Our Trip to Iowa

Gavin and I recently had the opportunity to go to Iowa to visit my extended family.  My cousin, Dan and his bride, Kate, were getting married and it was a great opportunity to celebrate with him and our extended family!

 

Arriving at the airport to fly to Tulsa for our first leg of the journey.

Little man was chipper and excited to see the heavens aboard his first airplane.

 We arrived in Tulsa and spent the afternoon at my parent's home.  Little man enjoyed his lunch on counter - one of the perks of being on vacation :)

 After lunch Mister Adventurous spotted his first flight of stairs.  Ohhh, love at first sight.  He mastered climbing the stairs and did pretty well coming down them.  Honestly, I could not keep him off these- he loves climbing.

 The next morning we arose and jumped in the car for a full day of driving from Tulsa to Iowa.  G was such a little guy for the car seat that my parents had that we stopped and got a different car seat along the way.  He could not settle into this one well enough to get any sleep.

Ahh, much better :)

Our first stop was at Grandma Mary's home in Davenport.  Gavin met Grams for the first time and we had a great day spending time together.  Grams had one of the YUMMIEST breakfast casseroles we've ever had and lots of different cookies that G enjoyed with his lunch.

 

 Soon before we left Grams' my sister and her family arrived from Fort Worth.  Gavin and his new cousin Jackson enjoyed some bonding time.

Grams' 4 great grandchildren

 

 Next up, we drove to Marion for Dan & Kate's rehearsal dinner.  The town of Marion was full of beautiful trees with fall foilage... a rare treat for this Texan :)

Little man with my parents at the rehearsal dinner.  He met lots of my aunts and uncles and cousins. It was a very nice time. My aunt and uncle hosted the rehearsal dinner and my Aunt Rhonda (mother of the groom) made a dozen different cheesecakes for the dessert... very very very good. My favorite was the lemon raspeberry. Delicious!

Next up, we hung out at my Aunt Alicia's house and G got to play with Zackary.  Lots of fun times... Zachary has stairs at his house... G mastered them :)

 

 The next morning we got all gussied up and headed to the beautiful wedding.

Squirt was quite the mishcheif so we spent most time in the wings of the church.

 

My sister and G

Next up, we drove to the reception.  During the Cocktail Hour Kate surprised Dan with a visit from his alma mater's marching band.  It was so festive and they looked so happy! 

Gavin with my Grandpa and Grandma Gent at the reception

With cousins

oh, look at how he adores cousin Josh :)

Sweet boy fell fast asleep long after his bedtime but arose cheery and ready for the drive back to Tulsa.  Munchkin did awesome for the drive back :)

 

The next day we spent all day chillin in Tulsa and went to lunch at the French Hen with my mom and dad.  I really liked this place!

After lunch we went to the pumpkin patch for a photo shoot for our Thanksgiving cards

We awoke the next morning for the last leg of our journey- our flight home to Austin.  And because words can not do it justice- I will let my expressive son show you just how happy he was to be cooped up on a plane for the trip home...

Considering it was a whilrwind trip in 6 days I can't fault him for his melt down.  It took about a week to get him back into his normal routine at home and with naps and bedtime.  But, all is well now and we have wonderful memories of our trip to Tulsa and Iowa.