Here are a few more fun pictures from our trip to Minnesota. In the Mall of America Henry was, predictably, very excited about the Lego store. We did manage to get away without buying any.
Also in the mall we did a couple of rides. Here are Henry and Anders, and me and Clara on the Ferris wheel. Anders sat like this, with his hands in his lap, the whole time. I wasn't sure if he was nervous, or just trying to be good, or so excited, or what...
On Tuesday I had the kids to myself as Will and Sandy both went to work. We went to the Children's museum in St. Paul. I got totally lost on the way there and on the way home, but while we were there we had a pretty fun time!
That afternoon, after successful naps for Anders and Clara, we played outside in the little bit of nice weather that we had. We made some sidewalk paint and tried to keep Kelso from drinking it all.
Kelso got a bit of good playtime in too.
At one point Henry was playing with the dog, Clara was painting the driveway, and Anders was wandering around with his guitar singing Johnny Cash songs.
On Wednesday we had a much quieter day. Anders went back to school and Will and Sandy were at work. I gave the kids baths, washed a load of laundry, tried to pick up a bit of our mess around the house and started to pack. We also made a run to Byerly's for train snacks, Surly beer for Pete and a bit of lunch. Then both kids sacked out. They were sleeping on the futon upstairs. I took this sweet picture before I had to wake them to go pick Anders up from school. You'll be happy to know I only missed one small turn on that trip and really didn't get lost at all.
Thursday morning we were up early to get back on the train. We spent a bit more time in the observation/lounge car this time. It was a little more comfortable and we could all sit together. It was also nice to be able to watch the Mississippi roll past.
Later we went back to the lounge car- which was much busier around lunch time- and got lucky to find an unoccupied table on the lower level. We sat there to have our pb&j and train-purchased milk and Doritos (gasp!)
I did try to get the kids to nap a little bit after lunch, which was unsuccessful. This photo was taken about 5 minutes before our stop, though. Clara was listening to Annie and finally just conked out.
Pete was a minute late to pick us up, so I snapped this quick photo. Does it look like we've just been on an 8 hour train trip?
Thanks to Will and Sandy for hosting us for our Spring Break! It was fun to spend time with them. We also got to have dinner with Sarah and Josh, which was great...though no photos. They did become a little obsessed with helping Henry think of "-ous" words which his class has been collecting. I'm not sure if he should go back and share androgynous though.
Today Pete stayed home from work and we just had a nice quiet day at home. So pleasant!
On Friday we had some beautiful weather. We took it easy in Anders' back yard. Clara really enjoyed his swing. I'm not sure if I've written about this before, but Henry has never enjoyed swinging- from the time he was a baby. Even now he'll only swing a little bit before he shouts "stop!" I can't quite figure out how any child of mine can't enjoy swinging.
Will has been working on this crazy old bike....what the hell's it called Will? And he hooked it up to the Burly and took Henry and Anders for several trips up and down the alley.
They are pals.
Will also got out his steam engines to show Henry. I got the feeling he's been itching to do this. I'm sure he can't wait for Anders to be old enough to play with his toys with him.
Clara and Anders spent quite a bit of time poking at each other. Clara seems to have learned some bad affection habits from her friend Sebastien. She likes to grab on tight to people, babies, animals...and pull them in and bury her face in them....often with her mouth wide open. It's especially bad when she tries it on the hind end of the cat. She is also very into pointing out eyes, ears, nose, mouth....but she sometimes misses and gets her finger IN your eye (or ear or nose or mouth). This is not such a big deal with us, but it's not so pleasant for little babies.
Dad was driving up to his place in Wisconsin and came over for a night so we could spend some time with him. Here's Clara brushing her hair for the wedding (oh yeah- we were in MN to attend the wedding of Pete's cousin. Thus "Cousins"). Please note the adorable green dress with the eyelet lace.
And here she is brushing Grandpa's hair. Dad thought Clara was a little unsure of her Grandpa, but I could tell she was actually quite fond of him.
Finally, here's a family picture from Mary's camera. This is all of us at the wedding.
I'll try to post some more from that event tomorrow. I'll just add blogging to my list of things to do on my "day off" (laundry, planting, grading, bathroom cleaning, meeting at school, etc.)
