every summer for the past several years, the ahrens' family (heath's mom's family...not to be confused with my grandma johnson's family!) has gotten together in june for a big family gathering. this year we decided that it would be the perfect opportunity for us to introduce everyone to libby. heath and i took june 14th & 15th off, we packed up the family, squeezed as much of their stuff into heath's escape as we could and off we went. (well, it wasn't quite that simple...we first had to get through cruz's fever that tuesday, libby's fever that wednesday, a softball game and an overnight at my parents - it isn't easy to tear cruz away from 'my grandma' as he calls her!). anyway...thursday morning we made a quick pit stop at my uncle's shop, curt's truck & diesel, in owatonna. cruz got to check out the "big f*cks" (big trucks!) and even got to ride in a semi with uncle curt and me.
after our pit stop at curt's, we headed south on interstate 35 and actually made it to heath's parents in eldridge by 3:15. i was impressed! only two pit stops along the way and both kids were awesome travelers. we introduced little miss libby to her paternal grandparents, her aunt heather & uncle nate and her cousins, quinn and gage. that night we got to hang out with our friends, the reeds, and enjoyed a bbq by their pool. cruz loved it and we all had a blast catching up and reminiscing about our days in the qca. friday morning we walked to the john deere pavillion in moline and introduced to the cool tractors. he was a bit shy at first, but once he started looking around and exploring he loved it and we could hardly tear him away from it!
friday afternoon we headed to wilton, iowa to visit heath's grandma velma. it was so neat to be able to introduce the kids to their great grandma! i think she thought it was pretty special, too. unfortunately libby started running a fever again so she wasn't feeling the greatest. cruz did get to enjoy some ice cream and dance with great grandma- not sure who had more fun?!
after visiting great grandma, we headed down to the campground to spend some more time with grandma jill and papa mike. cruz had an absolute blast riding on papa's new toy and running around the camp. libby enjoyed going for a ride in the bob, but was still feeling a bit under the weather. poor girl! she had a fever and it was about 90 degrees out so she was a bit miserable.
friday night we went back to the hotel and, unfortunately, poor libby was an unhappy, uncomfortable little girl. she shared her frustrations by crying (screaming!) from about 9-11! i finally got her to sleep (after walking the hallways, feeding her outside and driving her downtown moline!) and she ended up spending most of the night sleeping in the bathroom with the fan on. poor baby! anyway...we made it through the night, but made the decision to head back to minnesota saturday night instead of sunday morning. we ran some errands in the morning (had to pick up cruz's birthday cake!) and then headed to the family gathering at art & denise's in new liberty. it was so fun to see everyone and to see cruz interact with all of our relatives and introduce everyone to libby. i only wish she would have been feeling better so everyone could have seen what a sweet, happy little girl she really is. we did have a chance to celebrate cruz's 2nd birthday a little early and he LOVED his elmo cake and having everyone sing to him.
no really, cruz and gracie are hugging!
all in all, it was a great trip. the kids were troopers in the car (cruz was quite the talker on the way home) and we made it to owatonna before 11:00 saturday night. it was wonderful introducing everyone to libby and we can't wait to see all of you again!
happy summer!
