Back to Rochester

We got up and going early to head back to Rochester the next morning (are we crazy? yes.) It was the Friday before the 4th of July weekend and we were concerned about traffic going through the lakes region of Minnesota. Everyone and their family takes off for the lakes over the long weekend along with their campers, boats, and trailers which adds up to TRAFFIC. I don't like to spend more than one minute longer in the car than necessary, so I was willing to get up early to hopefully beat the rush.

As far as I know, it worked out in our favor. We hit a little traffic in the cities as expected, but had no other trouble along the way. Our little travelers do such a great job! Back in Rochester, we settled in to enjoy some more grandparent time - including a few projects. We love projects (really, we do).

Reading with Grandpa KevinColoring with Grandpa HeidtPlaying Legos at Grandpa Heidt'sWalking to the park with Grandpa Heidt
Getting a great big push from Grandpa
Amelia thought it might be more fun to push GrandpaTurned out to be less work just to ride on his lap
Mama was hot. There was a teeny tiny corner of shade on this Kevin Langlie bench. It was good to remember him.MILESTONE: we took the kids to their first movie, Cars 2. They were SO! EXCITED!William was so into every little thing about the experience. Even the Cars 2 reading material.
Amelia was also impressed, although not as excited.

I thought Amelia might sleep through the movie. She did not. You could tell she was pretty overwhelmed by the noise by looking at her face. She really wanted to sit with someone the whole time. I was expecting the storyline to be along the lines of the first movie and was sadly mistaken. William cried through much of the movie, which made me sad because it was supposed to be something special for him. This time around is more of a James Bond storyline in which the cars are equip with GUNS and BOMBS and other spy tools. In the first movie, the lovable character, Mater was looking for a best friend. In the second movie he was more worried about getting a bomb off himself that the bad guys had planted. It just seemed unnecessarily violent and scary for a movie geared towards kids.

Luckily, there hasn't been any negative side effects other than scaring the pants off William in the theater. Both kids have spent hours playing "Cars II" together - so maybe what I thought was a bad thing ended up bringing them together?

One project: strawberry picking and jam making. Grandma and Mama took the kids berry picking in the morning and made jam in the afternoon sans kids while the guys worked on sanding, washing, repairing, painting and putting back together Grandpa's deck.