Weekend at UND
Some of our good friends are FOCUS missionaries at the University of North Dakota, so we went up to visit them for the weekend! It was a hectic and crazy time and I'll come right out and say it, a little stressful with Kate. But it was all-in-all a good time.
My camera is still broken-being-fixed, so I didn't take very many pictures even on my phone. Sorry about that.
We drove up Friday night after work, which meant we didn't get to Grand Forks until like 1:30 in the morning. Kate was a super trooper the whole way there - she slept for about 80% of the drive and was happy and smiley the other 20% - even without a real break to eat. (We had bottles ready on hand but she wasn't hungry enough to take them, so I was fine with it!)
Lots of North and South Dakota look like Nebraska, but without the awesome Nebraska feel, if you know what I mean.
I took this on the way home but I imagine it looks mostly the same whichever way you're driving. Trains, clouds, lots of fields - some in the midst of harvest, some being plowed - and not very much traffic. The biggest annoyance was the occasional roadwork on I-29, which I'm convinced has been worked on consistently since they built that highway. I've never been on in it in any amount without running into construction.
The next day we took a tour of the campus, which was really beautiful but also totally quiet and empty, which was super weird. According to our friends, that's what it's like there most of the time. Students don't really socialize or leave their dorm rooms except to go to class, and even on a weekend campus is really deserted. Totally opposite of UNL campus, especially on game days - you can't walk through the crowds usually, it's so busy! Even on away game weekends, it's still full of people gathering to watch the game or just hang out. So UND was quite a different feel.
We took our obligatory family photo, one of the best we've taken so far I think!
We then took a "tour" of their famous hockey rink, the Ralph. Apparently hockey is a REALLY big deal at UND, because their homecoming football game was that day and there was like, no one around, but probably 20 people total touring the hockey rink. It was impressive for someone like me who has never even been to a hockey game, but I think I'm with the rest of the country in preferring football.
The only photo I got of the Ralph was this awkward selfie of me in the huge mirrors that grace the entrance.
We toured their Newman Center, I got a super comfy sweatshirt at the bookstore, and then headed back to their apartment. We played games, ate delicious soup, then ribs, as well as too much snack food, went swimming in their hot tub, and had a blast all around.
We woke up at went to 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday morning after a pretty hellish night with Kate (still in her sleep regression and it's killing us), which she was pretty fussy during so I spent in the cry room (first time for everything, I guess!). We then went to Denny's for breakfast and drove home right afterwards.
It was a quick weekend but packed with lots of fun. This same weekend last year we visited them before they were married, which was actually the day after we found out we were pregnant with Kate! Here's a throwback picture to see the difference:
Kate was there but not even showing yet! (Also on that trip we went to a Nebraska-Purdue game because my brother was studying there, and because tickets were $2.00...yes, you read that correctly.) Anyway, this trip was a little more complicated even though the "number" of us is technically the same!
It was a really fun trip, but it's nice to be back home. How was your weekend?
HG
My camera is still broken-being-fixed, so I didn't take very many pictures even on my phone. Sorry about that.
We drove up Friday night after work, which meant we didn't get to Grand Forks until like 1:30 in the morning. Kate was a super trooper the whole way there - she slept for about 80% of the drive and was happy and smiley the other 20% - even without a real break to eat. (We had bottles ready on hand but she wasn't hungry enough to take them, so I was fine with it!)
Lots of North and South Dakota look like Nebraska, but without the awesome Nebraska feel, if you know what I mean.
I took this on the way home but I imagine it looks mostly the same whichever way you're driving. Trains, clouds, lots of fields - some in the midst of harvest, some being plowed - and not very much traffic. The biggest annoyance was the occasional roadwork on I-29, which I'm convinced has been worked on consistently since they built that highway. I've never been on in it in any amount without running into construction.
The next day we took a tour of the campus, which was really beautiful but also totally quiet and empty, which was super weird. According to our friends, that's what it's like there most of the time. Students don't really socialize or leave their dorm rooms except to go to class, and even on a weekend campus is really deserted. Totally opposite of UNL campus, especially on game days - you can't walk through the crowds usually, it's so busy! Even on away game weekends, it's still full of people gathering to watch the game or just hang out. So UND was quite a different feel.
We took our obligatory family photo, one of the best we've taken so far I think!
We then took a "tour" of their famous hockey rink, the Ralph. Apparently hockey is a REALLY big deal at UND, because their homecoming football game was that day and there was like, no one around, but probably 20 people total touring the hockey rink. It was impressive for someone like me who has never even been to a hockey game, but I think I'm with the rest of the country in preferring football.
The only photo I got of the Ralph was this awkward selfie of me in the huge mirrors that grace the entrance.
We toured their Newman Center, I got a super comfy sweatshirt at the bookstore, and then headed back to their apartment. We played games, ate delicious soup, then ribs, as well as too much snack food, went swimming in their hot tub, and had a blast all around.
We woke up at went to 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday morning after a pretty hellish night with Kate (still in her sleep regression and it's killing us), which she was pretty fussy during so I spent in the cry room (first time for everything, I guess!). We then went to Denny's for breakfast and drove home right afterwards.
It was a quick weekend but packed with lots of fun. This same weekend last year we visited them before they were married, which was actually the day after we found out we were pregnant with Kate! Here's a throwback picture to see the difference:
It was a really fun trip, but it's nice to be back home. How was your weekend?
HG
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