Our nonstop midwest playdate. Our adventure to Iowa, Part 4

Since our trip back to the farm was for ten days, it allowed me enough time to see and spend quality time with members of my extended family and many hometown friends. And because Taylor is quite the three year old socialite, she was more than happy to show off her Yaya and Papa’s digs to everyone that visited us. And so was I.

And the very first visitor we had was my college roommate, Emily. Funny that Em and I only lived together for one of the five years I was at Iowa, but she will always remain the only person, other than my husband, that I successfully cohabitated with. She’s my soul-sister, and the fact that she and her husband moved to Lake View from Colorado a year ago makes me extremely happy that I can see her whenever I get back to the farm.

And our very next visitors were my Aunt Sandy, Uncle Scott, cousin Angie and cousin Erica and her two super loveable kiddos, Cole and Ava. And while T is always excited to spend time with her Auntie Em, having some pint-sized cousin-buddies at the farm was a true treat. She showed them Taylor Lake and they patrolled the farm, looking for frogs, mooing at cows and acting thicker than thieves.

Our following playdate was with none other than the infamous Stella Doxtad, daughter of my brother-from-another-mother (and father) James and his lovely bride, Emily. They were kind enough to lend us all the baby gear we needed for the trip, and I was so happy to see their smiley faces for a morning playfest while we were back. Miss Stella was super pumped to see “the baby”, which could only be referring to my little big man, who is equal in size to this sweet toddler. But she still insisted on “holding” Luke, and then was very excited to show Taylor her new, fancy swingset.

On Thursday my sister, Libba, flew in and we took a trip up to Storm Lake to have a park playdate with our fellow blogger and fellow Pirate and Hawkeye, Billi, and her two girls. What’s wonderful about this thing we call the blogosphere is that even if you don’t see a certain hometown friend for, like, nine years, you can still feel like you practically know her, not to mention her fun-loving girls. We adults had a blast catching up and rubbing Billi’s pregnant belly. TOO much fun, actually, as while we were busy gabbing all three of our little misses decided to soak themselves in the lake. Whoops!

Friday morning, Libba, my Mom, my Dad and the kids and I took a trip back up to Storm Lake to run errands and get in-and-out of the car a million times like circus clowns. And the most important of those stops was to see my Grandma, who has been living at BV Manor and fighting Alzheimer's, and introduce her to her newest great-grandchild, Luke. And while it’s always tough to see a loved one in such a deteriorated state, seeing the smile on her face as she held my son made my heart ache. It was a moment.

And our final big playdate of the trip was the soiree that Lib and I hosted at the farm for some of our fellow bloggers. For the past three years, I have been documenting my and my family’s life experiences on this site, as well as following other hometown friends adventures as they navigate through motherhood. We are a tight-knit group. And I couldn’t be more happy about it.

And the blogger-babies seemed pretty happy about getting to know each other as well.

And I must give an obvious shout-out to a special blogger that is overly near-and-dear to me, and that is my high school bestie, Steph. And she made a special trip up from Kansas City with her kids to join us for the fun. And it made my trip all that more special.

So there you have it. Lots of playtime during this trip, and I feel so happy and blessed to have all these fabulous people in my life. And I wish we could play together more then once or twice a year, but I will always cherish all the memories that we snapped together this trip.