easter follies and other adventures
Holy buckets, I’ve got a lot to post about here, but I’m a little overwhelmed to get it all done in one sitting. For now, I’ll give a rundown of last week. Most of you already know this, but we drove to Minnesota for Easter weekend to see Mike’s ma, pa, brothers, one sister, 2 step-sisters, and a whole heck of a lot of cousins. Then we headed down to Wisconsin to do our house-hunting.
First up is Easter. It was our initial plan to arrive mid-afternoon on the Saturday before Easter because it was cousin Owen’s birthday party. However, lots o’ snow and traffic made it so we didn’t arrive until well into the evening. Fortunately, we got to see most of the crucial people on Easter day. We started out the day with the girls discovering the Easter Bunny’s tracks leading to their baskets full of goodies. Annie later confessed to Aunt Marissa that she thought the tracks were only made of chalk (ha…she was wrong…they were made of cornstarch). After all the excitement of the morning we attended church with Mike’s mom. For some reason Annie got shy and made a huge stink about attending primary by herself. She attended the same primary classes in August and immediately fit right in. Mimi was actually quite brave and went right into nursery.
Later that day extended family began to arrive, and the girls were just giddy to have so many kids to play with. It had snowed 8-10 inches on Friday/Saturday, so the Easter egg hunt made for an interesting adventure. Of course, us southerners weren’t equipped with snow gear and had to borrow from cousins Dylan and Maya. The girls really enjoyed the opportunity to frolic in the snow. The collected eggs had numerous treats and even lip gloss. We had a marvelous feast after all the activity died down, and everyone was stuffed beyond comfort. The next night we dropped the girls off to hang out with Dylan and Maya while we went to eat a wonderful dinner at Dave’s restaurant, Edina Grill. Num, num! Earlier that day Kathy and I went to some yarn shops, and I fell in love with a sweater on display. So I bought up all the materials to make it, and Kathy taught me how to knit. Of course, I’m nowhere near knitting that sweater yet. I need to practice, practice, practice before I have the nerve to try my hand at making a garment to wear.
On Tuesday morning we headed out and made our way to Wisconsin for our anticipated hunt for the home we’ll be living in for the next 3 years. Several houses were viewed, an offer was made and rejected, another offer was made on a second home, and we’re still waiting to finalize the deal between us and the sellers. The town we’ll be living in certainly isn’t as grand and full of activity as D.C., but I think we’ll be quite pleased with the slower pace and nicer folks. The schools seem to rate well, and there’s plenty to do in town. Shopping at the Prime Outlets, ice-skating or watersliding at the RecPlex, touring the Jelly Belly factory are just some of the things available in the flat quaint town. Only a couple of more months, and we’ll be cheeseheads.