Amazingly Blessed – Today and Everyday

It was such an amazing day. I got to catch an early afternoon movie with my wonderful husband. Going to the movies is one of my favorite things to do. After that we picked up the kids and headed downtown Stillwater for dinner at Marx with my family. My parents, sister, brother, Kelly and Emily were there to celebrate the big 34 with me. Dinner was yummy and my dad/brother even enjoyed the food. After dinner we enjoyed a stroll with the kids down by the river. It is in these moments that it becomes clear that what I reallly love to do is spend time with my family. More than anything I am blessed – today and everyday. God has blessed me with amazing people to go through this life with.

Tara Month

My wonderful husband coordinated an entire month of events to celebrate my birthday. It’s been an amazing and fun month…and it’s not even my birthday yet. The month started with a really awesome trip to visit Amy and Jamie in Atlanta. It was an extraordinary trip. What a way to start. We had a family dinner with the Halls, date night with Thiel’s, movie night with the Larson’s and family fun night at Big Marine Park. There was a yummy wine tour and dinner cooked by 2 personal chefs and there is still an evening of mommy alone time and then dinner for my birthday at Marx. What a month!!

Tara’s Birthday Party

What an amazing husband I have. He planned a truly amazing and unique party for my to celebrate my 34th birthday. Our afternoon started at St. Croix vineyard where we were treated to a tour of the vineyard. St. Criox Vineyard is co-located at one of those Stillwater classics: Aamodt’s Apple Orchard. I was lucky enough to take a tour with Emma and her pre-school class of the orchard, so it was fun to see the vineyard side.

All 3 kiddos were with us and it was very hot out, so given the circumstances, the kids were really well behaved.

Emma was the resident photographer and she took a lot of interesting photos…especially before I told her to look through the viewfinder to see what she was photographing.

After the tour, we did the wine tasting which was really yummy. I love their wine. It’s all great. Who knew there could be such great wine right up the street! We finished our afternoon at the vineyard with a few bottles of wine in the orchards.

After our wine adventure we headed home where 2 great chefs were preparing an amazing meal for us. How cool is it to have a private chef cook dinner at your home.

It was so, so yummy!! The dinner was ribs, jicama salad, chipotle potato salad, fruit, veggies, cheese and crackers. Everything exceeded our expectations. The food was yummmmmmy!

We were also treated to an amazing chocolate torte for dessert. It was so pretty it didn’t seem we should eat it…that thought passed quickly. Everyone enjoyed the amazing dessert.

What a fun and unique party. Kudos to Larry for coming up with a new party idea that I hadn’t thought of yet. What a great celebration. Thanks to the family and friends who celebrated the day with me.

More Beatles Rock Band

The Andrews came over the other day to watch the Packer / Vikings game (Vikes won).

During halftime, we all played Beatles Rock Band which was was a ton of fun. It was cool to see the whole family and Jake and Emma enjoyed showing off their ‘Lucy in the Sky’ skills.

Beatles Rock Band

We bought Beatles Rock Band the other day. It’s been a lot of fun for the whole family. We’ve all played together a few times. Mommy and Daddy on guitar and Jake and Emma trade off drums and vocals.

The kids favorite songs are ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’, ‘Yellow Submarine’ (which I secretly loathe) and ‘Taxman’ (which I told them is about Obama).

Emma kind of be-bops through it, but Jake gets frustrated if he isn’t perfect (or at least better than Daddy). I’ve not been able to teach him that failure is good if you learn from it.

I’ve kind of had to laugh at the concept of a video game focused on The Beatles… 17 year old Larry would not have done well in school if this game had been around. Too fun!

Emma’s First Field Trip: Aamodt’s Apple Orchard

I have to say that I am feeling lucky that I got to share Emma’s first field trip experience with her. It was fun mom & daughter time.

We had the perfect fall day to spend with the Salem Lutheran pre-school and kindergarten classes.

It was sunny and warm(ish). The outing started with a hayride out to the apple trees. Each of the kids got a bag and a lesson in how to pick an apple by one of the family owners. Emma carefully selected her perfect apple and placed it in her bag.

Next, we got a tour of the apple refrigerator – a giant walk-in cooler that smelled like yummy sweet apples! Next, we got a lesson in bees and how they help the apples grow. Of course there was an apple taste test and the kids got a snack of apple cider and apple donuts.
Here’s Emma and her buddy Tyler!

Finally, the kids got play! There was a hay bale pile to climb on, a hay bale maze, petting zoo and tractor-cycles.

Fun for mom and kiddo!

Abby’s Birthday

Abby turned one on the fifteenth. Both Tara and I are in shock! We just brought her home from the hospital and now are little baby is one.

