The best part about going on vacation is coming home.
Boy, what an eventful trip this was. It had been 9 years since Bill had been back. He & his family wanted to show me everything. Surprisingly, there was never a dull moment.

We flew out on Tuesday afternoon. Logan was really good on the flight. I nursed him on take off & he fell asleep. His ears never bothered him & nursing distracted me from the take off, but only just a little. I still had the death grip on Bill's hand. We were flying on a very small express flight. I've never been on a plane that small before. It was pretty scary. When Logan woke up, we still had about 30 minutes left in the flight. He got a little fussy, so I thought he might need a diaper change. Yeah, that's the first & last time I will ever step foot into an airplane restroom, especially to change a diaper. The only word I have for it is gross. When we got back to our seats, Logan was still a little fussy, but I'm sure it was because he woke up from his nap & wanted to move around. He's an active little guy & being stuck in a seat on my lap was not his idea of fun. He wasn't that bad though.













Once we got into town, Bill & his mom took me to a coffee shop where they would often eat lunch. Now I know why people from North Dakota are on the "bigger" side. Everything on the menu is deep fried. I was on vacation, so I really didn't care. We ate & then they drove me around town to show me where the flood took out houses & businesses & what was rebuilt. It was mind blowing to see how high the river got & the destruction that it caused. Unbelievable. Grand Forks is a cute little town & it became clear why Bill wants to move to a smaller town in Colorado.

On Wednesday we drove up to Northwood, a very small town that Bill's mom grew up in. It was really cute & really small. It took all of two minutes to drive through & driving really slow at that. She showed us the one room school house where she went to school when she was younger & told us stories of playing in the underground forts in the summer & on the rubber ice in the winter.











She drove us to Washington church where her family went. It was locked so we couldn't see inside. The cemetery across the road was where her side of the family was buried. We paid our respects to the family that had passed years ago & those just recently as well.We drove home & ate pizza from the pizza shop that the family rants & raves about. We ate with aunts & cousins. Afterward, we left Logan with grandma to meet up with one of Bill's high school buddies. It was nice to finally meet him & for them to get a chance to catch up. I heard stories that I've never heard before. It's a miracle that they are still living.













Thursday we stayed in town. One of Bill's cousins took us to the Ralph Engelstad Arena. It was built after the flood & Bill hadn't seen it. It was really nice. We took a tour, saw the suites & watched hockey practice for a bit. Logan already likes hockey! We stopped by the gift shop & bought him a fighting sioux Nike outfit for him to wear to his first hockey game when UND plays DU in February.

Afterward, we drove to the new Japanese garden that was built by the sister city of Awano, Japan after the flood. Bill's cousin was a host family for one of the exchange students from there & told us about all of the history with the garden & in return, Grand Forks sent a bronze buffalo statue. It was very interesting.













Again, it was grandma's turn to babysit that night while Bill & I went out for dinner & drinks with a few of his friends & his cousin. We ate at the college hang out where Bill used to work & went to a bar that's owned by some friends of the family. We had a great time meeting each other, catching up, laughing & telling more stories of rebellious youth.

Friday we drove out to Bemidji, Minnesota for the family reunion. We took the traditional picture by Paul Bunion & Babe The Blue Ox. Most of the family made it out to the reunion. Logan was passed around from cousin to aunt to uncle to grandma. They loved it, but I'm not so sure about how Logan felt about it. There were times that he had to sit on my lap to cuddle & get some chill out time. It was great to finally put faces to names though. I was joking with Bill the night before about how I know more about his family tree than he does. It turns out to be the truth!With every family reunion there always has to be an ungodly amount of food. Venison jerky, fresh walleye (fried, of course), home made apple sweet rolls & almost everyone was drinking hurricanes. That was our cue to leave. Bill's mom made a joke about how they leave before the drunken brawls (I don't think there were any this year).

Saturday we drove up to the small town of Lakota to visit Bill's dad's side of the family. I met another aunt & cousin & then we drove out to see Bill's grandma at the nursing home. There's a lot that I have to say about this, so I'm going to go into a lot of detail later this week. It was a very eye opening reality check for me. It was great to see her again & we got a four generation picture of her with Bill, grandpa & Logan.

That night Logan stayed home with Bill's cousin while we all went out for dinner. I cried when we got into the car because this was the first time I left Logan with someone I really didn't know (even though it was still family). It was his first babysitter. I got over it pretty quick though. Bill's parents, Aunt & two uncles were with us. It was a great dinner with huge portion sizes (another reason why everyone from there is "bigger").













Sunday we drove to Grafton where Bill's dad grew up. We saw the farm house & while Bill was taking a picture, a small boy was peering out of the window wondering why on earth we were taking a picture of his house.












We drove by the crops on the farm. They were growing corn & sugar beets. We went to his one room school house where he went when he was younger & told us stories of playing in the river in the summer.













He took us to Zion church where his family went. We paid our respects to the family that were buried there as well. This was the first time that I heard anything about that side of Bill's family. It was very interesting to learn about the relatives, how they passed & what their lives were like. They even found family graves that Bill's dad didn't know about & saw them for the first time. They were from the 1800's & engraved in norweigian script. Bill's great grandma came across to the states from Norway (this is something that he & his dad brag about when it comes to genealogy. "We're 100% Norweigian"). We were able to go into the church & look at the chapel with stained glass windows. Downstairs were antiques & historical artifacts. We saw a picture of the founding pastor of the church. It was really cool.

We left Logan alone with the grandparents again & Bill & I went out for coffee. We wandered around downtown & took some pictures. It was a great night for a walk & some fresh air. I thought it was crazy that we were walking around downtown & there wasn't a homeless person in sight. Bill said that the winters were really bad & that keeps the street people at a minimum.

Monday Bill & I did some shopping for Logan, getting him an adidas baseball cap & a ton of other clothes. We went to the candy store downtown & bought "chippers". Chocolate covered potato chips. They are so good, it's ridiculous. We went to a wine tasting room & bought a couple bottles of wine, one of which we're drinking tonight & wow. It's really good. We flew home later that night & Logan did about the same. He was great on take off & landing, sleeping most of the time, only getting fussy when he didn't want to sit anymore. The passengers behind us were great by keeping him smiling & hushing him when he cried. It's amazing that Logan will listen to other people, but not me. Well, no. It's not. I better get used to that I guess.

We had a great time on Logan's first vacation. We learned about new family history & I got a well rounded idea of where Bill came from. Everyone loved Logan & thought he looked just like Bill (& some thought he looked like Bill's grandma too). Even though it was a lot of fun, it sure is nice to be back home.