Midwest Adventures 2011: Part 1

We had a fun trip involving four states as we visited Mr. Wagner's side of our family over the Thanksgiving holiday. Within the span of one week we flew into Minnesota then headed to Wisconsin where we celebrated Thanksgiving with family. The next day we drove through part of Iowa on our way to Illinois where we spent a couple of days visiting Mr. Wagner's twin bro and his family. Then it was back through Iowa to return to Wisconsin to stay with Gr'pa and Gr'ma for the remainder of the week. Lots of travel but the family time was well worth it!

We first arrived at Gr'pa and Gr'ma's house the night before Thanksgiving and got to enjoy a short visit with Mr. Wagner's sister and her daughter before they returned to CO the day after Thanksgiving. It has been awhile since we had gotten to see them so the Little Miss had a great time getting reacquainted with her seven year-old cousin Savannah.
For the Thanksgiving feast we were also joined by Mr. Wagner's Aunt Donna and her son Ken's family as well as Great Gr'ma Wagner and Great Gr'pa Maves (the Little Miss insists he is just "Gr'pa Maves"). Mr. Wagner's family has a tradition of gathering to share what each person is thankful for and I will never forget what our girl said; she announced to everyone that she was thankful for (Great) "Gr'pa Maves". It was wonderful to see his glowing smile in response. You see, our girl still remembers visiting Gr'pa Maves over a year ago and has talked of him regularly since, having always held a special place in her heart for him.