We made it!

That is, to Minnesota and back home, in a fun-filled, lots of traveling, lots of driving whirlwind trip with two very tired little girls. Brave Grandma Miller accompanied us on this trip – and it would be pretty accurate to say that we were all pushed to new levels of exhaustion. With that said, we all had so much fun – Grandma Miller got to see all of her brothers and sisters at a surprise 50th birthday dinner for Aunt Becky (well, kind of a surprise….but a surprise that all of them made it, right Becky? :), I was able to visit with several of my cousins and spend time with their children, the girls were able to see more cows than they have every seen at any one time, we were able to have a snowball fight in the middle of April, and the girls were able to spend lots of time with their Great Grandma Schultz. I just realized today that, after multiple discussions about our intention to take a 4 generation picture of all of us girls (Great Grandma, my mom, me, and the girls) – we NEVER got one taken. I can’t believe it. Well, actually, when I think about how we were literally running from place to place and/or running to catch Morgan to keep her from constantly injuring herself, I can see how we forgot. But I’m still sad about it. That just means that we’ll have to enjoy another visit soon – and I know the next one will be easier with Morgan being a little bit older!

There are so many stories to tell, and so many more pictures to share (half are on Grandma’s camera – so I’ll have to add those later!), so I’ll just start with a few here.

We left on April 9th, not knowing quite what to expect, as Macy hasn’t flown since she was 21 months old, and has no memory of doing so, and Morgan has never been on an airplane before. I was nervous because Morgan is at the age where she has no reasoning ability, her favorite activity is walking as fast as she can away from anyone that is trying to keep track of her, and her main form of expressing her feelings about something is to yell or whine. Wouldn’t you be nervous?? Luckily, the middle seat next to us was open on our flight to Minneapolis – thank GOODNESS. We got on the plane, I sat her down in her “big girl seat”, latched her seat belt – and, I kid you not, that child sat in the seat for 4 hours without complaining. I was amazed. It took lots of activities, and a little bit of Baby Einstein, but she just did so well. Here is a picture of the “big girl” reading her books in the seat:

Macy did wonderful as well. She was sitting next to Grandma in the seats behind us, and was seriously SO EXCITED to get on that airplane. After a few moments of clinging to Grandma’s arm during take-off, she had a blast, and Grandma did a wonderful job of keeping her entertained. My pictures didn’t turn out very well of Macy & Grandma on the plane, but here are a couple of them running around the terminal (our plane was over an hour late in leaving, so we were trying to wear them out in anticipation of perhaps a little nap on the plane? For the record, it didn’t work.)

Macy was SO excited to watch a 757 push back from the gate and was beyond excited about the fact that she could actually see the pilots sitting up front. "Daddy sits right there!" she kept saying and pointing, and we even had to call Gregg at one point so that she could tell him all about what she was watching.


I'm going to attempt to add a video here too of all of us on the airplane too:


After we arrived in Minneapolis, the girls both crashed out in the rental car on our drive down to Rochester, and Aunt Joanne was gracious enough to entertain us. Joanne, being the experienced Grandma that she is, was fully prepared to entertain the girls with a pretend kitchen, food, and baby dolls and strollers galore. Thank you, thank you Joanne! The twin babies and double stroller made the trip up and down the halls at Great Grandma's many, many times during our stay. :)

The next night was the surprise dinner for Becky, and the girls and I got to have dinner and play with my cousins Jill, Kevin, David and his wife Shannon & their kids. It was so fun to catch up with all of them and to watch all of the kids interact & play together. Two and a half years ago, Jill and I had two little girls between us. That night, we had a total of 5 little girls & a little boy - holy cow! Here is a picture of all the little ones together (Left to right: Brooklyn, Morgan, Macy, Olivia, Hailey & Evan)

Here is a picture of Grandma Miller snuggling with Morgan & baby Evan:


After a fun-filled afternoon at a toy store with Aunt Joanne on Friday, we headed out to Norm & Tami's house in St. Charles on Saturday, where Macy & Morgan were entertained all day long by their wonderful girls! The girls had so much fun & did so many things, I can't even begin to recount all of things they were running around doing. My cousin Norm instantly took cranky Morgan out of my arms (being the experienced dad of 3 girls that he is :) and Morgan never flinched and was happy as a clam. When she started getting fussy & tired, Norm scooped her up and brought a movie up on his computer, and she fell asleep in his arms for a desperately needed afternoon nap. Can I tell you what a relief this was to me? Thank you once again Norm & Tami for entertaining & feeding us, Tami for sharing your birthday celebration with me, and thank you Mackenzie, Hannah & Allie Jo for entertaining the little girls and playing endlessly with them - they had so much fun with you guys. Here are a couple of pictures:
The fashion show:

Macy in her self-described "Mary Poppins" outfit:

Allie Jo & Mackenzie showing us how to make bubble pizza (and if you're wondering, Mackenzie was the older of the 2 flower girls at our wedding, and Allie Jo was just a little baby at the time!);


On Sunday, Aunt Barb & Uncle Glenn were nice enough to have us over again, and the girls had so much fun seeing the animals, seeing the "kitties" at the back door, and playing all sorts of fun games with Aunt Barb, Aunt Becky, Grandma Miller, and Great Grandma Schultz. We had made up a game of "soccer bowling", which involved kicking a ball and trying to knock down our "pins" of coffee cans, and even 91-year old Great Grandma got in on this game - and I just have to share this cute video:

One of the most special parts of our visit was all of the time that Macy & Morgan were able to spend with Great Grandma Schultz. Gregg & I often talk of how lucky the girls are that they get to see both sets of their grandparents so frequently, and that they are so involved in their lives, and we both realize how special it is that they have a Great Grandma to spend time with as well. Both girls found time to snuggle with Grandma, as well as play piano with her, and I just love this picture of Macy all cozy with great Grandma while they watched a movie on the DVD player together:


There's more to share, but I'm still recovering and adjusting to the time change, so I need to call it a night.

Thank you again to everyone for being so wonderful to the girls and for entertaining us - it was so great to see all of you & I really wish we could do it more often. That just means that it time for a trip to Seattle for all of you soon - you know that invitation is always open, and that the downstairs apartment at my parents is always available!