Trip to MN

Over Thanksgiving we took a road trip to Minneapolis, MN. A trip that clocked out on Google maps, should have only taken us 10hrs. However when you add rush hour through Chicago, Thanksgiving traffic and one of the first big snows we have seen, plus a 2 year old who need to get out and run around so he doesn't drive his parents crazy :)...the actual time of the trip was 13 hours (10 of which I drove, by the way). The actual trip was actually pretty good except for the stand still in Chicago, but we got over it! Josiah was great!!!! I hardly heard a peep out of him. He just watched his movies and slept! He actually slept really great from about 9:00 pm on, which was awsome!!!

We got there at about 2:30 am and of course Josiah woke up...cause that's what he does when the car slows down. We let him run around, while we got everything set up and he went right to bed like a champ. I was so excited! We read his nighttime book which we read every night and off to bed he went...not a peep! It was so great to see our good friends: Jeremiah, Kelly and Brayden (almost 2 also)!

Since Josiah had been sleeping since 9:00 am, he was up bright and early! And boy was he a crab! He was kind of crabby and sick the whole time..poor kid and poor us. Dan had gone on a hunting trip and was gone for 5 days, so that was all mom time. Well, when Dan got back, Josiah didn't really want anything to do with him. There were only 3 days from when he got home until we left on our trip, so that little charade continued. Josiah would get really mad if Dan came near him or tried to pick him up. Not always, but much of the time. The longer we were there, the more crabby he got! He did have good times and times when he played really well with Brayden. But there were many rough times too!

Ok, so that was the tough part, but we had a great time. It was fun seeing the two boys playing together. Josiah was kind of a bully at times. For example, he walked up to Brayden and just shoved him down. Both hands to push him down. So we had to get after him and eventually he realized he couldn't push Brayden down without consequenses. Josiah loved playing with all of Brayden's toys! They had this little microwave that has a timer on it which beeps when the time was up. He loved that thing. And of course he loved the trucks. He even used a dump truck as a stepping stool to get to the light switch. Silly guy!

We pretty much relaxed most of the time we were there. We took a couple of walks with the boys, which was premediated on our part. We wanted them to take good naps and that was one way to ensure that would happen ;) And that they did. Josiah took 2 1/2 to 3 hour naps the whole time we were there. And that seems to have continued since we got home. yay!!! I got some great naps while we were there as well. I don't think I missed a nap :)

We did alot of visiting. We played a fun round of Cranium! Always fun with the right people. I got one spread done of scrapbooking. There wasn't alot of time left over, once we took naps every day. Plus there was a lot of preparation for Thanksgiving dinner. Dan and Jeremiah played a lot of computer games and played a couple of games of chess. When Jeremiah's parents came, they went to see the movie "Beowolf". So once again the guys got to go out and do something and us girls never got a chance to get out. Well we did get out for an hour shopping, but we were picking up stuff we needed for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving dinner was awsome!!

Menu

Appetizers
chex mix
crab dip
cheese and crackers
veggies and dip

Main Course

Salad

Green bean casserole

Mashed potatoes and gravy

Sweet potatoes

Corn

Ham and Turkey

Desert

Pumpkin Pie

Apple Crisp

Real whipped cream

The food was great the first time, but even better the second time :) Josiah was a stinker about food most of the time we were there (but then again he usually is). But he wouldn't eat anything for Thanksgiving dinner. But he didn't beg for food for the rest of the night either, so he must not have been hungry. One thing that I was really surprised that he ate was this incredible soup that Kelly made. It had mushrooms, carrots, ham, rice and lots of yummy cheese and some other stuff that made it really good! But I was certain that Josiah wouldn't eat it. But like kids love to do, he proved me very wrong. He ate a lot of it and seemed to love it. Even Brayden ate some of it and seemed to like it as well. Moral of that story is that kids love to prove parents wrong.

I am sure there is so much more to write about, like our trip to Mall of America, lunch with my friend from high school, Dan's meeting with a company in Minneapolis. But I don't have time today. I will have to post at another time :) Plus this is one monster post as it is.

We did get some really great pictures while we were there, but I am going to have to post them at another time, because I didn't get all the MN pictures copied to bring to work with me. So maybe tomorrow I will be able to do that.