Last bit on MN trip ~ Day 5 & 6

I'm not exactly sure where Graham was but somehow Charlie walked his cousin Caden to the bus-stop this morning.  So cute!

Oh yeah, I was still sleeping.   My sister took Charlie and Caden to the bus stop.  Normally I think both her boys just walk to the bus stop by themselves. I can't imagine my boys doing this everyday in this cold.  Brrrr...!

I'm not sure if I have the days correct, but this snapshot taken by my sister says 23F and feels like 11F at 9:14am. YIKES!!!

It's the last couple of days of our trip in MN.  So instead of playing computer games, my sister brought out a whole bunch of toys for the boys while their cousins Michael and Caden are at school:

Graham didn't get very far with putting the wooden project together, so not long after that he is joining Charlie down in the basement playing some Wii Golf:

And after a while, it's no more computer time... so Graham and Charlie are lounging in the living area watching TV.  They both obviously look very comfortable.  Ha ha!

By lunch time, we head out to drive around a few neighborhoods.  Hmmm... suppose to be another golf course over here under all that snow.  Ha!

Once we get home, the boys find the sled again but this time, they decide to head over to the little hill by the neighbor's yard.  At least Caden went over to ring the doorbell and ask their permission to use their side of the yard :-D

My sister and I take the opportunity to head out again to see a couple other areas.  Hmmm... seeing those rolls of hay makes me feel like I'm back in Oklahoma again. LOL!!

Even the roads here are not plowed.  I'm guessing we will skip looking for houses in this neighborhood!

As we get home, why am I not surprised by this scenario - both Caden and Charlie glued to their laptops:

Once the boys are asleep, my sister makes me a yummy bowl of instant noodles.  Yes, instant noodles can actually be yummy :-D

The following day, it's already time to leave!

Graham is trying to catch a snowflake.  Ha ha!

Double-masked again for the boys while on the airplane.  I managed to swap seats with a lady so I'm able to be in the same row as Graham and Charlie:

Good bye snow!!!

Hello blue skies and (some) greenery!

These boys are so sneaky - especially Graham.  He waits for everyone to get off the airplane and then approaches the cockpit:

Always take the opportunity to sit in those captain and co-captain seats :-)

It's crazy to think not that long ago (ok, like quite a few years ago) that these boys were riding on these hand luggage while Bobby and I dragged them along.  And today, Graham and Charlie are both pulling their own hand luggage.

One last photo of this trip with the iconic Theme Building of LAX airport in the backdrop.  And actually, I never knew that's what it was called until just now! 

The building reminds me of something from the Jetson's cartoon.  The Theme building supposedly resembles a flying saucer that has landed on its four legs.  There was a restaurant in there but it was shut down after the September 11 attacks. The restaurant remains closed but supposedly there's an observation deck that's open during the weekend!? We'll have to check that out someday.... whenever that may be.  So many flights were actually canceled a few days after we arrived home due to Covid (the Omicron variant).  So we couldn't have timed our trip any better. Phew!  

So who knows when our next trip on an airplane will be.  My sister is already asking if we can come up during the summer holidays.  By the way, Bob's job that he was interviewing for in MN fell through.  And another one that he interviewed for that's based in NJ also fell through.  We are definitely trying to stay positive and hopefully this new Year of the Tiger will be a good one!

MN Trip (cont.) ~ Day 4

Since everyone in my sister's household is still pretty involved in work, school, and after-school sports, we decided it would be best for us to just bunk in the basement.  Not too bad of a setup.  It's a huge basement!  The boys have the floor on 2 little mats: 

Mommy and Daddy have a blow-up bed by the kitchen/bar:

Off to see another home today.  It's a gloomy day:

Boys actually liked this home... although I probably would like to make this window a bit bigger.  Always some sort of project in my mind.  Ha ha!  

It would have been a cozy home for us and it also backed to a trail.  I think that would be really necessary for us - easy access to some outdoor park so that would force us to go out even on a cold snowy day.

And speaking of cold, only these boys would want ice-cream on a cold day!!!

Okay, too cold outside - so we move back inside the ice-cream store.  Again, there goes our Covid rules on eating outdoors only!

My sister drives us around and finds a park for the boys to play at.  Yeah, as you can see... adults are all remaining in the car.  Ha ha!!!

