Our trip to MN

Well, Matt's in China again, so the kids and I decided to go back to Minnesota (same thing we did the last time he was in China). It was my first time traveling with them myself, and I was understandably nervous about the plane ride, but the kids did great!! On the plane ride out there they were no problem at all. We had our snacks and movies and there were no problems. The ride home was another story, but more on that later.
We stayed with Grandma Huber, but we spent a long weekend with my Aunt & Uncle and Cousins at their house. Other family members came up for the weekend too, and we all had a great time!
Keegan had a blast hanging out with everybody, and playing outside. I lugged his snow gear all the way out there, and there wasn't much snow! But the snow pants and boots did a good job of keeping the mud off of him. :-)

Cadence enjoyed the attention from everybody, and became quick friends with Great Aunt Jill.

A fun place to visit is Lark Toys in Kellog, MN. It is the "largest independent specialty toy store in the US." It was started by a wood-carver, who eventually made by hand (with help) a carousel. We rode on it a few times.

Keegan loved the dragon.

Great Grandma got in on the action too!

Cadence got to share some ice cream, and enjoy some time with Great Aunt Mary.

Love this picture!

Great Uncle Bob had a lot of fun with Cadence. They practiced their acrobatics ...

...and I quickly started calling him the "baby whisperer" because he could get her to calm down instantly.

Here is Keegan and cousin Peter. (Tess, I didn't get a single picture of you!!!)

Cadence and Great Grandma sharing a snack.

So, my cousin Zack's girlfriend (Jen), is a spinner. She hand dyes and then hand spins yarn to sell. She brought some work along with her and we were all mesmerized watching her work.

Jen even attempted to teach the cousins how to spin. This is what we came up with ... nothing close to what she can do.

But she taught Zack how to knit and me how to crochet! That was successful!

Another fun activity that was going on was maple syrup! Bill and Peter have started collecting maple sap (picture on the left) and that weekend they started boiling it down to syrup. We didn't get to try any because the ratio of sap to syrup is like 60:1!! That will take a lot of boiling!

A last minute change in plans allowed us to spend our last night at my Grandma Loves house.
We went to a buffet dinner so the kids needed some hosing off after eating. Grandma has lived in the same house since before my mom was born ... so I used to bathe in that same tub! But she has probably gotten a newer one since my mom bathed in there ... maybe not.

We finally go our snow, and it came strong and hard, unfortunately it was on the day that we were leaving! Why?!?! Keegan really enjoyed playing in it, and eating it, but it delayed our plane two hours!! Yuck!

Yum!

Like I said, the snow delayed our plane. We were supposed to leave around 4:30 and instead took off at 7:00. I had only packed snacks for our trip, and the airport literally was running out of good food because of the other stranded travelers, so we were on the plane at dinner time and bedtime and all the kids had were animal crackers, fruit snacks, jelly beans and airline pretzels. We had already watched our movies and the kids were tired, so understandably they were more fussy and squirmy, but still not to the point that I can really complain.
We had a really great trip, and were so lucky to see so many family members in one trip. We are happy to be home, but even happier that Matt will be home soon!