Family Visit 2013

The girls with "Sue."

It seems as though I just blogged about our last vacation! I guess I must be getting lazy nowadays. Or something...

Anyway, our goal was to visit hoards of family and friends, make it to the Minnesota Zoo, and not run ourselves entirely into the ground. Check, check, and mostly check.

We began with three nights at Ms. Allison and Mr. James' house, and introduced ourselves to Coffee, their 11-year-old new dog. He's as tall as Elise standing up, which intimidated her every time she turned around, but Kalina immediately adopted him as her new best friend (and perhaps, at times, vice versa?).  I'm pretty sure he was a highlight of the trip for the 4-year-old. (And a very sweet dog!)

Coffee!

It should be noted that for the first time ever, both girls went to sleep peacefully and slept through the night until normal times in a new location. There might be more travel in our future! (It should also be noted that next time, Elise probably won't be in a pack-and-play, which may elevate the game to a whole new level.)

As it had snowed (yes, in May--a historic record!), and was rainy and cold, all of our outdoor plans with family were scrapped on Saturday, and we had to make new ones. After a little playtime at Ms. Allison's house, we took our well-rested sweeties to Grandpa Tom's hotel pool.

Freshly laid, sweetly
gathered. 

The kids are spoiled by zero-entry pools, so I wondered how this normal pool would be accepted. While Kalina appeared a bit nervous at first, I'd remembered to pack innertubes, so both kids were soon floating happily along with Daddy (Mommy no longer fits into her swimsuit). Kalina soon found her "sea legs," and noticed that she could easily touch the bottom in the deep end--and crept quite a ways away from the stairs. Too bad it was so cold--they were blue and shivering before the fun had officially ended.

That afternoon, after Kalina and I played kittens for a bit in Aunt Nancy's hotel room, we all gathered at the cousins' house for food and fun. I was overjoyed to see my girls and cousin Emma (age 8) bonding over bins of small plastic animals, while I swapped Grandma's recipes with the grownups. Matt managed to catch a fish in the pond in the backyard (despite the weather)--we were all happy!

I like how proud she looks to be
entrusted to carry an egg.

The next day, we headed to the pool again--it was too much fun to pass up. Then, after a quick goodbye lunch with some of the relatives, we met more (Uncle Alan and Aunt Diane) at a really fun farm attraction. We took a tractor ride to a 100-year-old working farm, and learned a lot from the tour guides there. Since we were virtually the only people there (the weather was barely nicer than blah), the girls were allowed to shell corn using a corn sheller, gather tan eggs from the chicken coop (and even carry them over to the house!) and use a stereoscope. Fun!

After several cold, wet days, we finally were able to play outside Monday morning. We went to a local park with Allison, and had a blast just playing. Then, after a stop at our favorite-ever restaurant, it was off to melty Minnesota for some good-quality grandparent time!

Launching a rocket in Iowa!

The first thing on Kalina's mind when she walked in the door was crafting with Grandma. Fortunately, Grandma was prepared with a tulip-making activity. Even better: Elise, for the first time, got to be the first to dig into Grandma's toys. The little girl dashed back and forth to her "own" room, created her own kitten cage behind the couch, and generally enjoyed herself. They heartily dug into tacos for supper (real food!!), then watched as we launched model rockets in the yard and settled snugly into their beds without much protest.

The next day, we were all ready for a rest. But as it looked like this would be the nicest, sunniest day in the near future, we headed to the zoo instead. Without our wagon--but with high hopes for a perfect day. We all found something we liked--I was rather excited to wander through the well-done Russian animal exhibit (look! The signs are in Russian!); the girls loved getting up-close to a leopard and watching the otters, not to mention climbing on all the pretend rocks; the grandparents loved observing their grandkids in the wild; and Matt, in his element, loved it all.

One of the best parts of the zoo was
picking which hands to hold.

We saw a lot, but there was still much more to see by the time the pregnant woman and young kiddos were ready to call it a day. But eager Matt managed to rustle us all through the Minnesota Trail walkway before finally consenting to head for the car. We didn't mind--at least one of use was still little enough to be carried much of the way. Elise napped on the way home and Kalina got a cookie.

Speaking of cookies, one of my favorite things about the trip was that with Elise older and not in desperate need of a daily nap, and being hundreds of miles away from my nutritiously stocked pantry and refrigerator, I decided that Mommy was on vacation, too. I won't say I didn't do my best to get my kids healthy meals and limit the flow of sweets, not to mention get the a survivable amount of sleep--but I did lower my standards. Amazingly, we all survived!

They will probably never be this close
to a leopard again. 

The boys had a fishing outing planned for the next day, and the girls finally got a little downtime. Which meant craft time! Craft, craft, craft! We pulled out some new stencils that neither Grandma nor I thought would be a hit (good reviews, but a little inferior in person, we thought?) and Kalina, to our amazement, was in her element. They appealed to her perfectionist nature, allowing her to create as flawlessly as Mommy (or more so--and by the way, while I'm no artist whatsoever, I seem to be Kalina's gold standard). She was an immediate pro--and the electronic pencil sharpener was off and running as she wore down colored pencils and needed them sharpened up again (we bought our own electronic pencil sharpener at Target upon returning home).

The statues were almost as
fun as the live animals!

After that, we did some more crafts, went to the park, had an indoor picnic, and then crafted again after downtime. Craft, craft, craft. Meanwhile, Daddy and Grandpa managed to catch some fish!

Upon his return, Matt led the kids and me on a nature hike through the woods. We found a cool feather, but we also had to hack our way through lots of bush. Elise was nervous about the venture (as was Mommy, honestly), but found the courage she needed. Kalina, however, forged ahead, helped hold branches back for Mommy and Elise, and even led Elise the final few steps before breaking out of the woods and back into Grandma and Grandpa's yard. She rivaled only Daddy in her trooper status and foresting abilities.

Dinosaurs!

The next day, following the girls' avid interest in dinosaurs, we visited the science museum. What a sight! We were greeted by a full-size pteranodon skeleton over our heads, and found more amazing specimens inside the exhibit. And we also found plenty of other play opportunities--including a museum-quality spirograph!

Then we did more crafts.

And the next day, it was time to leave for the final leg of our trip. By this time, Grandma had passed a moratorium on crafts so we spent part of the morning playing a sweet board game (even Elise could join in!) and running around outside a bit.

The girls and the tulips!

By this time, a 5-hour drive was a piece of cake (actually, all 20 hours of driving between locations went marvelously well, except for when I got tired of being questioned as to when we'd have another "trip treat."). We arrived at our friends' house in time for a little outdoor playtime, and managed to see some lovely tulips in bloom after dinner. For about 20 minutes; then all five kids started crashing and we rushed them home to bed. (The grownups enjoyed playing games and chatting probably a little too far into the night!)

Our family with the tulips!

In the morning, while we had all rested, none of us were actually well-rested. That, combined with the massive wind that kept us from playing outside, sent us back on the road a little bit earlier than planned. We arrived home mid-afternoon, and were all glad to get here--I still haven't heard any, "But I wish we were still on vacation!" yet.

We do, however, still hear a lot of, "That was a lot of fun!"

Kalina passed some of the
time reading to Lisa
(not "Lamby" anymore!).
Yes, really reading!