Road Trip to MN, in February

So finally, only a month later, here are a smattering of the many, many photos I took in MN. We had a wonderful, but short, time there. Eric had another week-long conference there, so he took the whole family. It's such a blessing now that when Eric travels, we all travel. As it should be!

The little ones and I spent most of the week up north visiting family. I really wanted to spend lots of time at my grandma's house, my grandma whom Sophia is named after. I wanted to sit around her house and just BE there. So to that end, I didn't really tell anyone but family that we were coming. I'm sorry to have missed many of you, but I know you understand.

Here's what we were up to that week!

The first night (Saturday) we got in, we stayed at Mike and Chele's house. Joshy and Mari had a blast running around with their cousins. It was fun to see so many people love on Sophia for the first time too.

This is Mari and Isaiah (age 3). They became fast buddies. Here they are watching Grandpa knock down the icicles from the porch roof. They found it highly entertaining. On Sunday, we went to BBC, but to the North Campus. We were really torn about whether or not to go downtown, but decided to stick with family (Eric's parents were also in town and were going north). After church, we headed back to Mike and Chele's where the boys played snow-football: sons against daddies.
In the early evening, the children and I loaded up the van and left (along with Eric's parents) to drive up north. I spent the next four days hanging out with family at my grandma's house. My cousin Katie also drove over with her children. It was so much fun to be able to spend time with her and her daughter Amanda, who just HAPPENED to be wearing the same outfit Mari was. Actually, Katie gave Mari that dress, and it was just understood that they would both be wearing it. But that doesn't explain why Katie and I were dressed in very similar outfits...I'm not going to post a photo of that. But here's one of our girls! They were enjoying "Katie pancakes" and giggling together. Amanda would put her piece on Mari's plate, and then Mari would put it in Amanda's mouth.
Anyway, we all gathered at Grammy's. My grandparents bought their house in 1955 and it has been a central meeting place for family ever since. It was so awesome to see our little girls having lunch in Grammy's kitchen with her, just like we used to do when we were little.
Definitely the best part, though, was getting to place Sophia in Grammy's arms. My grandma actually loves babies and really enjoyed holding Sophia, which she got to do a lot of, but not enough. She said it's frustrating when someone brings over their baby and leaves them in the carseat the whole time, all bundled up. She always wants to pick them up, "unwrap" them and talk to them. So that's what she did with Sophia, who is her 12th great-grandchild.
And during all my girly visiting, my Aunt Catherine graciously took Joshy, along with some of her grandchildren, skiing and sliding. He told me he could get down almost the whole hill without falling (during skiing, of course, not sliding).

On Thursday afternoon, we headed back to Mike and Chele's for more cousin play and cousin cuddles. Here Joshy is happily helping Elijah with his morning bottle.
Cousin Ethan came over to play. He and Lella got along better than ever; their relationship used to involve a lot of hitting and hair-pulling. Ethan and Lella are about four months apart (remember this; it'll come up again). This photo just makes Lella looks ginormous compared to him. They're really closer to the same size.
Mari has a special love for her Tante Chele and was delighted to spend so much time with her. She insisted on sitting next to her at the table. They had a "girltalk" in which Chele promised that they would have a tea party sometime. Mari still remembers and is practicing with her tea set accordingly. Mari really loves Chele and I know the feeling is mutual.
The boys, on the other hand, busied themselves with tromping in the woods and creating a basketball court in the basement.
Oh, and of course, sword fights and wrestling. And my sweet daughter Lella is not one to sit on the sidelines of those activities. See her in her pink jammies tackling her much bigger cousin Justus? Luckily, they were all pretty easy on the little lady (not that she needed it-she's tough!)
One awesome surprise we had while in MN: Eric's sister Heidi gave birth to her baby boy Nolan! She wasn't due for another week and some days, but God had other plans. In fact, Eric was staying at her house the night she went into labor and was able to care for Ethan while they left for the hospital. It was so wonderful to be able to meet him. We even let Joshy stay up late to come to the hospital to meet him (Mari would have loved to come, but it was way too late to bring her anywhere much less a big hospital to see a day old baby). Eric says he'll always have a special bond with Nolan since he got to be a part of the adventure.
Remember me mentioning that Ethan and Mari were about four months apart? Well, believe me when I say we didn't plan this, but Sophia and Nolan are only about two months apart. It's fun to have cousins so close in age (Joshy, too, has a close cousin; Justy is only about three months younger; we didn't plan that one either), but I'm really hoping Sophia and Nolan's relationship is more kind and less physical. Only time will tell.

And so ended our lovely week up in MN. We are already looking forward to coming back sometime in late spring to meet another baby...Tony and my sister's! Then we will once again load up and prepare for hours on end in the car together, once again looking like this:

Sophia snuggled in her carseat, sweetly sleeping (thankfully!),
Joshy amusing himself with stickers and paper,
and Lella, well, just being Lella.