My weekend in Iowa (potpourri style)

Oh man, Iowa.

Somewhere in the middle of a field I called Sarah and asked her if she'd go on the starbucks webpage and find a location for "rural Iowa." Had she been available it would've probably turned up negative. Probably. I tried to take a detour to Waterloo - I hear they have a mall there. I followed the signs but found out it would've been several hours out of the way, so I quickly turned around. I even explored the sights of downtown Story City. No luck, a downtown without a starbucks? and a 25 mph limit?? Unbelievable.

I ended up getting a coffee at McDonalds in Story City...turns out that McDonalds doesn't make good coffee.

Other stuff that happened? It rained pretty much the whole time. Ally, Amber, and Alicia ran the half marathon in the rain while Bobbi, Christine and I, and Val (Ally's mom) hung out and drank good coffee and waited for them to run by to hand them banana-halves.

We went home, changed into dry clothes (the girls ran fantastically by the way, woohoo!), and went to the house where Ally nannies to hang out with Addison and Ivee. Ivee painted Amber's fingernails and she had Christine do a lightbright and had me color in a princess. They had a yippy little dog, Oreo, that bit all of us. Oreo had a polo shirt.

Then we went home and ate food for the rest of the night. We watched Elizabethtown, and played Apples to Apples.

The adjective was feminine, the turn was mine. Christine says to me: "you won't pick mine...it's too obvious." I picked up the cards and saw that one of the nouns was "women." And laughter ensued. There were other funny ones too, but I'm going to need reminding.

I told them that I went to Memphis and walked, like the song.

"You love that song" - Christine
"me too!" - me
"....I know" - Christine

And we laughed.

I told Bobbi, matter of factly, that I like things that are funny. She replied, "I like things that are sad..."

Christine, Bobbi and I shortcutted through some grass at one point. Amber recalled signs from Colorado that said "shortcutting causes erosion." She reminded Christine of this fact. The grass had just been cut so Christine just replies "you know what else happens besides erosion?" Then she showed us her foot with grass all over it. And we laughed.



We'd gotten out a phone book to find a Starbucks in Des Moines for the ride home. Ally was trying to convince me to give it up and go to a local coffee shop. I was pretty stubborn, but decided that since I was in Des Moines I should get coffee that I couldn't get back home. A few hours later we found ourselves at Caribou Coffee.

Aannd pictures:

Playing Headbanz:


Bobbi holding Oreo:


Ally, Amber, Oreo, and I:


After church this morning (they gave out free panera!!)


Amber holding Caribou (notice the nails done by a very talented four year old):