Skip to main content

Chomp Chomp

Image
By
Let's see...what has happened in the last few weeks? Last we checked in, Ava was turning 14! We had a small family celebration at home on her birthday, and then she and one of her best friends hosted a joint birthday party the following Thursday. Abby was born one day after Ava, so it just makes sense for them to celebrate together. They came up with a galaxy-themed birthday party, and created food/game stations for each of the planets. But mostly, they just had a great time with their squad. They ate pizza, snacks, cake, played games, and even ended the evening at a local park, playing on the equipment. Seems like success to me! 

Chomp, chomp - how many alligators are in this post?





The next day we took our kiddos to apply for their passports, and then G and I spent the rest of the day together. We went to the Mall of America, and toured the SeaLife Aquarium. We went to the M&M store, and then walked through Nickelodeon Universe and watched the rides zoom by us. We also decided that when we go to Disneyland this winter, we're not going to go on any scary roller coasters (hooray!) We then ended our journey at the LEGO Store, which was chaos. G picked out a brand-new set and was super excited to build it.


Top photo at the MN Zoo, bottom photo in the crocodile habitat


Chomp, chomp - I'm watching you! (although, I think this is a crocodile, not an alligator...)








Taking a pretzel break







Once G and I made it home from our adventures at the MoA, we all took Pria up to Grandma Deb's house so they could spend the weekend together. I think they made a great team, and gave each other lots of company. Pria did wonderfully, and I'm so happy to know that Deb is a safe place that we can bring Pria in the event we need to head out of town for a few days.

Pria LOVES the sunshine and warmth! "Give me belly rubs!"




And why were we going out of town, you ask? We were headed down to visit our dear friends, the Winfield family! Tiffany and I try to always plan annual massages for our April birthdays, but COVID wreaked havoc on our schedule the last few years. So, we went all out this year and got both massages and facials in Rochester. While we did that, Scott and Darren took Ava, Evie, and G golfing, while Isabel headed into town to volunteer at one of the town's events (Hayfield was celebrating it's 150th anniversary, so there was a lot going on!) Tiff and I met up with Isabel, Ava, and G and played several rounds of bingo at the American Legion. Evie was off with other friends, and Scott and Darren were enjoying some quiet time with the Winfield dogs, driving around the rural back roads.

Bingo and pizza!




It was a wonderful weekend spent with close friends, and was just what we needed to get away for a few days!

This week was insanely busy for me at work as Patterson held its first annual Tech Days events. It was 4 days of keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and a working hackathon. Once TD wrapped up, we went right into our corporate QBR. Plus it was a sprint start week, so we had a ton of sprint/team meetings that we needed to fit into a schedule that was already pretty booked. I think we were all exhausted by the time Friday afternoon rolled around, and we were looking forward to the long weekend...

...so it's a really good thing that I was able to take off a few hours early, and G and I went to our neighborhood pool! The weather was perfect (low 80's and sunny) and the pool wasn't too crowded. He's at the age where he can be in the pool by himself, and had a blast jumping in, over and over and over. Plus he's trying to hold his breath underwater, and open his eyes to look around underwater. We're waitlisted for swimming lessons right now, but it seems like he'll have an interest in learning more, once we can get into the lessons.



We're hosting dinner on Saturday night for my parents and Scott's mom, a sort of early birthday celebration for Scott (he'll be 46 on Thursday!) We have a few other fun things planned this weekend, but after the last few busy weeks, I think we're also hoping for some down time where we can just relax for a bit. 

We'll see what happens with the weather for the 4th...it's looking a little rainy, which is a bummer. If it's nice out, we had talked about going to a festival for a bit on Monday, and of course watching fireworks that night. 

Snuggling early on Saturday morning...


This just made me laugh...smiling fries, looking like they want to escape...



Happy 4th of July!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring Local Places

By
Last Sunday was the perfect day to explore an area that neither Arya nor I had been to before. We headed east to walk around the Vermillion Falls/River and Greenway area. The path was nicely paved, with lots of overhead shade from trees; there were so many families out on bikes and walking, and we had a nice view of the Vermillion River. Arya got some great pics, and I enjoyed spending time outdoors with my sweet girl. This weekend, G and I will be heading out to explore a creek area in a few towns just south of us. And I've already got an idea for another creek I want to walk by next month (it's a bit further away, and I'd rather put that aside until Arya is off at college) The tree leans to find the sun On the way home, we stopped at the DQ in another town (we have a love/hate relationship with the DQ in our town, so I wanted to avoid it.) The warm weather felt great, and we enjoyed some sweet treats while watching the world drive by. We're counting down the days unti...
Post a Comment
Read more

What a Week

By
The weather has been unseasonably warm this fall, so we've been able to extend our outdoor projects just a bit.  This past week Scott's been working in the garden, cleaning everything out, and repairing the back wall of our garage.  Ava was such a good little helper, scooping up dirt, but still trying to keep her hands clean while doing it! I swear, a box is all she needs to make her happy. Princess Darla. Princess Darla has had enough.  I personally like how she and Ava have the same expressions in this picture. Apparently Spanky was bored - check out that yawn in the background! We went down to Grand Meadow this weekend, and as always, it was so fun to see Ava and Isabel play together.  They actually had several little conversations with each other - and they were so polite while doing so!  We even had them share a room last night...boy, that was a challenge.  I think they finally fell asleep around 10:00pm.  And of course, Ava wa...
2 comments
Read more

Preparing for Vacation

By
We had a low key week, which is rare in this house. Oh sure, there were fun field trips at Summer Power, a visit to the splash pad on a hot day, and a few crazy, rain storms, but it was an easy week. Well, there was that one time when we were out for dinner with G (Ava was with Grandma Karen and Grandpa Doug for an overnight stay and a trip to the Dakota County Fair - fun!) and G decided to hide behind my chair and puke all over me and the floor (at the restaurant.) Ugh. The good news is that he was just too full of chocolate milk...no illness! A quiet week, once in a while, is an okay thing! We're starting to prep for our vacation to the Wisconsin Dells...we don't take too many family vacations, so this is a big event for us. (Funny, I took a break from writing this post as Scott just asked me about planning a trip to Disney...we were debating the differences between going to California vs. Florida...pros and cons to each!) Yesterday, I showed G a video from one of the wat...
Post a Comment
Read more