As part of our birthday extravaganza/boys' time weekend Joe, Jen and the boys came down to Rochester for a visit. We took all 3 boys to our favorite park: "really fun park" aka Three Links Park and they played for hours. I brought my camera and tripod along and snapped some great pictures of them!




Those two big boys sure are growing up fast!

It was our plan to take this past Friday and use it to visit the Macy's Auditorium holiday display in Minneapolis as part of our annual tradition with Joe, Jen and the boys. However, Macy's decided to begin the display later in the month and also have the same display as last year, so we couldn't/didn't want to go. Benjamin already had the day off of school, so Mike too the day off of work and we made a kid's day out of it. We met Joe, Jen and the boys at the Minnesota Children's Museum where the kids spent hours exploring. It was fun to give them some freedom to run around in a kid-friendly atmosphere for a while and they had a great time. After they were sufficiently worn out, we took them out to lunch at the Java Train Cafe. The cafe had some great food and a really neat indoor train play area for the kids. We spent the rest of the weekend with Joe, Jen and the kids. I think Benjamin was able to get a good amount of cousin-time in. They all had a great time playing together and we all had a great time watching them play.

Benjamin and I decided to make the most out of the beautiful day we had yesterday (60 degrees and sunny in mid-November?!) by visiting Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo, a favorite of our family. I snapped a few shots of him outside, but they were cut short and not great because he had to go to the bathroom badly, haha.

I also got this cool one of the turkeys...

We cashed in a Christmas present from Andy and Jennifer for a weekend of bliss without Benjamin. No, no, that's not right. Benjamin cashed in HIS Christmas present for a weekend of fun and excitement with Uncle Andy and Auntie Jennifer. Actually, both are true. It was Benjamin's Christmas present - but it turned out to be our weekend of bliss.

I dropped Benjamin off with his aunt and uncle Friday evening and then met up with Mike back at home. We decided to stay in and get Chinese food because we had planned on taking a road trip the next day down to Lake Mills, Wisconsin for a half marathon that Mike had signed up to run. I ended up not going along on the trip though because I wasn't feeling well and my cousin, Erin, wasn't able to meet up with me as planned. And really, riding in a car with 5 potentially stinky male runners isn't exactly on my to-do list for this year. Maybe next year.

So while Mike was off running the Tyranena Beer Run half marathon and Benjamin was having a fun time at a park, I stayed home and caught up with some household stuff. Among other things, I painted a desk I had acquired for free in a new coat of a really brilliant shade of green and white for Benjamin's room. Mike's race went well. He said the weather, while marvelous for doing just about anything else outside on a November day, was a bit warm for running. After the race the guys all enjoyed some beer at the brewery and Mike was home around 9pm. We spent our second childless night at Whistle Binkies enjoying a live band.

Sunday morning we were both able to sleep in and then watch some tv while reading the newspaper, two things we enjoyed in our past life. Since the day was so beautiful we decided that we would get the most out of it with a bike ride. We both have loved riding independently but have not had the ability to go together since we were in college. It was awesome. We had a nice 14 mile ride all through Rochester. It was one of the nicest days I have had in a long time.

Even though we thoroughly enjoyed our time as non-parents, we sorely missed Benjamin and so we drove up to the Twin Cities on Sunday eager to see him. Before picking him up though, we had one last moment to ourselves over dinner at one of our favorites: Sawatdee, a Thai restaurant in St. Paul. Benjamin had a great weekend and is still talking about everything he did with his aunt and uncle.

We survived Halloween.

Benjamin was a robot this year. We were all going to dress up as a robot family, but it took a lot of work to just put together his costume and by the time that was done, I was burned out on robot-making. We attended two Halloween events before the big day: a community education party at the Plummer House and a Harvest Moon Festival at IBM. The costume was a big hit; everywhere we went, adults were complimenting it and kids were trying to push the "buttons."

Friday night we went up to Minneapolis so that Mike could pick up his race packet for the Monster Dash half marathon. We stayed the night at my parents' house because they were taking Benjamin to the HallZOOween event at the Minnesota Zoo. Mike and I were up very early Saturday morning to head out to the race site, Lake Harriet. I had volunteered for the race as a course marshal, so I had to set up some barricades at two intersections and make sure no cars got onto the course. Mike's brother, Andy, came out to watch the race with me. I blasted Thriller on my car radio with all of the doors open to give the runners some entertainment at what ended up being mile 6.5 of the half marathon and mile 3 of the 10 mile race. We got a lot of thumbs-ups and shout-outs for the music, which was fun. Mike had a good run, but he accidentally lost the chip that he had tied to his shoe, which electronically tracks his time. He has no official race time, but finished in about 1 hour, 41 minutes.

Mike and I had lunch with Andy and Jennifer and then we met up with Benjamin and my parents. Just the three of us then joined Joe, Jen and the kids at their house for trick-or-treating. Mike, Joe and I took AJ and Benjamin up and down a block near their house. The boys were very good and loved getting all of their candy. After we got back to the house, Mike and I got into our costumes (Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef) and a bunch of friends came over for Joe and Jen's Halloween party. We had a fun time at the party and on Sunday we all got together to watch the Packers/Vikings game. Unfortunately, Minnesota won, but it was fun to watch. I still haven't taken down my indoor Halloween decorations. I think I am in denial about it being November now. There is one good thing about that though: my birthday is in a couple of weeks!