Monday, December 4, 2017

Thanksgiving in Minnesota


 My dad's side of the family always gets together for Thanksgiving in Minneapolis. The last time that Steve and I went was in 2012, when Nolan was just one-year-old. We really wanted to go again, but it took us a long time to decide if we could make it happen (based on the weather, finances, a 9 hour drive with three kids). We saw that no snow or rain was on the forecast, and Thanksgiving day was going to be a balmy 40 degrees, so we decided to go for it! And we ended up having an amazing trip!


On Wednesday, we drove as far as Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and the boys did really well in the car! Thursday morning, we headed in to Minneapolis to my Aunt Karen's house. No one on this side of the family had met August yet, so he had 32 special people to be introduced to! Here he is with Aunt Meg.


 His Great-Grandma LaVerne and Great-Grandpa Don were very happy to hold him. :)


<3 <3 <3


Grandma trying on the Mr Potato Head glasses :)


There was an unplanned blue plaid theme going on.


My cousins and me with our grandparents. 


Serious game-playing happened in the basement all day Thursday and Friday. 


August & Uncle Paul. August used to smile at everyone he saw, but now he gives this tough look while he's checking out a new person.  :)



Over a year ago, I found the graves of my grandma's parents. I didn't realize that my grandpa's parents were buried in the same cemetery, so this time, we went back and found them.


My great-grandpa Harold's gravestone was covered in overgrown grass and wet leaves, so Steve was resourceful and cleaned it up with baby wipes, water, and a dry diaper :)  Right next to it, my great-grandma Ragne's stone was perfectly clean. Harold was Danish, and Ragne was Norwegian, and both passed before I was born. The boys did a crayon-rubbing of the stones, which they thought was pretty cool.


On Friday, we went back to my Aunt Karen's house for our lefse-making Norwegian tradition.


Lefse is like a potato tortilla, and our favorite way of eating it is with butter and brown sugar. Mmm!



On Friday afternoon, several of us went to see the new US Bank Stadium where the Vikings play. It was larger than life!


Our whole family chipped in to buy a brick in memory of my dad. The bricks are the floor of this outdoor Viking ship.



Uncle John showed Nolan where to find my dad's brick.



Katie's two boys stayed in Nebraska with their dad, so she had a lot of attention to give Nolan and Ephraim. They totally fell in love with her!


The baby at the bow of the ship. It says, "Honor your legacy. Defend the north."


We ate dinner downtown at the Old Spaghetti Factory. After waiting an hour for seats, we waited two and a half more hours for food. We kept ourselves entertained with telling all of our engagement stories, and it ended up being a lot of fun! :)


We spent two nights with my cousin Lindsay and her family. The boys really liked playing with her kids!




Two days was not long enough to spend in Minneapolis, but we had to head home on Saturday. On the plus side though, we were able to stop and see my other grandpa on the way!


We had dinner at Culver's and really enjoyed our time with Grandpa and Gayle!


We had such a great trip, and I honestly wish we could do it all over again! I think the boys will carry memories of this weekend for a long, long time!

XO.

3 comments:

  1. Love these pictures! I miss you guys so much! ❤️

    ReplyDelete
  2. It looks like you guys had a full and happy holiday! <3

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a great family reunion. Especially, I really liked the UNPLANNED blue plaid theme. It seems You family really like blue plaid shirts. I love your Grandma too.

    ReplyDelete

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