BACK TO IOWA (Part V)

On May 1st, it was time to head back to Iowa. We had spent the night at Grandma Parker's. That morning, Grandma got up and fixed us one of my favorite meals of all time, biscuits and gravy!!! I tried to watch carefully while Grandma made it so that I could make it when I got home. It was so delicious!!! We decided to take a "Four Generations Picture" before we left. The angle wasn't the best, but it was great to get the picture.





We stopped off at Aunt Lana and Uncle Wayne's house for one more goodbye. I love this picture because everyone looks so happy! It looks like Aunt Lana just told Vaughn a joke too!











Aunt Lana had asked us to stop by, and I had assumed it was because she wanted to say goodbye. But she brought out this beautiful little doll and gave it to me! I was totally shocked! I had always wanted a doll like this, but I had only ever seen very expensive ones in the stores. I'm not going to even try to guess how much this must have cost Aunt Lana. And I am very grateful to her for it!!! Thanks Aunt Lana!!!!!













Here's a shot of Momma and Aunt Lana. I love this picture!





After saying goodbye to everyone, we decided to go and see Grandpa Pennington's grave sight. This really meant a lot to me because I was living out here in Utah when Grandpa died, and I wasn't able to travel to Arkansas to see him before he died. I was still single and my parents didn't think it would be a good idea for me to drive across the country alone. So it was nice to finally be able to really say goodbye and see where Grandpa had been laid to rest.

Now here I will explain that on the way home that night, Vaughn got sick. He had been extremely irritable because he was getting over an ear infection. We had just made a stop at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. I had just given Vaughn some milk, and then some grape juice. I guess the combination in his little tummy wasn't great, because all of a sudden he let out this high-pitched scream, and then BLEW CHUNKS ALL OVER THE BACK OF THE VAN!!!!!! I pulled over to the side of the freeway as quickly as I could, and when I opened the door, I just stood there in shock. The throw-up was everywhere. Momma had just gotten in back with Vaughn to help him calm down, and luckily she had a towel. She had caught a lot of it in the towel, but it still had gone everywhere.

We took Vaughn out of the car seat and stripped him down on the side of the road. We had water in the car and Momma had soap and towels, so we bathed him right there. We cleaned out the van as best we could, including his car seat. We must have all looked ridiculous on the side of the freeway. We got Vaughn dressed in new clothes, put a towel over his seat, and then made for the nearest Wal-Mart. It must have taken us close to an hour to get everything cleaned up!

Momma suggested we go to Wal-Mart and get more water, soap, paper towels, disinfectant spray, and anything else we thought we would need. By the time we were done, it was almost dinner time. So we stopped at Pizza Hut and ordered pizza. We called Poopa from there and told him what had happened. He told us not to bother driving to get home that night. He told us to stop at a hotel. So we ate dinner and then set out to find a hotel.

We stopped that night outside of Kansas City and found a run-down old joint that was in the middle of renovations. All I'll say about the place is that I wouldn't stay there again. We were so tired and so desperate! I'm just glad there were locks on the doors!

I obviously didn't take any pictures of any of this because there was too much going on, and I was doing all the driving. So I'll leave it at this and finish our trip home with the next entry.

Love, Lisa