Joanne's Wedding

Two weekends ago my mom and I flew to Iowa for my college friend's wedding. We left on Thursday and returned home the next Monday. That way we had a whole free day (Saturday) without the wedding, travel, or any other organized thing to do. We stayed in the hotel recommended by the brides, which was on the same property as the Living History Farms--these are working farms (and a mock pioneer town) that operate using agricultural technologies up to certain points in US history (1700, 1850, and 1900).

The workers wear the clothing of the time, too. We went on Saturday, but only visited the town and the 1900s farm (because it has the most animals and we thought Eddie would like that most). We rented a red wagon to haul him around and put his koala bear leash/harness on so he could run around without getting too far away from us. Because it was the end of the season, there wasn't much going on--no demonstrations, no blacksmith, etc. We still had fun, though. Eddie LOVED the pigs and kept making the "doggie" baby sign while we were standing at the pen. The night we ate at Crate and Barrel and had a good time watching Eddie eat his applesauce.

The wedding was on Sunday at 11am on a deck overlooking a beautiful lake. I was too busy chatting with the nice ladies at our table and keeping an eye on Eddie to take any pictures during the reception. Instead of a big wedding cake, they had a variety of mini cakes--I even took a chocolate mousse one back to the hotel for that night and it was SO rich that I could only eat half of it!

On Monday morning Eddie and I hung out with Joanne and Kemmie in the hotel lobby area. Our original plan was to take Eddie to the park where my mom and I had taken him the two previous nights so he could play while we chatted...but in true midwest fashion it started raining. Oh well. We still had a great time--but not enough! Us Bower-Levies headed to the airport super early, with the intention of grabbing some lunch on the way. But Eddie fell asleep in the car and we decided to let him sleep so we drove to Madison County to see some covered bridges. You know that movie and book called The Bridges of Madison County? (Yeah, I've not read or seen it either...). Well, it turns out there's an annual festival celebrating said covered bridges. And it was held that weekend. Since it was Monday the festival was over, of course, but we did see one bridge and drove past John Wayne's house.
Eddie was AH-MAZING on the plane, as usual. There was a little fussing, but certainly no screaming or crying. I bought him some new pull-back-to-wind-up-and-go cars at Target before we left and didn't let him see them until we got on the plane. We put the cardboard safety information card over the gap on our tray tables so the cars could zoom across the whole thing. I also brought coloring pencils and paper to entertain him. I know crayons are more age-appropriate but he eats crayons! Yuck. Upon debarking each flight, some nice lady would tell me, "He's a doll and you're such a good Mama." Isn't that always nice to hear?

On one of the Delta flights I was REALLY surprised to discover that there were NO changing tables in any of the 3 bathrooms on board. I've been on probably 8-10 flights with Eddie and EVERY ONE of those has had a place to change babies (just a fold-down table above the toilet in a labeled bathroom). Of course, the flight without a table was the one when he pooped. The flight attendant looked a little miffed when I complained (very nicely)...she retorted with, "well, can't you change him on your lap?" I pointed out that he was a poopy 14 month old...so NO, changing him there was not really an option. She wouldn't let me change him in the aisle/standing room area near the bathrooms so she put a clean blanket on the floor of the bathroom...and I told her to throw it out because it probably got poop on it.

We had a long layover in Denver so we got a big pizza--and Eddie ate two whole pieces!
It was a great trip for Eddie, my mom, and I to hang out and for me to catch up with Joanne and to meet her wonderful wife, Kemmie. I can't wait to plan our next trip to see them--hopefully we can go toward the end of summer so we will be able to can some foods together.