Midwest Travels

Turns out, we were right about Sidney’s easy going nature traveling. Sidney was amazing traveling home from China, but we were unsure if she was in shock and tired. Minneapolis is a bit further than our travels home from the Des Moines airport, and we headed north over the weekend. She was all smiles and giggling much of the time as big brother provided entertainment in the back seat. Eli dealt well with sharing his beloved DVD player for the first time. It was the ultimate insult when he had to watch Sesame Street, something I am quite certain he will not admit.

We saw very close friends Friday night. It is always great to LAUGH! This was much needed comic relief. Everyone that knows us knows we drive OLD vehicles in order to be able to fund the adoption, and because Tom and I are such tight wads. The terminal rust which is starting to develop above the rear passenger side has become the ’95 Nissans signature look. Tom’s much newer truck, manufactured since the millennium, has gone 7,000 miles without issue.

As we were rounding a curve on Hwy 218 headed north, something obviously was going awry as the power steering went dead. The beauty of living in Iowa is that we were able to park the truck and drive away in a rental vehicle within a span of 20 minutes! Have I said I like living in Iowa? I LOVE the city and our time living in Chicago, but when things like this happen, Tom and I have to gloat a bit!

The best part, as I stood inside filing out rental paperwork for the car, was a breathless woman who charged inside telling me, “do you know there is antifreeze dumping out of the bottom of your truck?” From that point on, I dubbed the truck the “antifreeze blaster. “ A Monday morning call from Tom delivered the news of a thousand dollar repair. Who cares about a car repair? In the grand scheme of life, it really does not matter. At some point, we will stop driving old vehicles and this will a story for Tom’s file of many, many stories.

I forgot the memory card for the camera, but Sidney went swimming for the first time this weekend. She loved it! As we slid in on the stairs to the 5’, she did not even so much as flinch. That’s MY girl swimming without fear!

We spent the remainder of the weekend seeing Tom's extended family and enjoying their company very much. Sidney is only the second girl in the family, if that tells you how many little boys were running around. Eli was in heaven. It was great to see Sidney jump in playing and seeing how loved she is by everyone!