Fireworks

Here is What I did on my Summer Vacation Part III: Rochester Again

In the great summer vacation plan, John needed to go back to work. Because we came back from Fargo a day early, John didn't need to drive close to twelve hours in one day. Twelve hours isn't too bad, but when you've spent the night in a hotel without a good night's rest...well...that isn't a good idea.

John noticed this freezer case in our hotel. Really cold please.

Tip #4323: If you are eating in front of my kids, you will have to share. Even if I just fed them their body weight in oatmeal. They still have room for a little more AND will complain when their sister gets more bites. They will stand in front of you with their mouths open like little birds until you insert your food in their mouth. Plan accordingly.Tip #3453: My kids like potatoes. They fit in little hands very well and are stored at eye level and Nana's house. You just don't know where you are going to find them later.

No fireworks yet again for us on the 4th of July. My top ten "Summer ToDo List 2010" is going to be tricky to complete. Grandpa Kevin and I took William down to the Rochester fireworks (John was back in STL for work the next day). I wasn't sure how well he was going to do, so we picked an area with easy exit access. It wasn't the best viewing, but William didn't know any different and THAT is what this was all about. I didn't think he really understood what we were doing until he reminded me he saw fireworks last year at Kyle's house (our neighbors). Which was exactly right. Last year I scooped him out of bed and ran him to the neighbors house to catch the end of the fireworks when I realized he was still awake. I couldn't believe he remembered that.

William was SO excited about going. It was pretty special to be up late AND have Grandpa and Mama all to himself. While we were driving to the fireworks, William had only good things to say. He complimented the fence around a house. He told us how much he loved the van, his carseat and fireworks. Finally he sighed and said "This is my BEST favorite day ever. I am happy." And that my friends, that made me happy.
We got there early so make sure we got a good parking space. William was pretty well behaved while waiting. Out of all the stuff I brought with to entertain him, he enjoyed the people watching the most.
Sitting with Grandpa and drinking his "diet Coke" (sprite). He calls everything in a can diet coke.

Finally!!! The fireworks! The face says it all: he loved it! He talked about it nonstop during the fireworks until Grandpa nicely told him to just watch, not talk. He then proceeded to talk about it most of the way home. One moment he was talking and two seconds later he was sound asleep in his carseat. So sound asleep he didn't wake up when I unbuckled him or carried him into the house. So sound asleep he fell down on the rug when I tried to take off his shoes and coat. So sound asleep he didn't wake up after falling onto the hard ground. He just stayed sleeping curled up into a little ball. On the rug in the entryway. He finally woke up a little when I tried to get pajamas over his limp noodley body enough to tell me he "loves fireworks and wants to see them again tomorrow". I told him we'd have to talk about it tomorrow. I'll fight that battle in the morning.

Grand Forks/ Fargo Aurit Family Reunion

Oh boy, this is going to be a long one. With a LOT of pictures. We have been BUSY.

On Wednesday (6/30), we drove to Grand Forks, ND to visit my grandparents. It is a pretty special thing to have four great grandparents - so we try to get to see them whenever we can. The kids were great in the car, although I was hoping for more sleeping time than they gave me.

Grandpa and Grandma were able to come with us and Uncle Mike met us there - LOTS of family together is one of my personal favorite things.
Amelia in one of her 5 fourth of July outfits. This one is particularly fitting as the caption on the front says "Ms Independent". So true of our little miss. She was so happy to be out of the car finally.

Amelia LOVED my grandma's dog, Barney. She was fascinated with him and always made sure to look for him whenever we drove up to the house.William was THRILLED about seeing Uncle Mike again. Right away he asked when we were going to the hotel pool to swim (the last time we saw Mike was at a hotel with a pool).
Mia and her grandpa. She is totally in love with grandpa. While we were visiting this time, she started saying grandpa (Boppa). She never, ever said it in a normal voice - it was either in a high pitch squeal or yelled at the top of her lungs. Here they are playing "So Big", although Amelia doesn't wait anymore for Grandpa to ask how big she is. As soon as he picks her up, she reaches her arms up over her head and looks at him, prompting him to ask the question...because after he asks how big she is, he tickles her belly.
We are so lucky to have the great grandparents in the same town. It usually works out for us all go out together as a big group for dinner at least once. More hands=AWESOME.After dinner on Wednesday, we stopped at a park to play. The diggers were a big hit with the boys of all ages.

