These pictures tell a story...of my trip with the kids to Iowa for a Telleen family reunion
This is Tom Thumbs. They have the best non gourmet hamburgers ever! My grandma really liked this place. This is one of those places the older people go to socialize. We got the friendly stare down because people could tell we were not *from* there.
Asa loves his Bumbo chair, especially at meals.
This is Asa out of his car seat and very happy about it on one of our stops at a gas station
Little potties are the best things ever for road trips when you have little kids!
This was my favorite farm. My cousins live on this farm and farm it (brown Swiss cows) and their parents farmed it and their grandparents. This is the land that Sven and Prunella built their house on when they immigrated from Sweden. This is also the farm that my dad would come to play on as a kid through his teenage years. That scrawny looking pine in the front yard has been struck by lightening several times and has stood there since my great, great grandfather lived there.
This is one of the many roads that look the same in Gowrie but are beautiful to me. Quinn called these the special roads because we would let her get out of her car seat sometimes on these roads because there were no cars and we were driving really slow. It was hard to explain to her that there are not special roads outside of Gowrie (not that we would be traveling on at least)
This is our cousin that my dad would come to stay with in the summers on the farm. He and his brother own the dairy farm.
There were two ferrel cats that Quinn loved.
This is what Quinn thought of the farm and the cows!
We went to a carnival on the 4Th of July and Quinn loved the rides.
We were part of the parade ~ apparently everyone or almost everyone in Gowrie knows the Telleens so we were the Telleen Family Reunion float and marching kazoo band. Ha ha! It was so funny to march in the parade singing with a kazoo.
This is what Quinn and Asa thought of being in the parade. Oh, and for some reason I could not keep Quinn's shoes on her feet while we were in Iowa and she seemed to be perpetually dirty!
Me with my cousins, sister, kids and the rest of the family riding behind on the hay bail float.
This picture cracks me up! The old ladies in the back of the truck...the one in the middle is my Grandma Telleen
Asa did have a couple of happy moments in between all of the tiredness.
His smile melts my heart!
This is Quinn and I on a ride together. She wanted me to ride with her so bad!
I HATE things that go in circles...they make me sick, but I went on this because Quinn really wanted me to ride with her. I had to stare at her the whole time so I would not get too much motion sickness. Plus I wanted to make sure she didn't let go!
This is Quinn almost falling out of the swing right as we were getting started. Freaked me out!
Sven, thank you for choosing America. Sweden is cool and all but- Oh, you people are probably wondering why his last name is "Anderson" if we are Telleens. Because his son who we are decedents from changed his last name to Telleen so he would "fit in". Funny cause I have never heard that name before. There were tons of Swedes that moved to Gowrie at the same time.
Here we are at my Grandpa Telleens grave...its been 16 years since was there last.
We were waiting for my dad and cousins to finish at a grocery store so I had Quinn get out so I could take advantage of a cool white wall. She was not amused.
I love her faces!
Quinn talked me in to going on another circular ride...the merry-go-round. I have not seen one of these since I was like, 5 so there was a childish excitement in me that conceited. You cannot tell how fast we were going because Allie had her ISO set at 1/2000 of a second. (For all of you non camera people-that means that it will freeze just about anything) We were going so fast that shortly after this was taken I had to make them stop the merry-go-round cause I was SO sick. I was sick for the rest of the night and could hardly eat dinner!
July 7Th
Today we are heading back from Iowa to Indiana. What a fun and exhausting trip this has been. I definitely do not regret going, but it has been the hardest thing I have done in a long time emotionally. If you know me well you know I am not too rigid with the kids schedules...well, this tested even me! I have been dealing with overly tired children for 5 days now and I cannot wait to get to Indiana to get some naps in. As I’ve been complaining about their misbehavior I have had several people comment on how well behaved they have been. HA! That’s a joke…do they seriously think that? I guess they would be blown away by their behavior normally. Allie has wanted to have kids really soon but she has now said it will be at least 10 years! Allie has been a LOT of help! I really miss having Dru around though. I can tell Quinn misses him too-besides the obvious, “Where’s daddy? I want daddy.” Her demeanor is different.
So we are about 4 hours from Indianapolis. I am excited to get there and spend time with my friends, but part of me just wants to go home to be with Dru. I’m exhausted just thinking about being away longer. I will be here in Indiana for at least a week.
So this week I had planned to blog every night before bed about the day but seeing as we went to bed (and the kids went to bed) every night at midnight or later I was not up to reminiscing about the whole day.
I had a good time seeing family. There were over a 100 Telleens at the reunion. Our “original” family moved here from Sweden (Sven and Prunella). They moved to Gowrie, Iowa because they were farmers and Gowrie had the best soil. The dirt there is really black! I thought a lot about LEGACY this week. The decision those two people made in the mid 1800s changed hundreds of people lives. How then will Dru’s life and mine affect those down the line from us three or four generations? We got to go visit the graves of several of our relatives dating back to the late 1800s. We also got to visit the family farms which were really cool to see. Because I grew up all over the world and have never had a hometown it blows my mind to think about living in one place your entire life or even most of it! My dad reminisced about his childhood years when he would play on the farms with his cousins and he said everything looked exactly the same. It’s a city where you don’t have to worry about your children walking to the corner grocery by themselves and can let them play in the huge manicured green yards and fields for hours on end. It is quiet there. My cousin says you can hear the corn grow in the summer when it’s hot.
