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 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 plays
Grandpa 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 Guy
Great 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.
Grandpa 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 Guy
Great 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/trucks
Sometimes 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.
Sometimes 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 & Terri
Here 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.
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 & Terri
Here 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.
