One Crazy Weekend

Elin and I flew the friendly skies last weekend. Important things were happening in the Midwest. And we needed some cheering up. Sometimes life is just hard. So it was nice to have this journey to look forward to.

It was fun to wake up and see this little guy! We LOVED seeing our crazy dude Kevin!

Elin made quick friends with cousin Linnea, whose many talents include scaling furniture at the blink of an eye. She's getting to be such a big girl!

We went to Stockholm Inn for lunch.

Elin spent time with Grandma Daisy. So much fun! It was like she'd been around her forever, she was so happy and relaxed with Grandma.

In fact we surprised my folks. They had no idea they were going to meet Elin! Ha ha! I love surprises.

Swedish pancakes.

Miss Linnea shows us how to color Pippi Longstocking.

She is such a sweetie!

Kevin poses with a giant Dala. Look at that cute little cheesy smile! And please note the dala horse carpeting. I was prepared to move into Stockholm Inn permanently but I didn't think the management would appreciate me setting up camp.

Then we had dinner with plenty of fun people at Maren's! She and Jim have the best parties.

Elin spends time with Grandpa Daisy.

Proud grandparents!

After dinner things got a little crazy.

Pants were being pulled.

Kids were staying up way past their bedtime and having fun.

There was even some talk about going to a certain gigantic bathtub in an undisclosed location and taking some group photos.

But let's not discuss that.

The next morning it was time to hit the road.

With dear friend Kristin!

Here was the plan: Drive from Rockford to the Twin Cities. Go to a wedding. Drive halfway back to Rockford and spend the night somewhere in the middle of Wisconsin. And accomplish this all in one day.

If you were looking for us, you could have followed the trail of disgusting onesies and diapers that graced the trashcans of gas stations throughout the state of Wisconsin.

Hello Wisconsin!

We stopped at the Norske Nook for lunch.

It's the place to have lunch if you happen to find yourself driving by Osseo, Wisconsin.

Elin had some lefse.

What a good little Swede.

Who knew there were 91 ways to serve lefse? Apparently, Mr. Lefse knew.

If you don't know what lefse is, I'm sorry to hear that. You might think of it as a scandinavian tortilla . . . made out of potato.

Darn tootin' lefse is beautiful.

Okay, so we were headed for a wedding. Not just any wedding. Angela's wedding.

Angela and Jake got married. I may or may not have stolen this photo from Angela's facebook page. Aren't they cute?!

My own photos of the wedding are sparse. I had to manage Elin, who at that point was getting a little tired of the traveling/meeting new people thing that had been going on for days, and was quite a handful. Things got a little crazy.

Upon reflection, Kristin and I decided that maybe the next time we embark on a road trip, preparation is key. Either somebody needs to invest in a Garmin, or at least pack a map. And perhaps, get a watch.

We ran out of time. We (nearly) ran out of gas. We got lost. And we might have gotten turned around a time or two trying to leave the state of Minnesota. All in all I'd say we could have been a tad more organized.

The wedding was beautiful. Here, Elin enjoys meeting friends Nicole and Nathan.

I couldn't believe we got to stop at a Kwik Trip.

I love Kwik Trips.

What's wrong with this picture? No, you're not seeing things. That house is tipping over. Only in Wisconsin.

I think Kristin and I talked for 32 hours straight. We might have even been talking in our sleep. I'm pretty sure Elin was. We were exhausted when we got to the hotel at midnight but for Elin the party was just getting started! And even though Kristin and I were super tired we were still chewing the fat. We had a lot of important things to discuss. Who needs to sleep when you finally get to hang out with a wonderful friend you haven't seen in forever?

We got back to Maren's in one piece. Elin loved Grandpa's silly walking fingers!

Grandpa and Grandma replenished our onesies so Elin could return to the East coast fully clothed.

Here is Elin, asleep on the plane. It was such a nice flight back. Outside of the fact that I missed my outgoing flight and was put on standby. It was worth it because Elin slept the entire way back and I got to watch an amazing movie about Yosemite. When we arrived at the airport I had a bunch of cute blonde people waiting for me! It was wonderful to see everyone but you just can't beat coming back home to your family.