road trip #1.

Ten days and 1,722 miles.

We visited
one grandmother
five uncles
five aunts
sixteen cousins
and six friends.

Our first stop was to visit my grandma in Iowa. The very first night we were there she made us hamburgers, and sprayed the buns with cooking spray in the dishwasher. I watched at first, until she closed the door and I was afraid she was going to mist them or something. She explained that the cooking spray leaves a film, but if she sprays them in the dishwasher and then closes the door for a few seconds, the film settles in the dishwasher and washes away with the next load.

I’ll just say that this is clearly where my mother gets her abnormal level of cleanliness that I mentioned a few posts back.

We visited the Kalona Cheese Factory, which was fun as a kid and even better when you live in a town with limited cheese options. We got sick on samples and then picked a few favorites to take with us. I love their fresh cheese curds that squeak in your teeth.

{Then we visited some family members, at which point I forgot to take photos.}
And then we went to Chicago!

at Shedd Aquarium

at the best pizza place to see sweet friends that I forgot to take a photo of

The Lego Store

My parents treated us to a weekend at the Marriott Lincolnshire outside of Chicago. We traveled into the city for adventures during the day, and then enjoyed a lovely hotel in the evenings. We saw South Pacific in the Marriott Theater and enjoyed third-row seats!