The Coen Clan: Trip to Iowa!

Yeah, I'm finally posting again. We've been in Iowa for the past week and a half visiting Pat's family. Everyone had a great time, with lots of activities and playing with cousins. Over Memorial Day weekend, Pat's cousin has a family golf tournament. This is the 3rd year I've played (and the 3rd time I've played). I'm getting better each year, although I've yet to win the trophy. Maybe next year is my year:) We also went to the Omaha Zoo. Wow, what a great zoo! I definitely have to say it's much better than the Denver Zoo (and I really like the Denver Zoo). It rained almost the entire time we were there, but we had a great time as most of the exhibits are inside. Kami walked the entire day (attached to her monkey backpack) and only rode in the stroller when she wanted to eat a snack. All the kids did great the whole time we were there...hardly any whining at all. Amazing! Brennan loves riding in the stroller, so he was super good! Kami was quite worn out once we were done. I put her in the car and she fell asleep before we even left the parking lot. During the week, we hung out at the grandparents house. It was overcast and rainy most of the week, but when it warmed up, we took the kids to the park.

Last Saturday I ran in the Dam to Dam in Des Moines. It's a 20K race, one I ran the summer after Kami was born. My goal time was under 2 hours, and I almost made it. I've been having some IT Band problems since I ran the half marathon, so I bought a strap to wear above my knee (which helps A LOT). Unfortunately, I think I spent at least 5 minutes (if not more) during the course of the race, trying to get it to stay in place. I was able to run it in 2 hours 4 min...had I not had to fiddle with the strap, I could have made my goal. Oh well. I still beat my other time by 12-15 minutes. We were able to have dinner and hang out with our good friend's, the Baete's, on our way home (they live in Lincoln). We got to see their new house, which is super cute, and let the kids play for a couple of hours before hitting the road again.

We stayed in Kearney, NE on the way home and stayed in a Holiday Inn that had water slides. Kami loved swimming, and even went down the water slides a couple of times. There is a huge "bridge" that goes across the interstate there, and every time we drive through we say we need to stop. We finally did. It's a great museum with a lot of US history. I would recommend stopping if you are ever driving through and enjoy that kind of activity.

All in all it was a good trip. We are slowly getting back into our routine and are looking forward to my friend Angie and her family visiting next week.