A trip to North Dakota to see Great Grandma

At just over a year and a half, Ellie made the trek to see her Great Grandma Mary in Bismarck, ND for the first time. Great Grandma was sooo excited to get to see Ellie and sad that she couldn't make the trip to Washington herself to see her sooner. Flights to ND are hard because they aren't ever direct/non-stop. So on Wednesday last week, Nana, Ellie and I caught a flight to Minneapolis and then another to Bismarck. Ellie was a perfect traveling companion. She was great at the take offs and landings and slept through the entire 2.5 hour flight to Minneapolis. She was content for the second flight, although about 1/2 way through the 1 hour flight she signed and said "All Done, All Done".

When we got to Bismarck we were greeted by my Uncle Greg, Aunt Carol, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Merl and Grandma Mary. Later Cousin Camille and her husband Paul made a trip over from Fargo to see us and meet Ellie. We had a busy and fun week!

Four generations!


Kathy Nana and Papa Merl


Cousin Camille and Paul


A trip to Big Boy for Pizza Burgers flying style, frozen cokes, french fries with gravy. And because we can we went back another time for more flying style burgers, brown cows, and more french fries with gravy.


Papa Merl is the Director at the Heritage Museum at the North Dakota State Capitol. We are lucky enough to get a private tour when we visit and this time was no exception. Papa Merl even took us down to the basement to see the dinasour fossil...yes the one they found a few years back that still had the skin on it!! Sooo cool.








Saturday and Sunday at the Capitol Grounds they held the Capitol A'fair. A really fun arts and crafts fair. This year they had a stand where you could purchase a piece of ceramic and glaze it yourself. They fired it right there and it only took about 35-45 min. Kathy Nana and Nana made some really neat 'North Wind' pieces.


More food - a necessary trip to the walk up Dairy Queen for the Candy Brittle Crunch topping (think Peanut Brittle and Sprinkles). Delish.


Play time in the back yard with Nana.