Last Friday we headed straight to my parents' after work for dinner. I think I've mentioned before that both my mom and I married really good cooks. My dad, like Jeromy, is an awesome cook. We had a great dinner of mushroom Swiss hamburgers and potatoes. It was so good! After a long stretch of busy weeks for both of us without a lot of time together, it was nice to have some nice quality time together. We got home and put Linnea to bed, and then crashed for the rest of the evening.
Last Saturday, Linnea and I decided to head down to "our lake" (Lake Nokomis) to watch the Minneapolis/Lifetime Triathlon. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that we live close to the lake, and so many fun events are held there. I did the triathlon as my first event with Team in Training 6 (!!!!) years ago, so it has a special place in my heart. Linnea and I had fun ringing our cowbells and cheering for the bikers. It's fun to pass on the love of events like this to Linnea.
The coolest thing happened when we got down to the lake to watch the race. A cop was there directing traffic. We pulled up (on my bike, Linnea in the bike trailer) and got ourselves situated to watch. The officer approached us. I thought he was going to explain what was going on, not realizing that we were there to cheer. But he wasn't - he approached us to ticket Linnea. For wearing her helmet! He had a cute little "ticket" with his name and the date, noting that Linnea "got caught" wearing her helmet, and is entitled to a free ice cream cone at Dairy Queen! I thought it was so awesome. I don't know that Linnea totally "got it," but she was excited when I told her she could get ice cream with it! This may be the first - and only - ticket I'm excited about Linnea getting!
Shortly after we got back from the race, our friend Alisson, and her daughters Megan and Lauren came over. Alisson, who is a Norwex consultant, generously offered to come over try some products on our bathroom. Our bathroom is (admittedly) pretty gross. It's old, and the tub always looks dirty, no matter how hard I scrub it. So while the girls had a good time playing, we spent a good part of the morning scrubbing down the bathroom with various Norwex products. While it will still require some maintenance, it definitely helped a lot! We had lunch together, and then they headed out so that Linnea could go down for her nap. I joked with Alisson as she left that you know you have an awesome friend when she volunteers to come over to basically clean your bathroom! Amazing! You're the best, Alisson!
After the ladies left, I headed out to meet Jackie for a walk around Lake Harriet. Unfortunately, it started raining just as we met up. Thankfully, we both had umbrellas, and decided to just brave the rain. We had a super nice chat - she's my longest close friend...we've been through so much and I'm so thankful for all our time together - especially those catch-up chats.
I got back as Linnea was getting up from her nap. We ran a couple errands, and came home for dinner and a quiet night at home.
Sunday was gorgeous. So we decided to bike to one of our neighborhood bakeries for a donut breakfast. Yum!
We got home and got ready, and decided to go to the zoo. We didn't have a whole lot of time, but the beauty of the membership is that we can go just for a bit, and don't need to feel guilty about the cost!
We took in the bird show (which we had attended in the winter, but didn't realize that they do it outside during the summer...awesome!). We checked out some of the animals, and rode on the new carousal, which Linnea LOVED.
We had lunch at the zoo (which was surprisingly really good), and headed home for nap time. It was so nice outside that Jeromy and I lounged around outside while she napped (Jeromy was awesome and brought out my hammock for me). I read a bit...snoozed a bit...it was great.
My parents came over in the evening and we met up with the WOWZA/MANZA group for dinner at my cousin T.J.'s new restaurant, Tiny Diner. The nice weather continued, allowing us to eat out on the patio. It was such a great way to wrap up the weekend! I'm so thankful for these dear friends!
This past Friday I had a good day at work and came home to a very happy household. Life with an almost three-year-old can be a little volatile...you never quite know what you're going to get. So it's REALLY nice when it's smooth sailing. Linnea was in great spirits. We played outside, and had so much fun "whilla-hoopin' (mama's new favorite Linnea-ism). SO fun. We ended the night with a great family dinner, and some good relaxation.
Saturday morning we enjoyed some snuggle time in bed before getting going for the day. Jeromy took Luther to the vet for a quick follow-up appointment while Linnea and I got ready. When "the boys" got back, the three of us headed to the Minneapolis Farmers Market. Jeromy had seen on Twitter the night before that my cousin T.J. (executive chef at Tiny Diner as mentioned previously) was going to be doing a demo there. Since we were looking for something to do, hadn't been to the Farmers Market in a long time, and always like to support our family, we thought it'd be a great thing to do. The market was a TOTAL zoo. It took us forever just to park. We finally found a spot and made our way through the market. It was fun to watch T.J. demo, and always fun to experience the sights and sounds of the market.
One of the sweetest moments is when we came across a little folk trio. The musicians were kind enough to allow Linnea (and another little guy about her age) to try strumming their instruments. It was so sweet to watch Linnea give it a try, and see her satisfied grin when she helped play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
After the market we went home for lunch and naps. After nap, we got ready to go to the Twins game! I'll do a separate post on that, because of the sheer volume of pictures alone. Spoiler alert. It was awesome and we had a super good time! The game kept us out late (for Linnea), so we all crashed when we got home.
On Sunday, Jeromy headed out early to go golfing with some buddies. After a little bit of a rough wake up (I think the late night before was affecting her a little bit), Linnea was in really great spirits. We watched a little TV and snuggled, and then got up to get ready for the day. After a quick stop at Target, we went to church. Jeromy doesn't like the contemporary service and church, so whenever he's not able to go to church, I try to bring Linnea since she and I both like it. We had a great time. Linnea did well - mostly sitting still quietly for the service. It was pretty sweet because at one point while we stood up to sing she made her way up the front (we were in the second row) to say hi and give a hug to my mom (who is one of the pastors at our church). Linnea also pretty much danced her way through the service, which I just love.
After church, we stopped quick to check out party supplies for her upcoming birthday party, and then went to Noodles for lunch. My girl LOVES her mushroom stroganoff!
Shortly after we got home and Linnea went down for her nap, Jeromy came home. The weather was pretty hot, and he had been up early and then golfing all morning, so he took a nap too (let's be honest, I took a snooze as well).
When everyone was up, we headed over to my parents for another great dinner - this time steak and baked potatoes. Linnea was in great spirits, and we all had a nice evening.
After dinner we went to one of my favorite local ice cream places - Sebastian Joe's. It was National Ice Cream Day after all - just fulfilling our civic duty!!
So there ya go! Did you make it through all of that! It's been a really fun last few weeks - and this was just the weekends! I've got a couple other updates that I hope to do for a Friday post this week. Stay tuned!
That's your cousin's diner? I have been seeing it pop up all over the place!
ReplyDeleteI am definitely going to have to have Adam take me to your cousin's diner!! Sounds so good!
ReplyDeleteI just love the pics you take of Linnea...she is so so SOOO adorable and always seems so happy.
You guys have been BUSY, but the FUN kind of busy! :)