I was planning on updating while we were at the hotel in Duluth, but there were some pictures I badly wanted to insert, and the interface here on blogger is acting up on me. So I just didn't do it. Sorry. Hopefully when we're on our regular computer at home I'll be able to do it!
We're been having a very good trip. We left Tuesday mid-morning and drove to the Cities. First thing we dropped off our last puppy! That was exciting to be done with puppies for now. I love doing it, but it's also a nice relief when the last one is gone and we can have more of a normal schedule again. Anyway, from there we went to visit my grandparents. An uncle and his wife stopped by for a little, so that was fun to see them again. We spent the night in a hotel, and had a rather rough night as the group in the room above ours sounded like they'd come to party. At about 3 Jere, Leanna, and I all woke up from their racket, and it took a long time for me to get back to sleep. Oh well, things like that happen.
Wednesday we spent a good portion of the day with my grandparents again, leaving there around 2:30 I think for Duluth and our conference. Till we'd done some shopping and found our hotel and made a microwave supper and figured out how to get to the convention center, it was late and I was exhausted. So were the poor little ones. We slept very well, though it seemed like a very short night to me!
Thursday I was in class all day. I enjoyed it SO much! It was a class on pediatrics, and when the instructor saw my three kiddos come in during lunch break (so I could feed Leanna!) he was tickled and asked them to stay a bit. So they practiced with Jaron and long boarded him. He had fun, but I think they had more fun. From somewhere they dug out a bag with candy and some clips with flashing lights for Jaron and Eliott, and a tiara and wand for Leanna. Anyway, made it special. In the evening Jere's Uncle Sam and Aunt Twila showed up, and we went out for supper with them.
Friday it was Jere's turn to go to classes, and I stayed back in the hotel and watched the children. We had SO much fun. We'd brought along a few handfuls of toys, some of them new, but they hardly had a chance to play with them. The hotel had a small child's wading pool, so Friday morning I dressed all the little ones in their "swim suits" and we went down to try it out. They had a blast. Eliott's a little fish, and I had my hands full keeping him and Leanna both with their heads above water. The water was just deep enough, and Leanna just fat enough, that she had a hard time keeping her feet down on the bottom where they belonged. Eliott hung on the side of the pool and let himself just float. Jaron, ever cautious, finally got brave enough to sit on the bottom just before it was time to head back to our room for lunch. Once lunch was over, we walked down to the conference to say hi to Jere over lunch break and walk through the exhibition hall. It's about a mile of walking we figured, with all the connecting skywalks, etc, to get from the hotel to the covention. No fear about not getting enough excericse there! In the afternoon the two youngest napped and Jaron did school. In the evening we opted for Subway in our room, then went down to the wading pool again for awhile. They had fun watching the bigger children in the bigger pool, too.
Saturday Jere again went to classes. The hotel was kind enough to allow us to keep our room till 2 pm. Jere ran a few things out to the van before he left for class, then I packed up the rest throughout the morning. He ran back for a few minutes over lunch and took another couple loads out to the van. We had our lunch and finished the last of packing stuff up, then had a hotel worker come get our biggest suitcase and deposit it in the safe keeping room till we could come back to get it. Jere had told me to check out the hockey arena once we were out of our room, so that's what we did. It was right next to the EMS convention, and they had a bunch of girls' school teams playing some sort of tournament. The children were totally glued to all that action, and I was very glad for a soft, out of the way seat to pass our time till Jere's classes were done. Once he was out of class, we retrieved our last bag, piled into the van in a brisk 2 degrees, and headed to Uncle Sams'. It seemed like an awfully long drive through snow and wind and some icy roads, but we arrived safely shortly after 10.
This morning Uncle Sam woke Jere at almost 4, wondering if he wanted to go on an ambulance run. Of course he did, and then didn't get home till 9. We got the children their breakfast and everyone dressed, and off to church! We enjoyed being in a small church, and meeting Jere's cousin's girlfriend there too. Now it's after lunch, and the house is peacefully quiet with most everyone napping. I think the thermometer was reading just below zero, so it's delightfully cold outside. I may have to go out and take a walk just to remember how COLD actually feels! ;-)
