Last week in Iowa

Our last week in Iowa was the first time Carsten had gotten sick with something other than a cold. Despite the fact that he was pretty sick, he was still a pretty happy kid. He likes holding thing with handles, so we had him carry around his own bucket... :)

My Dad carved Carsten his first ever pumpkin, which for the record was the only homegrown pumpkin for the year in my parent's garden - so it was pretty special for multiple reasons. He did not want to touch the pumpkin ooze, but he happily would have played with the pumpkin handle if we had let him. We put him in a tiger Halloween costume and had a lot of fun watching him try to walk in it :). Here's some photos from his first pumpkin carving:

Super excited. And super dirty.

'I don't think I want to touch that.'

Our little pumpkin :)

'A handle?! SWEET!'

Grandma, Grandpa, and Carsten :)

My little tiger.

We actually did not fly home on our intended travel date as our flights were cancelled because of a large snowstorm on the East Coast. Instead, we spent some time shopping in Sioux Falls, and were treated to some extra special family time. My Grandpa Ranschau, Grandma Hoogeveen, and Grandpa Ranschau came over that evening for supper and we play fast and dirty Uno afterwards. What fun! We very much enjoyed our extra family time.

Grandma and Grandpa Hoogeveen dropped us off at the airport on Monday since both of my parents had to work. Carsten did great on all three flights, and even though we did not have space for a car seat on the international flight like I was hoping, he really did terrific for me. He slept most of the way, and the lady across the isle was super helpful, which made a big difference for me. As an added bonus, we had a bulkhead seat, which meant that I didn't have to worry about Carsten hitting the seat in front of us and I got to spread out a bit more as well. He was a terrific traveler :). How about we do this all again in December?? This time we'll definitely bring Andy :).