Last pictures from Minnesota

More pictures from the train museum in St. Paul, including one of Simon driving one of the Thomas trains:

An absolute favorite breakfast of the Swanson/Reynolds side of the family is homemade Swedish lingonberry pancakes.  Guess who really likes the ligonberries?!?  His Great-Grandpa Floyd would be SO proud:

And opening presents with Daddy:

Videos from Minnesota

On the drive from IL to MN, a particular iPad app in which Simon got to build trains was a huge hit:



While we were in Shoreview, we went to the Community Center twice to go swimming.  Simon really loved this little waterslide!



And we also went to Rosedale Mall one day, where they have a train that drives around the mall.  I thought the price was a bit steep for a five-minute ride ($6 for the two of us), but Simon's excitement made it totally worth it!  (At the beginning you can hear him talking about the engine and the engineer.)

New Years visit to Minnesota

The iPad provided fantastic travel distraction

We went to the Community Center a few times.  Simon LOVED this little water slide.

Whee!

It was hard to get a good picture of him because he was always on the move in the very shallow area

He copied a lot of other kids and went down on his tummy, too.  Grandma was there to make sure his landing was okay!

Grandma Karen also had the great idea to go to the Train Museum!  He got to work controls to drive a Thomas train around a track, and we saw lots of other trains too!

Grandma made him an "S" pancake.  "S - Simon!" he said.

We went to Taste of Scandinavia for breakfast, and there was a very tame duck right outside looking for handouts.  He LOVED following it for a while.

We went to Caribou for a kids hot chocolate

 

We also got to play with Finn and Graham one night.  Simon took notes on how to eat ALL of your pizza. :)

We also rode the little choo-choo train at Rosedale. 

Videos of the choo-choo train and the pool to follow!

Two more photos from Christmas in Illinois:

Christmas morning with one of his big gifts!

Playing with the farmhouse with Allison

Catching up

Random photos from before Christmas:

Playing with his train set, a birthday present that we finally opened for him when the weather got colder.

And with the train set on his new train table, an early Christmas present!

Piggly Wiggly has fun cars to drive the grocery carts.s

We went to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum, where Simon particularly enjoyed driving vehicles.

And playing with sand

And sliding

There were several vehicles to drive!

Christmas in Illinois

We spent a long Christmas weekend in Illinois with the Ryba family.  Simon had lots of fun times!

It wasn't quite a white Christmas

Riding with Papa Jim

Making cookies with Grandma Barb

Christmas morning Facetime chat with Grandma Karen

Santa brought him some trucks and a mat to drive them on!  Teuer stood watch.

Merry Christmas!

As always, he had fun with trains

Trying on fun new shoes with Alli.

 

Christmas Eve

Christmas photos

The good and adorable:

Four generations 

His "angelic" look

Goofy

Cute but out of focus

With Grandma Karen

The not-so-good:

What happens when you say "CHEESE" very seriously

Chillin'

Distracted

Huh?

 

I'm getting tired of getting my picture taken....