My parents, Kara, Eric, Annika and the 4 of us all stayed with my Grandma, or Grandma great to my kids. We just fit as far as sleeping arrangements go, so we'll have to have a new plan if we grow any more! My Grandma is 80 and in such great shape. She loved to get down on the ground and play with her great grand kids. And she loves to challege us big kids to games of pinocle I know she had a blast getting to know the kids while we were there.
Here is Morgan and Grandma Great playing outside. (There was a smudge on the lens cap, thus the fogginess of the photo.)
Grandma Great with Annika and Morgan. (and yes, Morgan is stealing Annika's binky....again)
Ethan had fun playing games with Grandma Great and playing with all of her cool tractors and trucks.
One of the things Ethan was so excited about seeing in Minnesota were the farms and tractors. My Uncle Virg lives just down the road from Grandma so Ethan visited there almost everyday. He got to ride on the 4 wheeler, see a new baby cow, ride in the tractor and play on some little bikes. One day we also went out to see my Uncle Lloyd's farm and ride on a tractor with him.
We got to see pigs at his farm.
Petting the baby pig.
Morgan's not too sure about the pig. Unlike her brother Morgan is more afraid of animals than people.
One of the big reasons we made our way out to the Midwest was to celebrate the wedding of my cousin Brooke. The kids ended up getting really bad colds while we were out there(Morgan ended up with a double ear infection) and Ethan had a bad fever on the day of the wedding. So we still drug him out to the wedding, but we didn't last too long and therefore didn't get any pictures.
On Saturday my Uncle Virg's wife Fay threw a big 60th birthday party for him. So we got to see all the family again. It was nice to have that time to hang out since our time at the wedding the night before was pretty limited. During the party they organized the rearranging of the JVE rocks. On a hill behind my Uncle's farm are the initials JVE. They are the initials of my great grandfather. About 70 years ago my grandpa, and his brother followed the directions of their older brother Hank and arranged large stones into the shape of their father's initials. They loaded up wagons and pulled the stones up to the hillside. Later that winter Hank died from a ruptured appendix (this was a couple years before the invention of penicillin). So they decided to keep the rocks up there in memory of Hank. The cattle roam up there so they have been rearranging and painting them ever since. I'm told I participated in this once before, but I don't remember, so to me this was my first time. It was great to take part in the memories.
Ethan helped pick up rocks and put them in their place.
Here's Uncle Wes telling us the story (the one I just shared, hopefully I have all the details right!) He's one of the funnier 70(?) year olds I know!
Us up on the hill with the farm in the background. Morgan was back on the farm with Nana, it wouldn't have been a safe place for her!
A look up at the newly painted initials.
Uncle Eric took this picture of Ethan holding the initials in his hand.
In true Midwest fashion the boys (or men I suppose) created their own fun by launching water balloons into a silo, and then later straight up into the air and onto each other lying on the ground. It provided about an hour of entertainment for everyone, even the great grand kids got into it.
We had to get a picture of the two Morgans together. This is my cousin Morgan who is in college. She is such a great young lady, I'm proud to have my Morgan share her name!
On Sunday afternoon we went back to Uncle Lloyd's farm. Here is Ethan with the cows.
We took a picture of the cousins in their wagon. This was especially taken for Annika's Grandpa Jung who sells Caterpillar equipment.
The best picture we got of our two monkeys.
On Monday we headed out to my cousin Jeremy's cabin on a lake. He and his wife Kimber and 4 kids are living in Germany right now and they were out for 2 weeks to see family. They have a beautiful cabin and they were gracious enough to share it with us for the afternoon. We had a great time with all the water toys too!
Jet skiing with daddy.
We took a long boat ride too. All the adults got to try skiing, wake boarding and tubing.
Ethan got out for a tube ride too!
The girls were really good sports. They were just along for the ride. Annika even slept for quite a while.
The last morning we were there Ethan got to go fishing out at the farm. Papa, Daddy and Uncle Virg took him down to the stream to catch some fish. I'm told he caught several and he wasn't afraid to touch them and try to take them off the hook. He loved it!
We had a great time with family. It is such a bummer that we don't live closer, but we feel privileged to be able to create memories with them every few years. Thanks everyone for making our visit so fun!
1 comment:
ok, you got your post up...i have to work on getting mine up now! Just too many good memories...its hard to write about them all. Thanks lynds!
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