Iowa and back in no time...

Cody sleeping in the car. We were barely into Nebraska and as you can see it was still light out. Jesse managed to get sleep in the car too, both trips. Somehow I was not so lucky either time.

Jesse, Cody, Mom, and Logan watching the pendulum knocking down pieces to tell time.

Jesse testing out the air play exhibit in the Science Center.

Jesse, me, & Dave posing for a picture in our lovely safety gear outside the plant.

Jesse and Dave touring the inside of the ethanol plant.

Thursday afternoon Jesse and I headed off for a trip to Iowa. Our radio is wacky and doesn't like to work well with the Ipod, so we sought out different forms of entertainment. We ended up buying some cross word puzzle books... which are much harder to find than one might think. We made it to my parents house just before 2am Iowa time Friday morning. We were beat, we slept in and then had lunch with my parents, visited my grandparents, and checked in on my dad while he overhauled our car. Saturday we got a brief tour of David's ethanol plant, had some amazing tenderloin sandwiches @ Menlo's cafe, and then headed to DesMoines for some research. We went to the new improved Science Center of Iowa. In the last few years they rebuilt the Science Center downtown and added lots of new experiences to it. Our museum is looking into expansion and research is the first part, so I took in all the info I could and photographed just about everything from the cafe to the signage. Cody, Logan, my mom, Jesse, and I spent several hours exploring and having a good time. That night we had dinner with my parents and Dave & Chels. After dinner Dave and Chels joined us at the Shermans for another game night of sorts. Melissa, Ken, & Syd joined us too. We played the X-box version of Scene it, which confused me and 1/2 of us weren't familiar with the controllers, so I think it was rigged. Cody and Dave one. Pssh! Sunday morning Jesse and I went to church with my parents and my grandma. It was Jesse's first Catholic Church service and he was nervous about what to do and how long it would take. I think he was pleasently surprised with the time and he did well with all our weird traditions. Sunday afternoon we visited my grandpa Ron and his wife Ginny. Then we snuck back to my parents were we packed up and got ready to head out. The original plan was to leave Monday morning, but Cody and Jesse were ansy to leave. After saying our goodbyes and heading out from my parents we had to stop to pick up Cody. He's staying the week with us. Cody and his parents had quite the time debating his final packing plan. We thought we would leave around 3pm, but we really left at 4pm. We made it back home by just after midnight Denver time. It was a quick action packed weekend and I am still exhausted from it. More to come on Cody's Denver trip.