Ben, Victor, and I took a little trip down to Iowa for a long weekend. It had originally been planned as a 10-day vacation with the whole Anderson crew, but due to some unforeseen health adventures, the "whole clan" part of vacation is postponed until August. Nevertheless, it was great to have 4 days away.
I should perhaps not have been surprised when we were about an hour down the road and Victor started coughing. And Ben pointed out that he had a drippy nose. The doom and gloom side of me groaned inwardly, remembering our last trip to Iowa and its subsequent trip to ER for Victor's cough. But some little voice inside urged me to kick out the depressing forecast and ask God for mercies and trust Him for goodness... and He surely granted those mercies! We did add the neb treatments back for the trip (plus a few days), but nothing really developed more than some pretty awesomely green gunk in his nose.
So we were free to really savor the many highlights of the trip:
- Ben and I ran a 5K and Dad and Lori ran an 8K on the morning of the 4th. My first race since August 2010! (Which strikes me as rather pitiful, but anyway, it was fun!)
- We enjoyed a traditional post-race breakfast at Riley's, complete with fabulous pancakes, waitresses in 4th of July attire, Trivial Pursuit questions, and a cinnamon roll.
- Fun small-town parade, primarily consisting of fire engines, Tootsie rolls, and tractors. Big winner for the little boys!
- Lots of fun running around at a hidden neighborhood playground.
- Belated celebration of Dad's birthday and Father's Day... complete with sports trivia to win his presents. (And strawberry pie with homemade ice cream!)
- A very toasty walk around the Cedar Rapids farmer's market with Lori and Hudson... who was FABULOUSLY excited about the "choo choo tracks" which we were blessed to cross not once, not twice, but FOUR times in our meanderings.
- Such a delightful time at the Banowetzes' coffee shop The Retreat ... our own private room, caramel pecan roll, and Betsy-crafted white chocolate caramel iced coffee. Wow. Happy place.
- Belated celebration of Betsy's birthday with chocolate chip bundt cake. But I'll be honest. I actually polished off about a quarter of the Coffee Buster Bar Dessert made on her behalf earlier. I realize that for some of you it may seem that the majority of our family gatherings center around food. But that may explain why food is one of my love languages to this day...
All in all, such a sweet time. Ben did hide away for several hours a day to keep up with Greek. (This man has been relentless in his perseverance through this CRAZY intense class. Miss him. And proud of him.)
Love you all, family.
Love you dear sister and looking forward to seeing you again in a few weeks!!
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