Iowa the Igloo

We finally made it to Iowa! After all of our set backs, everything just seemed to fall into place. We had a smooth trip from Laredo to Iowa. The dogs did a great job of traveling for their third all day and in a row adventure in the airport.

 

When we arrived it was only 20 degrees. We were freezing. Everything was covered in snow. Garth wasn't so sure about walking in the snow. Instead we basically had to drag him around. He tried to plant his whole six pounds in the concrete so that we couldn't make him put his feet in the snow. Roper on the other hand was loving every minute of the cold weather.

 

The puppies were all bundled up to go outside.

 

This Residence Inn is by far our favorite! We have the most room that we have had so far. Due to the bad weather, it took our boxes of clothes a few days longer than expected to arrive at the hotel. On Wednesday, we got a call from the manager at the front desk. "Mrs. Belcher, We have received all eleven of your boxes of French fries. Will you have somewhere to store those? We do not have enough freezer space to put those away for you." I died laughing. We pack in Chick-fil-A waffle fry boxes. I am sure he was thinking that we must be the fattest people on the planet if we ordered eleven boxes of fries for our short stay here in Iowa. When I told him they were just our clothes he chuckled a bit and was relieved that I didn't need him to store them in the hotel freezer.

Justin and I have both been working at the store open to close almost every day. We have been exhausted. We have not even unpacked our boxes yet. As I was steadily bagging orders on Saturday night, I heard someone say my name at the front counter. I assumed it was a guest needing extra Chick-fil-A sauce or a cashier needing help with something. I could not have been more wrong. As I turned I saw two of our favorite people: Austin and Hannah Redd!!! They are our best friends from college. Hannah's family lives about two and half hours away in Illinois and they snuck up to surprise us for the night! I was ecstatic. That was the best surprise ever. It is always good to see a familiar face when you are away from home, but there could not have been a better two faces to see. After Justin and I got off work, we spent the rest of the evening catching up and visiting. It felt like old times as the four of us stayed up way too late laughing and talking. The next morning we went to breakfast before they headed back. Of course I had to give the shortest goodbye recorded in history, because I couldn't say goodbye without turning into a water works show. We are so thankful for such good friends and the time that we got to spend with them.

These two.

We are half way yelling "Cheese!" at the camera and half way laughing/ smiling.

Until next time, we will try to stay warm in this igloo they call Iowa.