2012 Monster Dash

On Friday I started showing signs of the cold that the kids had earlier in the week. So on Saturday morning, I was not super excited about running 10 miles. It was T's first race of this length, so I suited up to run with him.

It was cold, cold, cold. Lots of costumes. I wore my tutu. It was an easy "costume" to run in. The race started at the Cathedral in St. Paul.

The race went pretty well, considering my cold. T did an awesome job. He cramped up a bit, but finished strong. I finished in 1:40:00, which I was happy with given my cold. Post race we grabbed a beer at the Town Hall Tap with one of T's friends who also ran the race.

Pumpkin carving

On Thursday, T carved some pretty awesome pumpkins! Sully chose the owl pattern. Harper wanted a puppy and I found a golden retriever pattern online.

birthday celebration

T made reservations at Mill Valley Kitchen on Tuesday night for birthday dinner. The food and wine were both excellent. I had bologonese, one of my favorites. I also ordered a bunch of sides. The best of which were the sesame carrots.

Then we had mini-desserts and ended the night with my favorite beer at the Town Hall Tap.


On my actual bday, we had birthday dinner at home with the kids. Of course we had cake!

Big sis turns 40.

My sister's 40th birthday week celebration started on Saturday. I joined her and a few friends in Chicago for a night of dinner and fun.

We stayed at Hotel Sax, which I thought would be fairly centrally located. It had a great view of the "corncobs".

After piling all of our stuff in the room, we headed to dinner (tapas) at Emilio's. The food and wine were both excellent. The company was stellar as well. We ate, talked, laughed and had a most fabulous time.

We headed back to the hotel for cake and presents and to chill out before the "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind" comedy sketch show.

We headed back to Rockford early Sunday morning, after a Starbucks run of course. Then T and I packed up and headed back to Minneapolis.

Jordy vs Leo: I wish they were friends

Apparently these 2 puppies only get along when outside on a leash together. Then they completely ignore each other. All other times look something like this:

2012 Making Strides in Rockford

Oh boy was it a full house this weekend at my sister's place! T, the kids, Jordy and I made the trip down for Making Strides.

The trip down on Friday was long, but pretty good. It is nice NOT to have to stop for gas driving the fuel efficient Jetta TDI wagon! Friday night we ordered pizza, made introductions and played with the dogs before the kids all went to bed -- Syd and Sully shared a room, Cass and Harper shared a room. Jennie, T, Mom, Dad and I stayed up talking, having cocktails. Fun stuff.

Saturday we rounded up some of the troops (Jennie, Mom, myself, T, Harper, Cass, Sully) and were off to the Making Strides event. The kids brought scooters (and skut bike for Sully). We didn't make the entire walk, but were there to show support and walk some of the course. The kids then had some play time at the playground. And we took some family photos with the fall colors before heading back home.

fall colors

The leaves finally changed on Jack's tree.

T planted some mums, which he referred to as "my flowers".

Jordy loves playing in the leaves.

almost 10 days later...

I traveled to Chicago last week for work. Which means it was kind of a blur. I did get to have dinner with one of my favorite friends (Penny) and one of my favorite Chicago restaurants (xoco). Yum!


Friday we headed to Fondy. We hung with my parents for about 20 minutes before Jordy found some mouse poison to eat. Luckily we caught it right away and headed to the vet. They were able to get most of it out of his system and gave us Vitamin K for the next 3 weeks. Never a dull moment with that dog around.


Later we met up with T's friend for perch fry at Wendt's on the Lake. Great company. Great food. We stopped at the gas station bar across the street after dinner for one. ...and because I had never been to a gas station bar. Then it was home to get some rest before a long day of golf.


Saturday was rainy, cold, windy. Great weather for golf. We decided to still play in the Chili Open with T's friends at The Bull. The course was so wet. It is a beautiful course and a look forward to playing there sometime when it isn't rainy, windy and cold.

We did not golf well. I did win the Women's longest drive prize (it was my first drive of the day, so I was not shivering yet). We also won last place foursome, and a raffle prize. The day was great despite the weather. Lots of fun.


On Sunday we were on our way back around lunchtime. We stopped at Starbucks and Rocky Rococo's for pizza for my baby before we left town. Jordy slept.

