My mom and I jaunted up to her hometown in North Dakota with my trio to visit family. It was a great time. The car ride was long. The kids were.....well, kids. Pictures are more fun than rambling posts so here you go...
We did the trip there and back in two days instead of the customary one long (very long) day. The first day we made great time. Grandma treated the kids to a hotel with a water park area and they swam for almost two hours! Even Mia splashed around, although she was almost too tired to care.
Natalee got really brave, jumping in the "big" pool with her puddle jumper on!
We got to ND at around noon on Friday and visited with my grandma for the afternoon, before going out to my uncles' farms. The weekend was spent catching up, having fun, and enjoying the company of family whom we don't see often enough!
Garden fresh carrot. Natalee loved the garden!
My Grandma Mary. Ameliya is her second to youngest great grandchild.
Uncle Rich grows the best teethers!!!
Xavier loved the grilled eggplant! (and Gma Mary's zucchini muffins)
Xavier also talked Uncle Rich's leg off this weekend.
No one makes potato salad like Grandma!
Playing Sorry with Aunt Renae!
It was warm in ND, which is rare!
We learned a new game - even Natalee got to play! She was one of the last 2 in the game and got to go head to head with Great Grandma!
Mia practiced her sitting and being cute!
ring sling as a seat belt!
We did a little school work at the farm and at Gma Mary's on Monday & Tuesday. Not everything we took got done but a nice chunk of it!
Uncle Rich has a rock pile!
The favorite activity - doing chores with Aunt Val! She has geese, ducks, chickens, kitties, dogs (and horses but they were in the pasture):
They LOVED her chicken coop!
^ He's counting eggs for her. ^
Ameliya was cautious around the new men she met. She finally sat with Uncle Brad for awhile but poor Uncle Rich never could win her over.
Ameliya also got *turned on* to table food while we were there. Not because of anything in particular that anyone did, just because she decided to take notice of all the goodness I guess. She particularly liked gnawing the rib bones!
^^We took away her rib bone. She got so very very offended, even though her tummy was full of milk!
Gave it back for one more nibble...
& she held on for dear life!
Saying good-bye is always hard.
I made sure to take pictures with the kids and their great aunts and uncles and great grandma to put in a memory book. I want them to never forget this special time they had and know that they have people near and far that love them this much.
I wish I'd gotten a pic with Xavier and Aunt Renae. They had a special weekend long joke running of him being the chicken nugget and her being the french fry. She's a "mom of boys" and handles all the boyishness that sometimes makes me crazy with such grace and ease!
On the way home we again stopped at a hotel with a pool. After a buffet supper we decided to let the kids swim and all was well until Natalee threw up EVERYTHING from her buffet in the pool and on the floor. sigh. A definite end to a fun vacation.
I can never thank my mom enough for thinking to ask us along and our ND family for making us feel so welcome and loving on my wild bunch like they did. Also a big squeeze to my hubby who said "go and have a good time" even though I know he was lonesome at home without us. We can't wait to see everyone again soon.
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