South

The kids and I, with Opa, went south last weekend. All the way to central Kansas. It was not warmer than Minnesota; in fact, it snowed rather nicely on Sunday morning. We were right in the spirit, as Anna (and at least two of her cousins) coughed and hacked up a storm all weekend long. Ramont (blissfully) stayed home and waited for Gracie's calf, whose due date has now been pushed back a month. The photo here is not of Gracie (our new Jersey cow), but of Elias' 4-H steer.

Oma had gone down a few days earlier and had helped butcher roosters one day (before we came luckily).

We spent most of the time visiting and drinking mate...and keeping baby Maria from overrunning her older cousins.

Our kids had SO much fun with both their littler cousins (Maria and the twins Andrew and Annalise),

and their big cousins (Elias, Amos and Reuben), who are such accommodating playmates. Here they go dancing 'round the couch while we ate dessert.

Here we are out at Willmar and Hannah's ranch, fu-reezing our toes off.

And then there was this...