Biking With Grandma Sue

Our daughter Jenny drove home to Victoria with Addie and Gunnar and were with us from March 15th to 18th because it was “Spring Break” in Tioga, ND.  Christopher stayed home in Tioga and tended to business.  We missed you, Chris.  It was good having you here, Jenny, Addie, and Gunnar.

One of the highlights of that warm summer-like weekend was a bike ride from our home on Lilac Lane at Schutz Lake to the Victoria Dairy Queen.  We rode that trail so often with our own kids when they were that age and I loved the remembering and reliving of it.  I told Addie and Gunnar that the trail had been a railroad track from 1881 to 1981.  It was a 100 years old at its demise.  I wrote a feature story about it in the Victoria Gazette, my newspaper.

Gunnar learned how to write a bike when he was only 3 years old.  That was over four years ago and I’ve got the video to prove it.  The bike was probably the same size as the one above.

Then Jenny brought the bikers back to the trail and we headed home.  Next time those honey bunnies come to Grandma Sue’s house, I’m going to have bigger and better bikes for us.   I better get shopping!

Addie was just 5 years old that spring when she rode a bike all by herself for the first time.  I’ve also got that video to prove it!!  Jenny had emailed them to me from Gully, MN.

After dinner we went for a walk in the neighborhood.  It was only the Ides of March but it felt like the Fourth of July.

Mia took off running and, thank heavens, didn’t fall.

Both Sophie and Mia started off in the wagon.  Addie and Gunnar are riding bikes around us.

Jenny and Addie pose in front of what used to be “Marci Ball’s house.”  Ball’s moved away long ago but Jenny and Marci have remained friends.

Riding in the wagon is only fun for a little while.

Hi, Nick.  Can you spy Addie and Gunnar on their bikes?

This time Jenny and Addie are posing in front of what used to be “Ann Shaw’s place.”   The Shaws also moved away long ago and Jenny and Ann have remained friends … as have Nick and Matt Shaw.

Mia has a pose that is all her own.

Addie is good at keeping an eye on her little cousins.

Jen and Nick are good at keeping an eye on each other.

Grandma Sue has her eyes on Gunnar.

It takes a lot of peddling when the bike wheels are so little.

Grandpa Al made a bonfire a couple nights in a row and we roasted marshmallows and enjoyed spring in our backyard in the middle of March.

And Grandma Sue and Grandpa Al love when they come visit us in Victoria.

Spring came early to Tioga, ND, also.  Jenny showed us a batch of pictures of the kids enjoying their new place a couple miles out of town.  The Norgaards moved to their farm in February and sold their home in town a couple weeks later. 

Gunnar got a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas, just like the one that Ralphie got in A Christmas Story.

Addie got new water boots this “spring.”

And hula hoops.  And lots of other good things.  They all love the farm.

Sophie waited in Jenny’s pickup truck at a midway point on the trail in Victoria, and we all went to a playground at Lions Park for a little while to play on all the equipment.