June with the Johnson's: Part 2

June with the Johnson's: Part 2 - Minnesota

The idea behind our road trip with my family was to give Matthew the chance to work on the house with the kids out of the way. He decided to focus on the kitchen, which would be the most inconvenient room to have out of commission if the whole family were home. On Tuesday, June 11, the kids and I loaded into the van and headed for Minnesota. The boys watched videos on the portable DVD player and I listened to The Help via audio book, which I enjoyed immensely. We drove tandem with my parents and it was sure helpful to have other adults around to watch after the boys while I nursed Mercy. We found a fun park for them to play at during one of our pit stops and Hyrum asked nearly every day for the next two weeks if we could go back to the playground with the digger.

We woke up on Wednesday morning to a massive rain storm. The plan was to eat breakfast at the Perkins next to our hotel before heading off for our day's activities. Barely 30 seconds after getting out of the van, Abraham tripped and fell face first into a several inch deep puddle, soaking his clothes and cutting a respectable gash on his palm. Poor guy cried right through breakfast. Not even the complimentary bowl of strawberries or blue balloon cheered him up much. He did calm down after a change of clothing and a plate of pancakes, but it was definitely an omen of messy mishaps and a long day yet to come.

Our primary purpose for stopping in St. Paul was to bury the ashes of my Grandpa Loftsgaarden. He died right before Christmas and the ground was too hard to dig a hole, so they needed to wait until Spring. We met up at the House of Hope Presbyterian church with two of Grandpa's sisters, one of his nephews, and a couple of his old friends. It was pouring rain, so the internment was a rather short affair. I missed the actual planting of the urn because Mercy pooed all over herself during the opening prayer and I had to excuse myself to deal with the mess.

After the service, Dad and Jennifer went back to the hotel to nap and Grandma and the Kress' went to the Mall of America for lunch with my mom's aunts. I got the boys pitas and after only one bite, Hyrum dropped his in his lap, spilling turkey and veggies all over himself. Luckily most of it was salvageable and did little more damage than frustrating my four year old.  

Mom and Aunt Diane

Aunt Lynn took the boys down to Lego Land and they had a blast. Hyrum could have stayed all day, but grumpy Abraham started throwing Legos at other children so we decided it best call it quits after about half an hour.

Mom bought the boys several tickets to ride the rides, so we spent about an hour doing that after Lynn and Diane left. Despite the chaos of the mall, Mercy spent most of the afternoon asleep in the stroller.

Abraham was beyond exhausted by the time we made it back to the van and fell asleep before we made it out of the parking structure.