Ballet in the Park

My annual mother-daughter outing with Cassia is to Ballet in the Park.  Andrea also usually comes with us and this year her sister and kids came as well.  The Royal Winnipeg Ballet puts this event on every summer for three days.  It is free and you trek out to Assiniboine Park where you sit on a blanket or lawn chairs in front of the outdoor theater and watch the program.  There are a lot of people, some younger, some older and everywhere in between; especially little girls in tutus, spinning and leaping.  We had a great time and then played in the Children’s Garden for a bit afterwards.  Some classic pics…

This last one is en pointe. :)

Trip to Indiana: Homeward Bound

We got a late start Friday morning as we left Goshen and got to Minneapolis later than we had hoped that night.  But we met up with friends, Andrea and Deb and Sean and their boys.  They had an extra ticket to the U2 concert on Saturday, so “since we were in the area” I went!  And Ryan watched all the kids (5) in the hotel.  It went really well for him because Deb’s boys are older than ours and are really good kids.  And the U2 concert was awesome!  I’ll try to post the link to the Fan Cam and you can see me in the stands!  It rained for about 2/3 of the concert and poured for about half of that.  So, we were soaked by the end.  There was a tornado evacuation plan which was somewhat pointless considering how long it took us to get out of the stadium at the end!  But everyone stayed through the concert and the fans were great.  The band did an awesome job and we were so glad they took everything in stride and continued on as if it wasn’t raining/pouring.  Although Bono did sing “Singin’ in the Rain” a few times!

It seems like the end of our trip, from Minneapolis to Winnipeg, would be quite mundane.  Nope.  Well, most of the way it was and we were making pretty good time.  We let the kids play in the pool in the morning, so we got off to a late start again.  But when we got started, we were moving along fairly well.  Until Thief River Falls.  We decided to take a bit of a different route this time, as it gets boring always going through Fargo and Grand Forks.  So, we stopped in Thief River Falls to pick up some “picnic-like” foods for supper.  We were in Wal-mart, taking our time when there was an announcement over the speakers that a Tornado Warning had been issued.  I didn’t really hear all of it, so we weren’t sure what we were supposed to do.  I thought they were saying we couldn’t stay in the store.  So we went outside and the sirens were going.  I was pretty sure it wasn’t a good idea to be in the van, so we went back inside to a “safe zone” where people could wait it out.  We ended up being there for another 30 – 40 minutes until we got the all clear.  Then we headed out again and realized we would be following the storm.  So we detoured a little, costing some time, but just caught the end of the storm which just turned into a little rain.  Finally, we are on our way – just 2 ½ more hours.  Except that when we got to the border crossing, it was closed.  Yep, all closed.  So it took us about 1.5 hours to get to the border crossing at Emerson that we usually go through.  Hmmm, maybe this time we should have gone the boring way.  Our friends went that way and had no problems, except a wait at the border.  Luckily no other issues came up for us, but we didn’t make it home until a little after 1 a.m.  So tired.

Ironically, these were the strange clouds we saw the day before the tornado warning.  I just had to take a picture of them.

So, in summary, it was a great trip.  A few more warning sirens than I would have liked, but at least we were warned and not hurt!

Trip to Indiana: Destination

We had a great time with family and Cassia and Easton were so excited to see Mimi and Pawpaw and their cousins.  Cassia said she wanted to live in Indiana so that it wouldn’t take so long to get to a sleepover. J  Kent, Kathy, Anna and Isaac weren’t back from their vacation when we got there, but Greg, Laura, Luke and Aaron arrived the day after we got there.  It was the first time we met little Aaron so we were thankful that Greg and Laura were able to make it to Goshen at the same time we did!  Aaron is such a sweet little boy and since we all stayed at Mom and Dad’s we got to see both him and Luke a lot.  Here's Ryan and Aaron, and then me and Aaron.

Cassia attached to Anna as soon as they were back in town.  She said, “I do everything Anna says, and not what anyone else says.”  I’m sure this is Anna’s dream come true. J  At least until the novelty wears off!  We had a fun time getting together for suppers, going to the park and playing dress-up – well, the last was the kids.  It’s almost guaranteed that within 15 minutes of entering Mimi and Pawpaw’s house, the two girls and sometimes the boys will be in full dress-up gear.  Got a pic of Luke in a dress and a wig and Isaac in a dress!  Plus some of the kids with painted faces.

We also had a Myers get together and there were three baby 2^nd cousins, so of course we had to get pictures.  So cute!  And Clara’s hair takes the cake!

I think we have this same picture of Kent and me in the wheelbarrow, circa 1977. 

And some stinkers jumping on the couch!

The girls.

I also had a chance to get together with Lori, Dena and Kim.  We took the kids to the Wakarusa splash pad, at my suggestion I might add.  I say that because my kids DID NOT LIKE IT.  At one point Cassia was sobbing, saying, “I never want to come back to this place!”  Okay, I can see if I took them to a thorn patch to play in, that would be an appropriate response.  How insensitive of me to take my kids to a splash pad on a nice summer morning.  So I didn’t really get a chance to catch up with my friends. L  But it was still nice to see them and chat a bit.  Lori invited us over for lunch and I really thought it was a bad idea considering all the “fun” my kids were already having.  But I’m glad she convinced me because they were different beings as soon as they got there.  And we had a lovely lunch and chat/play time after. 

When it was time for Greg, Laura, Luke and Aaron to go back home, Mom and I drove them to Chicago to get the train.  Ryan came along because he was going to spend a day/night in Chicago with his brother, Brent, so the timing worked out well!  We took them as far as we could, but I felt bad they had to lug all their luggage with them since they couldn’t check it.  I’m sure it was an adventure though!  Meanwhile Kathy had all the kids to look after on a very hot and humid day.  The kids had fun and Kathy survived, so that’s a success.

I also got to see my friends, Anna and Sarah, who I haven't seen in a long time.  It was awesome to catch up with them!  The rest of the week included some shopping time for me and more time hanging out with my family.