Trip to Minnesota

After two days on the road with our kiddos, we arrived in Minnesota ready for a week packed with family and friends.  We were blessed with so many people that wanted to see us and share a meal and reintroduce our kids to each other after two years in Kenya!  We went nonstop from one social engagement to another, but it was good to spend quality time with so many people we love in Minnesota.

First things first: cousin time!  Have I ever mentioned there are a lot of Horn cousins?  There are, and we saw a lot of them last week, and our boys wasted no time finding swords and lightsabers as soon as the first cousin walked in the door :)

Oh, and in the middle of family time we squeezed in a chance to completely spoil Caleb and Kai by taking them to Wild Kratts Live at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis!  Wild Kratts is a favorite show in our house and it was quite the cause for excitement to see Martin and Chris Kratt live on stage, using their creature powers to boot, and rescuing animals from the Zachbots!

Back to cousin time.  It was particularly fun to watch our boys spend time with their immediate cousins.  The three boys and three girls loved playing together and chasing each other around.  After celebrating Caleb's and Faith's birthdays together, we enjoyed a family photo shoot at Como Park and I'm looking forward to seeing how the photos turn out!

Even more cousins!  We spent several nights with Eli's cousin Josh and his family.  Eli and Josh have been best friends for forever.  And Josh married a girl named Jamie who happened to be a friend of mine in college and who was a roommate of mine after graduation, so it's a magical mix of fun and friendship and family whenever we're together!  And our kids are the same ages and loved getting to know each other again.  And running around with water guns :)

And then the Farm.  Oh, the Farm.  This place will always have a special place in our hearts.  Eli proposed to me in the barn there.  And we lived in the basement apartment for several months during our first year of marriage.  Then we lived there again for a couple weeks after we had to move out of our house in Duluth.  The Farm has been a very good place to us.  Plus, Grandpa Horn has a tractor there now.  I'm pretty sure Asa enjoyed a slice of heaven :)

The Farm has a long history of cousins running amuck.  Eli has countless memories of being at the Farm with his cousins, and now the next generation of Horn cousins are having adventures around this place too!

We also found time for some college friends!  These guys are dear friends from Bethel (and Chris stood up in our wedding) who live in California but happened to be back in Minnesota at the exact time we were.  It was providence!  Oh how we love these people.  Chris and Kim are some of the most life-giving people we know and we were so filled to spend a morning with them, playing at the playground and eating Chipotle.  Also, their girls are very tall.  And there are three of them.  Any ideas who we should set up with our own destined-to-be-tall boys down the road???

And more Bethel friends!  Eli and Josh and Jordan were all roommates at Bethel.  I already mentioned my history with Jamie, but Paige and I also knew each other well because she also lived in Michigan and we made several road trips together back home during the holidays.  Michiganders stick together!

Oh, and of course we ended our time in Minnesota with more cousins.  I'm telling you, there are a lot of Horn cousins!  And there is one word that best describes whenever they're all together: shenanigans.  I wish the pictures could capture the hilarity that ensues whenever these folks get together.  From throwing kids around to making babies cry on purpose to taking the lightsaber duels to whole new levels, there's never a dull moment at a Horn gathering!

This photo is of our generation and the next.  Only half of us were there.

So after a full and fun week in Minnesota, we packed up the car again and headed back toward Michigan.  We stayed overnight in Chicago to see some more friends and made a quick stop at the Field Museum too.  (If you don't know about the ASTC museum reciprocity program, check it out.  There are tons of museums you can visit for free just because you have a membership at one other place in the program.  How else would we have gotten into the super expensive Field Museum?  Buying a membership to the Flint Children's Museum was the best idea ever!)  It was fun to show the boys a tiny bit of our old stomping grounds in Chicago.  And of course they loved all the animals and dinosaur bones.  What little boy wouldn't?

We made it back safely to Michigan and have had a few days of unpacking and repacking.  Next up: Oklahoma and Texas!  Here we come!