*Thankfully I wrote down some trip notes as they happened. The notes were enough to help me put the pieces together. This trip happened in mid-August. I am making progress!
Wednesday, Day One:
After weeks of knowing we were getting kittens the kids were so excited that the day finally arrived for us to drive to MN! The travel was quite uneventful. We had two bathroom stops and arrived at my parents in time for dinner. My mom and I were able to take a walk after the kids went to bed... wow, crazy to think of that time of year when it is light out after my children's bedtime! After the walk I worked on church nursery stuff. Sadly our vacation was around the same time that I needed to create the fall schedule for the nursery. It is a huge undertaking and caused me to be up working the first couple nights of vacation.
Thursday, Day Two:
The day started with my parents taking the kids fishing. I think they all enjoyed it!
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| T: Finally I get to fish with them! |
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| M: I caught the fish and I can touch the fish! |
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| T: I was so proud of the fish, but I was hoping I would catch one too! |
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| T: I did it!! I caught one!!! |
After the kids came home from fishing it was time to head to my grandma's house to meet the kittens for the first time! *I have included the whole cat story and some additional photos from our cat visits
HERE. Check out this post if you want to read the incredible story of how these cats became ours!
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| T and M: We were so so so excited to meet those sweet babies!! |
After playing with them a bit in the chicken barn we decided to take them out into the fresh air to get to know them better.
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| At this point I was seriously thinking we might need to take home four kittens :) |
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| T: Buttercup was so tiny! |
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| M: Sunshine just wanted to cuddle with me. |
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| T: I love this one. |
No trip to the farm would be complete without a gator ride. Grandma's faithful dog Ginger followed behind.
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| M: We are so thankful for our wonderful Great Grandma! |
After time playing with the kittens, eating lunch, and more time playing with the kittens we decided to head back to my parent's house. On the way home we stopped at Bret's house. Bret wasn't home, but my dad wanted us to check out his next door neighbor's garage. It burned to the ground the week before. The garage is on the property line. Bret's grass was a bit burnt but his home was fine. I get ill thinking of what could have happened if it had been a windy day. We are so thankful that his house was spared. The garage and its contents were destroyed, but his neighbors were not hurt and there home is standing!
After checking out the damage we went to my parents house for a bit to grab a snack and then headed for the county fair. We were originally thinking that we would go for a couple of hours and then come home and eat and the guys would go back to the fair for motocross. We ended up staying there all afternoon and Brandon and M never left. The rest of us left and had a late dinner at home.
One of the first things we saw was this shooting practice thing. Both kids were very eager to try and my dad was excited to be a part of it.
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| M: It was really cool! |
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| M: I did a pretty good job. |
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| T: I got to try it too. |
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| T: It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. |
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| T: Look at my sheet. |
After shooting we went to the huge building that had venders and activities. There was much for the kids to see and do.
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| M: We got to race pine cars. |
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| M: I got to do a flight simulation. I was good at it. |
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| T: I got to help paint a barn quilt that they are really going to hang up at the fair! |
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| The most talented dog we have ever seen. |
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| This dog can do lots of tricks! |
We looked at some of the animals, but not as much as our fair. Since we had just been to ours so recently we decided to just visit the horses. One of Bret's friends has a daughter who was showing her horse. Her horse's name is almost the same as T's. I think they bonded about this!
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| T: Hi horse friend!! |
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| T: I wanted to wander around and pet every horse. |
We didn't realize that the rides didn't run all day. It ended up working out fine because there was plenty to look at before the rides started. Many of the rides had taller height requirements than M could manage, even on his tiptoes. He found one that would have caused me to throw up and chose that one first. Nothing like up and down spinning backwards to get the stomach churning. He actually ended up riding the ride twice.
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| M: Here I go. |
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| M: It was a pretty cool ride! |
M was not too thrilled to go on this mini coaster with T. The operator gave the kids a really really long ride and I know there were many times that they were both smiling!
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| T: Isn't this fun M? |
After a couple of rides Bret and A arrived. T was all over A as this was the first time we had seen her. They were holding hands or arm in arm the entire time. I am so very thankful for their sweet friendship.
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| Ready to explore. |
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| T: I had so much to tell A! |
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| One more, I just can stop myself. |
The girls chose to ride a couple of rides together. They rode on the carousel and the cars.
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| T: We both wanted the pink car! |
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| T: Hi everyone. |
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| Sweet A! |
After rides it was time to try snow cones. They were very large and messy which I guess is the point.
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| T: I loved it at first, then I got a bit sick of it. |
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| Crazy Tongues! |
Then it was time to leave and head to Grandma's house. T, A, Grandma and I went to the store and each kid got to pick out a cereal (the sugary kind) as a special something since M was getting to go to the motocross show. T chose Lucky Charms which was a new cereal to her. It now has unicorns which is what sealed the deal.
Brandon and M had a great time at Motocross. They even saw an accident with injury. They had lots of good conversations and memories were made.
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| M: It was crazy to watch them fly through the air. |
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| M: Just look at all those bikers. |
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| M: Wow! |
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| M: Thanks for taking me to the show Dad! |
I spent more time Thursday night working on nursery stuff, making a lot of headway. It was a very very full day of fun and activity.
Friday, Day Three:
We started the morning off slowly which was good after M's late night. Once the kids were dressed and fed my dad came up with a fun idea for them. He set up a target in the yard so they could do some more shooting practice.
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| T: Guns are heavy. |
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| M: I found a spot to set the gun. |
After shooting my dad presented them with a trophy with their names on it and a guy with a gun on top. It was actually an old trap shooting trophy, but the kids were very impressed.
After a relaxing morning it was time for lunch. The lunch included corn on the cob. It is very rare that I will eat corn on the cob, but I ate this corn and I loved it! We realized later that the corn was from the farm that used to be run by Brandon's best friend Luke's family. Small world!
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| T: We are twins. |
After lunch we headed south to my hometown! I hadn't been there for more than four years! It was funny how many things changed and how many stayed the same. We headed down for a festival at a park and for the chance to meet up with one of my dear childhood friends Kristi. She lives far away and we hadn't seen each other is probably ten years! When we arrived I learned that Kristi was sick, but we still got to take a few pictures and chat a bit. It was such a blessing to see her. Since our visit she has given birth to a son. It is so exciting to think of her as a mother of two!
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| Do we still look like high schoolers? (Don't answer that!) |
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| I was able to see Kristi's sister as well. |
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| Kristi's daughter is in the red and her niece is in the white. |
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| T and M: I can't believe we got our own cotton candy!! We shared a tiny bit. |
After checking out the games and venders we went to the park and played for quite a while.
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| T: I am the queen. |
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| T: I can do tricks on this thing! |
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| M: I am the king. |
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| T: I made some new friends. |
This park is very nostalgic to me. While some of the things are new, I remember playing on many of when I was a child. It is so emotional for me to see my kids enjoying them now. The building in the background on the next picture is actually the hospital where I was born!
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| T: I love these double horses |
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| M: I can get this thing going pretty high. |
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| M: I am glad Grandpa decided to ride with me! |
The four person teeter totter thing! It was my FAVORITE! I love how the animals are still painted much like they were 35 years ago!
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| T: This is pretty fun! |
After playing at the park we walked back to the van and then toured around town. It was fun to see things and show the kids where I went to school and to church. After the tour we headed back towards my parents house. We stopped at my grandma's house to play with the cats some more. After that night's visit we were pretty sure we were going to bring home the two orange kittens.
It was a lot of time in the car, but we passed the time listening to the Pippy Longstocking Audio Book and songs from Hamilton.
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