Family (and a little bit about pizza)

The past week or so has been all about family! We have been blessed with great families and were able to spend time with both sides of our families recently. We kicked off family week by having dinner with Andy's sister Rosie and husband Rob last Thursday, who are expecting a boy in almost a week! We are so excited to have a new nephew and cousin! We continued our family adventures the next day with a trip down to southern Iowa to visit Andy's parents and to attend a family reunion Memorial Day weekend. We also got to visit Grandma Hayes and spend a few hours at her farm. I thought this was a great 4 generation picture.The men did a little work in the garden, and had some issues with the tiller. Luke was a great help in figuring out the problem! Not really, but he was happy to be involved and fascinated with the motor, as always.Ava and I couldn't help but admire Grandma's beautiful irises. They had such deep color!After lunch we headed over to Grandma O'Rourke's for a visit. She has cows and baby calves, and Ava and Luke were in heaven watching the new baby calves hop around in the field. And no I did not pose Ava in this picture, she was really that happy and excited to see cows so close.This next picture pretty much sums up a visit to Grandma O'Rourke's house. You do not leave hungry. Quite the opposite in fact! She is an amazing cook and always has cakes and pies and cookies and ice cream. Luke had already had his own (quite large) piece of homemade chocolate cake with frosting, but he was up for mooching a little more from Grandma. She knows the way to a guy's heart!Speaking of fullness, our little adventure down to Iowa included a pit stop in Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State University (my alma mater, go Cyclones!) and the one and only Great Plains Sauce and Dough Company. One of the best pizza places ever. There really is no other place like it. They make incredible pizza, and it is unique. They make whole wheat crust, and the end crust is like a big wheat breadstick. They have honey on all of their tables, so you put honey on your warm pizza crust, and it is a little bit of heaven. And then the cheese! There is so much cheese on the pizza it is unbelieveable. Andy and I took the kids to BurgerKing playland and let them run around a while and then on the way out of town we got pizza to eat in the van. With honey packets. Delicious! And honey in the van while driving, yeah, it was sticky, and messy, and worth every bite. Honey on pizza crust, you may ask?? Ask anyone who has eaten at Great Plains, and they will know what I am talking about.
After our Iowa adventure we came home to another busy and exciting week! Aunt Lauri flew in from New Jersey to celebrate her birthday with us!! Ava and Luke made her a cake, and decorated it with sprinkles they picked out.I will finish that adventure in the next post, complete with more pictures! It was so great having you here Lauri! We miss you.