Hi again! It has been a few months since I last wrote a blog and we have been busy enjoying the winter with family time, hockey, and a few trips thrown in too. We were home in Minnesota for Christmas and enjoyed the week with family and friends. The weeks always go so fast and we try and fit too many things in. It was the last time we would be in MN until June or July so we made the most of it. The first night we got home the neighborhood kids got together and went Christmas caroling through the neighborhood. We were happy to be home and hanging with our buddies. We also spent New Year’s Eve with this same crew! It was hard to say goodbye knowing it would be six months before we would be back.
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| Christmas Caroling Crew |
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| Caroling at our house! |
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| Christmas Eve |
In January I met two of my best friends for a long weekend in Austin, TX. I had never been and we had a great time catching up, getting massages, drinking some drinks, eating some great food, and laughing! My parents came to visit while I was there to help with the kiddos so Alan didn't have to take any time off of work which was a huge help. Charlie found a love of football this season and became a huge Vikings fan (poor kid). When the NFC Championship game ended up being in Philadelphia, Alan surprised Charlie with tickets to the game! We had been warned about Philadelphia fans being a little aggressive, but the boys wore understated purple to make sure they didn’t stand out. They said for the most part the fans were fine and figured the score of the game also helped keep things civil. While the game was pretty terrible, it was a fun memory I hope Charlie never forgets!
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| One of the only pictures I took in Austin! :) |
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| Dad and Charlie at the Vikings Game! |
February came and the Elder clan flew to Hawaii for 10 amazing days! We all stayed in one home for the week, there were 22 of us, and were able to spend lots of quality time together. The kids loved being able to spend so much time with their cousins too. We got to play in the ocean, go whale watching, go on a helicopter ride, submarine ride (for Charlie and Grandpa), dinner at a luau, and spend lots of time in the pool. It was a trip we will never forget!! When we got home Kaylee turned two just a few days later!! She had a unicorn birthday party of course and talked her brothers into picking Chuck E Cheese for the location. We all had fun celebrating our favorite girl. At two she has also decided she will no longer sleep in her crib and climbs out every night. I am in denial as I had planned to keep my last baby and “best sleeper” in a crib until she was 5. Well apparently that backfired.
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| Our beautiful pool and our unicorn! |
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Ka'anapali Beach
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| Whale Watching |
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| Beers with lids at the Justin Timberlake Concert at Madison Square Garden |
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| Stanton Social Dinner |
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| Highline |
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| Speakeasy with drinks served out of teacups and mugs |
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| 4 am after too many teacups and mugs |
We've been having fun spending time just the five of us since moving to Connecticut. We spend weekends doing bubble baths and movie nights instead of going out on the weekends. We also spend a lot of time outdoors as this Connecticut winter has been much milder than what we are used to in Minnesota, but they cancel school a lot! Like 8 times I think...and they make up every day at the end of the school year. So that means we are going to school until almost the end of June now! One day we will have lots of snow, but because it is milder the snow is gone within a few days. In fact we have even had a few days near 70. It has been warm enough this week that the ice cream truck even made an appearance!!
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| Bubble bath with dad in charge |
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| Snow Day |
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| Movie Night |
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| Ice cream from the ice cream truck and blankets! |
I know the real reason most people are STILL reading this is to hear where we have decided to land after our lease is up in June. The answer has honestly changed multiple time over the last few months. We had hoped to have an answer back in January, but it didn’t really work out to make a decision then. Finally, in March after lots of discussions, spreadsheets, poster boards, and votes we have decided to move back to our house in Eagan. Alan will still be working in Connecticut initially and hopefully over the first few months home we will have a better idea of what that will look like going forward. The initial game plan is for the excessive travel to stop by the end of the year. The whole reason we moved out here was to be together, so to be going back to Eagan with the kids with Alan still out here working seems silly when I write it. But, it is temporary and we realized that while we LOVE Connecticut we really missed our home, family, and friends. We actually had our house all ready to sell with it freshly painted, stuff moved into a storage unit, and deep cleaned (thanks, Mom), but we kept postponing the listing. It just never felt right. We told the kids and they were so excited to be going home to their friends and family. They have made some really amazing friends here, so I am glad they were still excited about our decision.
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| Truth |
We have a few more months left in Connecticut and are hoping to make it to a few more places before we leave. The kids are actually on spring break in one week so looking forward to some exploring! Thanks for everyone back home that has always checked in on us and helped make the transition easier! You realize who your really good friends are when you move far away! And to the new friends we made here, you helped this place feel like home much faster than we could have imagined.
As always, thanks for reading the blog!
XOXO
Jaime
