A Special Visit

Mom and dad called to let us know that they were planning a trip to Detroit Lakes and could they come visit us in August.  Of course we wanted them to come!  We marked the calendar and counted down the days.

As a young girl, mom would spend her summer family vacation at Detroit Lake.  Much has changed she said but one house was familiar.  She knocked on the door to see if she could take a picture of the home and found out that the woman living there was a girl she used to play with.

This is another chum from back in the day.  He still had the same canoe they use to ride in.

Mom and dad arrived in Maple Grove around lunch and got settled.  We ate taco salad and the kids made chocolate covered bananas (some had nuts).  Grandpa was very excited to show the kids a story on his i-pad (the princess and the pea).

I watched the weather closely all day to see if our plans for golf on Thursday morning would pan out since thunderstorms were in the forecast for Wed.  At the last minute, I got a babysitter and we decided to play Wed. evening ‘til the sun went down.  The weather was perfect and we had a great time.

RJ sank this putt!  (Well we had to reenact it since I missed the real deal)

That night RJ came to New Brighton with me and played volleyball.  We steered clear of being on the same team until the very end.  Maybe our marriage could survive on the Amazing Race!

Thursday morning we drove to Fish Lake and rented a canoe and row boat for 30 minutes.

Mom and Dad have treated us to dinner and lunch so many times, I wanted to take them to a really nice restaurant for once.  I know they like Chinese food so I talked RJ into taking us to P.F. Changs.  It was really good but I think we would have enjoyed Panda Express just as much.

We drove downtown to Comedy Sportz after dinner.  The ref. cracked a joke off the bat at dad’s expense and I think it turned dad off for the rest of the show.  RJ, mom and I had several good laughs though. We love comedy sportz.

Friday was the kids’ day.  We took them to the Mall of America and purchased all day wrist bands for each of them.  It was really fun watching them laugh and smile.  Some rides require a chaperone so we took turns riding with the kids.

 

Hunter’s facial expression was one of sheer terror.  He decided once was good enough but McKenna took grandma.

We came home and did pizza and a movie.  So fun!

Saturday morning we went to Elm Creek to a manmade beach with chlorinated water.  We started a castle but Reagan crushed it so we had a water fight. Mom and dad bought the kids new swimming suits and coverlets.

Dad pulled this picnic table over to the shade and spent the first half hour plotting what he would say if a lifeguard came and told him to move it.

Reagan loved hauling books downstairs for grandpa to read to her.

Mom worked tirelessly on crocheting these small afghans for still born babies in Oregon.  I think she finished 8 from the time she arrived to the time they dropped Hunter off.

Saturday afternoon we did sealings at the St. Paul temple.

I got up at 5:30 a.m. on Monday morning to run about 5 1/2 miles in preparation for ragnar.  Dad delayed leaving that morning to ride my bike along side me.  I really appreciated that.  We had a great visit with them and were sad to see them leave.  They took Hunter down to Ohio with them to spend time with Sean and Melissa’s family and go to Nauvoo.  It was a once in a life time chance for him to spend that much time with his grandparents.  We are so glad he got to go and he is so glad that he got to play Ticket to Ride on grandpa’s i-pad for about 30 hours and eat treats to his heart’s content.