Weekend in the Car...

Well, we started our weekend in the car Saturday morning at 6am. We headed to Cedar Rapids, IA (technically Hiawatha, but close enough) to visit Great Grandma Carol and Great Grandpa Dick. Rowan managed to get into anything and everything at the nursing home. She was opening and closing drawers, pushing the wheelchair, sitting in the rocker, you name it, she touched or moved it. Rowan was awake the entire ride there, and had we been in the car 10 minutes longer, she would have been asleep, needless to say, she was crabby and sleepy by noon.

So we drove 3 1/2 hours to Cedar Rapids, visited for just over 2 hours, and then were back in the car.
Now we were on our way to Dubuque, IA for Caden's 4th Birthday Party! This ride was just over an hour, and Rowan slept the whole way, thank goodness!

This was the biggest 4th birthday party I have ever seen. There were 50+ people there. Tons of kids and their parents. Rowan got to play in the bounce house with Tara while it was vacant, but it was too hard for her to stand so she just sat and got bounced around a bit. But she liked it. She played with some toys too and got bullied around a bit. A girl that was almost 18 months didn't like Rowan playing with the same thing and decided to push her around a bit, of course her mother missed most of it, or just chose not to do anything about it. Honestly, Rowan didn't really care, she didn't get hurt, so she would just get back up and go back to the toy!

I was very interestd to see Rowan and Bryson together, because Bryson looked just like Ed when he was little, but Bryson has grown up so much, they didn't look as much alike as I was anticipating. He did offer Rowan a few kissed though, between his dirty looks! He was a bit crabby! Otherwise, there were some Smith Family members in attendance, so we chatted with them, the kids played, had some pizza and cake, and then back in the car we went.
Final destination for the day, Moline IL! This was another 1 hour ride, in which Rowan stayed awake for. We headed to Papa and Grandma Jan's house for some dinner and more playing. Jenna and Carter joined us, and then Kelly, Gail, Don, Jake and Maddy too. So the kids played very nicely, took a few rides on Papa's chair, ate a few popples, and finally to bed about 9pm. Rowan was well beyond tired, only 1 - 1 hour nap for the day, and lots of exercise with other kids. She passed out quickly, but didn't last long in the pack n play, so spent the night tossing and turning in bed with us. She couldn't get comfortable, and finally passed out on my chest, and slept until 730am. Grandma Jan made our favorite biscuits and gravy, Ben stopped by to visit, and back on the road home we were about noon. Rowan slept for about 2 hours on the way home, so it went pretty well.
Despite the many hours of travelling in the car, we survived and enjoyed our much overdue trip to Illinois and Iowa. Thanks to all that came to see us and housed us for the weekend!