At the end of July, we headed north, way north, to the middle of Minnesota. About 2/2.5 hours north of Minneapolis. Pat's uncle and his family moved to Minnesota from Florida about a year ago and we couldn't wait to go north for a visit.
Pat and I decided that we would leave late Monday night and hope that Leah and Max would sleep through the night and we could be just a few hours short of our destination by daybreak. No so much! As recommended, we kept Max rear-facing in his car seat, but after about 3 hours of crying and fussing and us not being able to entertain him, we decided to pull over and flip his seat, hoping that Max would travel better. It worked for awhile. Both Leah and Max slept on and off throughout the night~rarely were both sleeping at the same time. Leah was up while we drove through Chicago and she loved all the lights and tall buildings.
We finally made it to Minnesota after about 14 hours (the initial drive time was 12 hours, so not too bad that our stops totaled 2 hours) We met Uncle Darryl and Aunt Pam at their cabin at Camp Holiday on Turtle Lake. It was beautiful! We had lunch with Uncle D and then headed to their house about 45 minutes north in Merrifield. We got a tour of their backyard woods and finally settled down for a little shut-eye.
Our first morning we enjoyed watching a doe play in the backyard. Aunt Pam said that there are a few that come to her yard with fawns, but we only got to see the mama. We spent our first full day on a boat with Uncle D, Aunt Pam, cousin Ali and Pat's parents, Rick and Connie. We enjoyed Leah driving and the wildlife. It was a perfect afternoon of floating on the lake!
Cows were standing in the lake!
Leah fell asleep on our way back to the dock
Pat and I took the kids to a cute town called Nisswa, about 20 minutes from the house. We enjoyed walking the street window shopping and eating pizza. We went back again a few days later with Pat's parents. We even found an ice cream shop that had sherbet for Max ~ we went there twice and enjoyed delicious ice cream and sherbet!
Pat and I also were able to get out on our own with cousin Paxton to Manhattan's, which is a bar that Uncle D works at ~ in a Tiki Hut! It's great when you know the bartender! We enjoyed margaritas and a great view of another lake, and went back the next day with Rick. When Minnesota says Land of 10,000 lakes, they mean it!
View from the Tiki Hut!
Leah and Max loved going to the beach ~ we were able to go twice to Pelican Beach which was just around the corner from the house. It was a perfect, quiet little beach. The water was so clear and it was perfect for Leah and Max. Leah loved finding little seashells and Max just liked to splash!
We got rained out on our final day so Pat and I decided that we would just begin our trip home and stop in Minneapolis at the Mall of America. It was crazy! Three floors of restaurants and shops, a floor of movie theaters and in the middle an amusement park! Leah and Max rode a few rides, we had dinner and began our long trip home. I think after being gone for a week and in the car quite a bit, Leah and Max were done with traveling. Max cried most of the way and Leah was just awake. Fortunately when we got home EVERYONE crashed for a few hours.
We had a great time and plan to go back in two years!