I will let the pictures above tell our story.
This is Tom Thumbs. They have the best non gourmet hamburgers ever! My grandma really liked this place. This is one of those places the older people go to socialize. We got the friendly stare down because people could tell we were not *from* there.
Asa loves his Bumbo chair, especially at meals.
This is Asa out of his car seat and very happy about it on one of our stops at a gas station
Little potties are the best things ever for road trips when you have little kids!
This was my favorite farm. My cousins live on this farm and farm it (brown Swiss cows) and their parents farmed it and their grandparents. This is the land that Sven and Prunella built their house on when they immigrated from Sweden. This is also the farm that my dad would come to play on as a kid through his teenage years. That scrawny looking pine in the front yard has been struck by lightening several times and has stood there since my great, great grandfather lived there.
This is one of the many roads that look the same in Gowrie but are beautiful to me. Quinn called these the special roads because we would let her get out of her car seat sometimes on these roads because there were no cars and we were driving really slow. It was hard to explain to her that there are not special roads outside of Gowrie (not that we would be traveling on at least)
This is our cousin that my dad would come to stay with in the summers on the farm. He and his brother own the dairy farm.
There were two ferrel cats that Quinn loved. 
This is what Quinn thought of the farm and the cows!
We went to a carnival on the 4Th of July and Quinn loved the rides.
We were part of the parade ~ apparently everyone or almost everyone in Gowrie knows the Telleens so we were the Telleen Family Reunion float and marching kazoo band. Ha ha! It was so funny to march in the parade singing with a kazoo.
This is what Quinn and Asa thought of being in the parade. Oh, and for some reason I could not keep Quinn's shoes on her feet while we were in Iowa and she seemed to be perpetually dirty!
Me with my cousins, sister, kids and the rest of the family riding behind on the hay bail float. 
This picture cracks me up! The old ladies in the back of the truck...the one in the middle is my Grandma Telleen
Asa did have a couple of happy moments in between all of the tiredness. 
His smile melts my heart!
This is Quinn and I on a ride together. She wanted me to ride with her so bad! 
I HATE things that go in circles...they make me sick, but I went on this because Quinn really wanted me to ride with her. I had to stare at her the whole time so I would not get too much motion sickness. Plus I wanted to make sure she didn't let go!
This is Quinn almost falling out of the swing right as we were getting started. Freaked me out!
Sven, thank you for choosing America. Sweden is cool and all but- Oh, you people are probably wondering why his last name is "Anderson" if we are Telleens. Because his son who we are decedents from changed his last name to Telleen so he would "fit in". Funny cause I have never heard that name before. There were tons of Swedes that moved to Gowrie at the same time. 
Here we are at my Grandpa Telleens grave...its been 16 years since was there last.
We were waiting for my dad and cousins to finish at a grocery store so I had Quinn get out so I could take advantage of a cool white wall. She was not amused.
I love her faces!
Quinn talked me in to going on another circular ride...the merry-go-round. I have not seen one of these since I was like, 5 so there was a childish excitement in me that conceited. You cannot tell how fast we were going because Allie had her ISO set at 1/2000 of a second. (For all of you non camera people-that means that it will freeze just about anything) We were going so fast that shortly after this was taken I had to make them stop the merry-go-round cause I was SO sick. I was sick for the rest of the night and could hardly eat dinner!July 7Th
Today we are heading back from Iowa to Indiana. What a fun and exhausting trip this has been. I definitely do not regret going, but it has been the hardest thing I have done in a long time emotionally. If you know me well you know I am not too rigid with the kids schedules...well, this tested even me! I have been dealing with overly tired children for 5 days now and I cannot wait to get to Indiana to get some naps in. As I’ve been complaining about their misbehavior I have had several people comment on how well behaved they have been. HA! That’s a joke…do they seriously think that? I guess they would be blown away by their behavior normally. Allie has wanted to have kids really soon but she has now said it will be at least 10 years! Allie has been a LOT of help! I really miss having Dru around though. I can tell Quinn misses him too-besides the obvious, “Where’s daddy? I want daddy.” Her demeanor is different.
So we are about 4 hours from Indianapolis. I am excited to get there and spend time with my friends, but part of me just wants to go home to be with Dru. I’m exhausted just thinking about being away longer. I will be here in Indiana for at least a week.
So this week I had planned to blog every night before bed about the day but seeing as we went to bed (and the kids went to bed) every night at midnight or later I was not up to reminiscing about the whole day.
I had a good time seeing family. There were over a 100 Telleens at the reunion. Our “original” family moved here from Sweden (Sven and Prunella). They moved to Gowrie, Iowa because they were farmers and Gowrie had the best soil. The dirt there is really black! I thought a lot about LEGACY this week. The decision those two people made in the mid 1800s changed hundreds of people lives. How then will Dru’s life and mine affect those down the line from us three or four generations? We got to go visit the graves of several of our relatives dating back to the late 1800s. We also got to visit the family farms which were really cool to see. Because I grew up all over the world and have never had a hometown it blows my mind to think about living in one place your entire life or even most of it! My dad reminisced about his childhood years when he would play on the farms with his cousins and he said everything looked exactly the same. It’s a city where you don’t have to worry about your children walking to the corner grocery by themselves and can let them play in the huge manicured green yards and fields for hours on end. It is quiet there. My cousin says you can hear the corn grow in the summer when it’s hot.
I will let the pictures above tell our story.
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