Over the river and through the woods

Since we didn't get to spend any time during the official holidays with the Karstens family we ventured out after the storm subsided and took advantage of our extra time off from school to do some visiting. We spent Sunday night in Hutch with Gramma Lorraine. We had the hotel pool all to ourselves and had a blast. Em is truly a fish, getting out of the pool, running to the deep end ladder, jumping into our arms and wiggling all the way back to the steps to get out and do it again. Will was not so adventurous but did stay in the water on the steps and was willing to go out in my arms to retrieve a ball from time to time.

Monday we headed to Auntie Lisa's neck of the woods. We shopped for a few hours at IKEA while Lisa worked. Will wasn't so happy about the whole adventure as we wouldn't let him run amok throught he store. He eventually laid down with a little pillow and puppy he talked us into buying and waited until we had satisfied our crazy need for Swedish deals. When we got to Lisa's we had a little pizza and watched some Jimmy Neutron. Duchess even came down for an unusual visit. Will took a few photos to commerate the occasion.Happy Daddy

Mom and Lisa checking out the calendar Gram made for her.Pretty DuchessBeloved space shuttle was with us every step of the way.


The last leg of our journey took us to Clearwater to Vickie and Bruce's house. McKenna, Vickie and Bruce's 8 year old great neice, was there visiting and was so very excited to get to spend some time with "Ems". On our way from the Cities we saw a billboard and were thrilled to find out that the Stearns County Museum was hosting an exhibit we never thought we would have the chance to see - Sue the T-rex usually located somewhere in South Dakota. Will is interested in anything involved with dinosaurs so we thought he would be excited to see the real thing. Alas, he ran through the exhibit and we had to chase and retrieve him kicking and screaming - literally. Eventually he calmed down and did take some time to look at her. He even stopped long enough to let me take a picture.Will and SueWhat an amazing discovery!We went back to the house and opened some gifts and played and watched movies and ate - fulfilling the required elements of a family holiday. Then we got up Wednesday morning and headed home. It was so fun to see everyone in their own space and the kids did great with all the driving and sleeping in different beds every night. We may even try something like it again some day. Some day.