Our Weekend in Minneapolis

This past weekend we were finally able to make it up to Minneapolis to celebrate Christmas and Mason's first birthday. We were supposed to go a couple of weeks ago, but due to bad weather the trip needed to be postponed. The car ride up was uneventful and smooth....but REALLY long for some reason. Maybe it was because we were all so excited to get there or maybe it was because we had had a really tough week. Whatever the reason we were all really happy when we arrived and were able to get out of the car!!

We were super excited to see Andy, Marcie and Mason! It had been a while since we had last seen them. Weather had prevented them from going to Iowa to celebrate Christmas. So I think it was August or September that we last saw them. ??? Mason had grown so much!! He is such a cute and happy baby!! Super fun to be around!!

That evening we hung out. The boys played nicely with Mason and his toys.



Mason has a little sled that he loves being pushed around in. Zach loved pushing Mason around. So it was a win-win situation for them. I think they may have left track marks by the end of our stay.

That night we had homemade pizza and the boys were excited to help make it!

It was delicious!!

After dinner we were finally able to celebrate Christmas.

The next day, we hung out at Andy and Marcie's. While boys played, I ended up taking a long 2 hour nap. It was wonderful. I can't remember the last time I did that! I do feel a little rude to have done that. But at the same time it was a MUCH NEEDED nap. Here are some of the activities that they did.




Poor Marcie, I think she spent HOURS playing sorry with the boys. :)
Of course we wanted to get all the cousins together for a picture. Here is what we got...not too shabby! Its a good looking group of boys!

That night we all went out to Red Lobster for dinner. It is a family tradition to go there for Christmas. We waited while they got our table ready.

Which was fine because it gave the boys a chance to watch the lobsters swimming around. And really with a group this big you have to expect to wait a little bit.

Dinner was great as always. Lots of shrimp, talking and fun!! I think it was Mason's first dinner out and he did fantastic!

Josh went into a shrimp coma.

Zach enjoyed shrimp almost as much as Josh and me.

Andy loved the lobster.

Josh was fascinated by it as well.

After dinner we celebrated Mason's first birthday!! It was fun watching him open his presents.
We sang to him and then ate dessert!

It was delicious!

Mason enjoyed it as well!

Sunday we went to the Science Museum. It was pretty cool,

The boys were fascinated by the dinosaur bones!


One section of the museum was about weather. The boys LOVED the tornado exhibit.

The museum also had a crystal ball that we took creepy pictures.

That night we got our 3D glasses to watch the Grammy's MJ tribute.

We had a really wonderful time!! Andy and Marcie you are FANTASTIC hosts!! We can't wait to see them again!

Just had to throw in one more cute picture of Mason!! :)

**Note some of these pictures were taken by Andy, Marcie, Matt, Larry and/or Ronna