One of my favorite pastimes – and something I’ve really missed being in Georgia – is baking.  Sean would say his is cooking.  So as you can imagine, we’ve planned to make and bake our share of food on this American vacation of ours.

After spending the night in Iowa City on Sunday – we were able to see a few friends for about an hour over lunch – we came to Waterloo to hang out with my brother.  It’s been awesome.  Yesterday morning, woken up early by jet lag, I made these Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting.  Yum.

Justin’s been a great host and we both said we could stay here for another week.  However, today we’re headed to my parents’ home in Wall Lake to begin the preparations for the annual Cook Christmas.  Sean, Justin and I are handling most of the food preparation (and, as mentioned above, we’re thrilled) and I can’t wait to see my cousins, aunts, uncles and grammie, as well as spend more time with my parents.

Also, Sean fixed his iPhone (although it can’t send and receive calls, so works more like an iTouch) and has been tweeting and twitpic-ing our vacation here.  It’s an interesting way to document our trip, for sure.