I think we could literally leave them outdoors all day in this snow:

I suppose if you can see beyond the brown leaf-less tress and snow, it would be quite pretty :-P

So many people learning how to cross-country ski!!  I suppose we would drag the boys out for this one.  Or wait, the boys would drag me out for this one :-P

Lovely sunset on the way home:

Graham and Charlie still want to play outside.  What is it with Graham and shoveling??!

Okay, Charlie too!  He shoveled the entire half basketball court in my sister's backyard!

Meanwhile, Graham finds the sled in my sister's garage.  So much for telling him to be careful with his broken collar bone:

Ha ha, so cute.  Graham is dragging Charlie around on the sled:

Almost time for dinner and I've employed Bobby to peel potatoes.  And no, don't let him fool you.  I think he only peeled about 3 or 4 potatoes :-P

Here's a photo op with all of our "elves"!  Look how tall my sister's boys are.  Michael just turned 14 years old in January and Caden will be 10 years old in February:

I tried to replicate this photo of them - taken at the Phoenix Zoo on April 2016:

5 years later... and look at all of them now:

Seems that Charlie and Caden get along really well.  Caden is just 1 year older than Charlie and he told my sister how he felt so good having a younger "brother".  Awww, so sweet!

Early Christmas dinner!

We incorporated our tradition of Christmas crackers into this dinner.  And the theme tonight is musical whistles.  Graham volunteered to be our conductor:

Everyone has a whistle that is numbered:

Too funny!!! But what a blast!

Back to playing computer games after dinner:

And finally it's time to go to bed.  I forgot my night light so looks like this camping light will have to do.  Thankfully Bobby didn't complain too much.  Or maybe he did and I just told him to turn the other way?!

So glad our boys are able to spend some time with their cousins.  With the way things are with Covid, who knows when we will be able to visit again.  And by the way, the ham my sister made for dinner was super yummy!  Might have to add that to our Christmas meal next time :-D

MN Trip (cont.) ~ Day 3

Day 3 and as per usual, always running late when we are on vacation.  It would be too late to grab breakfast downstairs in the lobby so Mommy made the executive decision to walk out to a breakfast place in a fancy building to pick up breakfast goodies.

Fresh snow this morning!

The Foshay building is just 0.6 miles away or 3 minutes by foot.  Glad some of the pavement was cleared:

There it is!  The one with the yellow block writings on top.  It was built by Wilbur Foshay - an art student turned businessman of at that point, owning an empire of 3 utility companies.  The building plays homage to the Washington Monument.  Built in 1929, it is 447 ft (32 stories) and was the tallest building in the Midwest for 48 years.

Of course, our 3 minute walk took longer as Graham and Charlie got distracted with these mini snow-plowers:

And then, of course Charlie is being his sneaky self throwing snow balls. Look at those cheeky eyes!

Made it!  Only a few minutes to pick up some food before auntie Corina comes by the hotel to pick us up:

Mommy totally gets distracted by all the awesome decor!

What cool art deco everywhere within the building:

Lovely imprint of the Foshay building on the mirror behind the bar:

Even the radiator grill is fancy!  Talk about solid metal:

As usual, boys are just interested in the sweets for breakfast:

Only on vacation is when we're allowed to have a HUGE chocolate chip rice krispy for breakfast!

Future office building for Bobby??!

I still don't know how we would live here.  So cold and so much snow in the winter!!  We would definitely need at least one fireplace in the house if we moved to MN:

Checking out of the hotel and my sister picks us up.  We are actually off to a golf course right now to get a quick tour:

Uhhh... I'm told there's a golf course underneath all that snow!!!

And these aren't actually flagsticks for the golf course.  They are used to mark the course for cross-country skiing.  Ha!

This window is like a picture frame:

It was a great lunch at the golf club after the tour.  Definitely makes us miss the "country club" lifestyle.  Ya, I know... call us spoiled :-P

Okay, off to see a home after lunch.  Obviously, we are not sure about the possibilities of moving to MN. But since we're here, we figured it would be good to check out some homes and different areas.  And looks like the boys are already getting used to the idea of shoveling snow.  Ha ha!

My sister is so excited on the possibility of us moving to MN:

We'll see what happens in the next week or so.  Bob had a total of 15 interviews within that same company.  Yikes!!