The big kid playsGrandpa gets in on the fun too (the biggest kid?)
Grandma and Amelia liked this car - while we were in Grand Forks, Amelia started saying Grandma (Nana). Great Grandma Nona was the first to catch on - I was sure she was talking about the bananas on the counter (nanas). However, I will admit I was proved wrong later in the day when there weren't any bananas in sight!

Let me tell you - playground equipment has come a LONG way! I am enjoying testing out all the new stuff!
This was COOL in a sciency way. Depending on how to moved your body weight, the toy would spin. It could get going pretty fast!Mike reads to William AKA Big GuyGreat Grandma Gerry put together treasure chests for the kids. Every morning when we came to visit, the treasure chest had different, child friendly items in it to play with. The kids LOVED to come in and find out what special treasure was waiting for them. This was Amelia's special chest. Another treasure chest - with stuffed animals!Amelia has developed a love for purses - consider yourself warned. She has no problem walking off with one that isn't hers.

Amelia and Nana enjoying some chips and salsa at La Capana (for the record - William at this age drank the salsa out of the cup. Amelia wasn't a huge fan.)

Mike was lucky enough to sit by William...until William wiped his hands on Mike's shirt (I admit, I laughed)

Playing SO BIG with Uncle Mike = not as good as Grandpa. She gave up on him pretty quickly.

William got a lot of truck playing in with Grandma's trains/trucksSometimes the only way to make this little girl happy is to let her sit in her high chair. She is SO clingy when she knows food is being prepared. It doesn't matter how many snacks she has had or how many distracting activities we come up with. Here she knew we were making dinner, but the booster seat wasn't even installed yet. But, she was happiest parked right here in her chair on the floor.

At some point, the kids decided to play beauty parlor. With wooden utensils (meat mallet, wooden spoons, etc). Nana was the only taker customer wise.
Uncle Mike helps Amelia with the monkey bars
Out for a family fire truck ride...(enlarge this photo to check out John, you won't be sorry...)This is a park I've been going to with my family since I was really little (my grandparents live in the same house across the street). It is so special to take my kids there and make new memories!
One of our goals on this "vacation" was to really work with William on riding his big bike. He really needed some time to develop his confidence - he is very capable, just lacks the confidence. We rode to the park every morning after breakfast to blow off some steam. As an added bonus, you have to work pretty hard to find a hill bigger than a curb. It really is the perfect place to practice.
Amelia loved playing with the diggers too...she just needed some help to make it work. She would work her way over to the toy and then scream until someone came to help her. That's my girl, right?

Stretch!
Treasure chest fun: stickers!Grandpa Tom was VERY beautiful by the time the kids were done with him - Amelia was looking pretty good too (in background)
On Saturday afternoon it was time to move on to our North Dakota Adventure Part II: Fargo. John's family had planned a reunion, so we packed our bags for another (1 hour) car trip to catch up with John's family. Saturday evening was filled with playing at a park, eating pizza with John's huge extended family and finally a swim in the hotel swimming pool! This was the first time we stayed in a hotel with two kids. Bedtime was a little tricky with getting both kids to sleep in the same space. See their happy faces eating breakfast in our hotel room the next morning?

Before the reunion started, we had lots of time. We took another dip in the pool, ran some errands and even swung by Concordia College in Moorhead, MN (2 minutes away) where I spent my freshman year of college. William joined me for a short walk through campus - although he had a hard time wrapping his brain around "Mama's school".
Place of personal importance: where I started seriously running my freshman year of college: the Olson Forum (can you use two semi colons in a sentence? I'm sure I just broke some rules). Sadly, all the doors were locked because it was a holiday and I didn't get any pictures of the inside of buildings. The reunion/picnic was held at a park in Fargo on the 4th of July. While visiting with the Des Moines Heidts over Memorial Day, my sister in law and I cooked up some patriotic T shirts for the kids to wear. All the Heidt cousins are wearing home crafted T shirts. We also made the little boys matching hats and the girls matching hair clips. You can see here William is a little jealous of all the attention the little boy in the middle was getting about his shirt being up. After he noticed, he wouldn't leave his shirt down either.
The Heidt cousins + a few extras. I wasn't able to get just one of the Heidt kids - we kept picking up extra kids :) (L-R) Alex, Elena, ?, Emerson, Audra, Logan, Ben, Amelia, Becca, ?, Mikey, William.
Amelia decides this photo session is OVER. Her shirt was the most time consuming!
Our family

