Trip to Kori's House

We started our trip this morning at 2:00 a.m. to visit Aunt Kori and the cousins. It was a hard drive to the cities... I was very tired and it was a fight to stay fully alert. Eva mostly slept, and Granny didn't sleep until after Eva woke up and wanted entertainment. Their timing was very off.

At breakfast, I took Eva to the bathroom first thing to change her out of her pajamas. She was very upset with the picture of the koala bear in the diaper that is on the portable changing table. She told me "Tohlee no wear a diaper. That wrong." Tohlee is the koala bear that is on the Nick Jr show Eva watches: Ni Hao Kai Lan. It was hard to explain it to her.

After breakfast, we were all feeling more in control of things, so we started down to Webster City Iowa. We are going to tour the Murray McMurray hatchery tomorrow. Also we are going to go to the Maytag Dairy Farm and Cheese factory in Newton Iowa tomorrow. We got to the hotel relatively early. Webster city is a very pretty little city, although the highway on the outskirts where the hotel is does not reflect that.

View from the window

Eva simultaneously jumping on the bed and talking to Ba Ba on the cell phone

Eva had a lot of fun in the hotel. After riding in the car for 10 hours she couldn't wait to tear things apart, jump, spin, dance and go wild. This is what the room looked like after 5 minutes, literally... 5 minutes.

Eva made Granny sock, shoe and pencil soup in the hotel ice bucket:

She only watches the first five minutes of a movie before having to stop and get a different one. Granny and I can tell you how they all start but we have no idea how they end.

After stretching, we decided to go and Eat at Country Kitchen because it is across the parking lot from the hotel. That was a mistake. First of all they seated us in the smoking section without asking us... we had them move us after our order was taken. Second, our waitress didn't even know if they served lemonade despite it shown multiple times on the menu. Then she forgot to bring our drinks... all I ordered was water. When I got it, it tasted like rubber hose. I ordered a steak stroganoff for dinner. What I got was baby food mushy noodles, covered with bottled brown gravy (no sour cream) and hockey puck chips of dry bland steak. I sent it back... Mom said it was too expensive to eat that yuck. Mom got greasy fish and something that was suppose to be tartar sauce, but wasn't. Eva got corn dogs that still had raw dough next to the hot dog. When I told the waitress that I wasn't going to eat my dinner because it was so bad, she told me that was how Country Kitchen told them to make it. I wonder if they also told them to overcharge the meal and serve rubber hose water. They probably think that we were the worst customers ever, but then, it is my reccomendation that no one eat at a Country Kitchen restaurant without a gun pointed to their head. Mom says that even then, "Don't order the stroganoff."

Before we insisted on moving out of the smoking section. Since they've made all smoking illegal in public places in MN, I have forgotten to even ask about it when going into a restaurant.

Eva said that this was Ba Ba's chair because she was missing him and wanted him to eat dinner with us. Personally, I think BaBa had the best meal... seriously.

Our trip is going well. The only thing I forgot was the charger for my phone--I thought I had it my bag, but didn't. I can still charge it in the car, but not in the house/hotel. So, if it's dead when you call, try back the next day (please).

To get ice at the hotel, we had to go all the way down the very long hallway and then down the stairs. Going down the stairs, Eva told me "Don't go so fast, Mommy. I want you keep me forever." I assured her I would. Then on our way back to the room she kept asking me which room was ours. After the 4th "No" she looks back at me and says, "Hurry mommy... we got to find Granny before it get dark."