Oh boy what a fun few days I had visiting a good friend in McGregor, Iowa.  We’ve been trying to coordinate this trip for weeks now and something has always come up, and then one day something different happened.  I was reading an article on “Six tips from your future self” that I came across on facebook and last of these wise informational tidbits said -

6. Passing up opportunities. The elders much more strongly regret things they didn’t do than what they did. As a 73-year-old told me: “The lesson I learned is that it really pays to say yes unless you’ve got a really solid reason to say no. Life is an adventure, but to take advantage of it, you have to say yes to things.”

I called up my friend right away and said hey I know this is totally on a whim and crazy but how about I come out tomorrow morning? 

Seriously Shannon and her family are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, her boys are an absolute riot (I joked that I was going to have a 6-pack by the time I left because I couldn’t stop laughing).  The second morning I set my alarm for 7am and when it went off I tossed it aside, thinking how much better sleeping until 9 or 10 sounded.. a minute later I heard snickering and whispering at the door teehehehheeee is she sleeping? tehhehehe i can see her! teteeteehhheehehe I turned over to see them standing in the door.  One of them asked “Suzy do you want me to turn the light on?”

(me) “Ummm, no -”

(light turns on, boys start laughing and screaming, I sit straight up and rub my eyes) 

“Woow you have really bad hair”

“Yes I’m always a little scary looking in the morning” and then I pull myself out of bed, laughing that this must be one of those crazy parenthood moments.  You know, those things that drive you bonkers but then when your kids go off to college you miss them like crazy.  I don’t particularly like getting forced out of bed at 7am when I don’t have to be up that early but for some reason it felt really good being woken up by those loud, wild, and goofy boys

A few highlights of the trip included an ugly Christmas sweater party, a TrueBlood season 4 marathon  (yep we’re totally obsessed), snuggling with their part human-part dog Tess (she is seriously the most loving and affectionate dog I’ve ever met), the white chocolate lattes Shannon’s husband Wyatt made me every morning, a visit from baby Emmett’s family, watching the boys showoff their marshmallow shooters, being able to wave to every person we drove by (reminds me of my time in Harbor Springs, I just love that about small towns), and an impromptu family/pregnancy session since baby Dodd #3 is due in less than a month.  Though I must be honest that it was one of the funniest afternoons ever lol  I’ll spare you the craziness that happened in between but I can show you the end result.  Sometimes kids just want to run and play so if that’s the case, I just throw all plans to the wind and try to keep up with my camera.  I kind of prefer it that way anyhow

(on a side note, can you flippin’ believe that I took these pictures on the third to last day of the year?!  I know I can’t)

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Also I find a sweet irony in the photos below since Willem (below) said to me when I first met him,

“Suzy why are you here?” 

“Well, I’m here to hang out with your mom and we’re gonna take some pictures and -”

“Oh no… I hope you’re not doing them for our family.” 

Moms are really good at wiping dirt off your pants

And then the next morning, despite gloomy weather and a migraine, we took a few portraits in Shannon’s studio right before I left for home

Can’t wait to meet baby Dodd #3 soon!!