More of our trip ....

Monday:

We spent the day in Iowa. Rudy, Ryder and I hung out at the park for awhile - it's right in front of my aunt and uncle's house and such a beautiful park. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with the family.

Eating some shoulder ....

He's not as into his sunglasses as he used to be. Now he pulls them off.

First time in a swing by himself - so fun!

Loving it!

Gotta pass the taste test ....

Swingin' with mommy

First slide experience

Awesome!

Ready for the road ....

And some more grass play ....

His first encounter with a large rock!

This park is literally at the edge of my aunt & uncles house and it is beautiful!

Haha, soooo easily amused. Chasing this little thing on the screen as it bounced around.

We couldn't figure out what the heck he was doing .... turns out he was trying to pick up a dead bug and got stuck this way.

Now THAT is the face of a girl who is blowing some serious bubbles!

My cousin Matt's fiance, Maria and her dog

Lindsay & Ryder

Cousin Matthew, Uncle Steve, Dad & Rudy playing golf in the front yard.

Visiting Mandi & Phillipe's house. Ryder was looking at us so weird!

Notice the rock in front of the tree .... apparently this was a must see attraction. hehehe.

Monday night, Rudy, Ryder and I headed back to Pittsfield. Driving at night was 100 times better! Once we got Ryder to sleep he stayed that way almost the whole way back. He woke up and cried the last 30 minutes, but that was manageable. We hit the WORST storm though and I thought we were going to die. No joke. It is a good thing Rudy was driving because I was a nervous wreck in the passenger seat and if I had been driving .... it would have been bad. We couldn't see the road AT ALL. There was sooooo much rain. There was a ton of really close lightning all around us and I just had to keep reminding myself we were safe from that in the car. The only good thing about the lightning was that for each quick second we'd get a glance of the road and know we were still in our lane. Passing semi's was terrifying because so much extra rain comes off of them. Seriously, it was bad. We couldn't even see well enough to pull off the road. But since the storm was going to the same way we were, that wouldn't have helped anyway because we would have just caught up with it again. Glad we made it through safe and sound. And soooo glad Ryder slept through the whole thing! Having a baby in the car makes those things so much scarier!

Tuesday: Back on the farm

It was just the 3 of us on the farm all day, as my dad and grandma had stayed in Iowa an extra night and didn't get home until late Tuesday night. We were exhausted from getting home late the night before, so other than a quick trip into town, we didn't do too much. Just hung out and got to enjoy a super fabulous sunset.

Watching The Price is Right

Our make-shift high chair while at my grandma's. He didn't eat as much as usual because we just couldn't get him to sit still without his high chair.

Love, love, love the front yard

He was feeding me a stick.

I love just hanging out in the grass with him!

And here is the face of a boy who is pooping. :)

The start of a breath-taking sunset. Sorry there are so many pictures, I just love them all. We have some pretty amazing sunsets here in AZ, with the mountains and all, but I sure do love a good country sunset. :)

I LOVE THIS ONE!

One last post to come, of the last 2 days of our trip.

We have definitely gotten back into the swing of things at home. Ryder seems to be happy to be back on his regular schedule. He cracks me up everyday. He loves to push things around .... like furniture. I am constantly watching him rearrange things. Today he was pushing 2 bar stools at the same time. He is soo strong! He loves to push around his little walker toy and is practically running now. Soon I am sure he will discover that he can do it without holding on to anything too. He has even figured out how to change directions with that thing. He will literally pick it up and swing it around to go a different way. I will have to post a video because it's pretty funny. And he loves to ram into things too! Such a boy. :)

I have a wisdom tooth that has been bothering me for some time now. I was supposed to get all 4 of them out MANY years ago, but honestly I am just terrified of it! I have one that recently poked itself through the skin. Last night I was in so much pain, from my neck all the way through my head and it seemed to be coming from my tooth ..... ibuprofen and a massage from the hubby helped the pain and then this morning I noticed that the tooth had come through the skin quite a bit more. I keep joking that I am "teething," but really if that's what it feels like to a baby, it's no wonder it can be so hard on them! I guess I can't put it off any longer .... I've got to get them taken care of. I am tired of the pain. It's at least time to go talk to my dentist. I am guessing I can't have it done until Ryder is weaned, because I will have to take pain medicine (although I will do my darndest to avoid it - I hate taking medicine). Also, I want to find out if I can stay awake for it because I am just terrified of anesthesia! Call me crazy, but I really think I'd rather be awake.

Anyway, that's the hap around here ..... Rudy has the next 2 days off and it's supposed to rain allll day tomorrow. Let's hope the weather people aren't lying to us.