Weekend Recap

Whelp, another great weekend is in the books. And as always, it went by way too fast, and here I am back to reality. Weekends  - especially as the weather starts to get nicer - are my fuel! It's amazing how weekends can make a long work week previously - and a long work week ahead - a lot more manageable!

On Friday, we got to visit our friends' new baby - Sofia! Andrew and Janelle, Sofia's parents, are good friends of ours from Luther. Their oldest, Noelle, is just a few months younger than Linnea. It's is always a good time to spend time with these dear friends! We have a tradition (this is our third time now!) of having a pizza dinner after a baby arrives. One of our mutual favorite local pizza places, Parkway Pizza, is very close to Andrew and Janelle's. The non-new baby family picks up a couple pizzas and treats the new baby family to some of our favorite pizza. Throw in a couple adult beverages, lots of good conversation, and playtime for the girls, and it's a wonderful evening!! I didn't take any pictures - bummer! You'll just have to trust me that it was fun! :-)

Saturday morning, I was out the door bright and early for my Big Climb. As I referenced in my previous post, I did the stair climb with a few of my co-worker friends in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We met as a group up in our office (it was super convenient because it took place in Capella Tower, our office building) and got changed into our matching team shirts. Yup, we're hardcore! Then we headed down to the skyway level to get started.

The climb itself went really fast, which I was expecting from our training sessions. A little secret is that climbing 48 floors does not take as long as one would think! We were done in around 17 minutes - and that was with a couple water stops, and pausing to take a few photos!

We were a little giddy to get going!!


Yeah, there was a lot of picture taking... time for a selfie!

Pausing to have some water with one of my honorees, my dear friend Rachel's mom

They posted pictures of people who were fighting, or have lost their fights to cancer. It was pretty powerful. I loved seeing my big sister during the climb...

All done and still smiling! (our team name was Baby Got Buns - see the shirts?)

It was nice to start early, because then I was able to get home early - I was back by 9:30 or so. The weather was so nice (read: not snowy or frigid), so we decided to head to the zoo! In true 2-year-old fashion, Linnea was super excited to go (cheering, asking a bunch of times if we were there yet, etc.). Then we got to the zoo, and she was a total grump. She sat in her stroller kinda pouty, kinda dazed, and didn't show much interest in anything we were seeing. She acted a lot like a teenager! So after an hour or so of wandering the trails, and quite a few whines from Linnea about being hungry, we decided to go find some lunch. What happens when we walk out of the zoo to go get lunch? She throws a fit that she wants to see the animals. Oh boy.

This was about what Linnea looked like the whole time...

 When we asked Linnea what she wanted for lunch, she said a hot dog. This isn't a common response for her (it is almost always "pasta"). We asked her a couple more times, just to be sure. So we decided that Culver's sounded good - some place pretty close that we enjoyed too, that Linnea could get what she wanted. We pulled into the parking lot and Linnea declared that she wanted pasta. Luckily, I was able to convince her that grilled cheese and applesauce sounded good, and that's what she settled on getting there.

We had a great lunch - man, Culver's is good. (We forgot that, and then remember every time we eat there.) Linnea had a great time - and we were all able to enjoy some custard for dessert, thanks to a couple free coupons! Yum! Linnea literally licked her bowl clean.

We made it home for nap time, though it was a bit of a fight (more tantrums about wanting to go to the zoo and see the animals). She slept for a good bit, but then woke up cranky again. (This has unfortunately been kind of common - I think we might need to get some blackout shades so the sun doesn't wake her before she's ready.)

It took her a bit to calm down, then Jeromy started dinner, and Linnea and I walked to our little grocery store to get some spinach, which Jeromy needed for dinner. Have I mentioned I love our neighborhood??! Thanks to Jeromy, we then enjoyed a delicious pasta bake, then bath and bed for Linnea, and a bath for me afterwards!

Sunday morning we got up and headed to church. Linnea's usually pretty good about sitting through at least most of church, but she was in some sort of mood on Sunday, and she was done before we even sad down. So I went to church, and Jeromy and Linnea played in the gym. I have to work hard to not feel like the bad mama who can't make my kid sit nicely through church. 

After church we headed home for lunch. Linnea and I took another walk to the grocery store for a needed ingredient (sense a trend?). Linnea took a nice long nap (and I took a little snooze too). After naps, our great friends Jackie, Tom, and Gavin came over for play time and dinner. We had a great time! The weather was gorgeous, so we enjoyed a nice little walk/bike ride around the block.

How cute are these little biking cuties??

 We had a good time working on planning a joint family trip to our alma mater. We've got it booked for June! We can't wait!

After they left we had a little more play time, and then it was time for bed...and then back to the grind.

Thank goodness for wonderful weekends!