After nearly 20+ hrs of combined driving time we finally made it to our destination. My sister Brenda lives in Minneapolis and we wanted to come up for my nephew Ben's graduation. He is such an awesome kid and will be amazing at whatever he chooses to do with his life. He was so cute and bought Meili an angry birds T and Kai a new Minnesota twins Baseball T, boy does he have them pegged! They went fishing together, played baseball, and shot off rockets. It was so fun to spend time with him :)
My sisters thought it would be fun to drag me out on one of their morning runs around the lake. When I say drag I do mean DrAg! I was so slow! Running is definitely not my thing, but I absolutely loved spending that time with them, it was so fun. If we all lived by eachother I would do it all the time. We spent time playing cards, roasting mallows, and taking walks. I love them so much! It was soooo great to all be together :)
It's been almost 2 yrs since I had seen Den and it was so great to see he and Tony again. It was so fun to see him with the kids. They loved playing ball and playing treehouse with him :) He even caught a couple of snoozes with Tristan... So fun to see them again!
Aunt Brenda's place is awesome. The kids had a beautiful back yard to roam in, flowers to pick, and rhubarb crisp to make! The kids loved helping out and loving on her and cousins Mikey & Lauren (when she could spare a minute from the boys...) :)
We love the Mall of America, it's literally 10 min from my sister's place. We also spent some time eating out at great places and an awesome icecream place. The kids ran their hearts out at shoots and ladders park and the park by the lake within walking distance from Aunt Brenda's.
We spent a night camping at Lake Itasca. It is about an hr from where I was born and grew up. It is so beautiful and green, but full of misquitoes! Rich was eaten alive once again, no surprise there! There are trees and lakes everywhere and tons of fishing to be had. Kai got a perch and Rich finally got his Northerns! He was quite satisfied :) Camping wouldn't be camping without marshmallow guns... And Meili even found a huge toad that she totally kissed! They were pretty cute with it, but for it's own safety, we made them let it go :) The kids slept in the tent with Rich and Mike and had an absolute blast! I even was able to arrange a visit from one of my best friends when I lived in Bemidji. Katie and her family stopped by to have dinner with us and we took a couple of pics. It was awesome to catch up with her and her fam :)
Lastly, we stopped at the Headwaters of the Mississippi River. The kids waded in the water and Kai actually slipped and did a little more than wading, he had himself a little swim. They loved playing in it, but Kai got a little chilled and was getting eaten by misquitoes. So after Den and Tony helped my mom cross the slippery rocks to the other side, we headed out.
I am absolutely so happy with our trip to MN. My parents were so great to let us tag along with them and put up with our traveled out kids. By the end we were definitely ready to be home, but made so many fun family memories and it was so great to be with all of my siblings (Daniel you'd better make it next time). We are so blessed to be in this family together and I love you all!
Haha I love how they both look like they are in pain in this pic :)
We got to spend the 4th with Nate, Sarah, Dan and Katie and it was so much fun. We went to the parade in the morning, which the entire second half is a huge squirt gun fest. The kids brought squirt guns and buckets of water and had a blast. Then we had a bbq and swam in Uncle Dan's pool. We continued to have squirt gun fights which I won, just ask Rich ;) We went to Boulder again for fireworks, which we've done every year and I swear they get bigger and better everytime! They were HUGE! The little man wasn't so thrilled with fireworks at first, but soon gave in and fell asleep! Yes, during fireworks... Great day, so fun to spend it with family :)
Ha they both were a bit tentative about the sparklers :)
Rich's Aunt Nancy (his mom's sister) passed away recently from complications with Diabetes. We had the opportunity to become closer with her and Dan when they moved to Vegas almost a year ago. We will certainly miss her and her family misses her, but we were once again reminded that we can all be together again some day. We were grateful to be able to spend that time with her and we were blessed to be able to spend time with Rich's Uncle and cousins during and after her passing. We love them :) Here's a few photos of our time together
So our next stop was my Mom's mother in IA, where there was serious flooding from the Missouri River. My 2 uncles living there were building birms around their homes trying to save their property. It was really crazy to see the extent of the flooding there and see all the preparations that the town and people in it were taking. The entire Mcdonalds had sandbags 8 high sourounding it. It was amazing. We spent a couple days with Gma Gayle and we got to see my uncles and cousins. It was so nice to spend some time with them even though it was kind of a stressful time... Gma and the kids enjoying fudge bars :) 
My cousin Jen and her new baby Peyton :)
Great Gma with cousins Tristan and Cohen and second cousins to new baby Peyton in the middle :) Not sure why this picture won't flip and I'm annoyed... 
Aunt becky with Tristan and doing Meili's hair so pretty :)
Family photos that my cousin Lorin took, he did an awesome job, they are beautiful.
Baseball and Meili flirting with uncle Gary...
These are a couple of the first smiles of the 'Chubber' (as we call him) caught on camera :)
