Back from Iowa

We had a great trip to Iowa City for Homecoming. Iowa beat Indiana on a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon. Mark was SUCH A TROOPER flying to Chicago then riding with us on the 4 hour drive to Iowa City. He didn't really nap more than 20 minutes each day, but he slept like a champ at night, and did so, so well.

Things that entertained Mark on our journey:

• The moving walkways and escalators at the airport. We must have circled and ridden them back and forth and up and down a million times over the weekend. He LOVED it and he got a lot of smiles from other air travelers. It truly helped us pass time in the airport while we were waiting for our flight and luggage.



• Yogurt raisin boxes. You'd think he'd want to EAT the raisins, but he mostly wanted to take all the raisins out of the box, and then put them back in the box one at a time. Same with the airline pretzels. SCORE!



• Airline drink with lid and straw. Our sweet flight attendant brought Mark his own drink with a lid and straw. Mark loved taking the straw out of the lid and putting it back in. Then he loved trying to fish out the ice of the cup and even put some in his mouth.



• Flirting with other people. I swear my child is a little Romeo. He was referred to as "Smiley" no less than a million times on our trip. How can you resist the sweet smile of a cute 1 year old? I sure can't! At one point, we were at the homecoming parade. Mark had gotten an Iowa flag and was running up and down the sidewalk with his flag. People were smiling, laughing, and giving him high-5's. It was priceless!

We had perfect weather for our trip (although it will start snowing there soon!). We enjoyed catching up with old friends, attending the open house at the Engineering school, and cheering on the Hawkeye's at the football game. Isaac has some wonderful friends, and they were so generous with their time and resources. We are truly blessed.

Mark decided he had enough on the way home. We didn't fly into Raleigh until about midnight on Sunday night, so technically I consider that boarderline child abuse. He didn't start melting down till we landed, so luckily our fellow passengers only had a couple minute to endure our very tired child's crying.

I'll post pics as soon as I find the USB cord to our camera.