Trip to Iowa-Part II

I had plans to do a few nicely written posts about our trip to Iowa. As you can see I'm quite behind in posting. So . . . I'm just throwing on the rest of the pictures with a few captions here and there. And as I selected pictures to post, I realized I had hardly any pictures of family taller than 3 feet tall. Oops. I guess my daughter and my nieces were camera magnets.


A trip to the new Fareway! Renae loved driving around.



She had to share her seat after Nana bought the store out.


Wedding Rehearsal Day!

Renae really loved her cousin "Addisee." They colored while the grown ups decorated the reception hall.



Three cute flower girls practicing . . .



My busiest niece and her cute Mama.

How I miss being silly with my cousin Mandi!

That night the girls were tired . . . .

. . . . And wired. They danced in their matching p.j's.

Seriously, getting a good pic of all 3 of them . . . almost impossible.

Wedding Day!

They all seemed to enjoy the piano. I can't say it was music to my ears, but it was something.

Renae and Taylor looked out the window with their new matching purses. (Their gifts for being amazing flower girls in the wedding. Aunt Heather knew just what they would love!)

My beautiful little girl. She loved pointing do her "dess."

Big surprise . . . Tay-tay isn't sitting like the rest. That girl is busy!

Hello Miss Diva!

And we ran into our best friends from college and Aiden! Renae and Aiden didn't really know what to think of each other . . .

Uncle Michal with the little squirm worms. Renae is still not smiling.

I think Addisyn is saying, "Seriously girls. Just do what I do so we can get this picture business done with!"

Again . . . look who's not paying attention, and look who's not smiling. Poor Addisyn. She was such a good example to follow. If only Renae and Taylor were good followers.

Renae got to stay on the stage with Uncle Tim for a bit.

The Masson Fam at the wedding reception.

Mother and Son. Ahhh . . .

Michael and my new sister-in-law!

My older "twin" and his sweet little princess.

We're so glad we made it back for the wedding. The entire trip was great and well worth it!

Our Trip to Iowa-Part 1

I am ashamed.

I made sure the camera was fully charged before we left for Iowa. I took the camera cord to download pictures once I filled up the memory card. I even made Jesse pack the video camera in case I wanted videos and didn't want to waste memory on my camera taking videos.

So how is it that I didn't even fill up my memory card and I have NO pictures of Renae with Grandma and Grandpa, and I have hardly any pictures of the fun stuff we were looking forward to? (Like eating at Hickory Park, sitting around a firepit, enjoying family.) I guess when you are seeing so many people and doing so many fun things, it becomes overwhelming to take pictures of everything. So I didn't. But I'll try and post what I do have and perhaps my mother-in-law, mother and any other family members can redeem me . . .




Renae watching Madagascar 2. This lasted about 5 minutes.




Thank goodness the flight from Madrid to Atlanta wasn't full!


Renae could sprawl in the seat between us and she took her normal 2.5 hour nap right on schedule. Too bad she couldn't go to bed for the night for a full 10-12 hours later . . .




Guess who found Arby's in the Atlanta airport??


Speaking of our 5 hour plus layover in Atlanta . . . two friends from Cornerstone showed up at our gate about an hour before the plane left! It was so fun to see people we KNEW at a place you usually spend with strangers!! It sure did make that last bit of the layover go quickly.
Our first night was spent at our parents since we didn't land until 9:45 at night. So the next day, we headed to Cedar Rapids to be with Jesse's family. On Saturday we had a grill out with Aunts, Uncles and cousins. And some of them were surprises all the way from Tennessee!



Makenna and I sporting our baby bumps. Just a few weeks apart!! (That's Renae trying to give me some shoes to wear in the bottom of the picture.)



Renae??



No it's Campbell! Keely and Jon's little boy wasn't prepared for the cold Iowa weather so Renae shared some of her girl clothes. We won't tell Campbell that he wore an "I'm a Princess Everyday" shirt. It did get confusing though as I kept thinking I was seeing Renae running around when it was really Campbell.


Next up . . . our time in Ames!

The List

• Safe trip home to states with bonus open seats on the long flights for Renae. Check.
• Free baby-sitting in the mornings. Check.
• Two (yes 2) trips to Arby's. Check. Check.
• One dinning experience at Great Plains Pizza. Check.
• Hickory Park with 29 people. Check.
• Hugs from all 3 brothers (and significant others.) Check. Check. Check.
• One amazing service at Cornerstone. Sigh . . .
• Return to Spain with more preggo looking belly . . . due mostly to the above mentioned eating habits and a few other food culprits.

Pictures to come soon. We are back in Spain, desperately trying to stay awake until this evening when we will promptly crash.

To see other people's pics of our trip with family, click here, here, or here.

Surprise!

I can't believe we made it 4 months with this secret, but somehow we did it! We arrived at the airport lastnight (after about 24 hours of travel) wearing the following . . .


Can you figure out what Renae's shirt says even though you can't see all of it? (See my shirt if you still need a hint.)

And why are we wearing blue shirts? (ok so they're more aqua than blue)
Because we found out we are having a boy!! In Spain they do ultrasounds at each appointment so we were able to find out at 16 weeks. We reviewed the word for "girl" and "boy" in our heads just incase we had a language braindead moment while the doctor told us what we were expecting.

And to answer a few questions . . .

• Yes, Renae's brother will be born in Spain.
• I'm due October 11th.
• We found out at the beginning of February. (p.s. One pregnancy test cost almost 15 dollars!! Good thing it was positive!)
• Only friends on this side of the ocean and Jesse's immediate family knew. They have been troopers to help keep this a secret.

Someday I'll do a few posts about the differences in doctor's appointments here and in the states. I'm learning to convert back and forth from kilo's to pounds, and I'm learning all kinds of vocabulary words I thought I'd never need to know . . .

We're here for awhile as we enjoy my brother's wedding and time with family. Thanks for reading!

We're On Our Way!

"Hey family, I'm coming over for a visit! See you on the other side of the ocean!"

Everybody Needs a Friend . . .

Jesse has been blessed with a really good friend here in Spain.


And I'm not talking about the ice cream . . . .



I'm talking about Fede. He's appeared on the blog before.

On Friday night we had a girl staying with us overnight so we jumped at the opportunity to have her watch Renae so we could go out with Fede and my good friend Tep. She looks like a Spaniard . . . she speaks just like a Spaniard . . . but she's not one. She's been such a blessing to me.


We went out to our favorite Spanish restaurant and then enjoyed some amazing ice cream. It was so nice to be out late enough that we caught the very last train on our metro line!

The next day was another Spanish holiday, so Fede invited us all to visit a small town about 40 minutes away. We headed out with some of his co-workers.

This used to be a summer palace for the King and Queen.

We're thinking about purchasing it for ourselves . . . .

Besides endless gardens, the palace also had a waterfall and river flowing right next to it.

Jesse, Renae and Tio Fede.

Renae seemed to want to be with Mommy and Daddy's friends rather than Mommy and Daddy . . .

The group at the main entrance.

Renae enjoys wearing Jesse's sunglasses. If I looked that cute I'd wear them too.

"Excuse me, is my table ready?"

For lunch we went to another small town and ate a nice relaxing meal in the plaza mayor. This plaza was so different than Madrid's. It had a more rustic and authentic Spanish feel to it.

Besides the crane . . . . it was like walking back in time.

Jesse enjoying the meal.

Renae seriously loves her Tio Fede . . . .