North Dakota pics

I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I wanted to while we were in North Dakota. I started off well, but once Daddy left on May 8th to go back to Texas, I hardly remembered to pick up the camera at all! Blame it on fatigue, I guess.....Lila slept TERRIBLY at night the whole time we were away.

I am most disappointed that I didn't get any photos of the kids with their great-grandmas. I'll definitely remember to do this the next time we are up there (hopefully this Labor Day weekend since Ross' cousin is getting married then). I also didn't get any photos of Uncle Jesse and Aunt Sarah's wedding. I actually brought my camera that afternoon, but I never dug it out of the bottom of the diaper bag. It was just too crazy with the kids, and I knew the wedding photographer would get better shots anyways (can't wait to see how they turned out!!!)

I did get some photos of the kids in their wedding outfits when we first got to Bismarck. They looked so cute! John was very upset when it was time for his nap and I told him we had to take off his "fancy pants."





The weather in Bismarck was pretty cold while we were there. There was actually a bit of a blizzard the second day -- we went to visit Great Grandma Dressler at her new nursing home north of town, and it was so snowy and windy that we could hardly see well enough to get from the truck into the front door! The problem we had was that the forecast had completely changed from when we'd checked it during the packing process. We definitely didn't pack winter clothes!

We played outside as much as the weather would allow. John liked using his bucket and shovel to dig in the mulch behind the bushes in Grandpa and Grandma's front yard. He pushed his toy shopping cart and toy vacuum cleaner over the grass so he could "mow" while Grandpa was mowing the lawn, and he helped sweep up the grass clippings afterwards. We took him for walks in his new Radio Flyer wagon that he helped Grandpa put together, with the most frequent destination being the park across the street. That's where he'd meet up with our neighbors' grandchildren, Sydney (10) and Noah (6), whom he met for the first time when he was just 11 months old. John had the time of his life playing with Noah!

Here are a few of the photos from the park. Thank goodness the people who run the park took the monkey bars down a week or so after we arrived -- they must have seen some of John's near-falls! He is a total daredevil when it comes to monkey bars. He'll run up the stairs, jump up to grab the first rung, and hang there suspended in the air before you even know what he's doing!

It was really nice to get to spend time with John and Lila's Uncle Jesse and Aunt Sarah, who live in Minnesota. The day after the wedding, they came to the house for a little while. We were sitting in the living room, and Aunt Sarah had taken off her shoes. John was looking at her bare feet and inquiring about the pool-colored nail polish on her toes. Uncle Jesse was sitting next to her on the couch, but he had his socks on, so John asked if he could see Uncle Jesse's toes. Uncle Jesse obliged by taking off his socks. But once they were off, John wanted to put the socks on his own feet! So he walked around the house with Uncle Jesse's socks on and even did a little vacuuming with his Sesame Street vacuum (look closely in the photo below).

Now that we'll be living in Wisconsin, we'll hopefully be able to see Uncle Jesse and Aunt Sarah a lot more frequently! Congrats again to the newlyweds!

Grandma Bonnie and Papa Jeff are very glad they'll get to see their grandkids just about a month from now. Goodbyes are always easier when you already know when you'll get to see each other the next time, and it's even easier when that next time is just a month away.