whew!

The second trip to NE Iowa in less than a month is complete...thank goodness. I love being there, just hate the getting there & getting home part. Thursday morning I started panicking...flights looked FULL to everywhere...and I mean Minneapolis, Des Moines, Chicago & Omaha...I was starting to get really worried. That said, I decided there was no reason to skip gymnastics at 10:30a as Clay wasn't getting home until 12:30p or so....when we got home I checked flights again...and suddenly there were 6 open seats on the 2p to Des Moines!! I frantically finished packing, rented a car from the Enterprise across the street from the airport, and as soon as Clay walked in the door at 12:40p we turned right around & headed back to the airport. We pulled in about 45 minutes before our flight and Clay dropped me off to check our luggage while he parked in the closest short term parking available (CAL employees call it princess parking). We made it to the airplane, successfully begged our fellow passengers into letting us have 3 seats together, and arrived at DSM on time at 4:15p. We then found out the car rental situation was a mess and our luggage hadn't made it. UGH. After some help from travel agent Grammy, we secured a hotel room and a rental car...we then patiently waited for our luggage praying it would show up on the flight that landed at 10:10p, which it did. Trip saved.

Ben & Chelsi's shower went off well with just a few glitches including no table service from the caterer and a once an Iowa summer heat index >100 degrees. We found plates & people found shade & a breeze and all was well. Hot and with too much food, but well. Ben & Chelsi received lots of great gifts and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Luci had a blast beating up cousin Asher. Literally. Hopefully she got some good shots in because I have a feeling next time he'll be better able to hold his own! He's SUCH a sweet boy and it made my day that he came right to me when we arrived on Friday. It was great to see him & I hope & pray that we'll all be able to live within a reasonable distance of each other some day.

Per usual I brought my camera and then didn't use it. Luckily Aunt Brooke & Uncle Sunidh used their fancy camera quite a bit, so as soon as I see those photos I'll post them...with their permission, of course.

In other noteworthy news...Clay felt our sweet baby boy kick for the first time on Saturday night! Baby boy also received his first gifts...an adorable airplane sleeper and super soft airplane blanket from Grammy Rosonke. Both are kind of a gray-ish blue and now I'm toying with the idea of using them as inspiration for the nursery....hmmm.