At the cottage.

Netta.

Bailey.

I saved these to post in hopes that they might cheer up my mother who is no doubt by now missing Netta and Bailey quite a bit. And us her.

Netta holds on a hotel bed.

When we drove recently to Wisconsin and then on to Indiana we took our sweet time. Stopped super often at little city parks to play or, if necessary, indoor play areas at the ‘french fry place’. It took quite a while to get where we were going but the trip in itself was actually quite fun at times. And of course totally horrible at others.

Art (and Lewis some) listened to many books on tape, we all listened to music, everyone took naps (expect papa). But I think the highlight, at least for the boys, were the hotels. And of course the pools (which I have no photos of). I remember traveling when I was a kid and how incredibly hard it was to wait to arrive at the hotel and a fun pool.

Anyway, both babies slept in a pack and play and each parent with a kid. I enjoyed being packed in like sardines, we made good use of our tiny room.

trying to feed babies high-chairless and table-less.

An escapee!

At home we often watch one night time TV show. Here the boys are watching one via Netflix on my fancy phone.

And, as per tradition, the boys had some sort of fruit as a night time snack.

We planned time in our return trip to stop in downtown Chicago to visit the Field Museum. Last time we were in town our membership at the MN Zoo got us in free and we assumed it would again. Wrong! So that was a bummer for everyone. It woulda cost nearly $100 to pay to get in for our short stay. Ugh. So we powered through up towards Milwaukee to stay overnight. That was actually a pretty horrible day of traveling. Everyone was disappointed, hot, super slow long traffic jams out of Chicago, no place to stop and play, and a shitty hotel with biting flies in the swimming pool. I remember once all four kids were finally asleep Jess and I talked briefly about how we may have just experienced the worst moment of our parenting lives. As I just recalled this with Jess and she shrugged and said, “Yeah, but it’s nice how temporary that stuff is.” And it’s true. It’s hard to even remember the details. The next day we stopped briefly at the disappointing zoo in Milwaukee and continued all the way home to Minneapolis, a long but much happier day.

Art roaming around the Milwaukee zoo.

Jessica reading books to our kids and couple others thrown in during our recent vacation at the cottage.

We stopped by the lumber yard (actually, the Yarnelle Lumber Company) when we were in Wabash to visit my grandma. Uncle Ken (my mom’s brother) and his wife Jill pretty much run the place by themselves (it’s been in the family for generations). Wabash has big box stores and Home Depot now but the lumber company has survived, a triumph in itself in my view.

Bailey and Ken

Baily and Jill

Art got to ride the conveyor belt in the lumber yard, something I remember doing when I was Art’s age. It’s SO FUN!

More photos from our recent vacation.

A baby gets baptiz–I mean gets her hair washed in the lake.

Jessica said she used to do this in the lake when she was a kid. Just lay around and blow bubbles and float.

3, 2, 1, BLASTOFF!

On a walk with Netta and Bailey near the cottage in Wisconsin.

My grandmother is nearly 90. She always asks about our kids, especially Netta and Bailey who she had never met. We send her tons of photos but there’s just nothing like holding them in your arms. So making the trek to Wabash, Indiana, my mother’s hometown, was worth the drive.

As soon as we arrived she dug up a some baby clothes she bought for them.

She adores Jessica and loves to tell me how wonderful she is. “Oh Ben, she just such a good mother. I just, I mean, I can’t tell you how much….” Stuff like that.

Each Monday Grandma goes to Hardees to meet her friends and chat. We were in town only two days so she called an emergency meeting on Thursday morning.

Lewis, wonderfully, preferred to sit on his own at a table across the restaurant. I don’t know why but I really love that he ate on his own and to not come join the group. I think he was a little overwhelmed and wanted to make some space for himself. Good on you, Lewis.

Netta, however, was in a great mood.

We left back to Minnesota after Hardees. We fully expect to visit again but we all realize grandma’s almost 90 so saying goodbye was especially sad.