Oma and Opa's

My parents live on a 40 acre piece of wilderness next to 150,000 acres of state land wilderness. Yes, that means there are bears and lots of wild things around. For those city people who say, “Yeah, so and so lives out in the middle of nowhere…” and the main indicator is that person lives out on a country road…they have no idea what they are talking about. Seriously. When you are at my parent’s house the closest town with anything but a gas station is 20 minutes away. And all that town has is a school, a gas station, and a restaurant. The town in which they live on the outskirts of has an old deserted falling down church…and that’s it. My parents are the only people that I know who still live on a dirt road.

At Oma and Opa’s (German for grandma and grandpa) house it is so quiet and dark at night that sometimes I can’t sleep because it is so quiet and dark. I normally sleep with a street light outside my window and white noise on to cover up all the other noise going on, including, but not limited to, airplanes, helicopters, gunshots, screaming, yelling, and an endless number of cars.

I love going up to my parent’s house, it is like going on a mini-vacation. When I am there I can literally forget about other things like work, stress, and whatever else. I think that partly comes from being with people who know and love me pretty much unconditionally, but it also comes from life being so different there. If I had the mind to, I could sit in the front yard and count the number of cars that drive by in any given day I would probably not count past 20. At my house in the city, more than 20 cars drive by per hour.

Anyway, it is always fun and relaxing. Even when the kids are sick. Yes, Tryn got sick on Friday and I still went up to my mom and dad’s. Why? Well, to see my sister of course! My sister and her husband live out in Indiana and I only get to see them a couple of times per year, this was one of the times. Hopefully Kristy will move back to Minnesota soon. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Berlin and Trynica also love going up to Oma and Opa’s house. They don’t love it just because they get spoiled by all the attention, they also love it because they LOVE to play outside and there is just so much outside at Opa’s house. The yard is one of the biggest I have seen, there are four-wheelers, horses, and a river in the backyard (through the trees and down this little “path” that is most easily traversed by four-wheeler or horse).


My brave Berlin will touch anything. She marched right up to the horses, who are miles higher than she is, and stuck her hand through the fence to try and pet them. Bold, fearless, crazy kid. I feel like I say that a lot, but it is totally true. Maybe I just don't expect it from her because she is a girl and she surprises me a lot. Tryn is very cautious, delicate, and girly. Berlin is...not.

If there are any kids that I adore almost as much as my own, it would be my nephews. I have three. Brendyn and Tyvan are brothers, Brendyn is 2 months older than Tryn and Tyvan is 4 months older than Berlin, and then there is 9 month old Gabe who is living with his parents in South Korea right now. I adore them. This is Tyvan, isn't he just so cute?!?!

This is my sister Kristy (in the middle) and my sister-in-law Christine (fondly known by everyone as Tia) who is Brendyn and Tyvan's mom. I love these girls too. I kind of just really like my family :)