North Dakota Adventure: Tuttle

We left Grand Forks on Friday the 6th for Tuttle. We had been looking for a reason to go and visit the Tuttle relatives this summer and Jim and Susie Heidt's 40th wedding anniversary was the perfect occasion to see everyone. We had a nice drive to get to Carl and Anita's house where we stayed. They were great hosts!

First we stopped at the Tuttle cemetery to see Grandma Heidt. It was nice to see the stone marker and talk a little bit about Grandma with William. He was a good boy and did not spit up on her, although Grandpa said she would understand if William did. As part of a separate project, we took pictures of about a third of the stones in the cemetery for some genealogy work Grandpa Heidt wants to do later on.

After leaving the cemetery, we drove down the street to Carl and Anita's home. We got to visit for awhile and helped to make a sign for the back of the wedding buggy ("Just Married 40 Years) before we got ready and went to see Jim and Susie renew their wedding vows. Jim and Susie had a very sweet service to renew their vows. Their 12 grandchildren were the attendants! It was perfect and emotional. After the service, we walked down to the "Blue Hall" (it is blue on the outside) for dinner. During dinner was a wonderful time to talk with some relatives we knew and meet some relatives we didn't know. We were sad we had to leave on the early side as William hadn't really had a nap or time to play on the floor during the day. He was getting restless and tired, so we took him back to Carl and Anita's house. When everyone came home later in the evening, we got to enjoy some great music Carl had recorded at a local variety show including himself. We were sure impressed with his harmonica skills!

On Saturday, we drove to Bismarck to see John's Uncle Earl and Aunt Violet. We had a nice visit with them and then had lunch at Perkins. We enjoyed lunch very much as we don't get Perkins in St Louis. After lunch, we drove to the cemetery to see where John's Uncle Wilbert and Aunt Ardella are buried. It nice to see the cemetery after hearing so much about it. It was time to hit the road again and we drove back out to the Tuttle area to have dinner with John's Uncle Charles and Aunt Dorothy. The last time we were at their house was after Mom's funeral, so it was nice to be there with happier circumstances. John's Uncle Harry and Aunt Lorene (hey! dad, I think we spelled her name wrong!) joined us. It was nice to visit and the food was amazing as always. I think John and I gained about twenty pound each in the last week! Back to the Y next week!

We left Tuttle on Sunday the 8th for Rochester. This was our longest day of driving yet. We hit several areas of heavy traffic and then a big rainstorm in the cities. Those two things added at least an hour to our drive time. Yuck. William was very well behaved and discovered that he could see different things out of his window. His favorite thing to look at out his window: Trucks. All in all we had a very nice trip and got to see a lot of family. And we ate way to much. But, we had a great time!

Smiles with Mommy!

William and his Grandma Heidt

William and his Grandma Heidt

Our family with William's Grandma Heidt

John's Uncle Carl and the buggy he built!

John's Aunt Anita had a beautiful flower garden!

Grandpa and John's Uncle Jim with William at the anniversary party

Mommy and William all dressed up


Grandpa Heidt, John, William with Aunt Violet and Uncle Earl

John's Uncle Wilbert and Aunt Ardella

William and 2 Great Aunts: Lorene and Dorothy

John's Uncle Charles and Aunt Dorothy and William

John's Aunt Lorene and Uncle Harry with William

Aunt Anita, William and Uncle Carl

Sleepy Baby boy!

PS If you are reading this and you know John's dad: ask him about the sheep. The story is worth it.

Grand Forks

We had a wonderful time in Grand Forks. Our family plus Grandpa Heidt enjoyed the hospitality of the McGarry Motel for two great nights. William was a trooper with the long drive and was very well behaved with the exception of at night. He slept through the night once when we were in Grand Forks. Bad boy. He succeeded in charming everyone with his smiles, giggles and sunny attitude (no lie! Ask anyone who was there!) He even impressed us with sleeping through the fire works on the the 4th.

William had a lot of important firsts in Grand Forks. It was his first time in North Dakota, his first time at his great Grandparents' houses, his first time eating at La Capana, his first visit to Ben Franklin Park and his first night in the train bedroom. While we were at the park, William discovered that cars are fascinating to watch. He wouldn't look at the camera or anyone else if there was a car driving by. We had to get a little creative in order to get some pictures!

We also enjoyed seeing Grand Forks with Grandpa Heidt. Grandpa Heidt hasn't been back to Grand Forks since his wild college days (okay, I'm making up the wild part). It was fun to look at the University and visit places where he lived when he was going to school and with Grandma Heidt.

So happy to be out of the car!

My new favorite thing! Standing and practicing walking!

Can we convert TA?

William's second time at La Capana (we forgot our camera the first time). This is a restaurant Mommy's been eating at since she was a baby!


At the Wennersten's

At the McGarry's


Ben Franklin Park (AKA Wobbly Park)

Swinging

Our beautiful horse! and William looking at cars!

Here we are! or Rochester Part I

We are finally back from our adventure into North Dakota and I have lots of stories to tell you. We really need to catch you up! The best place to start is at the beginning, so I'm going to divide up all the fun stuff into a few different posts with pictures.

We arrived in Rochester on June 29th and enjoyed spending time with both the grandpas and grandma. We also had time to visit Grandma at work and spend some time with Aunt Kaye, Scott, and Great Grandparents Wennersten. Valentinos twice, cards were played each night and gallons of ice cream was consumed. A good time was had by all.

