more minnesota memories

New Year's Eve morning we drove to Monticello, NW of Minneapolis, to visit my Grandma Ruth at her new room in the nursing home. She was doing very well, walking around faster than ever (with her walker for balance). We're so glad she recovered completely from her broken ankle and hip from last winter!

Grandma has a great view of the river and park from her window and spends much of her time playing Bingo and visiting with others at the nursing home. We gave her some Christmas cookies/treats to share with the staff and several little bottles of Dr. Pepper (her favorite!). Now she won't have to spend her Bingo winnings on pop for a while.

In this picture Grandma, Tim and Michael are actually all standing!

After visiting with Grandma, we connected with our great friends (Rademakers) at Chuck E Cheese for lunch and over 500 tokens for games. We first met them when Tim and their oldest son Jack were just 6 months old.

Over 3 hours later we walked to McDonald's for ice cream and more time to chat. We hadn't seen each other for 1 1/2 years (when we spent a week in Appleton, WI where they live along with my brother's family) so the afternoon went quickly.

Here's a pic of all the kids together...
me with Sara!

Kraig with Jim

That night my aunt and uncle joined us at my parents house for MN Gopher football (we won't talk about that game), chili and board games!

The following day we drove back to Kraig's parents for our other traditional Norwegian meal... lutefisk! Here's a picture of the lutefisk with some lefse on Kraig's plate.

That night we finally saw one of our teams win that week (after watching the MN teams - the Vikes, Timberwolves and Gophers all lose). The OH State Buckeyes beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl! The next morning were more goodbyes as we got up super early (about 5 AM) to get on the road for home.

We had a great week in MN with friends and family!!