Weekend Recap

Oh man. I hope there are people still reading this thing. I have fallen quite behind on blogging. It was a very busy end of Summer/beginning of Fall, and I can hardly believe it's mid-October already!

What's happening now is exactly what happened the first time I attempted blogging. I got behind...and then further behind...and then it was too overwhelming so I just stopped altogether. I still really want to "catch up" on the last couple months, but I've decided that I have to just move forward, and accept that some stuff may get missed.

So here's an attempt to get back on track...a recap of my weekend. It was a great one - lots of fun!

On Friday, I was invited to play bunco with a neighbor friend and her monthly bunco group. I had played once before with the group, and it was a lot of fun. So I knew when I got the opportunity again, I wanted to go. Each month they have a theme of sorts. This particular time was a book exchange - so (in addition to paying in $5 for the prizes) everyone brought a book to exchange with someone else in the group.

It was a lot of fun - lots of fun women, good conversation, and laughs. I didn't end up winning anything, but I still had a great night. Fridays are usually big time lazy nights for us, so it was kind of nice to have something different to enjoy.

On Saturday morning we enjoyed our traditional snuggle in bed while watching a show with Linnea. Admittedly, this is probably a bit of lazy parenting, but it's nice to start things a little slow on the weekends. After that we got up and got ready for the day. The weather was perfect - iconic "Fall in Minnesota" weather. We stopped for a couple caches - we are still on the hunt towards 1,000 by the end of the year. We're getting close! (930s right now).

I LOVE those leaves against that bright blue sky! Perfection!

Linnea is getting to be QUITE the little geocacher. She can find them on her own now.

Yay for perfect Fall days as a family!

Of course Linnea needs to check out the swings whenever there's a playground nearby!

After geocaching/playing in the park, we made a stop at what has become our apple orchard of choice, AppleWood Orchard in Lakeville. We don't like the chaos and craziness of some of the larger orchards in town. This one is a bit off the beaten path - much quieter and less commercialized.

As we arrived, we checked out the pumpkins (we're planning to go to a pumpkin patch next weekend, so we just looked this time).

We made a stop in the apple barn to try some apple samples to see which ones we liked best. It was a unanimous decision which apples we wanted to pick - Sweet 16! Jeromy and I have the same taste in apples. Sweet and crunchy. Yum!

Linnea was eager to pick some apples!

Much like years past, Linnea couldn't WAIT to dig right in to the apples. She finished this one in the matter of a couple minutes, and was begging for more!

Cuties!

Seriously. SUCH a perfect day.

The orchard has lots of old tractors to "drive." Girlfriend LOVED it.

After checking out the tractors, some apple donuts, and playtime on the orchard's playground,we headed out. We had a slight mishap in the parking lot... Linnea tripped, and while trying to do the "mama snatch and grab" I accidentally caught Linnea in the nose...with my knee. Poor girl had an instant VERY bloody nose... but nothing a few kisses and Kleenex couldn't fix.

I made a quick swing through home, before getting back on the road to go out to lunch. I met up with my mom, and our friends Holly and Stacy. Holly (the mom) and Stacy (her daughter) were long time neighbors of ours in Brooklyn Park. Stacy, who lives in North Dakota, was in town for the day. She's expecting her first baby next month, so we were excited to catch up and hear about the impending arrival of her little guy.

After lunch I headed home. We enjoyed an afternoon at home. It was really nice. It made me realize just how busy we've been, because it felt odd to just be around the house. But it was great.

We had dinner, and then headed out to a special geocaching event. The event was an annual Halloween-y event (though it was a first year we have been there). It was really cool - very creative and fun. Basically they set up a "crime scene"of the "murder" of a scarecrow - a very elaborate scene that was almost like a real life search and find - lots of details. Then there were 15 geocache "clues" hidden all through out the area. Each clue had a question about the crime scene, and provided two possible answers and a number that went towards the final coordinate. You had to get the right answer to all 15 questions, unscramble the letters to get the name of the scarecrow's killer. You then had to find the final location, and when you provided the right answer, you got a prize! Whew, did you follow that?

Although Linnea had a little less patience with this event as she did the last time we went caching at night, she did well. The fact that she got TWO cookies, and TWO prizes (a big light-up bouncy ball and a slinky) definitely helped. :-) We really love the places we've seen, people we've met, and fun we've had with this special hobby!

Linnea and I, ready to find some clues!

We're totally sleuth-y, right?

It got a little late, so by the time we got home and got Linnea ready for bed, it was time for us to head to bed too!

Sunday morning we headed to church. Linnea started Sunday School this Fall (what happened to my baby?!). Last Sunday did not go well (which was a little weird cause she did great the first week). I ended up having to stay with her the whole time, and there were still some tears. So I was nervous how it would go this week. Because she's more clingy/attached to me, we decided that Jeromy would drop her off. He was texting me (is that's totally sacrilegious?) during the service to let me know she was doing really well. No fight or tears. He stuck around her room for the first half of the service, but was able to come in near the tail end.

The BEST part was that there was a little Preschool/Kindergarten performance in church by the Sunday School kids! It was CRAZY! I remember watching these types of performances for the last several years, so excited to watch MY kids be up there some day. Tears filled my eyes as I watch Linnea...my baby!...up there singing. You could tell she was a little overwhelmed, but she did great! Proud mama moment! We went back to pick her up and she was a happy girl! Win!

After church we went to Dunn Brothers with our friends Jackie, Tom, and Gavin. We had a great time! The kids played games, and the adults got to chat. We are so thankful for these awesome friends! We ended up deciding to have lunch out, since it was lunch time by the time we finished our coffee. We stopped for a quick bit at Which Wich, and then went home.

Linnea napped, and Jeromy and I did some yard work. The weather was once again glorious, which made it easier to be motivated to do the work.

When Linnea woke up we put together a puzzle she got from a dear elderly friend from church. Linnea LOVED it! I wonder why? (she's still quite obsessed with Frozen)

We had another nice afternoon just hanging around the house. Linnea played on her swing set and Jeromy and I finished up some of the yard work. It was so nice out that Jeromy grilled chicken for dinner. It was SO good. We are definitely soaking up all of the moments of nice weather we have left this year!

It was a fun weekend! I hope you had a fun one too.