Our Trip to Minnesota

I am really behind in posting, mostly because I just now had the chance to go through the pictures from our trip.  We visited Jason's family in MN in mid February for about a week, and we had a wonderful time.  We did so many fun things (most of which we didn't catch on camera), but a few we did, so here are some pics below of our time visiting.

This was a few days into the trip (when we finally started taking pictures), when we went over to visit Auntie Vienna's new house with Don and Betty (Grandpa and Nana).  What a cute pic of mom and daughter (Auntie Vienna and Nana with Caleb) this was!

Along with a new house, Vienna also got a new cat, Dodge.  Caleb was very fascinated by him and was searching in all the rooms to try to find him during our visit.

That same day we went to the St. Paul Como Conservatory and Zoo.  It was such a breath of fresh air, literally, to be in a tropical climate in the middle of winter, surrounded by beautiful flowers, plants and trees.  Above was a tree from the Palm Dome, one of the rooms in the conservatory.  We also went into the Fern Room, the Tropical Encounters area, the North Garden, and the Sunken Garden (which was my personal favorite).

Inside the Sunken Garden, Caleb enjoyed checking out the exotic flowers with Daddy.

Here are two different views of the garden (above and below).  Doesn't this just get you excited for spring? 

Here's Grandpa taking Caleb for ride (can you tell that Caleb had a great time here)? :)

 Beautiful flowers in the North Garden.

Finally, here's Caleb and Grandpa checking out the goldfish in the mini pond in the middle of the garden.  I know you can't see the pond or the fish, I just thought this was a sweet picture!

Then it was onto the zoo.  This was Caleb's first time visiting a zoo, so of course we took a TON of pictures.  Here are two of my favorites.  Above in the Gorilla area, we caught a pic of this gorilla's fierce roar.  Ok, ok...so the truth is it was actually a yawn, but it does look pretty scary right?

Caleb is a big fan of giraffes.  We attend play dates at a place called Bonkers here at home, where there is a huge giraffe statue amongst all of the climbing areas and slides, and he is constantly pointing at it and making sure that he shows it to me.  So it was really fun to show him the real thing!

Back at Grandpa and Nana's on different evenings, we got to hang out with Uncle Tyrone and Uncle Shea and catch up with them over dinner.  Tyrone is studying his way through law school, and Shea is looking into teaching english as a second language in Japan starting this upcoming May (he is currently instructing in the States).  Here's Uncle Tyrone and Caleb!

Here's Caleb and Uncle Shea on another night above.

I just thought this was a cute shot.  Jason was playing some piano during some down time that we had, and Caleb decided to join in.

These are pictures from the last day of the trip, even though we had spent time with Lora (Grandma) before that as well.  These were just some of my favorites!  A little group shot above.

A great three generations pic!

And finally, Caleb and Grandma doing some flash cards and just hanging out at her house.  We really enjoyed spending time with everyone.  The only family member we missed was Uncle Andrew, so here's a little shout out...we love you Andrew!  We can't wait until you come home!