Keeping Up With the Isaacsons: Annual Trip to CR

Finally, the last post to get me caught up! For the previous two years, the girls and I have spent a week visiting my mom and Dave in Cedar Rapids at the beginning of November. So it seems we're making this a tradition, at least until the girls are both in school, then we'll have to see. After the excitement of Halloween and visiting Knox, we took the opportunity to relax a bit on Sunday. Although, we did venture to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in the afternoon to see Mary GrandPre, the illustrator for the American edition Harry Potter books. She had an exhibit up at the museum and did a book signing. We hauled my first edition hardcovers there to have her sign them. Not that I'll sell them, but some of those books are going for $250 without the signature! So someday, those could be worth quite a bit of money, especially because they are already coming out with 10th anniversary editions of the first book.

Two things to notice in the above photo of me (sorry, my stepdad cut my head off when he took the photo). :-) First, I have some fun new glasses! It's been six years since I've had a new pair and boy did I need a new pair. I also got scolded by the eye doctor for wearing my contacts too much so you may see my new glasses popping up more often in photos now. The second thing to notice is that I'm in SHORT sleeves on November 2nd. Yes, for several days in Cedar Rapids it was 65-70 degrees and sunny! That's unheard of! At night, it was like getting off the plane in Orlando in December. I was just flabbergasted by it. Thank you, global warming. Of course, I had to drive through a snowstorm to get home just 5 days after this photo was taken.

The girls and I enjoyed our visit to Cedar Rapids. We did some shopping (even got some Christmas shopping done!), we ate great food cooked by my mom. I visited with my friend Molly who I hadn't seen in a year! It was great to catch up with her. The girls were loving the nice weather. We went and played at the playground at my old grade school down the street and Daniels Park nearby. The girls "tortured" the cat. Really they just played with Lucy, hide and seek was a favorite. The cat would run away and hide and the girls would go all over the whole house to find her again. My mom says Lucy sleeps for two days straight after our visits. :-)

But perhaps the most fun thing for the girls: the itty bitty hill in my mom's backyard. My mom bought a wagon at a garage sale this summer and the girls decided to go play outside one afternoon. All on their own, they pulled the wagon out, Lily got in and Ella pushed her down the hill. They had a grand old time doing this over and over again and taking turns. They tried going together. My mom and I were in hysterics watching them from the kitchen window.