Iowa Journey

We all arrived in Iowa last Sunday. We had dinner at the Amana Colonies. Ainsley at one point in the trip said her favorite place was Iowa. It is very special to our family!

Dinner time-laughing with Grammie!

Dad and Vicki! Vicki had us all laughing because of her love of the strawberry jam! We may have ordered three cups that night!

A quick run to Lowes for some tools!

Ryan changed out my dad's hard drive while we were there-thankfully Ryan is tech savvy!

Tuesday morning we dropped by campus to say hi to some friends!

Time for doctors apts! We started off with a hearing test. Good new-no additional loss! The test was consistent with the greater loss that we started to see this spring.

Dr. Shea! One of our absolute favorites!! She got Ainsley's hearing aids all cleaned up with new tubes. We miss her so much! If you need an audiologist in Iowa-Dr. Shea is the best!!

In the afternoon we went to see Dr. Smith. Thankfully Ains had her grandparents to keep her entertained while we waited :)!

We saw Dr. Smith and he confirmed that she still has a ruptured ear drum but that at this time he didn't recommend repairing it. He said he wanted to see her in 9 months. He also offered to look at her genetic test results in September to help us figure out the reason for the greater loss.

We celebrated the good news with some cupcakes! Ains wanted a mint one! All they had was mocha mint but she loved it!

Ains and Papa Bob!

Night time bubble run!

And popcorn after swimming!

Sleepy girl!

Tuesday morning everyone hit the road! We are so lucky and thankful to have such supportive parents! This trip to Iowa was stressful but they made it a bit brighter for us and we had some great memories!

We headed to Des Monies, IA. I held Ainsley's hand as much as I could since I wouldn't see her for a few days.

After lunch on Tuesday Ains and I had a very sweet moment. I was saying goodbye to her because I had to stay in Iowa and fly out the next day to NC for work. I started crying and was telling her how much I loved her and she said "don't worry mom". Melt my heart.

My view from the plane-Ains is right Iowa IS special.

Ryan's dad drove back with Ainsley and Ryan to help with the driving-we were very thankful for his help!