Labor Day trip to Iowa!

I have to start this post off with this picture.  Just because it's funny and maybe it will get your attention.  This is what Jimmy's dinner looked like when we ate in Iowa.  He's a crazy fool.  But I love him.  Love him more than words.  And I got a bite of it....but seriously, look at how big that is!

So the real point of this post is to tell you about how we drove to Iowa over labor day weekend to visit my grandparents!!  We left early Saturday morning all driving up in Jimmy's car.  I had to sit in the middle and it was very uncomfortable.  But I was finishing the 3rd Hunger Games book so didn't care.  I was just so intent on finishing the book to see what happened.  After I finished it - I started noticing/complaining that my back hurt.  So it was fun.  Haha.  Not but it actually was fun being in the car with the whole family.  And eating at McDonald's in which I ate some of everyone's meal!

So when we got to Iowa, we did some of this:

Which equates to hanging out with the family and talking.  And it was nice to catch up and see one another after a while!!  My grandpa has been sick and they found cancer for the THIRD time, but he is sure the fighter and has been doing well in chemo so far.  He is always in great spirits, which I'm sure helps a lot too!!  So that made it even more nice to see him in person and talk to him and my grandma about what they have been up to lately.

My mom, sister and I were itching to get out and walk on main street, so we took a short walk from their assisted living home to main street and went into a few stores and found some fun things.  Including some awesome cups for our smoothies :)  Check out their cute little town!

It was funny because my grandma at one point called my sister my name.  And she was like "well you girls look so much alike".  And any other day we would have said, NO WAY.  But then after examining ourselves in the mirror, we quickly realized why there would be a cause for confusion.

Purple shirts.  Same hair.  Same glasses.  Same smile.  Sisters - wow, you can tell!

Jimmy, Lyndsay and I made a trip to Wal-Mart as well and on our way back we stopped at Godfather's pizza and went through the drive thru to order 2 orders of Monkey bread for my dad.  Because he loves it.  And we had a lot of fun.  We like each other and that's good, right?!!?

So when it was time to go out to dinner, I googled on my phone and suggested we try something new.  We usually go to Lakeshore cafe every time we visit Storm Lake, but Boz Wellz was close and had such great reviews so I convinced my grandparents who don't like to stray from a routine to try it out.

And what a success it was!!!  We had a great dinner and it was a great menu with lots of good food and different types of food too!  Check out the picture we had a waitress take of the whole group.  Love it!

It was great conversation and fun to hear the stories that my grandma and grandpa were telling.  I was asking them about when they met, got married, etc.  And then they started talking about their weekly trips to the Fairway (local grocery store) and how they always go in together but split up because my grandpa takes the motorized wheel chair around.  And then manager (who of course he knows their name!) always sees my grandma and asks where her other half is.  And they say that he's off roaming around the store - because she gives him a list to find things and roams the aisles until he finds them for her and then meets her at the front.  I love it.  I mean that is true love.  They celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary that next week.  I love them.

After dinner, we went back home and watched football games.  Really they watched football and I blogged.  Remember how I had a steady stream of blog posts the week after labor day?  Yep, I wrote those that Saturday night.  I had no blog posts last week.  I had something to do the last Saturday night - haha see a trend?  I write posts of the weekends and schedule them for later because I have no time to write during the week!! AH!

But then we went to bed and woke up to a delicious breakfast the my grandma cooked up and then were ready to head on the road back to KC.  But not without the window wave.  This is famous in the Bruns house.  They used to stand at the window in their farm house when we were leaving and wave.  And then walk out the door and stand in the gravel driveway and wave until we were gone.....and guess what?  Even though they moved into an assisted living home?  That tradition still stands and always will live on through my dad because he does it every time Jimmy or I ever pull out of the driveway at my parents house.

On the way home - I shot some pictures of the beautiful Iowa landscape.  The crops, the farms and the windmills.  Gorgeous day and gorgeous landscape.

You would think that was the end of the post right?  Well - it's not.  Because something REALLY exciting happened on the way back.  What happened was the entire way to Iowa, I was searching for a Pizza Hut buffet.  I LOVE Pizza Hut buffet.  Like so much.  The last time that I went to one was the summer between my junior and senior year of college.  I know.  That was like 5 years ago.  Sad city.

We couldn't find one on the way down (my mom even tried to call and ask) and then on our way home we were discussing lunch possibilities and.......

BAM, there it was.  Oh my gosh.  I freaked out and made Jimmy pull into the parking lot immediately even though it was only like 11AM.

Look at all that pizza.  Wow.  It's like amazing.  And it was so delicious!!  We were all satisfied!

And THAT my friends, finally ends the trip.  It was filled with fun, family, lots of good conversations and lots of good food!!!