A visit from Papa and Nana

 In the end of January, my parents came for a visit.  Even though we haven't had a typical North Dakota winter, they got to experience chilly temps and Midwest novelties.  They saw some hockey games and practices, ice skated in the park, went sledding and even shoveled some snow for us.  My dad, Tim and the boys went to The Ralph to see the Fighting Sioux play while my mom and I got to have a ladies night.  The whole visit was pretty awesome and we all got spoiled, as per usual. 

We all miss them, even Clementine.

The Annual Package

 

Every Spring, my dad digs a hole in his and my mom's vegetable garden and drops a few seeds in.  He covers them over and waits.   Most of the produce gets eaten up as quickly as it ripens.  Not this plant.  It's meant for something else.  It's leaves and blossoms sprout.  It's vines spread and curl around anything it can reach.  The fruit starts out dark green but doesn't stay that way for long.  When it's ready, he cuts it off the vine, wraps it in bubble wrap and gently tapes it up in a box.  The USPS ends up taking it where it was meant to go.  Every year, even if they live in Bellingham, Charleston, Meridian or Grand Forks, Luke and Jack get to open a package of apples, squash and PUMPKINS grown in Papa's garden.

 

Side note:  Luke is becoming an awesome reader. Here Tim is helping him figure out who the package is from.

 

Sadly, I don't have any pictures of these pumpkins carved up because we never got the chance.  We put them out on our front porch, just to have them stolen and never seen again.  Some of my old youth group leaders heard about the pumpkin thievery and felt so bad for my depressed boys, they sent ice cream gift certificates to cheer them up.  Ice cream does wonders.  Luckily, the runt of the bunch was still left in the garden so my dad quickly packaged it up and sent it off.  We got to carve that one! And me, being the slacker that I am, didn't take a photo of it.  Sorry.

Hopefully it won't be too many more Octobers until we can drive over to Nana and Papa's house to get the boys' pumpkins.  Until then, we'll wait impatiently for our October package.

Fun with Nana and Papa

A little over a week ago my parents came for a WHOLE week visit!  We were so busy having fun we didn't have time to do everything.  I also forgot to carry along my camera for most of their stay except the day we went to Turtle River State Park to go fishing.  

 

We weren't catching much at first but then Papa felt a tug on the line and strategically handed the pole to Luke.  He pulled out a bass!

 

Then about an hour later he felt another tug on the line and handed the pole to Jack. Jack reeled in a catfish!

Then Tim and my Dad got the catfish fever.  They tried all their tricks but to no avail.  We even stayed through the most awesome downpour and thunderstorm.  They ditched their poles and ran for cover.  We waited out the storm in a park shelter and attempted to dry off.  We heard the better place to find catfish is actually the Red River, which is a 2 minute walk from our house.  The next day it was pouring down rain but they got all decked out in rain gear and tried again.  No luck this time but I have a feeling this isn't the end of their pursuit.  I told them next time they need to try noodling.  Next on the list: Ice fishing in January.

 

As per usual, the boys got spoiled rotten and so did we.  That's what grandparents do.

The days were filled with bike rides, sidewalk chalk, shooting off rockets, coloring, cookie making, Swedish pancake eating, walks around the neighborhood, backyard baseball and popcicle licking.  The boys thought it was the coolest thing to run errands with Papa and be tucked in each night by Nana.  

 One night, Nana and Papa gave us a date night!  We rode our bikes across town to a delicious hole-in-the wall.  We burned off maybe half of the calories we consumed there by biking all the way back across town and over the bridge into Minnesota to see a movie.  It was perfect.

 

The other evenings we had great conversations and even got to teach them how to play Pinochle.  It was a great visit and now we are counting down the days til their next one.

Homegrown Package

In October my mom flew down, just in time to open a package Papa sent in the mail.

 

First, some letters and pictures from his visit.

 

What is it?

 

Oh, wait, let's pop the bubble wrap first.

 

Pumpkins from Papa's garden!!!

 

They were smaller, but way bigger than the ones that came out of our garden.  We're crossing our fingers for a warmer fall next year.

Camano

Last week, we trekked up to Washington and spent some time with my parents and Ryna.  We hung out all week at one of our most favorite places in the whole world.

Camano Island!

The sun even came out for most of the week.  We were totally spoiled.

It was crabbing, fishing, rock-throwing, ice-cold swimming galore!

We loved it.

Clementine loved it.

We even got to celebrate Auntie Ryna's birthday a little early with some Red Velvet Cake.

And we got some pretty awesome visitors:

Jenn

Mama Addie and Aunt Evie

Jana and Ida-Lilly

It was a pretty great week, if I must say so myself.

Even if it did end with a transmission failure.

Swedish Pancakes

Here is Papa teaching the boys how to make Swedish Pancakes last January.

The boys get to do this again with Papa in less than a week!

They are really excited.

We are too.

The Garden

While Tim and I were in Vegas, my parents came to hang out with the boys.  They ALSO came with the intentions and plans to put in a VEGETABLE GARDEN for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The boys had so much fun "helping."  Thank you so much Mom and Dad!!!

Some intense planning is going on here.

A baking cookies break with Nana.

My veggies are already growing!

There are no pictures for proof but when they all took a break from garden planting, Papa showed the boys how to make bottle rockets.  They also got to mess around with Diet Coke and Mentos.  Like I've said before, there's always something mischievous going on when Papa, Luke and Jack are together.