Weekend Recap

Another beautiful Fall weekend in the books. Holy cow. God has been doing some good work lately! The colors and the weather has just been GLORIOUS!!! Have I mentioned that I LOVE Fall?!

On Friday, Linnea spent the day (and night) with my in-laws, which allowed Jeromy and I to have a MUCH needed date night. We had such a wonderful night. We went to Brasa, one of our favorite local restaurants and had a really nice dinner. We are never disappointed by the food, and it was so nice to just sit and talk. It made me very aware of how easy it is to fall into the crazy chaos of the day to day routine, and not make time to just sit and talk. We really enjoyed each other's company and enjoyed having the time to slow down and talk. After dinner we took a walk and grabbed a few geocaches close to the restaurant. (We are getting closer to 1,000 - a little over 50 left!).

It was WONDERFUL to sleep in on Saturday morning. We didn't get up until after 8:00. Once we got showered and ready, we headed in the direction of Wisconsin to meet up with my in-laws. They took Linnea (and our nieces, my brother-in-law, sister-in-law and her boyfriend) on the Pumpkin Train, a seasonal train ride that runs from Osceola to Dresser. Jeromy and I decide to just meet the group in Dresser, where they made a little "pumpkin patch" and had tractor rides, a bonfire, bouncy houses, and more.

We met up with the group around 10:30 and (after a little meltdown time from Linnea - what is it with kids totally being great for everyone else but their parents??!) we had a blast! The kids each got a pumpkin, we took a tractor ride, roasted marshmallows, and rode a little trolley on the tracks. It was a ton of fun.

There was a passionate, yet short-lived love affair with Linnea and a Caramel Apple Sucker.

Me and my girl!

Linnea and our nieces McKenzy and Lille

The girls on the tractor ride

Jeromy (and an uncooperative Linnea), my sister-in-law Gracia, and her boyfriend Tyler

Jeromy and Linnea in the little trolley ride

Happy girl in the trolley

Off they go in the trolley!

The tractor, with lots of Fall fun in the background

Another beautiful Fall day!

Here comes the train!

The group minus Jeromy and I took the train back to Osceola. We drove back, snagging a couple geocaches, and met up with them at Subway for lunch. By the time we were done with lunch, it was past nap time for Linnea so in about 2 minutes this was the scene...

On the way home I decided that I wanted a haircut, so we went straight to the salon from the road. Linnea woke up when we got there, but despite a busy morning and short nap, she did okay. She and Jeromy enjoyed reading the magazines in the lobby area.

We got home and shortly after received an impromptu invite to go to our friends' Melissa and Thatcher's for dinner. We gladly accepted. Since we had a bit of time to spare after Linnea's car nap/my haircut, we decided to do some geocaching. It was such a great afternoon!

Cheesin' for the camera...

Coming to get me!

It always fun to explore through the woods. This particular day we found the coolest tepee!

We thought it was pretty cool.

Ta da!

After finding a few geocaches, we headed over to Melissa and Thatcher's. It's so fun that Linnea and Azalea have become such good buddies. They ran around happily, shared well (or as well as 3-year-olds share), and had a ball. At one point we realized they were sitting in a dark bedroom. When we came in and turned on the lights we got scolded because they were pretending to be putting each other to bed. We had a nice night of pizza, conversation, and good friends.

On Sunday we got up and headed to church. We had expected another day of Sunday School for Linnea, but realized that it was "Everybody Worship Sunday." One Sunday in the month Sunday School is closed to give families the opportunity to worship together (I love that!). After church we ran a few errands, and then headed home for lunch and nap.

While Linnea napped, my friend Sus and I went to a college classmate's funeral. For those who live in the Cities, you likely heard the news story of the young man who went missing in Medicine Lake. After a weekend of searching, the search and rescue crews of the metro area found his body. Cause of death - accidental drowning. I met the man, Paul, my freshman year at Luther. Although we didn't know each other very well, we hung out with a lot of the same people. He was really an awesome guy, and it's just all so sad. Such a wonderful life, cut way too short in such a tragic way. 

I was glad that we went, even though we didn't know Paul super well. It was good to be there as a support for the family, and for our friends who were closer to him. It was a really beautiful service - very personal with wonderful music. A nice tribute. And although it was an awful reason to have a class reunion of sorts, it was nice to see many classmates there. 

From the funeral, I made my way to church for our Faith Group. We had a pizza/costume party/playdate. It was a little chaotic with so many kids, but we had a good time spending time in fellowship - and the kids had a really great time playing. I wish I had a picture of all the kids in their costumes, but I got there too late, so I just have this action shot. 

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