Up north ...

What a nice weekend we had up north with Grandpa and Grandma Mischnick! Everything was wonderful ... except not being able to start our car on Sunday when we were ready to go. Something about those negative temperatures and our Honda just don't agree; this was the second year in a row we had issues with leaving the grandparents' house because of the stubborn, cold car.



Anyway, Matt's parents have a "course" set up in their basement for both wagon rides and plamsa car trips (very cool toy!). Anna seemed to prefer the wagon rides, especially if Matt was pulling, or pushing, her along as fast as he dared.



Matt and I both prefered playing with the plasma car, and trying to figure out how it worked. Anna seemed to get the idea of how to move it (just wiggle the steering wheel back and forth), but definitely didn't go as fast as we did.



Grandma and Grandpa's house also comes equiped with a train table set-up (imagine that ... with two grandparents who love trains themselves and four grandsons who also adore trains). Anna prefered making "train wrecks" to actually playing with the trains :)


Both of Anna's grandmothers absolutely adore books so it's always a pleasure for her, and us, to have a new supply of books to enjoy when we visit them. Anything with animals, songs, or catchy rhymes quickly gets asked for again and again :)

Finally, Matt's mom found a great train cake pan that she has been using to make cake whenever any of the grandchildren visit; we were excited to have a tasty train shaped cake on Saturday night after dinner.



It didn't take Anna long to realize how good it was ... and how easily it fit into a wide open mouth.



Overall, it was a great trip, even if our departure was a bit stressful. Maybe next year we'll have to have a different plan if temperatures aren't expected to hit zero degrees when we're there ...