A visit to the North Dakota Schaefers.

Last week, Sydney and I joined my parents on a road trip to North Dakota to visit my brother and his family. Ben and Chelsa welcomed a new baby boy, Jairus Liam, in February, and this was our first trip to meet him. We arrived Saturday evening and stayed until midday on Wednesday. Chelsa and Jy had to go out of town for an appointment prior to our arrival, and unfortunately had a last minute change in travel plans and couldn't get home until Tuesday evening. We missed seeing them and cuddling the baby sooner, but it was a good chance to spend lots of time with the other two. Ben and my dad were both working most of the day on Monday and Tuesday, so my mom and I were able to watch the others.

The town was having their grand opening weekend of a new rec center, which is really big and nice, and includes an indoor pool with water slides and a lazy river. We were really excited to spend time there with the kids, but so was the entire rest of the town, making it really busy! We tried to go swimming three times, but were only successful once due to the pool being over capacity. Fortunately, the rec center also has an indoor playground, so the kids were still happy. It was a cold and snowy weekend, so we were thankful for somewhere to go indoors to run off some energy!

Aubrey and Sydney hit it off right away and had a great time playing. They are only 9 months apart and are into a lot of the same things right now. They of course had some squabbles as 3 and 4-year-olds will, but spent most of the time having fun.

Bottom right photo: Sydney and Aubrey were having a very serious (and hilarious) conversation about whether they should ask Brodie if they could use one of his toys. It seemed like morally, they felt like asking him first was the right thing to do, but were weighing that against the fact that he might say no, and then they wouldn't get to play with the toy at all. Pretty cute.

 Grandma brought matching Frozen pajamas for the girls, which they were thrilled about. We heard a lot of, "I'm Elsa." "No, I'm Elsa, you're Ana."

 Here they are playing at the indoor playground. Shortly after this photo was taken, I heard Sydney say, "Aubrey, I love you." To which Aubrey responded, "I love you too." 

It wasn't all about the girls, though. Sydney had fun with Brodie too. He's just six months older than Ryker and I think she related to him like she does her brothers.

 

We did take a break from trying to swim at the rec center and also spent some time at the library! It may not sound very exciting, but my mom and I were both grateful for unplanned time to spend with Aubrey and Brodie. Being that we don't see them very often, and when we do it's usually packed with family activities, this was a good chance for everyone to connect more.

 

When Chelsa and Jy returned home we were all excited to hold the baby!

 Sydney loves babies!

My brother's beautiful family - Aubrey 4.5, Brodie almost 2, Jairus 5 weeks

Sydney and I missed our boys while we were gone. A huge thank you to Gilby for manning the fort while I was away with our "easiest" kiddo. They did great and had some fun of their own.