Thanksgiving in Iowa

We decided to take a road trip to Iowa this year for Thanksgiving.  Josh's sister Dixie and her family live there and it's been so long since we've been out there.  The kids were excited to go even though it meant a 14 hour drive to get there.  But Josh is a pro at driving through the night so we packed up and left Tuesday night after dinner.  The kids watched a couple movies then we all fell asleep until the next morning.  When we woke up Josh told us we were 45 minutes away!  Just like that we were almost there.  It worked out perfect.  We got to Dixie's and had breakfast and put Josh right to bed.  Scott and Dixie live on a farm and have 950 acres of land all around them.  It was so fun for the kids to be able to get out and run around in the open space.  They helped feed the chickens, gather eggs, feed the cows and all those farm life chores.  They thought it was awesome. 

Liev made fast friends with Nolan and was so excited to learn to shoot the bow and arrow.  He was a pro right from the start and that's all he wanted to do the rest of the week.

Thanksgiving Day was great.  Robin, Guy and their kids also drove out for the week and Andy flew in to be with the family too.  It was a great gathering of loved ones.  

All the cousins at one table - looks like too much fun!

 Rease and Rhen organized "I'm thankful for..." decorations.  They had everyone write down what they were thankful for and hung them up all over the house.  It was so cute and turned out to be the perfect thing for this Thanksgiving Day.

 Before we started for home I had to get a couple pictures of Keen and the animals that he fell in love with in Iowa.  He is an animal lover and could not get enough of the kitties and the dog.  He played in the garage all day everyday that we were there.  

 A picture of all the cousins.

 There was an ice storm the day before we left and this is what our van looked like as we were trying to pack it up.  It was so cold that the ice never really did melt until we were well on our way home.  

 And this happy camper made it all the way there and back without much of a squeak at all.  He was the best boy and actually so were the rest of the kids.  It was a great trip overall and we are so glad we got to go see Scott and Dixie and spend Thanksgiving with family!