Iowa - What we did the rest of the time

Visiting the farm is always an adventure in itself, but it is especially fun when my father is "in the field" and the boys get to help him drive the tractor. We've been home for spring planting and for harvest, but this year we were home in the dog days of summer when it was hay makin' time. This year, Zachary got to help Grandpa drive the tractor and make a big round bale of hay. The bale of hay that Zachary and Grandpa made together.
Growing up on the farm:

Zachary even caught his first fish at Great Grandpa & Grandma's pond with a little help from Aunt Trisha.

Mikie and Daddy try, but the fish aren't biting anymore.

The obligatory "bubble bath at Great Grandma's house in the heart shape tub" picture. There is a picture of me and my sister that is almost identical to this floating around my parents' house soemewhere.

And finally, THE REASON we flew back to Iowa in the middle of the summer was for one of my best friend's weddings. Congratulations Tina & Michael!

The Four of us (high school BFF's!)

Julie, Gabriele, Tina, and Me.

The 4th of July in a small town always revolves around the parade:

We enjoyed a brief family swing time at the city park.

Placing flowers on the grave of Frederick Magus (his Great, Great, Great, Great Grandpa who served in the Civil War).

Thank you, Aunt Doris, for the historical account of our ancestry.

Later that evening we were going to take the boys to their very first tractor pull, but the event got rained out. Instead, we went bowling and watched the fireworks from the back of my parents' mini-van. Happy Independence Day!

Zachary's 3rd Birthday Party in IOWA

Zachary enjoyed two birthday parties this year. We were going to be in Iowa on his July 1st birthday so my mom volunteered to throw him a horse birthday party. Waking up on Grandpa's farm to birthday streamers.

Birthday breakfast

Getting his present from Boagie & Grandpa: (video)

Of course, this party lived up to all the expectations my mom and I have set over the past 5 years. We make a great team, but this time she did most of the work!

Activities:

Shooting cans with a water gun

Hunting for the hidden horses and candy filled carrots

Throwing a snake in the boot

Hunting for treasure in the hay. (there were so many kids we had to have 3 piles of hay for 3 different age groups)

And the highlight of the party was getting a horse ride!

Boagie & Grandpa with Zachary on the horse. He really did enjoy it, although you can't tell from the pictures because he was squinting into the sun. These two videos prove that he did like it:

Horse Shoe Breadsticks

Sheriff cookies

The cake

Very cute video:

Grandpa isn't trying to push his face into the cake; he's trying to teach him how to blow!

Zachary really enjoyed opening his presents! The rest of us didn't enjoy the pesky gnats that were flying all around.

My little 3 year old! (all 23 pounds of him)

And of course, none of this would have been possible without our SUPER BOAGIE! Thank you for making my little guy's special day a wonderful memory! Your hard work, time, and energy are all appreciated! We all love you very much!

Twister on Tuesday Field Trip #23

Another field trip that just so happen to coincide with our trip to Iowa was "Twister On Tuesday." Jack and Annie encounter a tornado while visiting a one room school house dugout in the plains of Kansas. My childhood home was struck by a tornado in 1984. I knew Iowa was the perfect place for our field trip and since we were going home for the fourth of July it worked out wonderfully. This turned out to be a 4 part field trip.

Part I

Upon landing at the airport, we drove 30 minutes to Bettendorf, IA to the family museum where they had a weather exhibit with a 10 foot tall tornado. Here's a video of Mikie reading about tornadoes:

The 10 foot tall tornado

Touching a tornado!

And another video:


We were in luck, they also had a dinosaur exhibit visiting the museum:

Boagie's adorable little hood ornament

Along with fun comes learning too!

Not only did Boagie get to accompany us on this field trip, but so did her sister (the boy's Great Aunt Joy!)
Part II

I have a cousin who pulled some strings and got us a personal tour of a T.V. station with meteorologist Frank Scaglione (pronounced sky-own) of Channel 8 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Mikie on the set of KCCI Channel 8.

He stood by the green screen and was projected on the camera!

The 5 Day forecast with Michael K. Jones V!

Mr. Scaglione went to the basement to bring up a weather vane and barometer since it was in our book.

He showed Mikie videos of tornadoes, discussed the rating system, told him about high and low pressure systems, and almost everything else about weather you could ever want to know.

Thank you, cousin Dennis, for arranging this part of the field trip. We all learned a lot and got some great pictures!

Part III

Living in a small town has it's advantages. For example, in the Magic Tree House book, they described the school house as a dugout built into the side of a hill. Only a few miles out of town, there is a family who lives in one of these houses dug out of the side of the ground. After a quick phone call and a short drive, Mikie was standing on the hill by their house for the last picture of our field trip:

Part IV

The last part of our field trip I regrettably didn't get any pictures of. (Mom, if you get a chance to scan some and send them I'll upload them here) My dad sat down with Mikie and the photo album with pictures from the 1984 tornado and showed him the damage that a powerful storm could do.

The night of the tornado we were not at home. My parents, sister, and I were at McDonalds in the town closest to ours (30 minutes away). After eating, my dad went to the car while the 3 of us went to the restroom. I still remember walking out of the store with him honking the horn to tell us to hurry up. He'd just heard on the radio that a tornado was headed toward our town. As it turns out, we followed that tornado home. Before reaching our house, we came upon an overturned car and took those people to the hospital before heading home. When we reached our driveway, that used to be lined with close to 30 trees, my grandmother was waiting and worrying while the men had gone inside to look for us. I was only 7 and wasn't fully comprehending what was going on, but I could tell by the emotion and power in her hug, which left me gasping for air, that we were a welcome sight! Only 2 of the 30 trees were left standing down our lane and the people searching for us had to climb over all of them to get to our house. Many of my father's farm buildings and machinery were destroyed or damaged. All of the windows in our house were blown out and the north wall had several boards sticking through it. But for a 7 year old, the most devastating thing I remember was that our swing set was a twisted mess that couldn't be fixed.

Many months later, our farm was rebuilt and our house doubled in size. My sister and I went from sharing a room to each having our own. Our long lane became baron and hot on those long walks to the bus stop and to this day only has a few trees on one side. The tornado may have taken buildings, machinery, and trees, but our God kept us safe in the town next door. Oh, and that swing set? Well, it was replaced with a bigger and better one and this time it had monkey bars!