Jul 11

minnesota trip recap

Posted by on Jul 11 2011 at 08:59 am

A few weeks ago we returned from a marathon 23 day trip to Minnesota and Wisconsin to visit family and catch up with friends. It was Eli’s first time out of the state, his first road trip and many other firsts which are probably too numerous to mention. It was a blast seeing everyone and enjoying a relatively laid back trip home (and I’m pretty sure the longest amount of time I spent in Minnesota since I graduated from college).

When you go on a 2,000 mile road trip with a four month old, you pack nearly all of your personal belongings. It looks like this.

Pathfinder - Packed to the Brim

Uncle Josh met Eli for the first time in Minnesota. They both played with Cookie Monster together.

Meeting Uncle Josh

Eli also met Grandpa Fjordbak and Great-Grandma Fjordbak up in Alexandria.

Eli meeting Grandpa Fjordbak

Eli meeting Great Grandma Fjordbak

We ate pizza at an outdoor brick fired pizza farm, which was a ton of fun. Huge, authentic pizzas with homegrown vegetables. And Eli met his first sheep.

Brick fired pizza ovens in Wisconsin

Eli looking at a sheep. A sheep looking at Eli.

Here we are putting on overalls – he’s as excited as he looks!

Putting on the overalls

This hammer is a treasured Burns family heirloom passed down through the generations from baby to baby. Well, actually, it was my brother’s and he chewed on it for a while in 1985 and now Eli is chewing on it.

If I had a hammer...

The porch is a wonderful place to hang out with a baby… especially that swing. He absolutely loved it, and if he was ever fighting sleep, five minutes on the swing would put him out fast.

Sitting with Great Grandpa and Grandma Zimmerman

The miraculous porch swing

And Grandma Stolz got to meet Eli too. That’s a fuzzy owl in the picture, given to him by his Uncle Joey.

Eli meeting Grandma Stolz

Rochester is known for having lots of geese at Silver Lake, so we went to see them. The little geese thought Eli was cool because he was little too.

Watching the geese at Silver Lake

And finally, we were able to catch a Twins game at the new Target Field stadium in Minneapolis. It was a blast! It was also a strangely cold night… I think the wind chill might have been below 32 degrees up in the third deck by the end of the night. It was a ton of fun though, and the cold didn’t stop us from eating our traditional frosty malt.

Burns family at Target Field

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