Sixteen, Savannah, Stripes!

It's been a minute since I posted...and we have been busy! What have we been up to? Well...to kick things off, we celebrated a wonderful Father's Day with my parents and Scott. We are so lucky to have them as part of our lives!

Ava then earned another stripe on the purple belt...getting close to the next level!

And then we celebrated Ava's 16th birthday! WHAT? How did that happen? It was a really busy day, with lots of driving...3+ hours back/forth to Mankato, and then the most important drive...a 20 minute one that Ava took with the driver's license tester. And she passed! Hooray! It's amazing how much more free time I have now that I'm not driving a teenager all around!

Door décor!

Woohoo!

Had to make a trip to Minnesota's largest candy store

Cake time!

16 candles!

A few days after that, two friends and I headed to Savannah. GA. It was a wonderful trip, with strange experiences occurring. Extra drinks being delivered, a light fixture filling with water (yikes), random rainstorms, a haunted trolley tour. a dinner boat cruise on the Savannah River (we saw dolphins!), relaxing pedis, a great hop-on/hop-off trolley tour all around Savannah, shopping, dueling pianos wuith an extra show, and then finally ending with a cancelled flight back to MSP. It's a good thing that we all went with the flow and no one got too upset about it. 

So, we rented a car and headed up to Myrtle Beach. It was really nice having a few hours by the ocean, and then taking an uneventful flight home. Such a good trip with friends...I don't remember that last time I did that! (Maybe the Winfields, many many years ago??)

6/20: Finally arrived!

6/21: Walking around Savannah...decided to get a drink, just because we could!

Forsyth Park - so pretty!

We had a view of the Savannah River from our room...these cargo ships were so big!

Enjoying our dinner cruise

Our ship went right by one of the cargo ships...it dwarfed us!

Pulling back into port

6/22: Resting on the hop-on-hop off trolley ride

Getting ready for fun at a dueling piano bar

And then walking back to the hotel in a downpour!

6/23: A brief visit to Myrtle Beach

And then it was back to work/real life. Each kid earned another stripe for their purple belts this past week (which means Ava is moving up to a blue belt!) 

Enjoying dinner out with the whole fam

Ava hosted a 16th birthday party with several friends on Friday afternoon. It was a bit surreal...she did all of the communications, purchased the food (we reimbursed her), and then we both cleaned and decorated together. It was the most hands-off birthday party that we've had in 16 years. Is this the future?!

After everyone left, Ava, Brynlee, G and I headed to the MoA, because the two teens wanted to have dinner at a specific restaurant. So, G and I enjoyed dinner at the Rainforest Café, and then squeezed in trips to the LEGO Store (of course), Toys R Us, and Barnes & Noble. It was a great, and slightly exhausting Friday night.

He thought this little train was so funny at Toys R Us!

I was very happy to see that we have no plans this weekend (except Ava, but she and a friend can get themselves to where they need to go, without me!)