a set of pincers/expanding tongs he made out of Legos with a special kit, and Grandpa was very interested in them. It turned out he had an antique automotive tool that was very similar.

It quickly became Eli's favorite toy.

These two had so much fun!

Then Grandpa took us down to the garage to see his actual toys.

Eli's mind was blown by all of the trucks.

Lily loved dancing in the bed of Grandpa's pickup.

Grandpa loved watching the kids dance.

In the afternoon, we visited Grandma again. Once again, we were able to play in the courtyard.

This time, the kids discovered a cool swing.

Grandpa and Grandma humored me and let me take way too many pictures. Also, the boys love matching. Aren't they funny?

That's four generations of family in this picture!

I love that Grandpa can still elicit this look from Grandma.

They will have been married for 65 years in October!

After our visit, we went back to Grandpa's house and I managed to pull together a really great meal! Mom and Grandpa got steaks and hot dogs from the grocery store, and I pilfered his bachelor's pantry and refrigerator and came up with some great side dishes. Then Mom and Grandpa wanted to take the kids out exploring. It was close to bedtime, but the northern sunshine was so bright that I decided it would be fine.

Hiking? This is totally up the kids' alley!

(It was really a flat gravel trail, but they were still excited.)

See? Excited.

My one goal of the evening was to get a picture of Chris with his kids. It was Father's Day, after all!

Goodness, I love these people!

I was frustrated that these kiddos were being so goofy, but Mom loves this picture. I suppose it is an accurate representation!

Sweet girl.

There was a lookout tower, and when we climbed to the top we could see this walkway out into a marsh, with corn fields and wind turbines in the distance. It was really lovely, especially so close to sunset.