Visit to ND

In January, I bought plane tickets to go visit my family in North Dakota in April. We went from the 9th to the 16th, and it was so much fun!!

The plane ride there was a little rough. It was the kids' first time, and my 5th (I think?) time on a plane. Only one of those by myself. I hadn't been on a plane for almost 5 years before that, so I was a bit nervous taking the kids all alone. We got through customs with no problem, but during the actual flight, the kids were kind of nuts. Kaylee wanted a new toy every 5 seconds, "Mommy, what can I do nooooooow?" and Ben was just really high-strung. I did keep them both happy and quiet for the most part. Till the end, where we hit some turbulence, and for some reason the descent into Fargo was hard. Usually my ears pop a couple of times, but this was nonstop for 30 minutes, constant pressure, and Kaylee was having a really hard time with it. Then her tummy hurt and she was obviously miserable, but the second we got off the plane, she was fine.

We made it to Grand Forks and had fun going to playgrounds, swimming (INSIDE, as it was blizzarding...), and shopping for a prom dress for Mary. Not to mention just having fun seeing Nana and Papa! My dad hadn't seen Ben since he was only a couple of months old so it was high time for a visit. It was also fun going to Grand Forks ward for church, because some of the people there I have literally known all my life. The weather there was still pretty cold, but it was warm enough to have fun outside a couple of the days we were there. The winter there this last year was absolutely insane! Like over a hundred days below zero throughout the winter. Ugh! My parents have two dogs and two cats right now, and they're all really funny. My favorite is still my big Fatty, or V-Man/Boots/Vladimir. He's a huge, really fluffy cat, and usually he's very skittish and hides out when people come over, but I think he remembered me because he followed me around right away and let me pet him. I do miss that big kitty. :) 

 The way back, Kaylee and I had seats in separate rows. I said something like "Oh Kaylee, you're up there and I'm behind you here..." and a very nice lady immediately offered to switch with me, thank goodness - who would want to sit next to someone else's kid on a plane anyway? Then Ben had a huge tantrum when we first sat down, but after that we got all settled in and the whole rest of the flight was a piece of cake. There was a lot of turbulence as there always is near Denver, but it was still way easier than going into the Fargo.

Sorry for the lack of pictures - my parents took a lot, but I had to pack light and only had my phone camera, which is annoying because I can only get one or two pictures before it yells at me about being out of space. So, I wasn't the best at getting pictures...