Iowa - Week 1

Our flight from Grand Rapids to Sioux Falls went great - Carsten is an amazing traveler. He slept for about 30 min on our first flight, and then played happily on our second flight. One thing that I'm quickly becoming aware of are airports with nice child play areas. Minneapolis, our connecting airport, had one, which is great, but it wasn't terrific, so perhaps we'll try some other airports in the hopes of getting terrific play areas to wear Carsten out. O'Hare in Chicago for example, has an amazing child play area :).

To start off our time in Iowa, my Dad took Carsten on his very first tractor ride. Carsten just sat (which never happens anymore) and watched and loved it. So over the course of 2 weeks, my Dad took Carsten on 3-4 separate tractor rides, each lasting 30-60 min. And I think this puts Grandpa Hoogeveen firmly in the 'most cuddled with' category. I mostly walked around the first time and picked up sticks. We even did some tree pruning, Hoogeveen style :).

On the tractor with Grandpa!

Yes, Carsten the plastic piece in the middle comes out. Way to figure that out in less than 1 minute of being on the tractor :).

I don't know who's happier. :)

Pruning!

Carsten loved to chase the cats at Mom and Dad's house. However, he wasn't too sure he wanted to touch them most of the time. The cats did make entertaining Carsten a lot easier. So handy to have around!

Grandpa showing Carsten how to pet the cat.

 We were able to all have dinner at my Grandma and Grandpa Hoogeveen's house, which was a ton of fun because almost the entire family was there because my Aunt and Uncle from Texas were also up for the weekend to see Carsten's cousin, Andrew.

Carsten and Grandma.

Carsten and I 

Andrew, you are caught red-handed. 

We also were able to attend Andrew's 1 year birthday party, which my cousin hosted at her new house. They have an amazing yard with fun pay equipment that far surpasses the playground Carsten gets to play on here in Egg. I didn't get a lot of photos here because I was enjoying talking to everyone. Thanks to my Mom for playing with Carsten so much so I could talk!

We also went to my Grandpa Ranschau's that week, but I'm going to post another separate post since I have so many good photos from our time on his farm. All in all, it was a wonderful week and it was so fun that we got to see so many family members. :)