Iowa: Pre Wedding

We had 4.5 days before we had to head from Iowa to Minnesota for the wedding that John was a part of.  It is an understatement to say that these few days were busy. We had quite the list of family and friends to see as these were the only days that John would have free because the rest of his time in the States was spent with wedding festivities. Thankfully Hannah started to sleep at least 10 hours at night by the 3rd night, and blessed us with a few 13 hour stretches, which allowed us to feel a little more rested!

The weather was a bit cold for the beginning of June, much like it was in Switzerland. But we still got to spend some time at the local parks swinging with Grandma! I am so thankful that my mom got to take off everyday except for 4 the entire 2.5 weeks we were home.
I still have some lifelong friends that live in my parents home town that we got to see several times that we were back. One of those times was to celebrate Nae Nae's 30th birthday! Her husband Nate pulled off a great surprise party for her and it was a great way to see these friends that I have had close to 20 years or more.

Nae was surprised... Happy 30th!

I realize now that I didn't take enough pictures of gatherings with friends when we were back! Anyhow, on Tuesday Grandma babysat Hannah for us so we could head down to Iowa City, the town we lived in for 5 years prior to moving to Switzerland. We were able to see all of the friends from our small group from our church that we were part of for about 4 years. It is so great to be able to have friends that you can be away from for a period of time and pick up right where you left off. We are looking forward to the day when some of these friends come to visit here in Switzerland!!

 

On Wednesday Grandma had to work so we all went down to Iowa City again to meet a few other friends for a picnic lunch. We tried our hardest to convince the Baumhovers to move here, but I think moving with 3 kiddos across the pond would be a lot of work!

These busy days with great friends reminded us again that it is the people that we miss, not the place. Friends that you have had for 5-25 years and family aren't replaceable!  But we realized that we really love Switzerland thus far as well!