Girls Night Out!

What a fun night! Susan invited me out for a girl's night on Saturday - something we both really needed. We started off with new haircuts and a makeover at Cole's Salon. This was our cute make-up consultant below - she was so nice and let us try on lots of new things! Looking hot for once, we drove up to Edina for some window shopping in the Galleria (with no kids!) where we went in all of the stores with breakable items and small aisles that strollers cannot fit through. We sampled a couple of really wonderful chocolates, found Susan the perfect sofa for her living room and then sampled chocolates - wait, did I already say that? Well, they were so good that we went back for more!
After shopping we drove to Minneapolis for "appetizers" at the Jasmine Deli, a hole in the wall fabulous Vietnamese place where we ordered spring rolls and then decided they were so good that we better have some rice noodle salad and noodle soup as well! So yummy! Then we were off to the Old Spaghetti Factory to meet up with some of the girls from the Minnesota Mormon Chorale for dinner and fireworks. Not wanting to appear rude, we ordered another dinner (most of which came home for Bryan) and had a great time catching up. We caught the fireworks as we left and then drove back home to reality. So fun!

Lazy Summer Days

We actually had NOTHING on today. The calender was blank which is a rare occurrence around here. The weather is just gorgeous - sunny with a cool breeze so we packed up the car and headed to the beach down the road.



Watching the water during a quick lunch break.



Sophie did a great job today - she figured out how to do the front float!! She was very proud of herself and was even managing to do it without holding her nose!


Isn't this a pretty spot? The park is literally not 5 minutes from our house and this is one of 4 lakes within the park. There are also mountain biking trails, fishing, camping and canoe rentals at this spot.




Max just passed level two swimming class this week when he finally mastered the front and back floats. Today at the beach he was swimming under water and working on his crawl stroke! It is like he finally has overcome his fear of the water and a whole new world of things to learn have opened up for him!




The girls decided they were a little cold and needed to warm up for a bit.

New Bookshelves!!!!

I had to post my new bookshelves because they make me sooooo happy! We have a serious shortage of book storage at our home. One day I would love to own a home with a library!
The shelves match perfectly with our piano and just look gorgeous in our living room! I stayed up until 2am the night they arrived redecorating the living room and pulling out collections like my pewter candlesticks that have been sitting in a drawer for three years!

Crafty Girl

This is one of our Super-Saturday crafts we will be teaching in September. It is a bit time consuming, but I made one for our family and do not be surprised if you receive one for Christmas as I love how it turned out!

An Eventful Visit to the Zoo

Last Thursday we spent the morning at the zoo with my friend Kelly and her sister-in-law. Usually we go to the zoo during the week to avoid the crowds but on Thursday the place was packed! After asking several workers why the zoo was so busy, we found out the new Harry Potter movie was showing at the IMAX.
We had quite a trip that day. First, I lost Sophie. Completely lost her. We started taking the outside 2-mile loop when we found that our normal route was blocked due to construction. The kids were playing on a huge rock when I told them we had to turn around and go another way. We walked past the main building and around the lake stopping to look at the swan boats when I noticed Sophie was missing. Kelly ran further up the path, her sister-in-law stayed with the other kids and I ran back where we came from. When I got to the main building I ran inside to the information desk, reported her missing and gave a description. Then I ran back outside and around the building back to where we had turned around due to construction. There was Sophie, lying down on the big rock she had been playing on. She had been crying, but had stayed put and waited for me to come back. Needless to say, I was completely shaken and grateful she had the presence of mind not to go wandering off looking for us! We had a big review of the buddy system that day. Usually it is Johnny and Calvin that have a habit of wandering off and Sophie and Natalie are good about staying with me. Scary, scary start to our day.
We watched the bird show with our favorite bird handler - Dave. When he was showing the hawk the bird flew over the audience, up behind Dave and then dived for the end of a rope Dave was swinging which held a treat. He caught the target and then usually the hawk is pulled back down to the ground by the handler. However, this time Dave lost the rope and the hawk when flying into the audience right next to up whacking several people in the face and landing literally at our feet (we were in the front row). No one was hurt and Dave was mortified, but it was pretty exciting to see a hawk that close!
After our walk along the outside loop and through the sprinklers, I decided that I could not handle any more excitement that day and we headed home.

Relief Society Picnic

Last Thursday we had our annual Summer picnic at Blackhawk Park for all of the Relief Society sisters. It is always a fun event as we eat good food, play a few games and spend a lot of time just chatting with each other. These are some of my favorite photos of the sisters in our ward. It is always difficult to photograph people who are trying their hardest to not be photographed! I was not able to get a good shot of every sister at this event, but I'll keep working on it! We have the most amazing group of women in our ward. They have been so kind and welcoming and such wonderful friends to our whole family!

What's Blooming

Our mid-summer blooms.