The reunion was put together by John's aunt/uncle team: Bud & TerriHere is where I spent most of my time: at the playground chasing kids.
And this picture just makes me laugh. One of the kids managed to get a ball stuck up high in a tree branch. You would NOT believe the number of people and the amount of time it took to get this ball down.

We had planned on staying the night again in Fargo in order to spend more time with the family we so rarely get to see. We were looking forward to a 4th of July parade and hopefully some fireworks with the big boy. However, as the afternoon went on, many people hit the road to go home. We left the picnic to after Amelia came completely unglued so she could nap at the hotel. In the fifteen minutes it took us to get back to the hotel, we made some quick decisions and decided to hit the road as well. Even though we prepaid our room (lesson learned, not doing that again), we decided it would be better for everyone to go back to Grandma and Grandpa's house a day early. We would be able to catch the fireworks with family, visit with Uncle Mike, and spread the kids out a little more for some better sleep at night. All good things. So instead of putting Amelia down for a nap, I ran around like a crazy woman and packed up our room and checked us out of the hotel in less than 12 minutes. I rock.

Lucky for us, Grandma and Grandpa were excited about our plans when we called them from the road :) Too late to turn back! Unluckily, when we were about 45 minutes out from Rochester, my mom called to let us know the Rochester fireworks were canceled due to bad weather moving into the area. Can you believe our luck? First the parade and then the fireworks! At least the fireworks had a reschedule date.

Rain on my Parade, Breakfast on the Farm

What I did on my Summer Vacation, PART I


We started planning this trip in December last year when we learned John's family would be having a reunion in Fargo, ND over the 4th of July. Originally this trip had some more traveling and sightseeing added to it. Until I came back to reality and realized every day in a small hotel room with two little kids cannot be considered a vacation. Especially when it is followed by a family reunion in yet another small hotel room. The Glacier National Park and North Dakota Badlands trip went back on the shelf for another time. Sad.

Anyhow, when we learned we would be in Fargo, ND over the 4th of July, we started planning around it. Fargo is roughly an hour from where all four of my grandparents live. When you have four fabulous grandparents, you don't get an hour away from their house and not stop in. So, we coordinated with Grandpa Kevin and Grandpa Kim to drive to Grand Forks, ND for a few days to visit. As we were finalizing our plans, I realized the summer Rochesterfest celebration would be going on just days before we were set to get to Rochester. So, we arranged and rearranged everything to get to Rochester, MN for a few of my favorite events: The Parade and Breakfast on the Farm. You'll find PARADE listed high up on my official "Things to do, Summer 2010" list. I LOVE a good parade and the Rochesterfest parade rarely disappoints. Unless you don't like parades. Then it is a long slow torture.

We packed up and drove the close to seven hours to Grandpa Kevin and Grandma Kim's house. They had made arrangements to sit on the curb in front of Grandma's coworker and even went out early to reserve us some seats! Even Aunt Megan drove down to join us! Grandma packed us up a picnic dinner and we were SET! We didn't actually tell William about the parade before we got in the car to GO to the parade. I was worried something about it wouldn't work out and I didn't want to be stuck explaining for days on end what happened to the parade. William was so thrilled about going to the parade and having all kinds of people around. This boy loves a crowd. And tubas. He was so excited about seeing a TUBA in the marching band.

We got down to our spot and enjoyed our picnic dinner. It was finally time for the parade to start! HURRAY! The first official group was several state patrol cars flashing their lights - William was over the moon. The second group was the Boy Scouts carrying the flag and handing out candy. CANDY? YOU DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT CANDY! William couldn't believe so many good things were all in one place: Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Megan, police cars, marching bands with TUBAS, squirt guns (Grandma brought to entertain the "kids"), and CANDY. It would be huge understatement to say William was beside himself with joy.

The preparade entertainment: squirt guns with Grandpa. William's expression says it all: total WIN.
The look of excitement/anticipation! So excited!
Amelia has no idea, but is loving all the attention and the number of people around to watch. This girl loves a crowd!

Then the unthinkable happened. The announcer announced that the parade had been called off due to inclement weather moving into the area. Immediately. We were so SO sad. In the paper the next day we learned this was the first time in twenty eight years the parade has been called off.

Instead we went back to Grandma's and practiced giving hugs.
And playing dinosaurs with Aunt Megan

The following morning, we made plans to meet several friends out at an event called "Breakfast on the Farm". Which is just like it says. A local farmer opens up their family farm and invites the whole town to breakfast in their front yard. There are tractor displays, animal displays, a HUGE breakfast, wagon rides, games and so much more. Again, I didn't tell William what we were doing until we are on our way, so he was thrilled to find out we were going to eat breakfast AT A FARM. With TRACTORS. Anyway, it was a LOT of fun to take part in two of my favorite events from Rochestfest past.

This is one of two pancake grills working to serve everyone (note: I think it would be super fun to make pancakes like this for a boat load of people)

Two items of interest here: The cooks use a drill with mixing attachment to whip up their batter (a la tiling adhesive) and if you happen to look at the cook funny, you'll end up having to catch you breakfast as it flies through the air. The boy in blue above the drill is working hard to catch himself some pancakes.Eating with the fam. I will say that the best part was NOT when I had to eat my breakfast with wiggly Amelia on my lap.
William's favorite thing? Getting to "drive" a tractor
Yet another tractor. This one made me nervous as there were still keys in the ignition as William discovered. Apparently, the owners had driven the tractors over the night before/early that morning for display. We had a hard time getting him away from this one!
William checks out the animal displays with Aunt Megan. I tend to avoid the animal displays....
Cute bunnies!
William standing in the corn field. We have some cute video of this somewhere...
Not a great picture, but William with Grandma on the horse drawn wagon ride.Some friendly Brown Swiss cows
Horseback riding for William (not at the farm, later in the afternoon)

The next few days held a lot of visiting with John's brother, Mike and family, a visit to a LOT of parks for play with friends, a birthday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa (for Daddy, Kaye & Scott), a date out with our favorite couple (Jessica and Chris), hiking at Quarry Hill and playing with the grandparents. We usually pack in the activities, but this was a new all time level of busy-ness!

Reading books with Grandpa Heidt and cousins, Alex/Elena

Four cousins snuggled up and ready for a story read by Uncle Mike
This is what happens all the time. You start reading to William a super long book. All the other kids loose interest right away, but William has an astonishing attention span. He will sit for HOURS and listen to stories.

The three [almost] three year olds were such a blast to watch together this time! They are really playing well together, and even include Amelia a lot of the time! So sweet! The kids love to give each other some hugging - they are so excited about each other they would usually start jumping up and down. The missing kid/s would then usually notice they were missing out on the fun and take off full speed toward the hugging pair, bowling them over more often than not.
Everyone hugs!
Sweet HUGS!


Grandpa Heidt and William stand in front of a DIGGER at Uncle Mike's new house site.
William in a digger bucket at Uncle Mike's new house site
Mama testing out the playground equipment
Uncle Mike showing the boys how it is done!
Uncle Mike helping Alex up the slide
The famous corn cob water tower
At some point, the kids decided it was super fun to ride around in the car together - so we ended up with four kids in the van!
Amelia and Alex in the middle seats. If you're wondering why I didn't sit in the front seat, I'm not really sure why. Sometimes I don't think.
The cousins riding the alligator (crocodile?)
Another shot of all the kids on the crocodile!
The boys race down the slide - they had a WONDERFUL time playing together. William was exhausted after chasing/running/jumping/climbing/playing with his cousins!
Uncle John and Alex?Amelia peeks!
Look at all the grown ups watching out for our kids - YAY! (Grandpa Heidt, Aunt Tien, Uncle Mike and a piece of Mama)
William and Alex get silly
A big storm blew through on Saturday night, knocking down a LOT of trees. William was fascinated by the tree removal process (it involved trucks. And power tools).
Uncle Mike started out reading to all the kids and again is left with only one....

On Wednesday morning, it was time to pack up and drive to North Dakota for some time with the Great grandparents!