Mom's day.

H made me a sweet painting at school since she says "you are like a Mom most of the time".  Pretty sweet.

the Material Girl

I met up with the girls for dinner in St. Paul at the Barbary Fig for a pre-concert dinner.

We made it to Xcel Center with more than enough time to chat for a bit before Madonna hit the stage around 10:45 PM.

The show was excellent. The music was amazing - some old stuff and some new stuff. Great night!

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.

Fall

Harper and I raked some leaves on Saturday (after a cold morning soccer game). The leaf pile wasn't big enough to jump in....

After discovering the lack of leaf jumping opportunity, we decided to draw some Halloween decorations on the sidewalk. Witches, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts ....boo!

In the afternoon, we played hung the ghost out front. [Harper named him Car].

Then we played outside some more, planted some mums, and did various other errands around the house. At the end of it all, even Jordy was tired.

At the end of the night, T and I enjoyed a fire on the patio with some tunes from Boogie Wonderland (thanks to the Our Lady Peace fall festival).

a pretty good Saturday

It started with H's soccer. Sully got into the game by sitting on the ball like the big kids do.

Then Sully and I were off to Target Field to take in a late season game with Nicole and Leo. The boys had fun stomping on the peanut shells and hitting themselves in the head with the foam finger. Nicole and I had a little time to catch up .....and none of us really watched the game (which is ok since the Twins are pretty stinky). Sully was a trooper until the 6th inning and then decided he wanted to go.

Post game, we met up with the rest of the gang at September Fest (at Annunciation Church and School -- where the kids go to school/pre-school). H had "crazy church hair" in the color called rainbow. The kids rode rides. T and I rode the octopus with both kids separately. H loved it. Sully did not.

when fall arrives...

I love fall. A bike ride around the lake. Cooler temps. Falling leaves. Sweet.

dinner vs the picky eater, round 1

Score 1 for dinner! Harper likes the homemade black bean burgers.

She informed everyone that black bean burgers are now an option for dinner. Other options include hot dogs, brats, and bologna sandwiches with the crusts off.

labor day weekend

T, kids and Jordy left for the cabin on Friday afternoon.

Jennie, Syd, Cass and Leo arrived on Friday night. Upon arrival, Leo checked out the place. As did the girls and they chose which room they would sleep in for the weekend. Very exciting.

Saturday we were up early and went out to breakfast at the Town Hall Tap -- great chicken toes and pancakes (and bacon and hashbrowns)! After brunch, we took the long way downtown to the Mill City Market to find some veggies for dinner. Along the way, we passed by the University of Minnesota campus. The girls posed for a picture to send to Paige, who was moving in that weekend for the start of the school year.

We eventually made our way to the market, where we browsed, bought some corn, goofed around and got balloon animals.

Since it was a bright, sunny day we made our way over to Lake Nokomis. The girls played on the playground before making their way into the water for a bit. Cass decided to do more playing and made friends with some kids building a sandcastle. Syd chilled with Jennie and I.

We came home for happy hour and dinner. After the girls were in bed, my sister and I discovered Downton Abbey and were hooked after the first episode.

Sunday everyone slept in. Jennie and I lazed over breakfast and coffee while the girls played on their own. Then we scooted over to the playground, where the girls zipped and posed for pictures with Leo.

We lunched at the Malt Shoppe, then stopped in at Patina for some browsing.

Then we went to Target so the girls could each pick out some new earrings. Exciting!

Back home for happy hour and dinner again.

Sunday night was more Downton Abbey for Jennie and I.

Monday morning everyone slept in AGAIN! We had breakfast at home, played soccer in the yard and scooted to the store, stopping for lemonade on the way home. They packed up and headed out after lunch.

p.s. Jordy says "I like spaghetti toasts"

I *heart* my 'hood

This weekend:

One neighbor brought me a tomato from their garden.

One neighbor had FREE Kool-Aid on Sunday afternoon.



One neighbor was digging up rhubarb and gave me one to plant.

Minneapolis Duathlon

Oh boy, was I excited when I signed up for this race. My training for it was so-so. I did some bike/run training, but not alot and not all out, if you know what I mean. I knew race day would be interesting enough given the newness (to me) of the race. [um, what's transition? should I change shoes?]

