The E Journey: There and back again

Anika is going to be reading The Hobbit this year in school so I thought 'There and Back Again' was a fitting title.

Tuesday rolled around and Matt and the kids took off on the plane for Chicago. They easily made it on the flight to Sioux Falls, but the plane had a problem, so they had to get back off the flight. They finally arrived a few hours late in Sioux Falls and Grandma Nancy was there to greet them. They headed to Sioux Center and had a BLAST playing with 'cousins'. Swimming, playgrounds, laughing, dressing up, good food and good memories. It hurts to know they had this fun without me, but I'm oh so glad they had the fun.

Matt jumped right back on the plane and flew back to Chicago. Because of the delay, he missed the flight to Muskegon, so I listed him on a LATE flight to Grand Rapids. I picked him up around 12:20 AM and we were home by 1:30. He and I took off again on Thursday and made it into Minneapolis late Thursday evening where we were met by some friends from church who graciously opened their home to us.

My parents picked up the kiddos and kept them for a night. Then they brought them to the Cities for a three hour supper gathering with friends. From there, we said goodbye again and headed for our friends cabin near Brainerd, one of our favorite places on earth.

Fishing, swimming, knee boarding, tubing, splashing, laughing, skiing, and eating. We were sad that their church had baptism Sunday, as we love worshiping with them. But it was also an interesting experience to see baptism in the lake, and they had grilled chicken and corn on the cob for lunch afterwards. I also scored a great new toffee brownie recipe. Anika and Brandon both got up on skis, Brandon wakeboarded, Anika and Jessica went knee boarding, Anika, Brandon, and Jessica went tubing, and Maria and I hung out in the boat. Matt and I said we are definitely getting old, as we were quite content to enjoy watching our kids have fun. This is the first summer in several that I didn't ski, or even get in the lake!

Brandon's big large mouth bass catch

Sunday evening brought us back to the Cities and to our friends.

Monday morning we were back to our old adventures. Flying our the Cities with far too many children in one vehicle, way too much loud noises, and plenty of smiles and laughter. We found the Wild Rumpus book store. Its a quaint little store with live animals roaming freely inside, as well as many that are caged. We got there during preschool storytime and they were singing a song about a boa constrictor eating you. It was pretty cute. The kids wandered and pulled books and sat down and read. Here they are reading all the elephant and piggy books that were on the shelf. If you don't know Gerald and Piggie, check out Mo Willems, too funny!

There is even a little kids door cut into the larger adult door. Both are functional. The bathroom mirror is a fish tank. When the lights are out, you can see the fish, when the lights are on, its a functional mirror. Okee Dokee brothers CD was playing in the background. We were there for 1 1/2 hours!

Driving out, we started talking about the rose garden and how we always wanted to go, but never stopped. Well, we stopped. It was gorgeous, smelled great, and had fountains which provided plenty of fun and moisture for the smallest four. The big kids were fine climbing trees.