Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Iowa Trip: Part Three

This is the last installment of my Iowa trip because the next few days we took it a lot easier -- I think we wore ourselves out those first two days!

Sunday was church and chilling which was much needed - and went nicely with the rain that finally decided to come. Their little building's sacrament room was so tiny and cute and I loved the size of their ward compared to our massive size at home. The only downside was a lady who sat in front of us in Relief Society smelled like cats and cat liter and our sensitive pregnant noses almost got the best of us, but we hung in there like troopers and enjoyed the lesson.

Monday we drove to Ames (30 minutes away) to visit my sister-in-law, Staci. She is living with her family while her husband, Rob (Nate's brother), is overseas for the State Department for a year. It's been a while since I've seen her so I was excited because I had never even met her youngest daughter. Her girls are darling as expected and her parents' house was very cool. My favorite room was walled in glass on the second floor, overlooking the gorgeous green backyard. We sat and talked in this room almost the whole time and it just made my soul happy to be surrounded by green. I really think I'm ready to live somewhere more green than Arizona, but that is easier said than done!

On the way home, we ran into some unexpected traffic and had to rush a little to get the Talin's 3:00 kindergarten pick-up time. I must say that Iowa drivers crack me up. Maybe I'm just a psycho-fast Arizona driver, but those people just dink along -- once again, maybe it's just the Midwest. . . I was shocked that there was a minimum speed limit sign on the freeway as well as a maximum -- you only need a max in Arizona and everyone's usually 10-20 miles above that number.

Megan is an Arizonan at heart, and so it was no surprise that she was trying to do 80 while everyone around her was doing 50 and she got pulled over by an undercover cop.

Dang!

Luckily she was flustered about getting to Talin on time and he let her off, but then it almost killed her to drive the speed limit from there to home. It was actually kind of funny hearing her complain about how she was barely moving, but I knew that cop would just be following and watching her.

That night we went to Famous Dave's for apparently famous ribs that were tasty. Then Megan and I went and saw Elizabeth. We were disappointed for how excited we were to see it. Too many reasons to explain, but let's just say it didn't live up to our expectations.

Tuesday morning we went to the capital which was fun. It's a gorgeous building and I love being in old buildings where you can just imagine the past going on in there. It was cool peaking in on the Supreme Court rooms and other state rooms.

Des Moines State Capital
Inside view
Pioneer Mural at the top of the staircase.

I fell in love with the library. I don't know why, but I am in love with classic, old libraries and would love to have my own library some day rather than random bookshelves all over the house. I just love reading and love books!

Tell me, who wouldn't love this staircase?
. . .and all those books make me giddy. . .

????
who looks smarter
????

Me or Megan???
I just liked this quote
Cool dome inside capital.
View of Des Moines from the Capital.

The mall, a good deal on jeans, and a Mexican food lunch wrapped up the morning before we headed to the airport.

It was so much fun being with Megan and just relaxing even though I think I came back more tired, but that's okay. It was a blast and I hope to visit again.

4 comments:

Megan said...

I look so much more studious than you. You're trying not to laugh in the picture. It was fun, but I was nervous the librarian would say something with us taking pics. Fun trip. I'm lazy about posting the last installment, but I'd like to have it in my blog, I guess I'll eventually get around to it.

Amy said...

I have to agree with Megs on the studious...you simply can't hold back the smile and she looks deep in thought. That library IS gorgeous! And I love the angle of the first capital picture. So fun!

Susan said...

What a cool day. I would love to see the sights. I agree Mandi, Megan isn't laughing so she looks more studious. I don't think I would have been able to hold a smile back either.

Mandi said...

People, people, it was just a humorous book!