Last weekend we headed out to Seth and Michelle's for a few days. Aunt Judy, Uncle Kevin, Matthew, Andrew, and Alyssa were going to be there too, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them. It was a little family reunion!
Harmony...still cute. 
Harmony was speedy.
Although we didn't spend nearly enough time with Kevin, Judy, and the kids, it was wonderful to see them and catch up in person (rather than on Facebook). Thanks for making the trip out to Ohio! Hope you see you again soon! 
We have a bakery in Fort Dodge that make adorable cookies, so we brought some with us. We picked out frogs for James, butterflies for Harmony, and flowers for Gabby. Yum!
This is what happens when you leave frosted cookies unattended on the kitchen counter. I think Brian was the culprit. Seems like something he would do.
Gabby...still cute.
This is what happens when you leave frosted cookies unattended on the kitchen counter. I think Brian was the culprit. Seems like something he would do. Gabby...still cute.James...still cute.
Harmony...still cute. Brian and I had a great time watching James' and Harmony's first t-ball game. They did a great job! James was a fantastic hitter.
Harmony was speedy.Although we didn't spend nearly enough time with Kevin, Judy, and the kids, it was wonderful to see them and catch up in person (rather than on Facebook). Thanks for making the trip out to Ohio! Hope you see you again soon! 
Three pounds of bees- a standard box (about 10,000). 
Here's the location on our property where the bees are going to live. They'll get early sun, afternoon shade, and are a good distance from both the neighbor's house and any fields. Here I am getting final things ready before starting the process. 
The first thing I did after arriving home was to give the bees a good drink of sugar water. Once I was ready to put them into the hive I gave them another coating so they would have something to eat and would fly around less once they were out of their box. 
Ready! It was really windy outside, which made the veil difficult to use. I wore it most of the time, but took it off towards the end of the process. Won't do that again (thanks for the advice, Uncle Larry), but I'll probably not attend to my bees on a windy day either. Unfortunately we have more windy days than calm days around here. Good lesson learned. 
Getting the feeding container off and the queen bee into the hive. 
After shaking the bees into the bottom super. 
Ta-da! And no stings! 
Welcome home bees! 
Everything went really smoothly, although I did have a major concern about my queen. After a frantic email to Uncle Larry (and a quick call back from him!), I think everything will be okay. I'll check back in a week and see how the hive is doing. I'll be sure to update our blog and let you all know how things are going.
We got in pretty late at night (driving up after getting off of work), so we slept in the next morning then went out for a tasty breakfast. Brian's breakfast the morning after we arrived- cheese french toast.
We had hors' devours and drinks (I had cape cods) one afternoon after spending some quality time in a downtown bookstore. 
The tomato and mozzarella salad was delicious! 
Downtown Minneapolis is cool because all the downtown buildings are connected by skyways. So, you don't actually have to walk outside. We did just to get the fresh air, but it was fun seeing all the people inside. There was hardly anyone on the streets. 
On the way back Brian and I did a little bit of genealogy work for Grandpa Platt and Aunt Judy. We stopped in a small town south of Minneapolis and found the Groveland cemetery to look for Platt stones. There was a lot of snow, but Brian actually found one! The large monument in the right of this photo is for Henry Platt and his family. Brian's digging out one of the smaller stones. 
