Whew we made it!

Dustin's grandfather is 89 and not in the best of health. So last week we had Fall Break at school so we drove to Minneapolis for a visit with the kids' great-grandparents. It is 17 hours of actual driving time, and that is no easy task with an almost 2 yr old, 3 1/2 yr old, and a 5 yr old. We left Friday around 3, and drove until 3:30 that morning. We tried to stop earlier, but one hotel was full, and we decided to go onto Colleyville, KS. As we were pulling into town I got a sinking feeling in my gut. I was about 95% sure this was the town I saw on the news over the summer that had terrible flooding. Sure enough, every hotel in town was closed as they were rebuilding. You could see water lines almost to the roof on all the homes and businesses they hadn't started rebuilding yet. So we drove on. We finally got to another town that had room at the Super 8, but all they had was the most expensive suite left, but we were just ready for a hotel so we paid over $100 to stay...yikes! It did have a jacuzzi tub in the room that the boys got the biggest kick out of in the morning so it was worth it. We left around 11:30 and drove until we were about 2 1/2 hours outside of Minneapolis and stayed the night. Sunday we got up and met his grandparents after church. We had a little problem getting around where the bridge collapsed, since our directions took us right over that spot which is no longer there, but once we found our way around we were good. We had a nice visit, and they boys really had a great time getting to know their great-grandparents better. We took 1 day and took the boys to the Mall of America and we ate at the Rain Forest cafe, went to the Underground Aquarium, and they let them build their first ever Build-A-Bear. The rest of the time we mostly hung out with his grandparents and went to several Targets, my favorite store (who happens to be headquartered out of Minneapolis). His grandfather doesn't drive anymore and his grandmother never has, so they normally are stuck in their retirement apartment. We were able to take them to McDonalds to get a burger (one of his grandfathers favorites), AppleBees, Chuck E Cheese (his grandmother's idea), out for breakfast, to the grocery store, etc. It was a lot of fun. His grandmother turned 90 on Friday while we were there. It was neat to get to share that with her. She is still so spunky and full of life. Minus a tremor she is almost in perfect health, you would never guess she is 90. While we were there we got a call from a friend letting us know our school's Athletic Director had been killed in a car wreck. Zak was an amazing man, and is terribly missed....please keep praying for the school and his family (he has 4 kids from a Jr in High school to a 23 yr old). So we left Friday around 3 pm and decided to see how far we could go, since Zak's funeral was in College Station Sat at 10 am. We made the 17 hours worth of driving in 18 hours and got home at 9:10, by the time we changed we arrived at church with 1 minute to spare. We were exhausted, but excited to be home. We got a call Tuesday that his grandfather had to be taken to the hospital due to pneumonia, and should be released today. They didn't know if he would go home or to a nursing home. They were also going to set up the step down from hospice for him, not exactly sure what that means. So that makes our trip and time there that much more special.

I'll go through and post pictures later.