Howe Two: While Daddy Is Away.....

Matt had a sort of last minute trip to Korea. I say last minute, because we confirmed this trip less than 2 weeks before it occurred, and it caused several schedule disruptions on our master calendar. This trip was a great opportunity for him, and rather than go into all the detail of 7 tesla MRI (the reason behind the trip), I will just acknowledge that this is one of the perks of working at Mayo--awesome opportunities for career building trips abound.
It is interesting to note that this was the first full week of school and Fall activities for Jillian, and that he just so happened to be in Rome this exact week last year. The positive of this for me is that we have structure and distraction to keep us from focusing too much on his absence. So, while I was getting updates from Korea via face time (14 hr time difference actually was easy work around) and texts/pictures about Matt's outside of work activities....

I could have done without knowing he went to the DMZ on his off day. Here is a pic of the Korean border.

We were busy filling our time with other things. Highlights (not all necessarily good, as you will see) from our week here included....

*A trip with Jenni, Will, and Rachel (Michael was also out of town) to the Northwoods Orchard on Saturday (following trying to lug both my kids around the crowded Saturday Farmer's Market in a wagon). We got lost in the corn maze, ate homemade donuts, and climbed some hay bales.

Cute. But lost in the corn maze.

Love Will's expression here

4 little kids in 1 BIG chair

*Another trek with the Tauntons on Sunday. This time Jenni and I loaded the kids up in my Tahoe and drove to St Paul for a visit to the Como Zoo. We also ate at Punch Pizza, which is supposed to be famous (but we thought it was awful. Pi in Rochester is about 50 times better), and then capped off the pizza disaster nicely by grabbing ice cream at Izzy's before heading home (en route, Adrienne so nicely peed all over her car seat. That kid and her potty issues are about to send me into the loony bin).

Massive gorilla foot

This baby giraffe was born 1 week prior to our visit, and we were able to see it on its very first day in a public viewing area!

Walking past the wolves. Rachel loved to push A in the stroller.

The polar bear exhibit was awesome. This one kept swimming right up to the glass.

Thoughtfully checking out the enormous tortoise.

The best part of Como Zoo? Riding the huge carousel. You can see the 3 big kids running for it.

In line for the carousel.

She might look excited to be riding alone, but she was full of fear once it started. I had to ride holding A with my arm extended to pat Jillian on the back the whole time. Thankfully she settled down after a few minutes. Such an unexpected response from my thrill seeker. She is full of surprises, that one.

A and Mommy selfie

Izzy's. Good ice cream.

*We started a new tradition for when Daddy is out of town....long baths in the big master tub!

*We celebrated every day after school with smoothies....

It occurred to me on this day that I should top the open cups with press 'n seal and poke the straw through. Big kid cup experience without the mess!!

*And the not-so-great highlight of the week--Adrienne's first trip to the ER! We had just finished watching Jillian's swimming lesson on Tuesday afternoon and were heading for the locker room when A darted off ahead of me. She was wearing crocs and the tile is slippery, so I kept hollering at her to stop as I chased her. I caught her and grabbed her hand, and she promptly did the typical 2 year old "flop her entire body towards the ground" behavior. I normally let go of her arm when she does this, but this time I didn't (because we were close to the edge of the pool) and I heard/felt a pop in her arm. She screamed and wouldn't stop crying. I knew that I had probably dislocated her elbow (common in kids), but prayed this wasn't the case. I had to carry her to the car and I knew something was in fact wrong when she refused to do something she normally INSISTS on doing--buckling her car seat. She cried and wouldn't move her arm so I headed towards the pediatrician's office while making the call. It was close to the end of the day and the pediatrician with the only appt left (not our beloved Dr V) decided to just send us to the ER since it would be awhile til she could see us. This really annoyed me, but I quickly shifted gears, tried to keep everyone calm, called Jenni to see if she was home (thankfully she was, and so I drove J to her), texted Matt (who was just rising the next day in Seoul), and carried my sweet, scared baby into the ER right at dinner time. The silver lining here is that we have a friend who is a Peds ER physician, and lucky for us, he was working that evening. Dr. Jim came in and fixed Adrienne's "nurse maids elbow" (aka radial head subluxation) in about 10 seconds. She was good as new immediately and enjoyed a self-selected purple popsicle before we were released. Whew! So grateful for all the blessings in that little story. We went back to pick up Jillian (where Tauntons fed us pizza) and headed home.

still a bit red faced, but loving that purple popsicle

In the car post-fix buckling her car seat. She was so cute and shouted "My arm is all better!" to the parking lot attendant when we pulled up to pay.

We were super excited to see our best guy come rolling in Thursday evening after about 24 hours of travel! He of course came bearing fun gifts from a far away land.