"You must be from outta town?!"

My brother John, his wife Melissa and their son (my nephew) (obviously) recently came for a visit. They live in DC and we don't get to see them very often, so it was really fun to be able to spend some time with them here.

We had a big picnic at our house and some friend of John and Melissa's came up. Linda and her two children, Aidan and Alish came for a visit. It was so fun to meet our new friends and have some time to play and visit together.

We spent time with them in the city for a few days and then we all packed up and headed south (and east) to my mom's place in Wisconsin.

The kids read stories with their Oma.

We traveled to the local lock and dam to watch the fisherman try their hand at fishing. There were also several boats traveling through the lock, so we got to see the water go up, then the water go down. Then the water go up, and down again - you get the picture.


In order to get to the lock, you park your car (obviously - again sorry), then head across the train tracks to the water's edge. The only thing is that they have a pedestrian bridge that goes OVER the train tracks. The big hope is to be ON the bridge when a train goes by. Last fall, we did this pilgrimage and we stood on top of the bridge for a long, long, long time. Well maybe it was only 15-20 minutes or so, but that felt like a lifetime to the kids. And alas, that time we saw no trains. Which is also amazing, because it seems like a train travels through that area about one every 5 seconds, but obviously that isn't really the case. So this time we got to SEE a train go underneath. The kids were a little excited.


Then we headed to Lark Toys in Kellogg. It is quite the place. I've shared about it before, but the kids LOVE going there. They have an awesome indoor carousel and of course we had to ride on it.

Andrew was trying to talk us into buying him an 'early birthday present' of the Thomas train "Hero" from the toy store. It was a no-go and there were some tears shed as we dashed out the door (to avoid a huge scene), but we did enjoy the trip (again) to Lark Toys none the less.

Andrew and his dad mowed Oma's lawn. Turns out Oma has a lot of lawn.. But Andrew didn't mind, he was happy to be perched on top of the lawn tractor for over an hour. The first thing he said when he got off the mower is "Oma has a lot of grass - I am REALLY thirsty!". Spoken like a true farmer!


The kids played very well together and really enjoyed the time together.

Jake found Oma's pond. He decided it was fun to swim in. Turns out that pond water was pretty stinky and so was Jake. Swell.
So we gave him a bath too. And he smelled considerably better!

And come to think of it, the adults had a really nice time together as well!