Benjamin and I drove down to Winona Friday morning to visit a friend from my college days, Samantha. Sam and Jake have the cutest little girls, Nora (almost 3) and Nina (15 months). Benjamin and Nora loved getting into mischief together while Sam and I caught up a bit. After our visit, I took Benjamin up to the top of the bluffs at the Garvin Heights lookout. For those of you who do not know, Mike and I both went to Winona State, where we met THIRTEEN years ago. Winona will always hold a special place in our hearts and we both love visiting very much. As Benjamin gets older, he is more able to understand the significance of the place and can enjoy the cool stuff Winona has to offer. He was very intrigued with the bluffs, so when I took him up to the lookout, he was SO excited. We stayed up there for quite a while, exploring and hiking down/up a trail. Unfortunately, our time up there had to end because Benjamin decided to fall down a small hill and cover himself in mud. All good things must come to an end, I guess.

It is just a short time before Benjamin and I board a plane to Chicago for the weekend, but I've been meaning to get the newest photos online and blog, so here it is.

Last weekend I travelled down to Winona to visit friends from college for a fun-filled night. I finally got to see my friend Tina's baby, Eleanor, who is adorable! Tina and Samantha and I went to LaCrosse as a kind of post-baby-celebration. We had a great time. Mike and Benjamin drove down on Sunday and we all were able to hang out for a while.

Earlier in the week we surprised Mike's Mom for her birthday by showing up for dinner...and staying for two nights! While up in the cities, we played with AJ and Benjamin's uncles/aunt and even snuck in a little time away for some drinks and dinner with Joe and Jen.

The 4th was relaxing, we didn't really do very much. Mike ran a 5 mile race in Stewartville that morning and Benjamin and I came out to watch. He did really well despite some pretty bad humidity. Other than that, we just grilled some hot dogs and spent some time watching Benjamin play in his new sandbox from G&G Andrews.

The newest batch of photos also includes some shots of the All Comers Track Meet, which Benjamin has run in twice. The Rochester Track Club puts this event on for kids of all ages. We're still trying to get Benjamin to run the full length of the race by himself, he gets kind of overwhelmed with the whole thing. His favorite part is getting a mark from a marker on his hand at the end (a way for the volunteers to know he got a ribbon), he thinks it makes him very special!

As I said before, we are off to Chicago in just a couple of hours. We are throwing Erin a baby shower on Saturday and all sorts of out of town family will be in. Benjamin can't wait to see his "Great Ahma"!!!

Today is my first day back at work and as you can tell from this post, it has been very productive, haha. I have only called daycare once to check on Benjamin, I am pretty proud of myself! They said that he was swinging in the swing and seemed very happy. I cannot wait to pick him up at 5:00!

The three of us took a short road trip yesterday. We were in the Cities because Mike and I attended the Coldplay concert (which was AWESOME - they're my favorite band). So we drove down Highway 61 to Winona where we visited our friends, Samantha and Jacob. We also gave Benjamin a tour of the Winona State University campus, which has changed a lot! I even took him up on stage to show him where Mommy used to perform. And then, to be fair Mike had to take him to the Computer Science building. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time!
I won't even mention how I forgot the camera at home so we have no pictures of the day...