As per usual, I set aside my race stuff the night before. T (who also raced) had the bikes on the car the night before and we were ready to roll far too early on Sunday morning. Even so we arrived with only a few minutes to spare to rack our bikes in the transition area and head to the start line.

This is the before picture. Do we look nervous?!?

The run was a nice course starting downtown by the Mill Ruins. It included the Stone Arch Bridge and a out and back along the river parkway. The first run was pretty well paced. Maybe a bit slower than I would normally given the fact that there was an 18 mile bike immediately following it.

Transition was pretty easy. T and I met in the transition area so that we could head out on our bikes together. He probably could have outpaced on the bike. There were times when I was, literally, at full speed on my bike and couldn't pedal any faster. Of course, I was using my city bike (no road bike for me), so that was understandable. For some reason, both T and I thought we might get some "rest" during the bike portion of the race. That was not the case. We were both pretty much full pedal for 18 miles. About halfway through I turned to T and said "I love riding my bike. I do NOT love racing my bike." T was great and kept me moving along on the bike and took off for the long slog uphill at the end, then he waited for me to head out on the run.

The first few steps were ridiculous. My calves were pretty well numb and I was just trying not to fall. I knew I was moving forward, but felt like it was in slow motion. We ran about the same pace in run #2 as we did in run #1, which surprised us both. We kicked it in at the end and crossed the finish line together, which was great (with a time of 2:12:03).

We look surprisingly happy after the race.

Marie and Brandi also rocked the Du. It was great to see them, cheer for them and with them. T raced like a champ.

......and for T's REAL reward, we stopped at Town Hall Tap post-race (instead of the race sponsored beer at Brit's)

the other dog in my life

Jordy is still a banana, but he loves pets more than he bites now ....which is nice.

MOA

Friday afternoon, T and I took the kids to MOA for a few hours. We rode some rides, walked around, checked out legos.

Once again, both kids wanted their face painted. Sully choose Lightning McQueen, and nearly fell asleep in the 3 minutes he was sitting down to have his face painted. Harper chose a puppy, of course ...and it was pink. How perfect.

Colorado getaway, day two

With full bellies and a Starbucks in hand, we headed into the mountains.

First stop - Nederland, CO
We stopped in to pick up Michael and head further in and up.

Second stop - Brainard Lake (elev 10300 feet) The area was popular on beautiful Saturday, but not too crowded. I was ready to hike!





We decided to hike to Lake Isabelle. The first stop was at Long lake, which we didn't think was that long until we had to hike around it. Lots of wildflowers in bloom. Beautiful day.





We took some time to goof a bit too....



It was up, up, up to the glacier and Lake Isabelle (elev 10900 ft). The pictures really don't do justice to how gorgeous it was. Amazing!












We had lunch at the lake and goofed for a bit.






After lunch we wandered a little bit further, then headed back down.




On the way back, we went around the other side of Long lake, which offered more amazing views.






More goofiness on the way down....






I don't know how many times I asked "Is that smoke or is that clouds?" In this case it is smoke from the wildfires.




Third stop - Nederland
We made a quick stop before deciding to head back into Boulder for happy hour and dinner.

Fourth stop - Pearl St in Boulder
Up in the mountains we were treated to nice temps -- high 70s, maybe 80. Back in Boulder, it was 102F. Wowza. We made our way to Pearl Street to wander around, find a beer and a snack. Boulder Cafe drew us in with patio seating (right by street performers) and happy hour specials. I enjoyed a bbq pork slider with an Avery IPA.

Since T was enamored with the Avery Maharaja, we found a pub - West End Tavern - with it on tap and walked up there for dinner. The real excitement started however, when T read about the "Wing King" challenge -- 50 wings in 30 minutes. After much contemplation and consulting various friends and family, T decided to take the challenge.





That's ALOT of wings. He finished 35 wings in total before deciding it wasn't that fun anymore. So Michael and I tried to finish what was left. ....and there were still leftovers.



After that, we called it a night. T and I went back to the hotel to drink a St. Lupulin Extra Pale, which had been chilling the frig all day.