Jost loves "Mercy" by Duffy. Check out his slick moves!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Midwest Vacay!!
I just realized I am super lame and haven't written anything for like 1 month. Part of the reason is that we just returned from a 10-day trip to my grandparent's cottage in Michigan and to visit our dear friends in Ethiopia.
My grandparent's cottage is really fun and very authentic - there is a large moose head with about 15 points on the antlers hanging over the fireplace. There is also only 1 bathroom for 6-8 people, so you can imagine the number of matches that are strategically used on a daily basis. Anyways, we flew in to Detroit and drove the 4ish hours up to Onekama (small town on Portage Lake - which flows into Lake Michigan). Jost, as usual, was a super traveler. We were able to spend 5 days with my parents, my grandparents (my mom's mom and dad), as well as my aunt and her family, and 1 night with my uncle and his family back in Detroit. It was fun for Jost to get to know his great-grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. He loved playing with everyone (especially his cousin Grant who allowed him to use ALL of his cool toy trucks. I thought Jost was going to pass out he was so excited). It was also an opportunity for him to eat whatever he wanted (blueberry pancakes, hot dogs, ice cream) because 1) this is the midwest and there ain't a lot of fresh greens and 2) how am I supposed to tell my mom or grandma not to spoil my kid? I figure since Jost had to hang in an orphanage for over 1 YEAR, then he deserves some extra processed food and sugar.
We flew from Detroit to Minneapolis to visit our Ethiopian travel buddies - Melissa and Amy and Melissa's daughter Sefan (also known as Jost's future wife) and Melissa's husband Ryan as well as their 2 sons, Aidan and Elijah. I wasn't sure what to expect in Minneapolis since the sum total of my knowledge about Minnesota consisted of watching the show "Coach" and the Mall of America. We stayed in downtown Minneapolis and it was really cool - tons of art galleries, a LOT of places to go out at night. Melissa, Amy and I went to the Beyonce concert on Thursday night which was a total blast. Then, we went to the Mall of America on Friday (definitely worth the trip). A bonus about shopping in Minnesota is that there's no sales tax on clothes. That meant I could spend even more money because I was actually saving money by not paying tax (this logic did not go over well with Nick). On Friday night we went on a charity pub crawl downtown to raise money for a local children's hospital. We also got to meet my internet adoption friend Sarah, whose daughter I visited in the hospital in Addis. Sarah and her husband Terry came for the crawl and we all had a good time.
Saturday consisted of a trip to the Como Zoo and an awesome BBQ at Melissa and Ryan's house - we even toasted smores over an open fire in their backyard. Jost was so pumped about eating marshmellows. Nick, of course, was mortified by Jost's sugar intake that night, but I didn't care. Jost LOVED to play with Aidan, Elijah and Sefan as well as Sarah's older daughter Nerys (Baby Soly is too little to play, but she is adorable and loves to watch the kids).
All in all we had a wonderful trip. The only bummer was that we flew Northwest Airlines - bad choice. Nick could barely move the entire flight because the seats were so crammed together. Additionally they charge you to check ANY bag on every flight. I added up all the baggage fees and we paid an additional $225 by the time we got home. What a crock of poo (Jost is repeating everything these days so I am trying to tone down my "colorful language").
I will put pictures of the trip up on the next post!
My grandparent's cottage is really fun and very authentic - there is a large moose head with about 15 points on the antlers hanging over the fireplace. There is also only 1 bathroom for 6-8 people, so you can imagine the number of matches that are strategically used on a daily basis. Anyways, we flew in to Detroit and drove the 4ish hours up to Onekama (small town on Portage Lake - which flows into Lake Michigan). Jost, as usual, was a super traveler. We were able to spend 5 days with my parents, my grandparents (my mom's mom and dad), as well as my aunt and her family, and 1 night with my uncle and his family back in Detroit. It was fun for Jost to get to know his great-grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. He loved playing with everyone (especially his cousin Grant who allowed him to use ALL of his cool toy trucks. I thought Jost was going to pass out he was so excited). It was also an opportunity for him to eat whatever he wanted (blueberry pancakes, hot dogs, ice cream) because 1) this is the midwest and there ain't a lot of fresh greens and 2) how am I supposed to tell my mom or grandma not to spoil my kid? I figure since Jost had to hang in an orphanage for over 1 YEAR, then he deserves some extra processed food and sugar.
We flew from Detroit to Minneapolis to visit our Ethiopian travel buddies - Melissa and Amy and Melissa's daughter Sefan (also known as Jost's future wife) and Melissa's husband Ryan as well as their 2 sons, Aidan and Elijah. I wasn't sure what to expect in Minneapolis since the sum total of my knowledge about Minnesota consisted of watching the show "Coach" and the Mall of America. We stayed in downtown Minneapolis and it was really cool - tons of art galleries, a LOT of places to go out at night. Melissa, Amy and I went to the Beyonce concert on Thursday night which was a total blast. Then, we went to the Mall of America on Friday (definitely worth the trip). A bonus about shopping in Minnesota is that there's no sales tax on clothes. That meant I could spend even more money because I was actually saving money by not paying tax (this logic did not go over well with Nick). On Friday night we went on a charity pub crawl downtown to raise money for a local children's hospital. We also got to meet my internet adoption friend Sarah, whose daughter I visited in the hospital in Addis. Sarah and her husband Terry came for the crawl and we all had a good time.
Saturday consisted of a trip to the Como Zoo and an awesome BBQ at Melissa and Ryan's house - we even toasted smores over an open fire in their backyard. Jost was so pumped about eating marshmellows. Nick, of course, was mortified by Jost's sugar intake that night, but I didn't care. Jost LOVED to play with Aidan, Elijah and Sefan as well as Sarah's older daughter Nerys (Baby Soly is too little to play, but she is adorable and loves to watch the kids).
All in all we had a wonderful trip. The only bummer was that we flew Northwest Airlines - bad choice. Nick could barely move the entire flight because the seats were so crammed together. Additionally they charge you to check ANY bag on every flight. I added up all the baggage fees and we paid an additional $225 by the time we got home. What a crock of poo (Jost is repeating everything these days so I am trying to tone down my "colorful language").
I will put pictures of the trip up on the next post!
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