Molly & Michael

Wow!  What a busy weekend we just had.  Friday evening, we went to some friends’ house for  a wine tasting.  Everyone brought a bottle of their favorite wine and an appetizer to go with it.   What a fun way to try new wines!  On Saturday, we had a “play date” with our friends Tom and Melissa.  After stopping for lunch, we decided to visit the Schell’s Brewery in New Ulm for a tour and some tasting.   Sadly, the tours were sold out so we’ll have to plan another trip down there.   On our way back to the Cities, we stopped off at Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store, a place called “Jim’s Apple Barn.”   This place was awesome!  It’s a big yellow barn right off Hwy 169 just south of Jordan, MN.  They have candy that I haven’t seen since I was a little boy.  Wow, the memories that brought back.  Since it is an apple barn, the minute you walk inside, you smell the apple pies baking.   After lots of looking, we each picked out our favorite treats and we were off for our next adventure!   Next stop – happy hour and dinner at Matt’s bar in Minneapolis.  Molly, Melissa and Tom had never had a Juicy Lucy Burger.  So, guess what we had?  You got it, 4 Juicy Lucy burgers and a basket of fries to share.  Delicious!!  From Matt’s, we went over to Calhoun Square in Uptown and had our very own pub crawl.  We had a lot of fun!   This morning, we headed to the trails since Molly is now in official training mode.  She is going to do her very first 5k race next month so stay tuned!!

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this:  you haven’t…Thomas Edison

Adoption is Love

Love is Family

Family is Forever

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We all have the power to give away love, to love other people.  And if we do so, we change the kind of person we are, and we change the kind of world we live in.

Harold Kushner

Last weekend, we took a trip to Wisconsin to visit family.  We left Thursday after work because Molly didn’t want to be driving out on her birthday, which means we ended up rolling into town around 11:30 in the evening.  Friday morning, Molly went into town with Cathy and Aubrey to get pedicures while Mike and I went for a run along Lake Michigan.  When we all met back up, we loaded into Mike and Cathy’s RV and took off on a road trip up to Door County.  It’s only 2 hours away.  Along the way, we stopped at a creamery to get some fresh cheese curds.  From there we headed to a meat shop to get different meat sticks, Andouille sausage and some summer sausage.   With our picnic goodies in hand, we proceeded to a few different wineries to sample their fares.  We met Mike’s sister Jane and her husband John for dinner in Door County.  What a hoot!   John and Jane just bought a sail boat this past spring; so we went to take a look it.  We spent the night on the RV, then we got up bright and early to go out on the boat.  Molly had never been on a sail boat; so that was a lot of fun.  Saturday evening we went to see Andrew, Adam and Aubrey in their summer show at school.  It was called “One-Hit Wonders.”  It was really good, although, I dare say, they weren’t all one-hit wonders.  We putzed around for a little while Sunday morning and then headed home.  It was yet another weekend of firsts and fun was had by all.  Mike, Cathy and Aubrey are headed our way next weekend.  It is always fun to see them.  We always have a good time.

Believe in something big.  Your life is worth a noble motive.

Walter Anderson

This weekend was very laid back for us.  Luckily we only work Monday – Thursday; so we always have a 3-day weekend in order to get everything accomplished that we normally can’t get done throughout the rest of the week.  We always dedicate part of one day to clean our house, then we can do whatever we want the rest of the time.  We ran a few errands one day and then we got together with friends that night for dinner and games.  Last night we had movie night downstairs and watched the lightning storm going on outside.  Today was our day this week to do something new and fun.  We started by meeting some friends at the trails for a picnic and to go for a little hike.   Okay, so that’s not something new for us, but it was new for them.  They seemed to enjoy it just as much as we do.  After the trails, they invited us to join them for ice cream/gellato at a place that was new to us.  It was very yummy.  We are having a lot of fun experiencing new and different things.  Again, it was a great weekend that could have been so much more rewarding if we had a little one to share it with.  We hope everyone out there had a great weekend as well…

In your life’s journey, there will be excitement and fulfillment, boredom and routine, and even the occasional train wreck…But when you have picked a dream that is bigger than you personally, that truly reflects the ideals that you cherish, and that can positively affect others, then you will always have another reason for carrying on.

Pamela Melroy

Wow!  We had such a busy weekend.  Molly’s New Year’s resolution this year was to try new things or at least to do things that we have not done in a long time.  We started out this weekend’s events on Friday by going to the Como Zoo and Conservatory in St Paul.  We capped off Friday by going to a new restaurant/pub that Molly had read about called the Blue Door Pub.  Molly had a bacon cheese stuffed hamburger and I had a hamburger with peanut butter, mayo, pepperjack cheese, bacon and  pickles.  Hey, I know it sounds disgusting, but it wasn’t bad.  Saturday, we headed to Minneapolis via Edina.  We started out with a nice walk around Centennial Lake.  Afterwards, we went to the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts.  Sunday, after my 1/2 marathon, we spent the day at Wayne and Trish’s swimming and playing games with family.  We watched fireworks on the way home.  Today, we checked out Vermillion Falls and Spring Lake Park Reserve.   We had a long list of things to do and places to go this weekend.  I think we hit them all.  Next weekend?  CAMPING!!!

This 4th of July I kicked off the day by running a brand new half-marathon.  It was called the Red White &  Boom TC 1/2 Marathon.  It is part of the Twin Cities Marathon race series.  Three thousand runners decided to get up and start their 4th of July festivities by taking part of this event.  It was a very nice run.  Right in the middle of the race, there was about 2 miles of nothing but hills.  Awesome!!  The race started at 6:30 am; so Molly stayed home in bed.  Hey, someone had to stay home and get some sleep.  We spent the rest of the day at Molly’s parents house swimming in the pool and playing games.  It was a great 4th of July.  We hope that everyone else had as good of a day as we did.