Minnesota Visit

Last week was conference week so we got Friday the 13th off and Presidents Day off. Finding ourselves with a 4-day weekend we headed up to Erin's house. Chris took some vacation and came with us which was really nice. I don't mind going by myself, but we're really glad he came. We left Thursday around 4, rolling into Elk River about 11 pm. It was so much fun hearing CC's squeals of delight when she woke up Friday morning!!! Friday we just stayed and played at Erin's house. Gramma and Papa arrived that afternoon...yay!

On Valentine's Day Livie and Celia donned matching side ponytails. She is at such a fun age for getting dressed.....can you say, "accessories????" I totally remember putting Erin's hair in side ponytails when she was little. Who knew they'd come back?

While Celia napped, (and Jeff and Papa napped) we headed to the Science Museum downtown St. Paul. It was a really interesting kid-friendly museum. Erin and Liv participated in a Tap vs. Bottled Water taste test. Tony went on ahead with Chris and speed-visited each exhibit.

After we finished at the museum and Celia woke up, we all met downtown at Rice Park. It was COLD but we managed to pose with some Charlie Brown statues and visit CandyLand.

We all kind of forgot it was Valentine's Day and tried to find a place to eat without reservations. Not only was it Valentines Day but there was a Wild hockey game that night also. We stumbled upon PazzaLuna and they were kind enough to find us spot back in the bar area. Here you see everyone in our party except Chris and I....we had to sit at a separate table. How romantic. Even though we couldn't sit together we enjoyed great service and DELICIOUS food. I highly recommend it!

Celia woke us up each day at the crack of 6 a.m. Well, she woke up Erin, Tony and I. The rest of the bums slept in. That's ok....we enjoyed every minute we got to spend with her! Thank goodness Tony is a good reader. We put him in charge of Celia while Erin and I drank our coffee.

On Sunday Uncle Jeff made everyone pancakes. I taught him to make "mickey mouse" pancakes...you don't have to go to Perkins Jeff!!!! I'm quite certain this will not be the last time Celia has this for breakfast!!!!

Later on Sunday, Brian, Amanda and Cal drove down for a visit. They are getting ready to move and are cleaning out their freezer. Lucky for us that meant a FISH FRY with Canadian Walleye....yum!!! We also celebrated my birthday and Brian's, which is March 1st which was fun. We all enjoyed getting to see Cal again. He has changed so much since Christmas! I love this picture...he is always that happy and smiley.

I don't know whose idea this was.....but it turned out to be a funny picture. Liv's stack was REALLY high, that girl can jump! I just wasn't able to capture it on film, she's too fast.

CC just had fun jumping in general. I love this shot of her...her feet are hardly ever on the ground.

Ah, what a nice picture. My kids just seem so BIG when we all get together. Yikes. We sure do enjoy the new little additions to our family. All four of them are truly blessings.

My kids don't get much exposure to babies. They have more fun once they get older. Tony discovered playing with Cal...isn't this cute? They were BOTH belly laughing. I hope Cal is walking when we visit this summer...however, the way that little boy scoots around I'm certain he is going to go from crawling to RUNNING!!!

CC giving some love to her big cousin Olivia. She wants to do everything Livie does...good thing she is such a great role model!

After a long day of visiting with family, Tony and CC spent some quiet time building Elk River.

We had a wonderful visit with everyone. Thank you Skubics for your always stellar hospitality. Thank you Gramma and Papa for driving down to see us and thank you Thompson's for spending the day in Elk River....we'll miss you! Good luck on your ADVENTURE to Connecticut!