MidWest Calling

This past weekend I flew out to Des Moines, IA to got visit my cousin Megan and almost my whole extended family on my Mom's side was able to make it down as well. Megan is my cousin closest in age to me (only 6 months difference) and I am also the God Mother to one of her sons. She just had a new little one late last year so I was itching to get out there to squeeze him! He's picture above- soooo sweet but you'd never know he was screaming in the picture.

My Mom (far right in the pic above) and all 3 of her sisters go to come on this little trip and it was so nice to see all my Aunties. They filter through Arizona one by one but I hardly ever get to see everyone all at once. But when we get together we get lots of home cooking and running kids and generally a good ole time.
Here is the whole girl gang- we made my cousins Asher and Mason and the Uncles that were able to come remove themselves from the picture. Three generations of Collatz women.

We spent lots of time talking (loudly- the women in my family can be deafening), eating and visiting. I ended up having to ride up to Minneapolis to catch a plane home and hitched a ride with the Krelitz family in their new Pilot. I've never seen so many of us in one car. The highlight of the trip was a stop at Diamond Jo's Casino somewhere in northern Iowa. It was an experience. The buffet there has nothing on my beloved Las Vegas though.
I loves my cousin. She let me crash at her house even though she has two kids under 2. What a woman. We spent our time catching up and chatting on the couch or on the floor playing blocks. I had to work my way into my Godson's good graces- he's a shy guy. It starts with sitting on the couch, then the floor, the playing with the blocks at the edge of the toy circle and then eventually you can work your way to playing blocks with him. I consider the trip a win because we played blocks and read books. Score for Godmummy.

The "winter" weather in Des Moines ended up being the same as Tucson so I was in my normal clothes and not heavy winter wear. Of course the natives were in shorts.

So it was just a wonderful trip and made me wish we had made it longer! And it makes me miss them all so much more. I did hear lots of rumblings about coming down to go to Mexico so I'm hopeful we'll have another mass gathering here in another year.