Minnesota- Last Few Days

Saturday was kind of a down day, lots of relaxing, magazine reading, and videos for the kids. We did get outside for a while to play. Rohnda put up a swing last week on one of her trees, and the kids have enjoyed taking turns swinging on it. (Rachel hasn't enjoyed the taking turns part, but it is a good skill for her to start learning with the new baby coming!) I wish we could have gotten footage of two moms trying to throw a rope over a really high branch. I got it over on the first try, but we decided it needed to be moved over, and I was never able to get it over the branch far enough for us to grab it again. My last attempt ended with me twisting my ankle. I am very coordinated!

Sunday we went to church and were supposed to have company for lunch, but they had to cancel. Rohnda made chocolate soymilk popsicles and peach juice popsicles and my kids have been in dessert heaven. I need to buy some of those popsicle molds when I get home, although our new freezer is so small, I might not have room for them. Jeromy, I am officially lobbying for a second freezer. Can we please start looking in the classifieds and free ads? Not a fridge/freezer, we don't need the fridge part, just a freezer.

We were planning on going to the Mall of America on Tuesday, but at the last minute we decided to go on Monday, even though we were worried that it would be a madhouse because of Memorial Day. Wow, that is a big mall! It is four stories of stores wrapped around the amusement park rides in the middle. It really wasn't crowded and we had a blast! The kids all did great and got to ride rides and have lunch and walk around for a bit. I will do a full post with pictures when I get home. Iphoto is so much easier to use than Rohnda's program, so I am going to wait until I get back to my Mac.

Today, Tuesday, we are doing major pick-up and housecleaning. Man, 5 kids, 2 dogs and 2 adults can sure make a mess of a house in 12 days. I need to do some laundry and organizing to get everything to fit in an already really full suitcase. Rohnda's husband, David, comes home on Thursday, so she is trying to get a start on a clean house.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, Rohnda and the kids will take us to the airport leaving here at about 1 or 1:30 pm. My flight leaves at 3:30 pm. My kids have been napping from about 1:30-4, so no naps should be fun tomorrow on such a busy day. I am praying that we will have 3 seats on the return flight, and if we do, Rachel will at least sleep the whole way home. When we get to Seattle, I am planning on a stop at Trader Joes to stock up on all the things that we miss by not having one in the Tri-Cities. My in-laws have been bringing us cases of jelly (organic, 1/2 the sugar, raspberry) when they visit, but it will be nice to get all of our old stand-bys. I think we should get home around 9 or 10 pm, which for us will feel like 11 or 12 pm, so pray I can stay awake!

We have had a wonderful time visiting with our dear friends and have made many memories that we will be able to hold onto. We are looking forward to seeing Jeromy and are bummed that we will get home so late on his BIRTHDAY! What a bad family we are to not be with him, but he said that we could celebrate it after the fact this year.

That's it from Minnesota. I will post later this week after we are home and settled back in.