more of the crazy...
Friday, we left the kids (big kids) with Bill and Pappy and headed into Edina for a Marsh spa day with the Schmitt ladies.
The crew - so thankful to be a part of the Schmitt family and Laura's sister crew. Also, thankful they waited until I was in town to do this fun day! Mary with Jane in the wrap, Kelly holding Lynnie, Margit, Me, Laura, Ruth, Amy, Lynn, Katie.
Mary with Jane on the deck calling the crew up for dinner.
Gotta love those stairs!
Melt my heart!!!
This swing was amazing until the rope broke!
Uncle Michael with Charlie.
Seriously Charlie loves Lynnie.
Sunday was our "catch up with good friends" day.
In the morning, Katie and Ryan Gunderson came over with their twin girls - Eva and Elise. So much fun continuing this friendship over the years. Ryan and Bill went to high school together and lived together in college so Ryan has been there since when Bill and I were just friends and he was just starting to date Katie. Crazy we both have 5 year old twin girls!
kid line up: Ellie, Claire, Charlie, Eva and Elise
Then in the afternoon, my dear friend from Rochester - Rachel drove up with her 4 (soon to be 5!!!) kids!
how I cherish the fact that our kids can just quickly reconnect and play.
Ellie feeding Lars some lake water and sand. MMMMM
this is our crew! Sadly, Hans (Rachel's husband) was on call so we missed it, but looking forward to their first trek to WA to visit us someday soon!
The attempted line up: Charlie, Thor, Kaia (holding Lars), Brita, Claire, Ellie.
the big three: Charlie and Kaia are a few months apart and Thor and the girls are the same.
then Brita started to get excited and started kissing Charlie. It was hilarious and Brita was loving the attention. I would love for a Sviggum/Schmitt marriage someday!
I was teasing Bill that what he mostly did during Old-Fashioned Summer was sleep and drink. He would sleep in and then drink coffee and quickly switch to beer midday. Here are 2 pictures for proof. In all reality I was thrilled that he could have some downtime!
sleeping (midday)
(drinking...also midday!)
Gamo (Laura's mom) has been in a lot of pain lately. Thankfully, she was able to get out to the house to see everyone one afternoon.
Gamo and Lynnie.
4 generations.
It was so precious - Claire was just chatting with Gamo about the movie Elf. Loved seeing how at ease she was with her. Where Ellie was a bit nervous.
Jane passed out. It was a race each day to see who could snatch her and then get to quietly sit and hold her instead of chase the kids around. This day - I won.
after a few days of lots of rain - we snuck out for a little bit of outdoor play before the next rainstorm hit.
on our last day there - it was rainy - so we headed to MOA for the Crayola Experience.
one cool area was a place where you could pose and then have a coloring sheet made of your faces. Here are my kiddos!
by this part of the trip they were SO over listening to instruction - so getting them to align in a row just wasn't happening.
we stopped at american girl and while the adults just relaxed the kids happily played with every display.
Bill had left MSP on Monday and I flew back with the kids on Thursday alone. I wasn't too worried about this because they are pretty big now, but I almost CRIED tears of JOY when we walked on and it was a NEW delta plane with TVs in each seat and you can choose your media!!! Happy kids - happy mom!
then at the end we stopped in to see the cockpit!
what a delightful trip! I cried leaving the babies and family. We love spending time with our Schmitt family and it is always hard to leave. However, I was delighted to get back to our dry air! Can't wait until next Old-Fashioned Summer!
