the last few weeks...minnesota & south dakota

holy moly... i have a lot of pictures to unload here! the last two weeks of july were very busy. we all went back home to visit family in MN & SD - yay! we flew into minneapolis, rented a mini-van (hehehe) & drove up to northern MN to see my family for almost a week, then headed to eastern SD to see jon's family for a week, THEN drove back to minneapolis to fly back to WA. wow. a lot of travel, a lot of go, go, go, and a bit of stress with the kids...but it was all worth it :) 

so this about sums up our trip...

grady celebrated his 3rd (OMG...3rd?) birthday! tear :'( my little boy is growing up!
gram and gramps got him a cars cake, and he couldn't wait to pull off the cars to play with.

playing with cars & planes with gpa glen

the cars track grady got for his b-day was also drew's favorite toy throughout the week

we drove to the top of the big hill in virginia to see the big mining trucks!
very cool for me... i hadn't been there since i was little.

grady was a big fan, and requested to go back to see them daily after that.

on grady's birthday we decided to go to the aquarium in duluth, since he enjoyed the seattle one so much. we had planed on hitting up the park nearby and walking around canal park, but unfortunately the weather didn't end up being too great until later in the day... we made it out to birthday lunch anyway.

boys checking out the fish

looking out at lake superior

playing with boats at the aquarium was a highlight for this guy

ended up walking down to a park when we got back...i played here when i was a little kid

new football bubble blower

one of my favorite pictures of grady and my dad.

going for a ride on what grady called a tractor (close enough, right?)

he was as nervous as he looks

trying to get a picture with great-gma marcia, but drew wasn't into cooperating :(

 well... grady is fairly obsessed with police cars and fire trucks (as everyone knows). so, since gpa glen is a retired police officer, he called a buddy of his to have him pull out a police car and open up the fire station for graders...even got to listen to sirens!

 we tried to get him inside to look around and sit on the seat, but he was too scared... so the steps were about as close as he would get. silly kid!

dinner out on our last night in MN

partial family picture, after dinner

a stop at DQ..

next stop, watertown...

watched uncles' cullen, chandler & jordan at their softball tournament in sioux falls on our first day in town. it was 90+ degrees and HUMID.. uck.

also stopped over at one of my best friends house while we were in sioux falls and visited with her and her little boy, hudson :)

this was as cooperative as grady would be for a picture

ride back to the ball field...

tired dudes.

we got to see an air show that was going on that afternoon as well! very cool.
grady played with his little 'mini jets' back at the house all week

 at the local pool/waterpark
we met jon's buddy travis and his nephew there

grady contemplated going down the baby slide for a loooong time.
neither mom nor grandma could convince him.

in the end...just too scary :) hehe

splashing good time

spent some time at the bowling ally with g-pa doug. this was their first time bowling - they were both big fans! we'll definitely have to go again.

grady had more fun waiting for the ball to come up. he didn't even watch most of the time to see if he knocked any pins down.

drew's turn. grady was really happy to share as you can see ;)

reunited with jack :) 

i missed my buddy. i think he was just as excited to see me - i was happy he didn't forget me!

my skater boy

playing with uncle chandler

even cousin danielle drove up to see the boys!

spent some time at a play-place/arcade... 

drew had fun in the ball pit :)

and the slides were reeeeally fast, haha!

the boys favorite arcade game...

...until grady discovered skee ball 

(and all the other games you could whip a small ball as hard as you can)

BUDDY!

this motorcycle was grady's favorite. i'm pretty sure he was way too small for it (it was jordan's as a baby), but he didn't care...he cruised around forever on this thing.

great-aunt karen came to visit the boys again, too! :-)

pretend jet skiing with uncle jordan 

drew woke up during the middle of the night, close to every night of our trip...

some nights up for 20 minutes, and way too many up for 1.5-3 hrs...wide awake. ugh.

so, we watched little einsteins in bed (rather than run around and play with toys at 2 a.m.)

a short day at the lake. it was very windy... didn't last too long.

another day at the bowling ally.. g-gma pat and g-gpa don came to watch.

drew was pooped out though.

last night with the family.. had to get in a little more time on the trampoline

graders and gpa russ

and cuddle time with gma jeanie

well, we looked forward to this trip for so long... but it went way to fast :(

it was busy, and sometimes stressful - late bedtimes, missed naps, no routine (oh dear, no routines!?! eek)...and the kids are not the best travelers (to state it lightly).

but i am so happy for every day we had with everyone, and wouldn't change a thing.

drew is so young, and probably has no idea what is going on, but he was so so happy. and so so good. i don't know how many times everyone said what a good, mellow boy he is. 

and grady had the time of his life - this i know. i'm sure he is bored to death back at home now. i'm sure glad i have these pictures for him to look back on though, because he LOVES looking back at them and pointing out people and talking about the things we did. 

i feel like they both grow up significantly in such a short period of time each time we go home. it's nuts.

but now, life is back to normal, and that's nice too...