Minnesota Vacation

Just under 2 weeks after we arrived in North Carolina we packed our bags again and headed to MN for Jon's biannual family reunion.  Thankfully I had convinced Jon that taking on another 18 hour (1 way) drive 2 weeks after our 36 hour drive to NC was craz,y and we got to fly to MN.  It was the first time Katie had been on a plane and Colton's only time since he was 6 months old.  We were a little nervous but they did pretty well and were excited about the whole thing!

It was really hard getting any decent pictures on the plane but I needed to keep at least one to document their first flight- so here it is! 

We were in MN for about 10 days, most of which was at Flandrau State Park in New Ulm where Jon's family had rented out a Scout camp with little cabins for the week.  It's nothing fancy and it was super hot but we all had pretty fun!  We got to go swimming at the park's swimming hole, where the kids enjoyed paddling around and digging in the sand, spend lots of time playing with cousins, go on a short hike to a pretty waterfall, tube down the river, and the adults even got to go out one night to a restaurant while the older cousins babysat!  The tubing was an interesting experience.  We were nervous about bringing our kids but decided we might as well try and see what happened.  I think it may have gone a little smoother had it not happened over nap time, but all in all they did alright.  After Katie cried the first 15 minutes straight because she wanted her own tube and didn't want me to share it with her, she calmed down and both kids seemed to enjoy it for about the next hour.  It was just the last half hour or so when they got sick of it and started whining again (and we just had to deal with it since there was nowhere else to go) that it got a little obnoxious!  All in all, more positives than negatives and I'm glad we did it!  Jon's sister was the star of the reunion since she bought her own snow cone maker and brought it to the park!  It was definitely a high point of each day and I think I'm convinced I need to buy one now...

It's always lots of fun spending time with Jon's family!  There are nine kids in Jon's family- all married- and 33 grand-kids, with 3 more on the way, and they are all loud and crazy in their own ways!   They are always good for some good games and conversation and fun debates!  It's gonna be a hard couple years living so far away from any of mine or Jon's family, but it'll give us time to make new friends and enjoy time with our own little growing family :)

Grandkids!  I think you can tell how good the parents are by how happy the children look...

Day Family 2015