We had a quick bite to eat in Atlanta and hopped on our flight to Minneapolis. The flight was exactly two hours and Jace sat pretty content the whole flight, watching Finding Nemo on Tate's laptop. I was so relieved that this flight went so smoothly. I can honestly say I've never NOT had a bad flying experience up until now. Whether it's lost luggage, or delays, or a screaming toddler... this time, nothing, it was perfect!
Tate's mom picked us up at the airport and took us back to her house. We got there around 9 pm and made a quick frozen pizza (Jack's of course!) while she caught up with Jace. After that we made Jace a little comfy bed on the floor and all passed out in the guest room.
We woke up early Friday and headed to the Caribou Coffee in my moms neighborhood so that Tate could plug in and work for the day while Jace and I spent time with my mom. After sitting down and enjoying coffee together, Jace and I headed to my moms where he played with her for the afternoon. That evening Tate went hunting with his dad and Jace and I headed over to my brother and sister in laws for dinner. All three of my brothers were there, along with my mom, my sister in law, my nephew, and my brothers fiance. We had a casual pizza dinner and let the boys become reaquainted. Micah showed Jace how amazing "choo-choos" are, and they played with the train table and big cardboard blocks all night.
The next morning Jace and I went to coffee with my best friend Alli, before I dropped him off to play with Micah while I went wedding dress shopping with Alli. This was her first time trying on any wedding dresses, and I'm glad I was there to be apart of it. We also found some good bridesmaid dress options, so all in all it was a pretty successful trip. :)
After picking up Jace, we headed back to my moms house so that he could nap and I could get ready for Tate's sister Mandi's 30th birthday party. Tate swung by from hunting to pick me up and we headed downtown Minneapolis for a little dinner together before the party. Jace stayed with my mom for the evening. We went to the 508 for some buffallo chicken wontons and a couple drinks before heading over to Nami for the party. Mandi had rented out a room at the sushi restaurant for the party and lots of people showed up to celebrate her special day.
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| The birthday girl with her parents and us. |
The next morning Jace and I spent some time with my mom before heading to lunch at Chipotle with Alli, while Tate hung out with his sister for a bit. Later that day we all met up at Tate's parents house to eat a home cooked meal, watch movies and chill out.
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| He only liked the chips and sour cream of course... |
The next couple of days Tate was hunting with his dad and uncle... so Jace and I spent that time hanging out at my moms house, relaxing and spending laid back bonding time with her and my littlest brother. It was really nice to just do "nothing" while we were back this time. In July we ran around so much that by the time we got home we were exhausted and felt like we were spread too thin to really spend quality time with anyone. Now that Jace is older, I felt like it was really important for us to focus just on relaxing with family this trip.
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| Playing with Uncle Alex's old toys at Grandma's |
I did meet up with friends one more time while I was back for a quick dinner at our favorite mexican restaurant. Jace was so exhausted from the time change (and the fact he had been refusing to nap each day we had been back) that he passed out on my lap at the restaurant. I'm sure people were looking at me like take that poor child home but oh well!
Jace enjoyed spending quality time with his cousin Micah while we were back, and Micah even threw Jace a little playdate one of the mornings we were back. We got to hang out with a few of our old moms group friends while we were back, which was a lot of fun... because everyone has changed so much.
Once Tate was back from hunting, we spent the next couple of mornings chilling out as a family. We spent alot of time going to coffee shops in the morning for breakfast, while Tate took advantage of the wi-fi and got caught up on work. We would try and take Jace somewhere afterwards, like a mall playland, to get some energy out.
We also spent a day visiting with my Grandma Ellie (my dad's mom) who lives in a nursing home now. She has advanced alzheimers, so she didn't know who we were... but it was still important to me to visit with her. She kept telling Jace that he was a very "pretty little girl". :)
That same day we stopped out at the cemetary to show Jace where my dad is buried. He obviously doesn't really understand death yet, and I'd like to keep it that way... so instead we told him that's where his Grandpa Jeff is sleeping. As we left Jace said "Ok, night night grandpa...". It was very sweet.
We stopped for lunch that day at the Bulldog in downtown St Paul afterwards. We split a "monster" sandwich, fries, tater tots, and a kosher pumpkin puree and seed hotdog.
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| We also got Jace's two year pics taken while we were back. He ended up cutting his lip open during pictures and passed out after all the excitement. |
Friday evening we headed to my moms house for dinner to celebrate Dana's birthday (the day before) and Jace's birthday (Sunday). We had lasagna dinner, which Jace didn't even touch... and then opened up presents. Jace was so excited when he got a "choo choo" from Micah and also the Winnie the Pooh movie. He also got gifts from my mom, a Dr Suess sleeper, a book, and a tool bench. His favorite part was probably playing with all the balloons though. :)
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| Digging in! |
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| Auntie Dana's gift from Jace |
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| Fighting over the Thomas Megablocks |
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| Love Tate's facial expression! Surprised that Jace actually quickly blew out his candles like he had done it a million times before :) |
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| Dana blowing out candles |
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| Cousins, one month apart! They're going to be besties someday, they just don't know it quite yet :) |
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| Meeting the neighbor's dog, a little shy and hiding behind Grandma |
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| Legoland |
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| Yelling down "Mommy, I riiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!" |
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| Kept wanting us to lift him up so he could touch all the Nick Jr characters! |
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| Rainforest Cafe |
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| "knuckles!" |
After we left the mall we picked up Tate's Grandma (or as Jace calls her "Nani") and headed back to Tate's parents house for a birthday dinner for Jace. We had pizza, and opened presents, and had the cutest Winnie the Pooh cake ever! Jace loved getting to spend some time with Nani, since he hadn't seen her since last Christmas. He was spoiled with wonderful gifts, one of which was a chuggington train set, so he was very excited about more "choo choos"! After all the fun, Jace was in a great mood and wanted to take lots of pictures.
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| Great Grandma Kay helping Jace open gifts |
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| Pure anticipation :) |
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| Trying out the frosting... |
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| Riding on grandma's lap |
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| Cheesin in front of the fridge... I think I have an almost identical picture on my second birthday at my grandma's house actually. Totally coincidental. |
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| Buddies |
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| Jace is blessed with several wonderful "Grandpas" |
**You can read all about our last trip home in July here.
1 comment:
Jace is getting so big! What a cutie! I love the Bulldog it's so yummy.
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