visiting Nathan and Ana

We had planned on visiting my brother and his wife, Nathan and Ana, even earlier in the spring this year, but decided on moving our dates back to the second weekend in April in hopes of better weather. They do live in the tundra of north eastern South Dakota after all. 

We should have known better. 

Seems that SD always has spring blizzards and this year we had three in April. The weekend we visited was just after the first after our initial spring storm. Two more came after we got back! So despite all my hopes of seeing Watertown without snow and going on walks, none of that happened. We saw a very drab, white, depressing Watertown. Thank goodness the company was good because the town certainly wasn't.

We had never been to visit Nathan and Ana even though they've lived in Watertown for over three years. It used to be harder to take vacations anywhere other than the grand parents when we lived in Nebraska. Now that we're back with the grand parents, we wanted to travel more. Well, this was our first trip despite that it was also our year anniversary of returning. At least we got 'er dun.

We had never seen Nathan and Ana's cute little house before and that was half the fun! The kids all slept in the uppermost level, which is kind of like a finished attic/craft/catch all room. They've finished it out nicely along with the rest of the house - it's awesome. Samuel enjoyed reading the nightly Bible story on the floor with the other two. The other two did not enjoy sharing with Samuel.

Since the weather was terrible, there wasn't much to do. We did a fair amount of reading, but even more watching movies and playing games on the Wii. Thank goodness we brought the Wii. And that Ana borrowed some toys (Thomas trains) from the kids she babysits. That was a hit with the kids, though it gave the rest of us headaches because they were motorized trains...

Terry spent a lot of time attempting (and succeeding) in stacking Nathan's newest hobby and etsy shop item, the lilac rock cairn (though the shop is primarily Ana's paper stuff, Nathan has added some really cool things to it as well). Nathan repurposes these old pieces of wood with smooth facets and then you try to stack them as high as you can. I could not do it. No patience. Terry, however, made it up to EIGHT high! The man has mad skills. Brody the dog does not look impressed, but he should be.

Here's Terry's reaction to only seven high. Imagine when he got to eight...

So we were dorks and did not take many photos. And none of Nathan and Ana themselves. But here is a short video of Samuel playing during dinner. You can see their small, but totally cute, living room. Also, that piece of wood art above the piano? Nathan made me a smaller one too :D