Trip to Minnesota

In June, we took a family vacation up to Minnesota.  It's a great vacation place for us - we can catch up with old friends, check out places we used to go see, and it's an easy drive from where we live now.  I missed taking photos of some things completely, but managed to get pics in other things (I guess that is the way it goes on vacation!).

One of the first stops was to this bike shop.  It's on the music video site of one of our kids favorite songs, and they were pumped to see it in person.  Max loves the video and relating to all of the spots in Minneapolis.  And, it's pretty funny to hear the kids singing the song while they are on their own bike rides.  They were first introduced to the group by this song.  Up to hearing the song, they'd never had either hot cheetos or takis before.  They were on the try list this summer (turns out hot cheetos were not a hit, takis, on the other hand proved a bit difficult to find, but made the list of likes for Max, a no go for Alexis).  

But back to vacation!

The drive is 6 hours with stops, and we opted to put Max between the girls for this trip.  I never seem to catch much of what goes on in the car, but here are some still shots of these two.  Max was on a roll, and Alexis found everything he said absolutely hilarious.  Tayler on the other hand, was completely out (how she can sleep with all the noise baffles me!).  Fun times.

The timing of our trip worked out well for us to catch the annual bike race.  Lorena, I always think of you - it is so awesome and amazing that this was your gig!  Walking one of the lakes before the race.

 The race was a criterium, so lots of fast bikes for the kids to watch.  Super entertaining, and fun to be downtown. We walked around the course to catch different angles for the crit, and to see the booths they had out too.

 After the race, everyone was ready for a snack and we fell upon this darling frozen yogurt place.  Since Alexis is a no go for ice cream (she's lactose intolerant, but is just fine with yogurt), we're always looking for the alternative to "let's go out for ice cream."  Thank goodness frozen yogurt is so mainstream!

 The next day the kids and I met up with some friends from our old neighborhood.  The kids were so excited to see some old friends and kept guessing to see if they'd look different or the same (and while we didn't get to meet up with all of the old friends from the neighborhood, I'm sure we'll be back to visit again sometime!).  We checked out a park that I'd actually never been to before, and the kids had a blast.  It was HUGE, but gladly was fenced in, so while you couldn't see your kids at all times, you at least knew they were (somewhat) contained!

 Later that day we caught back up with our bike riding hubby and headed to the classic tourist place in Minnesota - the Mall of America, where they fit in a log ride.

 Hanging out at the science museum.  The germ exhibit that Max was fixated on when he was 4.  He was glad to see it was still there (like we'd really been gone that long!).

 At some point of the vacation, we also went to the water park of America.  Alexis LOVED all of the smaller slides, and I was surprised that Tayler was daring to go on all of the little kid slides too.  Mike and Max were off doing the big ones, and of course I took no pictures (all time there was spent keeping the one year old alive!).

We also spent some great time with friends - of course, I took NO pictures!  Except as we were leaving, I made Mike pull over while I snapped this shot.  Just a small pond mixed in the suburb, but a reminder to me of the beauty, and how it is mixed in between everything else.

 On our last day, we headed to a favorite small town that borders Wisconsin.  The kids played at a park they loved there, and we caught the beginning of another race.  From then, it was heading back to the car for the drive home - and back to reality!

 How to entertain a 1 year old in the car - stickers!

 The trip was a success!  Super grateful we were able to create these memories as a family.  Found Alexis the next day catching up on some missed sleep!

The Move

We had about 4 days of lag time between the closing and buying of the two homes.  Which worked out pretty dang good.  Actually, the stars aligned and so many crazy things feel into place.  Mike's parents flew in just after we'd packed up and closed our house, and we had a staycation in Minnesota before driving down to Omaha together.

Caught up on some of the fun museums and places before we left town.  Super fun. 

Then we made the drive to Omaha.  Pretty smooth except for the part when Mike's bike rack almost flipped off his car while we were on the freeway.  We saw the rack lift, and then they pulled over. Some heavy winds just lifted the whole dang thing and pulled it back about 8 inches.  Bikes were okay (whew!), and we were super grateful my windshield wasn't the receiver of any damage.  To play it safe, we repacked everything and stuck the bikes inside one of the cars.  We did it all on some super rural, random country road in Iowa.  I still chuckle thinking back with what the pick up trucks that drove by were thinking.  I'm sure they muttered something like "those city folk just don't know how to do things right" or something.

But we made it to Omaha!  Pulled right up to our new home and went straight to the final walk through.  It was my first time seeing it since we'd been there in May.  In fact, it felt like a whole new place again.  My first and only trip to Omaha previously was a short weekend trip with Mike and Tayler.  We drove down on Friday.  Taking the advice we were given by some wise friends when we first left Utah (they'd moved a bunch over his 20 year career with the Air Force and were super knowledgeable about finding places to live in areas you'd never been to, and on a short time crunch).  He said "find your school districts that you'll like first.  Then narrow those down by your commute.  Then figure out which one has the kind of homes you'll be happy to live in.  Then figure out the rest once you get there."  We did the school search, and Mike made an initial trip earlier and had figured out what areas worked better for his commute.  By the time I made it down, we had narrowed it down to one general area on the map.  Buzzed through about 30 homes on Saturday, and felt like we played the hot and cold game with the homes.  Spent about 15 minutes in the one we actually placed an offer on, so it was nice to see it again! 

Can't even express how unbelievably helpful it was to have Mike's parents there those first few days we moved in.  The walls of boxes feel so overwhelming and we had record breaking heat all week.  Trying to manage three little people on top of that would probably have put me over the edge.  They jumped right in and made it so we could crank out as much of the unpacking as possible before they left.  Made a quick break from packing and checked out the swim trials downtown.  Tickets were gone for the actual Olympic trials, but after all the big names left, they kept the pools open for Masters who came to swim from all over the country.  Free to the public to check out - it was pretty cool to watch.  Max loved the part where one of the super senior masters needed a pool rescue.  Glad he was safe.  Max was happy to see what a lifeguard actually does (other than hang out on the sidelines). 

June

Spent a good portion of our remaining time in Minnesota doing some of our favorite things.  And, while these pics and places probably won't mean much to anyone else, they have a whole bucket of memories for us.  Even that table those kids are sitting at. 

Waiting for lunch at our favorite sandwich shop.

 Playing in the park.

 Finished up swimming lessons.

 And, threw father's day into the mix with a fun day together.  Church, steaks, and a walk around a lake.  Couldn't have been better.