Thanksgiving 2016 at the Farm in Iowa

Thanksgiving 2016 at the Farm in Iowa

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for November 27, 2016

On Wednesday night, we hopped in the car and drove to Iowa to visit Miss Sheri's family for Thanksgiving.  There was a rumored blizzard that was going to cause us possible problems, but the snow we received was relatively minor.

We love spending time with Grandmas Leona.  Lots of puzzles get completed when we are together.

Grandma lives on a farm in northwest Iowa and there's not much around at all.  It's always a time of peace and solitude for me.  Mainly because Grandma doesn't have internet access, cable TV, or satellite.  So I usually get a lot of reading done on these trips.

Blue and Sunny love going to the farm.  They can run as far as they want in any direction!

The only problem is that I have to keep a constant eye on them as they are always finding something interesting to put in their mouths and eat.  Lucky for Sunny and for me, it was only snow this time.

We like walking down the gravel roads also because there's seldom any traffic.  We occasionally have to dodge pickup trucks and tractors, but these guys are ready for that challenge.

Sometimes when I'm walking around the farm, I find myself really questioning my manhood.

Other times I just stare at the fields and wonder exactly what might be crawling around in that deep grass out there.

I try to drag the boys outside with me.  It's usually pretty easy since they don't have internet access either.

We tried taking pictures of Uncle Jerry's cows, but they had no interest in standing around and posing.

Sunny remembers a day when he wasn't allowed out of the back room when we visited Grandma's house.  Now the new puppy gets to sit on the couch and pose for pictures.  Things are so much easier for kids these days!

Thanksgiving dinner was awesome as usual and we had a wonderful time each night playing games and reminiscing with Grandma Leona, Uncle Jerry, Aunt Laura, and cousins Karli and Joey.  We don't get to see them all enough, but always have fun when we are together.

We also had the opportunity to connect with my step-sister, Martha Williams.  She lives in nearby Canton, South Dakota.  We went out and had burgers at Paul's Place and caught up on old times.  It was nice seeing Martha again!