Iowa

It felt good to be back among family and friends!! Because Dusty and Glenn (the 2 sons) rarely get back to Iowa at the same time, it was great for them to catch up with each other AND to sort through their dad's things!

They enjoyed trying on his Ranger jacket and decided he must have been a LOT smaller when he wore it, many many years ago!!

We all spent the day visiting with relatives and reminiscing about old times!!

That night, we headed to the airport for a 10:15 pickup of Jaime and Brad who were flying in for the funeral - it was a downpour and a little hard to see where we were even going!! Naturally, their flight was late due to the weather but at least they made it in and we crawled back to Patty's through the rain!

A funny story I forgot to mention yesterday - after picking up the rental car, we stopped at Missouri Valley (where we used to live) and I ran into Arby's to get us some food for the road. It was dusk and Glenn started driving and eating! I was bent over eating my sandwich and trying NOT to make a complete mess when I heard raindrops - large raindrops - hitting the windshield and thought to myself that we were going to get a nice shower!! No way - I forgot we were in Iowa - it wasn't raindrops at all but bugs hitting the windshield!!! And yes, the windshield was SO covered in bug juice that we had to clean it the next morning before we took off!!

When we reached Patty's house late Tuesday night, Jaime reached into her bag and presented me with my Mother's Day gift from all 3 girls - YES - I was published once again - I now have my third book of blogging and pictures gracing my coffee table at home!! THANKS GIRLS - I LOVE IT!!

It poured rain on Wednesday - a hard cold rain that was especially miserable during the outdoor military ceremony at the funeral - I always think it's very touching to watch the military unfold and fold back up the flag and to hear Taps played on the trumpet - Glenn nudged me during the playing of Taps and whispered that he should have played it! He played it many times during his high school years and it sure would have been a nice tribute to his dad - but was just something we never thought about..........

That evening we enjoyed dinner out with Patty and Leonard and then went back to their house where my brother stopped in and also my niece and her husband. We stayed up as long as we could but bedtime beckoned since we had a 3:45am wake up call in order to get to Omaha to catch our flight home - and yes, our seats were much better on the way home with an uneventful flight!

It was kind of strange arriving in Denver at 7:30am and both of us heading to work as soon as we got back to Woodland Park - a LONG day.......