Fargo Schmargo (1500 miles in 4 days)

We spent our holiday weekend mainly in the car. John's family had a family reunion planned in Fargo, ND. So, we hopped into the car on Thursday and drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Rochester to spend the night. On Friday we got up and did it again (the riding in the car thing) and made it to Fargo just in time to check into the Howard Johnson hotel (I'm not recommending this one, if you're interested in why we can talk later) and put William down for a nap. Friday afternoon we met up with the family to play at the park, visit, have taco's for dinner and play some baseball. The excitement of the day caught up with William and I decided to take him back to the hotel while John stayed to visit. I was feeling very sorry for myself sitting on the tub in our hotel room waiting for William to fall asleep because we were missing the fireworks and 4th of July celebration. One of the things I've always been looking forward to is having kids and bringing them out to watch the fireworks and sharing the evening with our family. The red/white/blue outfits, the snacks, the anticipation, the music, the bugs, the heat, the glowy necklaces that only work for 3 hours. THAT is the fourth of July I've been dreaming about for years. However, when I really thought about the last few years, fireworks have NEVER been our priority. We've always chosen to use our vacation time for other stuff than sitting and watching the fireworks and listening to music. Here is an example:

2001: Watched fireworks with family/friends in Rochester
2002: Camped at Sinclair Island, WA. Fireworks illegal
2003: Watched fireworks by the river in St Charles, MO
2004:Camped with friends in Canada (What? They don't celebrate the US Independance Day? Obviously, no fireworks)
2005: Watched fireworks at the end of our driveway with the neighbors. And a beer.
2006: Isle Royal, MI (no fireworks because it is a national park)
2007:Sleeping in Grand Forks, ND

2008: Hotel room in Fargo, ND

2009: Watching fireworks as a family, somewhere

In the end I realized that I needed to get over myself and I enjoyed some quiet time to myself uncomfortablly seated in the bathroom tub. The other thing I realized is now that we have a kid, it must be time to make some old fashioned 4th of July plans we can enjoy as a family outside of riding in a car.

I love sign pictures! This parking space in Fargo was saved just for me!
Jim, Mike, and Ben playing baseball
William doing his best to get in the middle of the game. Kendra and Becca are playing the field while my job was to make sure he didn't get in the way or hurt.

Those are almost ALL of the pictures we took while we were in Fargo! Can you believe it? The rest of Friday and Saturday we focused on keeping our kid out of trouble and took turns visiting with family. While I'm talking about Fargo, I need to recognize the real rock stars that made our trip awesome: Jim, Kendra, Ben, Becca, and Mike. They were awesome! They included William in all of their games, played gently with him, helped him realize that he liked strawberries again, swam in the pool with him, let him nap in their hotel room and let him take a bath in their hotel bathroom before we left! They were AMAZING - thank you guys! It would have been T-O-U-G-H without you!

Saturday morning we checked out of the hotel and spent most of the day with family playing at the park. Saturday evening, we headed back to Rochester for the night. We got a late start, which means we arrived at Rochester close to 1am. None of us were looking forwad to hopping back in the car again to finish the trip back to St Louis. With a little arm twisting we were convinced to stay another day to take a break from driving and running around. An added bonus was the excellent steak dinner, cool temperatures and trip to the park with Grandpa and Grandma.

No, we don't let him drive. But, he'd like to!
Weeeeeeeee! Slide and swing were two new words on Saturday. Picture taken on Sunday.

Even though the extra day was wonderful, we still had to get back in the car early on Monday morning and drive back home bringing our trip mileage to right around 1500 miles total. It was NOT wonderful driving, but it did feel good to be back home again. Now we just have to figure out how to do it all over again in another two weeks! (Yep, you read it right. I'm going back in 2 weeks for a reunion my Grandma is planning. Should be a lot of fun, but I can't say I'm looking forward to the driving part!)

More sliding! He is getting brave by going sitting up and by letting himself go faster down the slide now...and every time he says: "Weeee!"
More sliding
John plays on the balance beam - check out the calf muscles! We both took a turn trying to walk across the wobbly balance beam and afterwards agreed that one of the best parts about having kids is that YOU can play at the park without anyone thinking you are a freak.

Probably the area he spent the most time in: driving the truck.
Big boy blue eyes

Oh no! Our kid can drive! William would not cooperate for this picture!