Home again

We had a fantastic opportunity to spend a couple of weeks with family up in Minnesota and had a fabulous time! Here are some of the highlights! Sorry if some of it is a repeat from the last post!

-We were able to do things we had never done before, despite living in MN for 2 1/2 years! This included walking the sky way throughout Minneapolis, going to the Como Zoo and having the IKEA experience!

-The Como Zoo makes the fifth zoo we have been too over the past year with Granny! We have also been to the Hogle Zoo (Salt Lake), the Minneapolis/St. Paul Zoo, the Sioux Falls Zoo, the Memphis Zoo and now the Como zoo and conservatory. We had so much fun (as always) looking at all of the animals and learning new fun facts. We now consider ourselves zoo connoisseurs!

-IKEA is now my new favorite store. It's probably a good thing we don't have one within a hundred miles of us! You can seriously get everything you need there and for ridiculously reasonable prices! Plus they have great meatballs and there lignonberry jam is delish!

-We were able to see my baby brother Trey go to prom. It was so fun to see him all dressed up! He looked so grown up! Don't let that fool you however, he is still a kid at heart! :)

-We were also able to see Trey perform in a couple of track meets. He throws the shot put and discus and is pretty much amazing! They even wrote an article about him in the local paper, entitled "Trey's Anatomy".

-We had the best time spending time with family--Granny, Grampy, Trey, Patty and Eric. The girls had so much fun, despite being sick, with all of them and we created some great memories.

-Patty and Eric, our families political fanatics, taught the girls to say Obama. We are now the proud owners of a stuffed guinea pig with that same name. Seriously, what 3 1/2 year olds support politics? Apparently ours does! :)

-We were able to talk to Elder Bubba on the phone as he left the MTC and headed to Switzerland! It was so good to hear his voice! We also got to listen to the most amazing message on my parents answering machine. This sweet woman, whom met Clay on the airplane from SLC to Chicago called to inform all of us of what an amazing young man Clayton is and how strong his spirit is and how happy he is. All things we already knew of course! :)

-The girls did get pretty sick, but we were lucky to have Granny there to help out! She is truly an angel!

-We experienced winter in what was supposed to be spring! We had 6+ inches fall one day and Aleece was certain that that meant Santa was supposed to come that night! Minnesotans have been referring to the date as February 85th and so on! They really haven't gotten a spring at all because it has been so cold!

-Madelaine learned several new words, including several names. Some of these are Granny, Grampy, Trey, Patty, Sully, sit, chocolate, jacket, blanket, and several others.

-Granny and Grampy were so good to us--they took great care of us and neither the girls nor I wanted to leave.

Here are some more pictures from our wonderful trip! We miss everyone already, but are glad we will see them again soon!!! Thanks for all of the fun!

Click on the image to enlarge! :)