IOWA RECAP

"THE DETAILS ARE NOT THE DETAILS. THEY MAKE THE DESIGN." — CHARLES EAMES

Last week, while scrolling through my camera roll, I was reminiscing about our trip to Iowa and I felt especially grateful to have documented so many sweet moments of Max interacting with my family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids). Is there anything better than watching your tribe smother the heck outta your child with such unconditional love?! Didn't think so. Everyone went out of their way to feed us and entertain us (currently attempting to work off that pan of Gooey Bars I devoured). In fact, Max is STILL talking about all of the insane equipment he got to see and take rides in (a semi, multiple tractors, combines, riding lawn mowers, a Ranger he will only refer to as a "dump truck", and my aunt's FJ Cruiser that he insists on calling a "monster truck"). I unabashedly hoped we could do all the fun things I correlate with Summers in Iowa like catch frogs, caterpillars, and fireflies. We managed to check these items from the bucket list, but I should also note that the whole frog thing ended up with me getting peed on (no warts, I promise!) and the chartreuse caterpillar I insisted on holding was later identified as poisonous (sani wipes, anyone?!). Ha Ha! There were evening scooter rides and trips down the slide; assistance from Alexa and the occasional "aw hell"; unruly sprinkler shenanigans (this helicopter is nuts!) and a jaunt to the local splash pad; 'Bacca masks and BBQ; a fruitful cucumber haul from my grandpa's garden and dirty jokes/silly anecdotes over slices of taco pizza. Yep, it was pretty wonderful to sit back—when I wasn't putting Max in timeout, of course—and soak up all of the little things that make trips in IA so memorable.