Ever since Emma’s 2nd birthday, we’ve used a polka-dot themed door display for birthdays. She loved it and Tara and I enjoyed watching her play with them. The little dots just proved too much for her to resist.

That night, we had a small family dinner at Acapulco Restaurant in Stillwater with family. Her big party is this weekend. She got a few presents and got to spend a little time with her great grandma. It’s a great family place and now that Adam works there, it works well with the family.

Jake is helping Abby with her new toy.

Jacob had a little homework to do and Uncle Adam got him some bottle caps for his collection if he finished it. He’s been doing great in school and we’re happy with the progress. He’s reading at a 2nd or 3rd grade level.

After, we went to Nelson’s (home of the ridiculously large ice cream cones) and Abby got her first taste of Ice Cream. Jake’s friend Hunter was there and they got to hang out.

Jacob and his friend Hunter.

All told it was a nice family time with everyone: Grandma & pappa, Grandma McCloud, Adam, Shelly, Emily & Kelly, and our family. Very nice to have a relaxing day ahead of big party on Saturday.

Jake’s 1st Day of 1st Grade

My little boy joined the ranks of grade school kids.

It’s a challenge to see your little boy off for the first time. He’s growing up and it comes out more and more every day.

The morning was a little rushed (Tara and I both needed to be in the office) so we passed on the photos at Grandma’s house and went straight to breakfast at the NJ Cafe. The NJ has become a tradition for us recently. Tara worked there in High School, there’s a picture of Aunt Jean on the wall, the Dorothy’s used to have breakfast there together… there’s a lot of good memories for Tara.

After breakfast we went to school and got him settled in. Mr D was outside giving high-fives and lots of kids and teachers came to say hello. I could tell our little guy was nervous. He had overheard Emily talking earlier about being nervous about starting High School and it kind of sunk into him too. That quickly melted away. Pretty soon, mom and dad weren’t much of a thought and he settled into his desk (talk about mixed-emotions).

We snagged this picture of Ms. Wight and her two students before we left.

The day ended with the kids watching a little of President Obama’s address to the nations schoolchildren. It was quite good and we talked a little about the importance of hard work and how their job is to learn as much as they can so that they can be productive members of society.

State Fair

Today was our annual trip to the Minnesota State Fair.  We really didn’t go to the fair until we had Jake.  That year we owned the salon and had to couple the birth of our first with grappling with two career and the perils of small business ownership.  The State Fair was the first time that we got to act like a normal family, and I really can’t tell you how much that affected us.  The stress was almost intolerable, and that trip was really the day we needed.

Over the years, we have gotten organized in how we approach this trip.  Most of the strategy involves our food rules:

1. Never, ever eat anything that isn’t on your “list”.
2. The list can only contain must-have items.
3. Cheese Curds are always, always a must have.
4. Only buy one of everything – that way everyone gets a nibble and nobody fills up.
5. Always share with everyone.

This year, we did some rides, which is new.  Normally we have a strict no-ride policy.  We got there early and the Tara, Jake and Emma did the Skyride – leaving me to push Abby in the stroller at a dead run under them.  The kids got to go on the Space Needle thing and ride a couple of other to boot.

We love to go to the animal barns and this year the kids got to pet a 3 day old baby pig.

One of our favorites is the “Little Hands Farm” where the kids get to walk through the business model of a farm.  They raise animals, plant seeds, collect milk, harvest food… and then take it all to market where they collect some fake money to spend on real stuff.

Emma got a “Fair-Do” and Jacob got some face-painting.  They looked great!

We had a TON of food!  Here’s a list and some pictures.

1. Red wine ice cream for the grown-ups.  It’s 5 o’clock dessert time somewhere.
2. Real apple cider from the Agriculture Barn
3. Mini donuts – a kid favorite!
4. A pronto pup.  Abby had her first bite of one and LOVED IT!
5. Swedish egg coffee from the Luther eatery by the Eco Building.  Supposedly it’s brewed with an egg.  Can’t taste the difference, myself.
6. Bratburger from the Ballpark Cafe (a smashed brat on a pretzel bun).
7. Grain Belt beer from the Ballpark Cafe (following the rule:  the warmer the weather, the cheaper the beer).
8. Drinks:  Lemonade for Emma, 1919 Root Beer for Jake
9. Key lime pie on a stick.  They really shouldn’t sell fair food with the nutritional information printed on it.
10. Big fat bacon. Thanks to a recommendation.
11. Summit Extra Pale Ale.
12. Cup of fruit.  Cleanse the pallet.
13. Cheese Curds.  A favorite of everyone!
14. