August 16, 2008

Summer Travels, Part 1: South Dakota

This summer brought LOTS of traveling for the Nielson family (hence the minivan!). And we will all agree that we were so thankful for the van, considering all the hours we spent in it over the last month! Within 3 weeks time period, we had spent 48 hours traveling in the van, not including local trips and outings at our various locations.

All said, the kids did far better in the van than we could have ever expected. There was hardly any crying, whining, requests to stop, emergency potty stops, or any of those things we expected. In the first 11 hours, we stopped only twice. Once for lunch and gas, and once for Tim to go to the bathroom!

The first leg of our journeys took us to visit Tim's family in South Dakota (an 11 hour drive from our home in Colorado). We spent several days there on the farm with all kinds of new things to explore and play. We played in Grandma's little pool, helped feed calves, played on Grandpa's big sand pile, chased kitties, rode all around in Grandma's little truck (or "little tractor" as Sophia calls it), and even went for a few rides in the big tractor with Daddy.

This trip was special for a couple of other reasons. Tim's sister Julie and her triplets we were at the farm for this trip, so we got to spend lots of special time playing with the cousins. Sophia is fascinated with her cousins, and talks about them all the time and was SO excited to actually get to play with them. They are obviously used to having other kids around all the time, so I don't think she made quite as big of an impact on them!

Tim's Grandpa celebrated his 80th birthday while we were there, which was actually the reason for the timing of our trip, and we were so glad to get to be a part of that. It gave us the opportunity to see lots of family members that we don't always connect with on our other trips, and to even meet some new members of the Nielson clan.

For us, the most exciting part of this trip was probably Noah's discovery of his feet. FINALLY!!!! Most people tell me to enjoy the time before my children learn to walk, but most people don't realize that because my kids have both learned to walk so late, I am more than ready for the monumental event when it finally comes. Noah is definitely old enough that he understands boundaries and the word NO, so I don't have to chase him and keep him out of quite as many things as maybe I would if he learned to walk at a younger age.

Anyway, we were at Grandpa Walt's big party and Noah was playing on the floor with his Aunt Pam. He turned and saw me sitting behind him, and took a few faltering steps in my direction. You could see the realization on his face that he had done it all by himself, and he was only to excited and proud to show us that it was no fluke; he couldn't wait to do it again. He turned around and walked back to Aunt Pam. This continued for several laps, and each time, he would add more and more steps and Pam and I would stretch the distance a little longer. Noah was SO excited about his new skill. He temporarily stole the spotlight and ventured out all over the room to explore the territory- on his feet! FINALLY!!!


This was probably only hour 4 in the van- after I had crawled in the back to
entertain Noah for a bit.

Petting the kitty with Grandma

Playing in the sand with Leona, Gabe, and Sam.

Riding in Grandpa's tractor with Daddy

Come to Mommy!



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