Visiting extended Iowa family

When I saw our road trip to South Dakota would take us through Iowa, I immediately asked my Uncle Dean if his family lived near our route. Now I was getting excited when sister Kathy said she would have us over and then it turned out that practically the entire Ketelsen clan met at Happy Joe's for pizzas. We were floored and really thrilled!
Hayes and Maya immediately hit it off and jabbered through the entire dinner.
And here is some of our fare - actually the only bit that I partook of because it was so flippin' good! A taco pizza. Really, Alex must add this to his pizza repertroir.
We stayed at Kathy's house and since she had to be at work at 6 a.m., we sort of "helped" her husband Richard with farm chores. That just means we offered to help and asked a bunch of dumb questions about cows and farming.
My grandmother is scared of cows. She just would've died at Richard and Kathy's! Alex took the kids out to see the moms and babies. I reminded Hayes that cows can't see beyond 60 degrees in any direction. They can't even see their feet! And ... they are wary of humans. Well, duh!

Richard showed us the corn crib. I've never seen one except in the movies. Oooo.
Then he took us over to his family farm where he houses all the tractors and other large equipment. He has this 1940 John Deere that you have to crank to start. Look how excited all of us were to sit on this thing!
Then we went to see the combine and other big tractors. We were very jealous since our tractor just sits in the yard and has been totally uncooperative this year. Chooj was happy to sit up in the combine since his favorite movie is "Cars" and this combine is the character Frank that comes out and chases Lightning and Mater for tractor tipping.
Definately a highlight of our road trip!