Friends + Fall = the perfect combo

Any time is a super time to get together with gal pals. I had a full week with my girl friends last week.

Dinner on the patio with Marie.

A long overdue get together with Jess. We had been trying for several weeks to get together. It finally worked out, so we spent a couple hours catching up and chatting at George & the Dragon.

Fall girls day of coffee, shopping, wine at 50th and France. It seemed like ages since I had seen Kathleen and Anne. So it was fabulous to catch up with them. ...and find out that K is running Monster dash too. And the both of them will also be at the Madonna concert next month!

It was a busy week, but a fun one.

Halloween preview

We stopped at the Halloween store this weekend to pick up costumes (ones that can easily be worn during the Monster dash!). H picked out this fabulous super dog costume for Jordy. Of course he had to try it on when we got home.

Look out bad guys, spider dog is on the prowl!

Fall, part 3

The wind picked up when it started to cool off. So the leaves from the neighbors tree started to fall into the yard.

Jordy wasn't the only one that enjoyed this pile of leaves!

Fall, part 2

While the temps were still up in the 70s, I enjoyed dinner on the patio with Marie. We are getting every last bit out of the outdoor eating season! We met up at Sea Salt at Minnehaha Falls (I rode my bike, she walked).

It was warm enough to enjoy dinner, a drink and a chat before the sun went down. The oaks at the falls weren't as pretty as the rest of the trees along the creek, but it was still great to be outside on an early fall night.

The ride home along the creek was dark in spots even with my bike lights. I survived though.

Fall, part 1

It hit high 70s last week. The next day was a high of 50. It was time to break out hats and mittens. Or in Harper's case - a hat, a hood, earmuffs and mittens.

a pretty busy Saturday

Saturday morning, Harper had a mini-dance clinic at Academy of Holy Angels (the local Catholic high school) hosted by their dance team. She learned the dance in the morning with several of her little girl friends. Then gave a performance at noon for all the parents, siblings, etc. The girls performance was followed by the preview of the AHA dance teams fall dance.

It was super cute to see all the little girls perform the dance. And the high school girls were really good with them during the performance ....and I'm sure during the teaching of the dance. I have no pics or videos (T does though). Overall, it was great.

Harper then had soccer, so it was off to the fields. She immediately said "I just want to lie down". So it wasn't the best soccer showing, but she was a trooper.

Sully played with his cars in the dirt, while T helped coach soccer.

The rest of Saturday was spent doing errands, cleaning, etc.

And then in the evening, I made Apple Crumb Pie (from the St. Michael's Church cookbook). It was delicious.

Lift Bridge Brewing, Stillwater MN

T and I took some time off on Friday afternoon to head to Stillwater and do a beer tasting at Lift Bridge. We had both tasted the IPA before (on tap at George & the Dragon) and the pale ale (bottled at a restaurant in Stillwater).

It was a nice drive there. We saw some fall colors, since we assumed the brewery would be in downtown Stillwater, along the river. It is not.

Anyway, we tried a few of the brews, chatted with other beer lovers (and home brewers), and enjoyed the afternoon. I liked the Cross Cut pale ale (which we got a growler of) and T like the Hop Dish IPA (which we also got a growler of).

We also took home 2 t-shirts, and 2 pint glasses. ...all courtesy of a Living Social deal (which was an amazing deal).

dinner vs the picky eater, round 2

I really wanted to cook up a fall favorite, turkey apple sausage patties, for the kids. So I thought the best chance of getting both kids to try the "new, strange" food would be to use cookie cutters to form the patties into fun shapes before I baked them.

And sure enough, it worked. Harper chose the dog bone shape and Sully went for the heart shape. Super fun. Easy. And Harper said "I only kind of like these, but I'll probably eat them if you make them again."

I can't make this stuff up.

Oh, and Sully tried brussel sprouts. ...and liked them!

life last week....

Sully lined up his cars in the garage before he left the other day. That boy can play cars for hours.

Harper loves to play with Jordy. We were all sitting down watching TV, Jordy was laying on his bed being a good dog when Harper decided to go and "snuggle" with him. Then started playing some sort of game with him. Too funny.