Minnesota- Beginning of the Trip and Time in Woodbury

Mike dropped the kids and I off for our solo flight to Minnesota and I was pretty nervous for the flight.  We were up early and on the road and I didn’t know how it would be traveling with Elin much more active.  Thankfully they were both very well behaved, Elin slept 2 of the 3.5 hours and T read books, played games and watched his movie. 

When the flight touched down Thomas and Elin started hamming it up with the people around us.  This is fairly typical for them so I didn’t think much of it until we really needed them off the plane.  While in the bathroom Thomas had his fingers shut in the door jam.  It took a few seconds for me to figure out his screams and start pushing back on the door, as the woman who was on the other side continued to try to get her door to shut.  She felt horrible and Thomas was wailing.  The nice people we had been talking to on the airplane were in the bathroom at the time and they helped me get Elin buckled in and went for ice.  All I could think about was getting my exhausted and hurt little buddy, Elin and myself to Grandma Kathy who was waiting by baggage claim.  We made it, Nana helped to save the day and Thomas started to feel better.  As soon as he was in his car seat he was fast asleep and we were on our way to Nana’s house.

Once there we had dinner with the family and were able to decompress from a long day of travel.  After dinner Thomas and Grandpa headed over to the park for a bike ride.  Elin, Nana and I were shortly behind on a walk.

Tuesday we got up and spent the day chilling around Nana and Grandpa’s house.  Thomas and Nana had a special outting to the toy store while Elin slept at home.  After they got back we took Nana to the park and Thomas helped keep her safe from all the alligators.  When Bampa got home from work he and the little guy did some work and playing outside. 

Wednesday
We were up and out the door to Wild Rumpus books store.  After having a lot of fun looking at the books, seeing the animals, and chatting with the other kids in the store we were off to lunch with Nana Banana.  Nana Banana loved watching the kiddos play and dance for her.  After that we stopped at Auntie Katie’s house before heading back to the Laschen’s to have dinner with Auntie Molly and Uncle Troy.  Kathy was nice enough to host them and made us all dinner.  After dinner we headed to the park where the kiddos got their Aunty/Uncle fix and burned some energy.  As always it was much too short of a visit with them. 
On Thursday Meghan and her little 3 week old baby Millie came over for a morning date.  It was fun to snuggle a brand new babe again and I have to say I was trying to figure out if a 3rd baby would work in our world.   After Meghan and Millie left, we headed out for a bike ride/walk with Nana before meeting Auntie Mo for lunch.  Thomas was a little tired and slept through our whole lunch.  After lunch we went to play with Ben and Hallie at their house before going to see Uncle Don play volleyball and walk around Lake Calhoun. 

On Friday, Tiff and and took the kiddos to the aquarium and for lunch at the rain forest café.  After lots of fun with Ben and Hallie my kiddos were exhausted and slept the whole way home.  Friday night we had dinner with Nana and Papa and then Thomas built a fire with Papa.  It was a nice night by the fire and we all got to enjoy some s’mores.

Saturday we went to the Woodbury café for breakfast and then the boys had yard work and a trip to the dump to make.  We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool playing.  Elin played so hard that she ended up falling asleep during lunch, while in her high chair.   That night we had dinner and John, Meghan and Baby Millie came back over to enjoy the fire. 

*I don’t know how or what happened, but some how I am missing most of my iPhone photos.  I deleted them from my phone thinking I had copied them and either I didn’t or it didn’t work.  I’m super bummed.  Thankfully, I had been messaging a bunch of pictures to Mike so he could be part of the team while he, Stella and the Kitties held down the Seattle home front.