We just returned from a wonderful week long vacation in Minnesota. For those on "my" side Minnesota is a very special place for Mark. Grandma Ginnie was raised in Alexandria, MN which is a couple hours west of the Twin Cities and surrounded by beautiful lakes. Mark spent his summers vacationing in Alexandria similar to how I did in the Rockies. Aside from the Lang family the whole crazy Backlund bunch lives in the Twin Cities area. Amelia loved all the little people and we loved getting to spend an entire week with our little girl! Mark and I also got to have some fun and in the process proved that we still have a little fun in us and closed down Aunt Gayle's restaurant (Eddy's Interlachen Inn - which you should definitley check out if you are in the area) on karaoke night. The highlight of the trip was spending long hours on the deck/lawn watching kids play, catching up with family and enjoying the scenery. Thank you to everyone who made our Minnesota vacation so memorable!
The trip started off with a trip to the Alexandria Clinic where Amelia had her first non-well baby doctor's visit. We left after Amelia ripped off all the paper on the exam table and with a prescription for eye drops to cure her pink eye.
Amelia took her first boat ride and looked pretty stylish in her purple life vest. A special thank you to Lulu for loaning Amelia her life vest she outgrew.
We had a family dinner at Chet's a favorite spot for locally caught walleye. Poppy (Grandpa T) took good care of Amelia when she had had enough of sitting in a restaurant.
The lake water was pretty cold but Amelia still got in some quality swimming time. After swim lessons she looked at us like what do you want me to do in this little pool.
Mark and I got out for a little jet skiing action. Okay so I'm pathetic on a jet ski and found that 17 mph was just about perfect. Never mind that Mark and Dylan AND Nana and Lulu got up to 47.....
Here are all the great-grandkids (Brady, Dylan, Ellie, Georgia, Lulu, Amelia and Asher) of Viola and Kermit Backlund. Which one doesn't look like the other? So far six of the seven great-grandkids all inherited the Scandinavian blonde hair but it looks like baby #7, Miss Amelia is the odd one out. Yes, that is her with the mohawk.
Mark and I hosted a pizza party one night for the family. The "older" kids all got to make their own and ironically all made the exact same pizzas which of course included no vegetables (and Mark will correct me as he full heartedly considers the tomato sauce on pizza to be a vegetable). Props to Brady for managing to get an enormous amount of cheese in his mouth before anyone could stop him. Luckily we bought lots of cheese so the rest of us still got to have some. Amelia is sure a daddy's (and Grandpa T's) girl enjoying pizza at a young 8-months of age!
Amelia loved "talking" to Ellie. Ellie's mom Jill and Mark are "twin cousins" so it is fun that they both had baby girls within two months of each other.
Nana had a new sidewalk poured at her restaurant and we all marked our territory. Check out Amelia's little bitty footprints!
Amelia looks up to her big cousin Georgia and she sure wishes she could run around with her. Georgia and daddy are Amelia's favorite playmates.
Finally some family pictures.
Helping dad with his mountain golf game. And yes, he is aiming for the tree. We have to get a little creative with golf "holes" in the mountains.
A true mountain girl in her fleece and crusty nose. Of course her friend Mindy made sure she would be a stylish babe in her Patagonia!
Amelia - the spoon is for stirring not eating.
We decided that a small mountain town's 4th of July parade is a great way to spend a holiday.
3 generations of Cheney's have been born in Chicago. Amelia's Great-Great Uncle James Cheney was born at Cook County Hospital in the 20's, Papa (David Cheney) was born in the Pulman neighborhood in the 40's and Amelia at Prentice in the 00's!
and give it up for Kansas and the ladies born there!
oh yeah, and for the guy born in Illinois.
Mark and I just celebrated our 2nd anniversary but the real congratulations go to James & Vivian on 62 years of making each other laugh. Amelia isn't fortunate enough to have Great Grandparents but she is blessed to have James & Vivian.
That's right, Amelia's onesie says "My Aunt is Crazy."
and finally Amelia enjoyed the mountain breeze blowing through her couple of hairs.