A Perfect Vacation Home

Whew! Seth and I made it back to Provo last night. We drove to Iowa last Wednesday and stayed in that gorgeous state for almost a week. Sarah, Seth's cousin, also came along - it was a blast! We left right after work last week and drove through the night, it wasn't bad at all! I had a few lovely encounters with deer - but the closest I got was smoothing out a fresh one just after the semi in front of us had hit it.

We did a ton though! The president greeted us at our arrival!! We met Grandma Oesterle at the Ely Airport exit (by Cedar Rapids), she came to get Sarah. As we waited the president rode by! He had just landed at the airport to visit the flood victims. I got it all on video tape . . . 27 various vehicles were apart of his entourage! We didn't see him, but it was exciting all the same.

In Iowa City we did a lot of visiting and just good catch up time. I love being home! We played volleyball and badminton, water balloon volleyball. Friday we went to Kent Park at the beach and kind of played catch in the water and had a yummy picnic with everyone there.

Friday we also took family pictures in our backyard. Family pictures are always an adventure! We got some good ones though. I particularly like the pictures I got of all us kids trying to get the grand kids to cooperate in pictures with the grandparents.

That night we all walked down to the Ped Mall for some live music and gelato. Mmmmm, it was a lot of fun too!

Dad took Seth and I out to see some of the flood damage just before family pictures. The water had receded a lot already, but there was still lots to see. Most of the sandbags were still around buildings and the art campus was still pretty full of water. On Riverside Drive dad pulled over just behind a Road Closed Sign, the only place we could stop safely. I ran out to snap a few pictures and when I was coming back Seth and Dad are yelling at me to hurry b/c there is a cop coming! The officer was pretty retarded to ask us if we were apart of the construction crew - duh. Since when is it illegal to go past a road closed sign? He gave us a warning, but I thought it absolutely retarded how he handled the situation. I honestly took like 7 pictures, not going near the water or anything. Anyway . . . it made the lil adventure interesting.

We went down by Dubuque street and the Parkview church was completely under water, they will have a lot of work to do. I was pretty amazed at that site.

Saturday Seth went to Waterloo to meet his parents. They then drove up to Minnesota to see baby Kai and Ella blessed at the Oesterle home. I am very sad I missed out on that event, I heard it was very special and lots of fun too.

But Saturday my Hartley Grandparents came for a big family lunch with all my cousins and some new great uncles and aunts. It was SO great to see Grandma and Grandpa Hartley!! They are SO happy and positive, I love being with them. And they are so cute too :)

Saturday night we got Ice Cream at Dane's Dairy. We went as a family in Elementary school a lot but not since then. (It was so natsukashii) That was a lot of fun, and we had some great laughs at singing oldies word-for-word that most people have never heard of and the boys doing cheer leading moves - Garrett, just leave the cheer leading and spirit fingers to Olivia.

Dad took me on my first Motorcycle ride on his Harley on the way home! It was soooo much fun, I loved it! What a nice toy to have, especially in the summer time. He took me out passed city limits for a good joy ride.

My parents drove me to North Cedar Rapids to meet with Seth and his parents so I could spend some time with them. It was depressing to go through Cedar Rapids that night. We passed blocks of dark houses with only street lights on. Miles of Cedar Rapids was soaked in water and they will have lots of work ahead of them to get their down town fixed up. Many old houses won't be rebuilt.

We went to The Oesterle Reunion in New Hampton, IA Sunday. We saw some of the tornado damage from a month ago on the way. It was so much fun to see lots of cousins and family again. This all felt like a dream. I loved the time with Alicia and Ellia too, I'm glad they're apart of my in-laws family too :) - how lucky am I!? We spent the evening in Waterloo, went 4 wheeling! I got to go out on my own a lot, Seth timed how fast I could go around the track! What a blast.

Monday we said our good-byes to the Oesterle's and headed back to Iowa City. We left early Tuesday morning for our long drive home. We have decided we like driving through the night much better than all day long. We ate lots of fast food and had to take many more potty breaks beyond the regular gas fill up stops. We made it safely back in Provo about 11:00pm. We are very blessed that we had such a great and fulfilling vacation home without incident. I wish we could have stayed longer and did more! We'll just have to move closer . . .

Some more fun pictures: