They're Baaaaaacccckkk!

No worries, no chores, no rules, no parents.....what a life! Olivia and Tony just returned from their 2 week odyssey to Minnesota. Gr/Gr Maras came down to Blair to pick the kids up. After a nice visit, including a trip to the Omaha Art Fair, they loaded up the car and headed north. Their first destination was Hibbing, where they got to spend some time with their Auntie Jojo, Auntie Jen and cousin's Lizzie and Drew. I hope someone will email me a picture of all the fun. From what we hear it involved sleeping in a tent, bouncing on the trampoline and even a little fishing!
After a couple days of being spoiled at Gr/Gr Thompson's in Mt. Iron, the kids headed to Elk River to see Auntie Ernie, Uncle Jeff and our newest cousin Baby Celia. More adventure awaited them as they splashed in Celia's pool, ate lot's of ice cream and took a trip to the Como Zoo.

Celia is now crawling and has developed a wonderful, playful personality. I drove up on Sunday, July 1st and spent most of my time with my lips plastered to those wonderful cheeks!!!! The kids and I really enjoyed getting to know her. Such a sweetie!!!

During our stay in Elk River, we took the kids to Benihana's to eat. What fun! We all enjoyed the "show" and it was a really neat experience for the kids, as well as the adults. Our chef even tried flipping a piece of chicken into Tony's open mouth...he hit his bottom lip, and impressed us all! There were lot's of ooh's & ahh's as he flipped shrimp tails into his hat and pockets and made a volcano out of onions and saki!

After our visit in Elk River we headed south to Woodbury where Uncle Brian and Auntie Amanda live. The kids love visiting their "hotel" and swimming in the pool. Brian was a good sport and had fun with them in the water. Brian and Amanda are searching for their first house, hope they find one with a pool!

Liv and Tony were really taken by Brian's guitar...they spent a lot of time listening to him play, dancing to the music and learning how to strum a little themselves. Keep practicing Brian, you're doing great!

Our visit took place over the 4th so all of us headed downtown St. Paul to visit the capital building and the cathedral. It was a lot of walking, but the kids enjoyed the sights. After working up an appetite we headed next to Taste of Minnesota, which was on Harriet Island.

Brian and his "homey" ham it up as they enjoy some corn on the cob. By this time we had already eaten snow cones, cheese curds, sprial potatoes, lemonade.....yikes. Believe it or not, after we left the festival we headed to the Dairy Queen! It's all about the food isn't it??????

We finished up a busy 4th of July by taking in the beautiful St. Paul skyline and fireworks at Mound Park. All of us slept in the next day, enjoyed a homemade breakfast of yummy Finnish Pancakes made by Amanda, loaded up the minivan and headed back to Nebraska. The kids had a blast, but were very happy to see Daddy and Nelson!!!!

Thank you to everyone for a wonderful trip. Our children are SO blessed to have all of you in their lives. They are great kids, and all of you can take some credit for that. As I wrap up this entry, we will be preparing Chris for a trip to Manchester, England. He leaves this Sunday and will return July 20th. We wish him safe travels - he will be missed!

Hakuna Matata!