Minnesota Vacation

This past week we traveled to Minnesota spending time with the grandparents in Redwood and the farm!

 Aunt Candice and cousin Max came to play with us in Redwood - so good to see them!  Max is almost a year old now and was very interested in what Sierra and Thayden might be up to.  He already weighs more than Sierra but Thayden still has him beat by 8 or 9 lbs! ;)  We tried to get a picture of the grandkids together, but Sierra was in an incredibly bad mood because she wanted to play.  If she was screaming, she was scowling with a Nuka in her mouth.

 Candice and Max headed back to the cities and Thayden and Sierra got to spend 3 days with grandma and grandpa. 

Thayden practiced his reading skills (Go Dog Go) while Sierra listened.

 My cutie pie Sierra with her straight eyes! 

Sierra made great progress this past week and is now potty trained while awake!  Today was her first day back in school and I wasn't sure how it would go but no accidents!  Yay!  Such a big girl! 

 Now 19 months old she is talking up a storm.  She consistently puts words together to make her point known and she is actually pretty understandable.  Her favorite words the past two days have been "ride bike", which she will say over and over again until we go for a bike ride.  How can you resist her cute face?

  As you can tell by the 2 layers of coats it was chilly in Minnesota - fall weather.  That didn't stop her from wanting to be outside.

 We ventured to the farm just in time for the beginning of harvest.  The kids both got to spend some time in the combine with Papa and the tractors with uncles. Sierra, who is deathly afraid of loud noises (even an unplugged vacuum cleaner will send her fleeing from the room in tears for fear it might turn on), wasn't so sure about the combine initially, but the next day was begging to go out again. 

First combine ride for Sierra (with Papa and Nana)

Asleep at the wheel

 The first trip she promptly fell asleep in Nana's arms and slept for almost 3 hours (that round combining wore her out!)

Sleeping beauty and her Nana

 Thayden, at the ripe old age of 4, is sneaky.  Although I was inside Nana's house, and Papa and Thayden were combining in the field right there, he called Gamma on the phone to come and get him so he could avoid Mommy (and avoid taking a nap.)  Uncle Micah asked Thayden if he was going to be a farmer when he grows up and Thayden replied "I already am a farmer."  Duh, Micah.

Papa, Gamma, Thayden, a combine and some corn.

Sierra is obsessed with dogs.  "Puppy" was one of her first words and it is definitely still one of her favorites.  It was the first thing she could point to in a book consistently.  It is the first thing that will distract her when we are on a walk or bike ride.  She has absolutely no hesitancy in going up to a dog, yelling "Puppy!" in a shrill voice with a huge grin and excited hands as they reach out to touch the poor animal.  Troy read her a book tonight that has many animals in it, and when they got to the puppy page you couldn't even hear Troy reading because she was talking so loudly about the puppy.  Well, I guess it is a good thing Nana has a "puppy".   

 Joshie and Jessica have a little miniature poodle that is deathly afraid of both my children, but Sierra loves her dearly as well (no pictures of the torture sessions, sorry.)  For the record, Sierra is actually quite good for a toddler with pups, but she does get a little excited.

 While Thayden spent time racing his bike (without training wheels) down the driveway and even into the ditch and on the grass, Sierra decided to take a walk too.  She really wanted a bike ride, but she settled for pushing the stroller.

Miss Independent

 On our last day, we went to a local apple orchard with Jessica and Abby. 

So big!

Thayden spent the better part of the weekend trying to steal Abby away from Micah.  He tells me he loves her and she is his girlfriend. :)

 One of the biggest hits at the apple orchard were old boats full of corn.  City folk wouldn't understand.

Jumping up and down (hense the blur)

So many pumpkins to choose from.

T was quite upset we didn't get one to transport back to Denver.

Family without the uncooperative Thayden.

adorable sisters-in-law

And that pretty much wraps up our vacation, minus an undocumented homemade pizza party, a couple wine nights, and sleeping in!  We also got to visit with my great grandma Elsie (the kids' great-great grandma).  She is 93 years old and currently still living on her farm (wow, I guarantee you I don't think I'd be able to survive on the farm by myself at 27.)  She is planning on moving to the city for the winter, although she has mixed feelings about it she said she was happy to not have to worry about another horrible Minnesota winter on the farm by herself (um, you can say that again!)  

Now we must get back into the swing of school and work.  I have a few hard months coming up, but we are hoping to do a few fun fall activities before the weather gets too chilly.