We found out that William is starting to notice where he falls asleep as he woke up several times during the night the first few days we were in town. In total, he has slept through the night twice in the 10 days we have been gone. We also found out that he likes to play kickball with he tigger ball with a little help. He is also learning that it is lots of fun to be places where you are not supposed to this week. He is getting quicker with his scooting! He sat in a restaurant high chair for the first time on Friday. He was really good on Friday, but we have found since then he is better off sitting with one of us as he has learned arching his back will push him out of the seat and create major panic among the parents. He also got to use his fresh food feeder to eat some ice for the first time on July 2nd. He enjoyed this a lot as we suspect tooth #3 may be coming in.

Playing soccer with Grandpa and Aunt Kaye

Reading books with Godmother Aunt Kaye

There you have it. Rochester Part I. Is it witty and exciting? No. Well written and grammatically correct? No. But, it does sum it up. Yes it does.

Getting Ready to Head Out

We are getting ready to head out on our great North Dakota adventure! William has been a bit crabby lately. We suspect that he's teething again because he's doing his "old man" impression, and putting your finger on his upper gum soothes him from a crying fit. Lucky us, and lucky Grandpa Heidt, who will be joining us in our travels. We'll see in a few days if he wants to take another trip with us. :)

We'll load up our photos when we return to Rochester next week!

Good night,
The Heidts

We've Arrived!

Well, we arrived in Rochester after the trip up from St Louis. All is well, although William decided he didn't want to take the bottle anymore. Keeping us on our toes. We are now in a rip-roaring game of Hearts with Great-Grandpa Budd, Great-Grandma Nona, Grandpa Kevin, Kaye, and Scott.

Good night!
The Heidts

5 Months Old!

Today William is 5 months old! We celebrated this morning with one of Mom's photo studio sessions. Although I feel my skill in capturing him is improving, he is becoming a more difficult subject. He kept wanting to crawl away! I had to chase him back to the backdrop many times. After our studio session, I was pulling laundry out of the dryer and became concerned because I couldn't hear the wipes anymore. (William always goes for the plastic wipes bag when I walk out of the room). I went back to check on him and found he had scooted around the coffee table and was halfway under the couch. An hour later, I left him happily playing in the middle of the living room floor and stepped out to chase a cat. When I came back, he had scooted himself again to the fireplace and was attempting to play with the CD player. Sadly, the time for childproofing is here.

Rice cereal continues well. William is getting much better and eating the cereal and not throwing it around. We had a minor issue with getting the cereal to complete its path through to the other end yesterday. Today, we...ummm....pushed that on through. Quite messily. The nurse suggested using prune juice to help things along if we continue to have trouble. We'll see.

My favorite picture from today...


Or is this my favorite?


Laughing


Trying to crawl away


Playing with his toes...


Eating his 5 months sign

Silly boy!


Reaching for the camera! What a good helper!

After lunch, we went for a play date with another teacher from school and her baby. Her son, Tate was born a week after William. He is super cute with huge brown eyes! William enjoyed playing with Tate and his very nice toys. Luckily, Tate has already learned to share! Oh, and the moms had a good time too! Sundi made great cheesecake bars to snack on and we enjoyed watching the boys play together (or together, but separately as my child development professor would say). We made plans to get together again - it should be fun!

William and Tate

The boys. TA: notice the other kid's shirt?

Stories

Well, the internet is not working any better. So, I have been forced to get up off the couch and move to the office to blog. I am so lazy. I am going to tell you the promised stories with pictures. The camera is in the kitchen. See above lazy statement. I hope you appreciate all the work I do...so lazy.

First: Basement
We have been working little by little on getting the basement ready for drywall. After William was born, the work has slowed down to a crawl (HAH! Lazy, but funny). This weekend, we were able to work for a longer period of time as William was busy in his "office". You would have to ask John exactly what we did, but we ran some cables and worked in the bathroom area. I mostly ran and got tools, picked up trash, moved boxes around to make room for big piles of drywall, and kept an eye on William in his office. While working on the bathtub, William got a little fussy. He was much happier when he got to "help"! According to John, there are only a few more things that have to happen before we order the drywall. I think one of the things we have to do is figure out how we are going to get it from the delivery truck into our house.

William helps with the tub

What a great helper!

Second: Backpack
John and I really like hiking. This love was born when we lived in Seattle. Although we have not ever achieved the frequency of hiking that we used to do in Seattle, it is still something we enjoy. William seemed like he was well on his way to enjoying hiking also. However, the backpack we were using to carry him is now too small. So, it was time to upgrade. We spent a long time on Saturday at REI trying on (and drooling on) several different backpacks. I love that about REI. The same guy sat with us for an hour and adjusted several different packs to fit John and then William. The whole time, he was explaining the differences and features in packs to help us pick. He didn't complain once. Not even when William urped a little into one of the packs (it's okay. it is the one we ended up picking and buying). So, hike on! We are excited to try the pack out on our upcoming trip to Minnesota and North Dakota!

Our new backpack!

William's favorite thing about this backpack? He can hit John's head over and over and over....

Third: Nursery
Our new church has a nursery. Every week, people in church let us know there is a nursery available if we want. So far, I haven't wanted. In the last two weeks William has gotten a louder voice and been harder to distract away from using it. So, I picked this week. This last Sunday would be the day we used the nursery for the first time. I wasn't worried about him - I was worried about me. But, I did it. I walked in and gave him to the woman running the nursery and it was fine. I only checked on him once and he was having a great time watching the other kids run around and play. So, another thing to check off of my list of things to do.


I promise I'll be back with some pictures for you. But, I have packing and laundry to do for our trip and some worrying to do as well!

A special bonus for you all: our first tomato! The color looks a little funky because I couldn't get the light just right. I promise it wasn't quite as orange...we ate it tonight and it was GOOD!