Vacation Round 3.1: Winnipeg BONUS

Amelia put on an impromptu performance down in the pavilion at The Forks. These pictures were so sweet, the deserved their own post.

This might be my all time favorite picture of my daughter

Love this girl

Please Ignore, Under construction

I'm working hard here, people. I have a lot of pictures to sort through from four different devices (2 camera, 2 cell phones- isn't my life terrible?) I'm putting pictures up here and then sorting them out online because that is working better than anything else right now. Sorry if that is confusing!

PS I don't know why it is underlined and I can't make it stop.

Vacation Round 3.1: Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Somewhere about 2 weeks before we were going to leave for our summer trip, I mentioned to John that I was considering driving to Canada for a few days in the middle of the trip. No notice, no plans, and no idea what would be required to do this, John just said "Okay" and proceeded to figure it out. That is just one of the reasons I love this man. I present him with the impossible task of making a manageable trip to a different county with minimal notice and he doesn't try to talk me out of it, doesn't stare at me like I am crazy. Just rolls with it and reads all the fine print about taking our family to Canada, leaving me the fun (no, really) part of researching what to do and where to stay. I had not one worry about the passport situation (yes, we needed them and yes, we had them).

We left on Wednesday after another lunch at La Campana (mmmmm...) and drove the 2 and a half (ish) hours to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Winnipeg=134

William's excitement over visiting a new country: Zzzzzzzz

Amelia's equal excitement about going through customs

Welcome to Manitoba!

This was our first time in Manitoba and first time in Winnipeg. I had checked out several Canada books from the library before leaving home and read them on the way to North Dakota. Because I'm organized like that. We arrived and checked in before heading out to the "Forks" area - names because it is the place where the Red River and the Assiniboine River meet (not fork away from each other as the name implies). This area is significant because it has been continuously used as a trading/commerce meeting point for hundreds of years. Now it is a shopping/tourist area that had a lot to look at for both grown ups and kids. We checked out the riverfront, a prairie restoration project, The Forks Market stalls and The Forks Amphitheater (sadly, empty) before eating at a true Canadian gem: Old Spaghetti Factory.

William in the Manitoba visitors' center at The Forks.

Amelia at the Manitoba Visitors' center at The ForksThe kids at The Forks
Walking the riverfront. There are supposed to be other walking paths and informational signs here, but they are all under water.View of the facade of the old French cathedral. Sadly, we did not get to explore the French section of Winnipeg as I would have liked!Most of the signs here were in English, French and Native languages.
Did you know I love taking pictures of bikes? No? Well, now you do.

Flower Mama? Yes please, sweet girl!

Inside the Forks Market stall area. A large group dressed for prom (? On a random Tuesday at 4:30pm?) was using the stairwell for a group picture so John snuck this picture from above.

After a little more wandering, we went back to our hotel to get the kids their promised pool time. William has really grown with his comfort in the water through the swimming lessons he took earlier in the summer (I know, I missed blogging them. Maybe I'll get to pictures? No promises). With the intentions of keeping the kids' schedule close to the same, we tried to put them to bed about 8:30pm. Bedtime was NOT a highlight. Neither kid was asleep until after 10:30pm, largely because it was still light out and the curtains didn't have great coverage.

Vacation Round 2: Grand Forks

After some Rochester fun, we loaded back into the car on Monday (June 27) for our trek to Grand Forks, ND to visit my grandparents. It is a very special thing to have 4 grandparents living in the same town just blocks from each other! We had planned two days for visiting and going to all our favorite North Dakota places!


La Capana

Digger Park

(PHOTOS HERE? FIND THEM ON PHONE. KELLY THIS MEANS YOU)

The first day it was pretty chilly - mid 50's. William was not about to let that stop him from going to his "favorite" park ever - THE DIGGER PARK.

Obviously, it warmed up over the next couple of days into the upper 90's. This is just one reason why I am unable to pack for a trip to North Dakota and why it requires so much STUFF.

Fireman Park (formerly known as Wobbly Park)

I try for a picture in front of this sign every year. These were the best two of the bunch.

Wennersten's

*Somehow we didn't end up with any pictures at McGarry's? How can that be?

A big thank you to my Grandpa Tom and Grandma Gerry for hosting us! It is a lot of work to have 2 very active preschoolers around! Thanks for all your help!

PS Amelia misses Barney!

William's version of the monkey bars

Look at me Grandma Nona! Look at me Grandma Gerry! Also, for the record, this was her first time climbing up on this toy. She practically has to lift her foot over her head.

William learns a new trick (is that his MOTHER encouraging him to participate in dangerous things?)

Vacation Round 1: Parade, Breakfast on the Farm

We did it! We drove and planned and worked and we made it in time for the parade! We arrived after the parade started, but Grandma and Grandpa found us a place to sit at the end of the parade route. Grandpa and Grandma picked us up some dinner so we could get right down to the business of enjoying the parade! I think we missed maybe the first few minutes of the parade going by - worked out great for us!

A! Parade!

William was a big fan of the motorcycles, cars, go karts and other vehicles.

Look! Look!

The dragon: I was always kind of scared of this. Our kids weren't sure, luckily it didn't get too close!

Grandpa and Grandma brought us dinner - we couldn't have done it without them!

Cheese curds...mmmmm

William participating in some street yoga between groups

William in particular really enjoyed the parade, especially when he realized people were throwing CANDY for ANYONE. After the first couple of rounds, he was a seasoned pro at arriving at the candy quickly and collecting it before the other kids. We even needed to encourage him to share a little because he was so good at it (and no kid, nor their parents needs candy in the volume we were collecting).

Amelia turned out to be the little charmer. She sat and enjoyed the parade from Grandma's lap. When she spotted someone walking by with candy, she would start to smile and wave. 99.999% of the time, at least one person from the group would come over to give her some candy. There are some perks to being the youngest person on our side of the street!

Amelia doing her thing: charming away.

We got to bed late, but happy!

The next morning, we were up early to go to the Breakfast on the Farm event. William was so excited about riding on the bus. He entertained the entire bus load of adults (we had the only kids in the small groups of 15 or so) with his chatter and excitement. He was even more excited about his new friend, Andy who came with Aunt Megan for the breakfast on the farm. Also of note, this is the first year in MANY years that Grandpa has attended breakfast on the farm! We ate our pancakes, petted various barnyard animals, played in the sand, rode the horse drawn wagon, viewed the cow and milking barn before heading back to town just before it started to rain.

William and Andy ride the busAmelia rides the bus

Pancakes! This way!
Did you know that kitties like pancakes? This kitty ate a WHOLE pancake!Pancakes by the hundreds. They had four of these pancake grills going.
Kids at the dairy farm
William was in love with the baby chicks. Amelia wanted nothing to do with these birds and William had to be dragged away.Amelia was okay with admiring the cow from this distance
She LOVED the idea of climbing up this fence. Not so interested in the piggies inside!

What would a day on the farm be without tractors?

Pit stop on a hay bale while waiting in line for the horse drawn wagon ride
Andy, Andrew and Megan riding the wagon

Later in the day, we went back to play with Cana for awhile. It is VERY fun to watch my little girl play with my best friend's little girl while the grown ups catch up. Sadly, there aren't any pictures, but I can assure you we had lots of fun!

Resort 2

I feel compelled to tell you the indoor waterpark, exercise rooms, restaurants, golf course, beach and many other places were not photographed because I did not have time.


Kids area splashpad

Pool next to the lake

Sent from my iPhone