Minnesota Family Reunion Weekend

Last Friday, we sang to Jack and let him open his present, packed up the kids, and took off for Minnesota. It ended up being a wonderful weekend full of memories, and my only complaint, if you can call it that, is that I wish we had more time - it was over much too quickly.

Friday we arrived with no issues, and checked out my Mom's new townhouse (she works half time in the Cities, and had been renting an apartment there for years...with the housing market the way it is, it seemed a wise investment for her to purchase rather than continuing to rent). We let the kids run around like goofs and relaxed for a bit in her beautiful new place.

After a bit, my sister and her family arrived and we made our way over to have dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's place. We had a ride in the pontoon, a wonderful dinner, and then we sang to Jack to celebrate his 11th birthday.

"Grandpa, can I drive the boat please?" SO HAPPY.

cookie cake :)

the whole family

We stayed in a hotel with an indoor water park (quite by accident - I had no clue when I booked it). Friday night, it was pretty late by the time we got there, so the bigger kids checked it out quick and we made plans to swim in the morning. When morning came, neither Jenna nor I was really all that interested, so we sent John down with the rest of the crew for some fun. Well, 5 minutes later, they were back - James freaked the eff out and wouldn't go in. I figured, no biggee - I'd try with him later.

The reunion started at 11am at a teeny tiny town near where my parents grew up. ("Mom, not sure how to get there." "Um, Bobbi, there are only 2 intersections in town - you can't miss it." And she was totally right.) It was a beautiful day, despite the storms and rain we'd seen earlier, but the grass was a little squishy. Which stopped the kids not at all.

Now, I have a good 50 cousins (and that's being seriously conservative) and I grew up staying with some of them for weeks at a time in the summer. But living in Illinois, years go by before we see each other again. So it was really really lovely that so many could come and that we had the chance to catch up a little bit. I took zero photos, but here are a couple. I wish someone had thought to try to get a giant group picture, but no one did.

Julia had an amazing time with my cousin's kids and Sophia

nuthin' like the pic with food in your lap :)

When people started heading out, we headed back to the hotel for more water park fun. James still wanted no part of it, but I talked him into just checking it out with me, but not swimming yet. Well, once we got past the initial "it's LOUD Mommy!!" he couldn't wait to go back, and after dinner, we all went down til they kicked us out. And then again the next morning before heading home.

just to show how big it was in there...

walking up 4 stories worth of steps to ride the slides down

James loved the lazy river

Jenna steered him all around...

John and Julia coming out of the tunnel

The ride home took forever. We stopped at our friends and dropped off Jenna and Jack for the week for basketball camp, so it's been really quiet around here. Now I must go get my house in order for the summer birthday bash tomorrow. Have a great weekend!