Minneapolis with Jack and Maisie
Man, I have so much catching up to do!! I'm so behind, but I'll get there eventually, ha ha.
Wednesday, April 2nd: Two weeks ago we were in Minneapolis with our middle son, Jacob, and his darling little family. We played with Jack and Maisie, and had some meaningful conversations with our son and his angel wife, Hannah. We went to the Mall of America, the zoo, the Cathedral, Little Italy, and a handful of playgrounds and parks.
Video as we drove from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport through town and over to the east side where Jake and Hannah live: (9 seconds)
The skyscrapers peeking through the fog were especially beautiful, I thought.
At 7 months old, Maisie was just coming out of the "Stranger Danger" phase, so she was highly suspicious of us when we first arrived that evening. It took her a little while before she was comfortable being on the floor and independent of her parents, but she was still keeping a close watch on the two of us . . .
I had a blast playing "Toss the Stuffies Up the Stairs" with Jack for several minutes. He likes all 200 of his stuffies to be downstairs when it's daytime, but he wants them all in bed with him at night. This stuffie-chucking game evolved into a game of "Deflect", a new word that Jack enjoyed grabbing ahold of once I explained it to him. He stood at the top of the stairs and would try his best to "deflect" the giant toy octopus that I was tossing up to him. Eventually, as my pitching arm began to tire, Scott offered to swap me out and the game soon evolved into "Octopus Baseball", a subversion of "Deflect".
Video of Octopus Baseball: (24 seconds)
Thursday, April 3rd: After breakfast at the hotel, we drove over to see Jack and Maisie. This was the beginning of 4 days of Jack opening birthday gifts, ha ha. His birthday was on Sunday, April 6th, but he got to open something every day while we were there.
He opened our gifts and Grandma Linda's gifts on the first day. He was in absolute heaven playing with everything! We got him a large set of magna-tiles and a set of glider planes with gun-launchers to send them soaring outside. Grandma Linda sent some under-the-sea creatures and a cute little octopus toy. Jack spent HOURS playing with the tiny little crabs that came in the sea creature set. Everywhere that Jack went, the crabs were sure to go.
He loved lining them all up and then describing what each sea creature was. He is a walking encyclopedia and he remembers everything!
Video of Jack describing his beloved crabs: (1 minute, 12 seconds)
Video of Jack describing the Northern Clown Fish and the Northern Fiddler Crab: (1 min, 37 sec)
Video of Jack describing the Northern Sturgeon Fish and the Northern Puffer: (1 min, 17 sec)
**He had the cutest obsession with everything being a Northern _____ (something or other).
Video of Maisie playing with her little stuffed beaver: (24 seconds)
Finally, we got a photo of me holding Maisie . . .
Maisie fell asleep on the drive over . . . what a precious.
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After a few rides, Jack finished out the afternoon in the arcade section.
Video of Jake and Jack playing space invaders (I love how Jack's feet are just a-going!):
(6 seconds) https://photos.app.goo.gl/r5KBQwEYBYC2cAzB6
On our way back to the car, we passed by a booth set up from NBC's "The Voice", where you could pretend you were a judge for a minute. They were also giving out canvas bags with The Voice logo on the side. I am a huge fan of The Voice, so I hopped right into that swiveling seat. They emailed me the video immediately afterwards. Yay!
While Jake and Hannah worked on dinner, Scott and I got to play with Jack and Maisie. I offered to help in the kitchen, but I was promptly refused. We were having too much fun anyway . . .
Video of Maisie being a little extra chatty: (27 seconds)
Video of Maisie playing with her daddy and giggling: (45 seconds)
Friday, April 4th: The day began with another round of gifts for Jack to open up.
Video of Jack opening up the homemade gifts from Aunt Amber: (1 minute, 31 seconds)
"It's a Triceratops Stuffie!"
She crocheted each one of those darling stuffies!!
Video here: (6 seconds)
Minnesota weather is pretty crazy. One day it will be comfortably pleasant outside with the sun shining, and then the very next day you step outside and instantly turn into a popsicle. We had a few of those bitter cold and windy days while we were there. It was always a massive slap in the face when you stepped outside and immediately felt that brutal Canadian air take you hostage.
Scott did a good job keeping Maisie warm on one of the "warmer" days that we were there in Minneapolis.
