Exploring Local Places

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 until Arya leaves...in exactly one week, she'll be all moved into her new home in Wisconsin. I can't believe it's finally here. We have all of the necessary items we wanted to pre-purchase, and we're going to start packing this week. I've intentionally left my evenings free so we can get stuff done. This past week, I worked with AI to create a simple budget tool to help her stay on track with her monthly expenses and income. We'll see how it works in reality, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

G's been helping mow the lawn...he loves getting the extra money!

Not sure what Pria will do without Arya here...maybe she can spend more time with G?

These two fight a fair amount, but sometimes, they're kinda funny together

Pup Cup for PP!

One week left until big changes happen! With Arya off at college, all attention at home will be focused on G. Can't believe he's starting 7th grade in just a week!

Comments

Grandparents, Birthdays, and Sprinklers, Oh MY!

What a whirlwind week we've had...I was trying to get everything wrapped up at work so I could take my 5-day "furlough" from last Wednesday, through tomorrow. Wednesday was my first day at home, so Ava and I had a ton of "fun" getting everything ready for the upcoming activities. I did have a wonderful massage, so that started my vacation off very well... Gramma Karen and Grampa Doug drove in from KC on Wednesday afternoon. We had a great evening catching up, and enjoying the nice weather (until the downpour that happened right as they were leaving our house!) On Thursday, Scott, Dad, Mom, and I drove down to Cannon Falls and Rochester to check out the areas for potential future homes/land for us. At some point, we'd like to move south of the Cities. Ava was a very good little girl, especially considering that she was stuck in a car for most of her FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! We went to Applebee's for lunch, and the wait staff came out singing to someone else...I...

Goodbye Sweet Spanky

This is a post that I'm not very excited to write. As you probably know, our oldest dog, Spanky, had struggled with health issues (ear infections, seizures) his whole life, and recently, his health had severely deteriorated. He hadn't been eating, his ear infection was so severe his face was swollen, he had a hard time getting up the stairs, and he very rarely wanted to play. Last week we got a few tail wags from him, and he ate a few bowls of food, but it was a 50-50 chance that he would actually keep the food down. On Thursday, we made the decision that if he wasn't any better by this weekend, we were going to put him down. I know Scott didn't want to make that decision as Spanky was a very special dog to him - he truly was his little buddy, following him around everywhere, wanting to be wherever Scott was, and howling his sadness whenever Scott would leave him. Throughout Friday night, it became clear that Spanky wasn't going to have a miraculous recovery...

The Early Bird

I realized that I skipped a chunk of pictures that I wanted to share...things were super busy last weekend, so we'll blame my lapse of memory on that! The focus was so much on Ava's party, that I neglected to share the family birthday photos, too. Two weeks ago, we invited all of the grandparents over for a wonderful dinner of smoked prime rib (and other yummy sides), and then topped it off with a raspberry mojito birthday cake for the newly minted eight-year-old. We like to experiment with different birthday cake flavors for her birthday, and this one was MUCH better than the watermelon cake from last year (gross-gross-gross!) Saying cheese with Grandpa Doug! G and I took a break from the present pics to take some selfies ;) Even his cars made an appearance! Super excited to be receiving an aquascope! And no birthday is complete without something from American Girl - this time is was a pizza party set - awesome! We have also...

Go, Go, Goers!

Search This Blog