The annual Iowa birthday cakes from Baba

We had planned to drive to Iowa on Boxing Day (Dec 26) but a winter storm was pounding the plains and it looked like it could be dangerous driving. It was a good decision as the roads were terrible. So, we left home early (for us) on the 27th and made it to West Des Moines just after 7:30pm local time. Anna and I both missed the summer trip to Iowa so it was our first time in Iowa since summer of 2022.

Playing the “Saran Wrap” Christmas game

As always on our visits Baba keeps us entertained with endless games. We played Code Names several times, we had an epic game of Christmas Bingo with prizes and then there was the “Saran Wrap” game. Baba had wrapped dozens of small Christmas gifts inside an endless ball of Saran Wrap. There was well over 100 layers that we had to undo but you had time until the person next to you rolled a double on the dice. It was a lot of fun.

Toasting in the New Year with the cousins

New Year’s Eve was spent watching a lot of football and then all the kids toasted in the new year with “kids champagne” around 7pm. We also did the confetti poppers which were very loud and scared the crap out of Olive. Soon, there was confetti everywhere.

Shooting off the confetti poppers

Letting Olive know everything was ok

The trip was over too soon and today we drove back to Denver. It was a long but uneventul trip home. The kids have the day off tomorrow before returning to school on Wednesday.