We made good time from Minneapolis to Rochester, and checked in at the Ramada Inn – the same place we stayed last year. Mikaela and Jon prefer the Ramada to the luxury Hotel Ivy that we stay at in Minneapolis, and they wasted no time taking advantage of their favorite thing about the hotel (well, the pool and the free breakfast buffet). Jonathan was the King of the Kiddie Pool, flirting with the teenage girls.

was disappointed that the big pool was closed due to a maintenance issue, so she couldn’t use the slide. But she adjusted quickly to splashing around in the “Turtle Pool”.

More importantly, Mikaela and Jonathan enjoyed getting to spend time with Grandma Sali and Grandpa Steve, who were in Rochester from Montana, and Uncles Gabe and Eli. I only got to spend Sunday and part of Monday in Rochester, because I needed to get back to work. So I flew home on Monday afternoon. But Miriam, Mikaela, and Jonathan stayed and played for the week. I did get a chance to take long-overdue family portrait for the Holmes clan

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We had the largest Thanksgiving Feast yet at Grandma Marcia and Zaydie Larry’s house – I believe the final count was 28. We were served by the biggest turkey yet too – a full 30 pounds of Thanksgiving bird. It was great that so many out-of-town-based relatives were able to join us – Grandma Sali and Grandpa Steve from Montana, Corey, Monique and Annie from Chicago, Steph from Springfield, and Jeff and Brandi from Houston. Both the food and the company were great!

Now, if the Jayhawks can just pull off a victory over the Tiggers this afternoon . . .

Jonathan and Mikaela got to break in their Halloween costumes a week early at “Boo at the Zoo” at the Kansas City Zoo. After a rainy week, the skies cleared up on Saturday morning and though the day started out kind of cold, the sunshine warmed us up and made for a really pleasant day at the zoo. The cool weather even encouraged some of the animals that are normally pretty sedentary when it’s hotter to move around, like the lions and tigers. We spent a good four hours walking around the zoo, checking out animals and collecting candy and prizes. We had hoped to check out the new baby orangutang, and we kind of did, but the baby was napping with its mama, and they were curled up together in a tight ball. If you looked carefully at the mama orang’s arms, you could just barely see the baby’s tiny little ear sticking out.

Sorry for being slow at posting the wrap-up of the Minnesota Trip – getting back just in time for Mikaela to start first grade had me a bit distracted. HIghlights of the last few days of vacation included a return trip to the House of Bounce (this time, Jonathan got to come too – last time, he was napping), a fun evening at Thursdays on First – a summer-long outdoor event in downtown Rochester, Shabbat dinner at the Mouse House, more fun in the parks, and back-to-school haircuts (Mikaela’s included getting her nails done, too).

At Thursdays on First, Jonathan made a new buddy from France. Miriam got a cute picture of the two of them – I just need to figure out how to get it out of her phone. They met while patiently (well, as patiently as two-year-olds can) waiting for the music to start while the band was setting up. Meanwhile, the noise was a bit much for Mikaela, so she retreated to the Barnes & Noble with Grandma Mouse to enjoy some quality time with books.

It rained on us pretty much the entire way home, but the rain didn’t give us any trouble. For some reason, the spedometer in the Santa Fe decided to stop working while I was driving – the reading would drop to zero while we were crusing along at highway speeds. Luckily, we figured out the function of Miriam’s GPS that would display current speed, and managed to get home without acquiring a speeding ticket. Of course as soon as we got home and Miriam resumed driving the car, the spedometer started working again just fine.

We set out for Rochester, MN on Sunday, beginning the more relaxed leg of our vacation trip. Not that it hasn’t been fun – it’s been great. But the pace has been much more relaxed. We’ve spent much of our time hanging out at the “Mouse House” with Steve and Sali and Gabe and Eli. The kids have enjoyed the pool here at the Ramada Inn a couple of times already. Jonathan sticks to the kiddie pool side, while Mikaela and I have been playing a running series of water basketball games. She’s won six straight (with modified rules – we play to 10; her baskets count two points, mine count one; I’m not allowed to raise my arms up on defense or to rebound) and has declared herself the CHAMPION!

Mikaela got to go fishing with Paca Steve – she caught three fish (and had a fourth, but it flipped away as it was being removed from the hook), which she proudly brought home to show us before returning them to the lake. She also got to show off how she learned to hit a softball at Sports Camp this summer. And today she went to a Pump It Up-type place called House of Bounce, which had slides so big even Mikaela didn’t meet the minimum height requirement for one of them.

Jonathan has jammed on guitar and harmonica with Uncle Gabe, enjoyed playing at the parks, and playing with Paca Steve, Grandma Mouse, Uncle Gabe and Uncle Eli. Lately, his favorite video has been Sesame Street’s Peter and the Wolf. We discovered tonight just how much Jonathan has fallen in love with classical music. Looking for something on TV to keep him occupied with Mikaela took her bath, I found a Mostly Mozart performance on PBS. Jonathan was absolutely mesmerized. He listened and watched raptly, identifying instruments that he recognized from Peter and the Wolf, and at one point even correcting Miriam that an instrument was a basson, not on oboe. Guess I’ll need to talk to Dana about symphony tickets when we get home!

The whole concert is available for download here. It’s about 15 minutes long – too long for YouTube streaming. After the concert, Miriam, Grandma Mouse, Grandma Marcia and I (along with the rest of the parents and guests) were invited back to Mikaela’s classroom.

Back in Mikaela’s classroom, she couldn’t wait to show us the learning games that she played on the computer. We also go to take home a great big pile of schoolwork in her end-of-the-year schoolwork portfolio. And the mothers also each got a copy of the class “cookbook”. Each student submitted a recipe, entered in the cookbook exactly as the student described it.

Mikaela clearly has some experience with cooking. She submitted a chocolate chip cookie recipe that is awfully close to accurate (she left out the baking powder/baking soda, and the oven temp/time is a little off). For comparison’s sake, here’s a shot of one of her classmate’s recipes for chocolate cake (name redacted to protect the innocent).

They played at the “SuperPark” (there’s a great picture in the gallery of Mikaela on the zipline there) and visited the geese at Silver Lake. Mikaela enjoyed a new air-pump-powered rocket. Jonathan got to practice his crawling, and they all just had a generally fun (if too brief) vacation there.