Jenn - I totally meant to send this to you when I first took this photo 2 weeks ago . . . XOXO
My friend Jenn C. - who is very talented herself - has a very talented daughter who loves to sew. She made me some toddler bibs a few months ago, and Maisie was the recipient of one of them. These bibs are SO SOFT and plush. I just love them!! Thank you Layla!!! Maisie loves hers. :)
Video of Maisie having a cute conversation with me (I was so lucky she didn't drool in my mouth, ha ha): (36 seconds)
Instead, we drove a few blocks over to visit St. Paul's Little Italy. This place was SO COOL!!!
Video of Jack getting his red apple: (8 seconds)
Video of all the beautiful and very tempting desserts in the glass case: (18 seconds)
We chose gelato, OF COURSE!!
Video here: (23 seconds)
Jack devoured his entire apple and we were all happy with our purchases.
Walking the one block over to where our car was parked, it was now twilight and the Cathedral on the hill above us sure looked pretty.
Jack is 4th from the right - sitting on the balance beam and holding - or turning on - his listening ears for the class.
Miss Smiley after the class was over . . .
Mr. Sloth, just hanging out in the tree . . .
I think my favorite exhibit was the seals. They were so playful and they'd swim right past you as you stood by the window.
Video here: (4 seconds)
Grandpa and Jack pretended to drive the safari jeep. Jack was determined to go fast . . .
Truth be told, we loved ANY and ALL exhibits that were INDOORS at the zoo that day. It was the coldest day yet! It felt like the word "ridiculous" should be the prominent adjective coming out of our mouths if anyone was to ask for our opinion on the weather . . .
Maisie was captivated by the choir singing one of the hymns for the Saturday morning session.
Her talk can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkHFwCiT5U8
There were several other talks that meant a great deal to me during General Conference. One of them was by Elder Neil L. Anderson, an Apostle. He spoke about cherishing life, and how on the one hand we do cherish life, and how on the other hand we cherish agency and the ability to choose for ourselves. He spoke about abortion and choice, sharing story after story about young ladies who found themselves pregnant out of wedlock. He conveyed the importance of showing kindness and love to those who struggle with an unplanned pregnancy.
I sure connected to his message because I was in that same situation 36 years ago and I was lucky enough to be shown Christlike love, kindness, and concern when I needed it most. Elder Anderson encouraged us to emulate and follow Christ's example still today. It's not so black and white - the decision that a mother faces when she is pregnant and either doesn't want to be, or when she DOES want to be - but the baby's life or her own life is in jeopardy. We should not judge or condemn. We should be kind and try to follow our Savior Jesus Christ. How would He treat her? How would He behold her? What would He say to help her in such a difficult situation?
Video of Maisie being CUTE: (10 seconds)
Jake and Hannah prepared Jack's favorite dinner, even though it was one day ahead of his ACTUAL birthday still. We ate shrimp tacos and watermelon and it was fantastic!! Hannah made mini lemon cupcakes with a lemon and strawberry frosting - also delicious!!
Video of Jack and his "tricky" candles: (18 seconds)
Video here: (9 seconds)
Once conference was all over, we all went swimming at the hotel pool. Jack had some new inflatable water wings to try - he was so excited when he realized he could swim all by himself!! Even Maisie joined us in the pool for a while.
Monday, April 7th: Sadly, it was time to say goodbye . . . we spent a few minutes with Jake, Hannah, Jack and Maisie before we needed to drive back to the airport.
I guess there was a big storm down in the Tampa, FL area which made a mess of the flight schedule, including ours. Instead of landing at 1:15 p.m., we landed in S.F. at 4:15 and hit the road just in time for the gnarly 5:00 traffic surrounding the Bay Area. How fun.
Seven long hours later we made it to our hotel in Winnemucca, Nevada, having gone up and over Donner Pass in the dark. Even though the temps were down to about 36 degrees near the top, the pavement was dry and safe, thank goodness.
Tuesday, April 8th: My dad happened to be traveling east on the same day, and he also got a hotel in Winnemucca! We coordinated to meet up for breakfast the following morning, having already adjusted it to be an hour later than we originally planned - due to our late arrival the night before.
We met at Sid's Restaurant - in between our two hotels - and had a great breakfast together.
We made good time getting home on that final day, arriving home just before the dinner hour. Happy Day and Yippy Skip - our passports and visas were there waiting for us when we walked in the door!!
I have so much to write about in the next 10 days!!
- New banister and railing
- Packing up for Italy
- A visit to the ENT
- We both spoke in church last Sunday
- Scott's military retirement ceremony
- Easter weekend with Benson
- And lots more photos to share!
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