Poppi and Mimi kidnap Grandson...

Dear Family and Friends,

I appologize to you all.  I am guilty of not posting on our blog for almost two months.  No excuses....just busy living life and procrastinating.

I do have some things I would like to share with you and if I don't do it now it will wither into vapor as new things happen to take its place.

My last post (April 18th) was about the first couple of weeks on our trip back to the U.S. to visit with family and friends.

After checking in on Clarke and Brenda in Oregon, we headed north to our old stomping grounds...Tri-Cities, Washington.  After a few days of visiting and hugging, we kidnapped our 11 year old grandson, Cannon, and wisked him off to Minnesota via Amtrak.

Our oldest daughter, Merri, lives in Minnesota.  She is quite a remarkable lady managing their country home, vegetable garden, chickens and homeschooling their ten children.

Among our ten Minnesota grandchildren is Nathaniel, 12 years old.  Cannon and Nathaniel are first cousins, they talk via skype and play games together online YET they had never met each other face to face.

Cannon is homeschooled too in Washington state, making it easy for us to travel by train during the off season.  It took us two days to travel all the way to Minneapolis.

After we arrived in Minneapolis, we rented a car and drove for about two hours to the northern part of Minnesota...way out in the country to visit Merri, Ken and our grandkids. Cannon was excited and a little apprehensive at the same time.

As soon as we arrived we had a huge welcoming committee of grandchildren.  The Minnesota cousins enveloped Cannon and folded him right into the pack.  They were running and playing immediately.  The apprehension Cannon had disappeard in about five secconds.

Here are some pictures of our fabulous weekend.  All these happy, wonderful grandchildren...we could not be more blessed.

Below is Poppi passing out Ecuador gifts to the kids.

The day after we arrived the kids came and swam in our hotel pool.  Everyone had a great time.

Look at this cutie.

Here is Cannon, who by this time was an honorary Mickelson kid.

He and Nathaniel had a great time playing together.

Even Poppi got in the fun.

The whole bunch got out of the pool just long enough for a quick group picture and then they were right back to splashing and playing.

 Here are Merri and Ken, the mom and dad to a swell bunch of kids.  We are so proud of all of them.

The next day Merri had arranged for us all to participate in a 5K fun run.

Everyone participated from the oldest child to the youngest.

Here is Cannon, so proud to have finished the race.

After the race, we all went to IHOP for a big breakfast.

Smiles all around while we wait for breakfast.

We spent the afternoon playing games back at the house and spending one on one time with the grandkids.

We even celebrated three birthdays.  The kids other grandpa (Orville) is sitting at the table watching his granddaughters blow out their candles.

Way before anyone was ready, it was time to leave.  Hugs and hugs were passed around.  It warmed our hearts to see that this meetup was such a overwhelming success.

One last shot before we get in the car to head back to Minneapolis.

Next I will share about Cannon's trip to Mall of America and our train ride back home.

Love,
Nancy