Mike gets just about every holiday off since he’s a government employee. This Columbus Day was no different. We decided to visit Minnesota for the three days, so that the rest of Mike’s family could meet Violet. Of course, the girls also love spending time with Grandma Minnesota, the cousins, anuts, and knuckles. There was no shortage of that. On Saturday morning Knuckle Jake cooked up some brunch for everyone (delish, as always), and we got to see most everyone except for Anut Sara and Knuckle Dave. Fear not, we did finally get to see them on Sunday evening for a dinner at Ma Olsen’s house. The one bad thing about these visits is that they are usually short, and we are sad to eventually have to go home.
While unpacking the suitcase we finally remembered where we stored Violet during the car trip.

At Jake’s brunch Violet got to meet many of her new relatives and get held a lot. She loved that part. Marissa, Owen, and Maya are enjoying their new relative here.

Matt and Dylan will be celebrating their birthdays this month, so it seemed appropriate to celebrate it while we were all together.

Even Lily the husky greeted her with warm kisses.

According to his mother uncle Jake has always been a fan of babies. Maya seems to have inherited that gene from her daddy. She was funny with me and kept coming up to me to ask who I was. You would think that she would remember me since we’ve spent time together on at least a dozen occasions. I must not be that memorable (sniff, sniff).

As usual Grandma has the magic touch and can put Violet to sleep in mere seconds. On two separate occasions, no less.


It was discovered that the furnace was not operating properly and not generating any heat. It got pretty darn cold on Saturday night, so we pulled out the snuggly, winter suit for Violet to wear to bed. Isn’t she cute? I had a hard time putting her to bed because she was so soft and cuddly in this.

The next night was dinner at Grandma’s house. Mike acquired a few pheasants from a friend, but they needed to be plucked first before freezing. All the cousins were fascinated with the processing of the birds. Paul and Dave helped with the plucking, and the little kids were curious to see the heart. Owen kept his distance though.




Like brother, like brother.

He likes to scare small chidren, too (just kidding, he’s actually a fun uncle).

The girls got ahold of the camera. Mimi’s model pose.

My guess is that this was taken by Mimi just a tad too close or something…hmmm?!? Or were they just in the red light district? And what in the world is going on with Annie’s mouth?!?

On the way out of town we met up with Grandpa Minnesota for lunch. Although it was a short visit it was still nice for the girls to see Grandpa and for Violet to meet him for the first time.

