10-10-13

Me: Here's my charming great-nephew, Caedrian.

Here's my niece, Jaime (Caed's mom, Emily & Monte's daughter and Janna, Jerod, Jerome & Jacey's sister) and her 2nd son, Kasen. Jaime is taking a break from working as a nurse at the local hospital to be a stay at home mom. She also keeps very busy with her new photography business. She takes awesome high school senior and sports photos, children's pics, family shots and even weddings!

Caed's dad, Chad was at school teaching (he's also a football coach). Caed gave us the tour of his backyard playground and demonstrated his endless energy. What a cutie!

Jaime & Chad live in Denison, Iowa. That's about 2 hours south of Orange City. We left Jerod and Aubyn's house in Orange City this morning and stopped on our way to Elk Horn to visit with these guys. It was so nice to see where they live, work and play! They're all doing great!

Another hour of driving south of Denison and we arrived in Elk Horn (my home town) where we had lunch with my Uncle Calvin and Aunt Phyllis. Calvin is my dad's youngest brother and he's one happy, funny and generous guy. He's always doing something nice for someone else. Today he gave us two jars of raw black walnuts. He's been spending hours cracking hundreds of them in Monte's garage and then gives them away to others around town. So wonderful to see them both and laugh!

After our roast beef, mashed potatoes & gravy lunch; Monte and Bob took the tractor and wagons over to the other farm.

They did a quick couple rows of chopping on Monte's new-ish, red, fancy, combine. A trip to Iowa is just not complete without some time on the farm. Thank you, Monte!

 Monte stayed in the field but I had to get Bob to Des Moines (along with mom). We left Emily on the farm. So glad she could do the whirlwind tour with us from Omaha to Le Mars to Hawarden to Orange City to Denison and back to Elk Horn. Thank you, Emily!