To Iowa and Back

We returned home late last week Thursday night from a two week trip to Iowa.  We fit lots of activities into those two weeks and I plan to post a few pictures throughout this week of our visit.   Russ, Caleb and Lydia turned right around Sunday evening to go back to the Chicago area to Russ' brother Philip's house.  Philip needed some help with the siding on his house so Russ and Caleb planned to help with that and Lydia wanted to spend some time with her cousin Abigail.  If we hadn't just returned from a two week trip we would all have gone to visit the Herman cousins.  On top of that I picked up some stomach thing while in Iowa--one day with the acheys, but over a week with stomach cramps every time I ate.  I finally felt like myself on Sunday. 

Not exactly sure what the summer will look like for us.  We found out the first Friday we were in Iowa that the church that Russ was hoping to intern in decided not to pursue an internship this summer.   Because they waited so long to tell us, I did not pursue employment and Russ did not pursue anything else either.  He is able to do construction type work and odd jobs for people in the seminary so that is probably what he will do as well as working on our landscaping in between times.  We trust God is in control and will continue to provide for our family.

Anyway,  here are some pictures of our first few days in Iowa.  We spent the first two nights at the farm with Russ' parents.  One of those mornings we made a quick jaunt to Des Moines to see my niece Brooke run the 4 x 800 for Heelan as well as some MOC-FV events.    The kids enjoyed helping Grandpa Herman dig up the roots of a tree that had come down.  The first picture is of Lydia who finally lost her first top tooth.  She lost the tooth the night before we left and I took the picture in the van the next morning.