Blake's Annual Visit

The kids requested waffles, which meant that I was making my go to oatmeal whole wheat variety using our Nordic Ware pans of course.

A stack of library books means it's library day.

Blake was in town for his annual Teamsters gathering.

We had to take him to our new favorite buffet, Q.Cumbers.

Salad buffet and Veganopolis. A match made in heaven.

Blake needed to get comfortable after filling his belly.

Blake's just a big kid when he's around Theo and Meadow. They adore him.

We told Blake he had to teach Theo how to ride a bike.

No dice.

I tried my hand at an Annika (our friend from New Mexico) breakfast but not sure what the issue is. My Finnish pancakes are never fully cooked in the center.

I don't get it. Think you need to get her recipe.

It was a nice day so a bike ride it is.

What could be more Minneapolis than a good bike ride?

We took the Blaisdell protected bikeway in front of our house to a quiet east-west route and hopped over to the Byrant even-more-protected bikeway. Gotta love biking in Minneapolis.

I love the Blaisdell two-way curb protected lanes, but Bryant is even nicer. 10/10 put this on every fourth block.

First stop was the new playground at Meadow's old school.

Meadow was disappointed that they'd replaced her playground form kindergarten to 3rd grade. I thought the old one was pretty nice. It seems that the richies splurged for an early upgrade since this became a neighborhood school.

I'm just impressed I can still get my legs up.

Sometimes I miss the old, not so far away, neighborhood.

We played along Minnehaha Creek before heading home.

And then did a lap around Lake Harriet.

It was a good day for a bike ride in Minneapolis. See you again next year Blake.

Comments

Sisters, a Brother and Walking Chicago

Summer always seems to mean one thing: weddings. Whether I'm shooting or attending, we're bound to end up at a few every year. This time around we were heading down to Chicago from my big sister Katrina's nuptials. I feel like all our vacations are centered around a wedding or something wedding related. I wish we could go on a vacation without having to worry about being somewhere. It also means a few repetitive trips down I-94. There aren't nearly enough unique stops off the interstate. One outlier is Foster Cheese Haus , the only organic Wisconsin cheese shop I know of. Run by the folks behind Castle Rock Organic Farms , we always try to stop by. Unfortunately for us they were closed on Wednesdays, but at least we got to spy on their darling garden out front. Brooke and I arrived in Necedah. We decided to stop at Brooke's sister Brittany's home along the way to cut the ride in half and get her dressed hemmed. ...

Dakotas Road Trip: Badlands and Black Hills

I thought we would skip Wall Drug this time since we've seen it before but Scott was gun ho on going. Come on. You can't go to the Badlands and skip the world's greatest tourist trap. First stop ice cream. We thought we would have lunch here but after seeing the prices decided we would cook something at the park instead. But first we had to take a couple tourist pics. When we we decided we were coming here I was expecting it to be 90's and hot. Did not think it would be rainy, chilly and foggy. I always make Brooke look cool. She on the other hand always finds a way to take a pic at the most awkward possible moment. Either that or I'm just really awkward. Earlier this year, I asked Theo where he wanted to go on vacations this year. He said he wanted to backpack camp at the Badlands because he was sad he didn't get to go yet. This is all for you buddy.

Chicago Chrismukkah + Michigander Xmas

Before heading out on our trip we let the kids open their Christmas gifts from us. A knitted sweater for Theo and a kitty dress for Meadow (I fixed the straps for her) both made by me. I wanna a sweater. Scott got them new compact sleeping bags. We all got smaller sleeping bags this year and we'll now have a lot more room in our car. This year we had talked about hosting my family at the cottage. Then meeting up in Milwaukee, then meeting in Chicago. But in the end we made stops in Chicago and Lowell this Christmas. We left on a Sunday which was nice to have a few days to prepare. On the way down to Chicago we stopped at our favorite roadside restaurant, Foster Cheese Haus. We had plans to break up our drives so we didn't have to rush like we normally do. We had made it just before the cheese haus was set to close for the winter. Just not enough folks stop here in winter and snowmobile season is becoming shorter and shorter this far so...

Search This Blog