2 Girls and a Dog: January 2011

After almost 2 full weeks in Iowa, we are back in Grand Forks again!

We really enjoyed all the time we spent in Iowa - especially the time with Jon! We loved seeing our families too....... :)

The girls and I drove down to Harlan on Wednesday, Dec. 22nd in order to beat the snow forecasted for our drive on Thursday. Thursday during the day we got to enjoy some downtime before my dear dear dear friend Erin stopped over with her girls to say hi! It had been way too long since we'd seen them and it was so good to catch up! The girls hit it off immediately and ran downstairs to play while Erin and I crashed on the couch to catch up for awhile.

Then for a surprise, Jon showed up Thursday night! Snow had been forecasted for all day Friday and we were afraid he wouldn't make it over to Harlan until the 25th, so he used his last day of vacation and came over on the 23rd instead - it was a great surprise for the girls!

Friday the 24th we relaxed and just enjoyed the day and ate WAY too much food. It was fun to hang out and help Mom get ready for Christmas on Saturday.

On the 25th the Melbys and the Culvers showed up for the day and all the cousins had a great time playing together. On the 26th we drove up to Alcester for the day to have the Holthe CHristmas and hang out before driving back to Harlan late that night.

Monday we drove over to Muscatine to spend the week with Jon. We stopped at the Coralville Mall and the girls spent some of their Christmas money. Jon had Tuesday off as well and we just enjoyed a quiet day relaxing. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (half-day) Jon had to work, so the girls and I did some more exploring and house hunting around town. Our realtor showed us 3 houses Wednesday night and I saw 1 house on my own Thursday night. The girls loved Weed Park and can't wait to go swimming there this summer. They also had a great time feeding the ducks and geese at the pond.

Before picking Jon up from work on Friday we went down to the riverfront and explored a bit in the fog - it made for some great pictures! The girls are excited to explore the trails along the river this summer.

Friday night was dinner out to a chinese buffet - probably won't eat there again, but one interesting menu item was the whole octopus! and NO, I did NOT try it!

Saturday we all drove back to Harlan with the plan being the girls and I would drive back to Grand Forks on Sunday and Jon would drive back to Muscatine. Since I-29 didn't open up until late Sunday morning we decided road conditions weren't worth risking and spent the whole day in Harlan. It was nice to relax one more day and then we drove back up here on Monday. The girls didn't mind skipping a day of school but we were all glad to sleep in our beds again last night!

So now we settle in and try to re-adjust to life without Jon up here. Sad for all of us, but we are confident that our house should sell soon. I have Jon on a mission to go see 15 - 20 more houses in the next couple of weeks and we've seen a couple that might work already. So hopefully as soon as we find the right house ours will sell and we can still get moved soon!

Here are a bunch of random pictures from Christmas break....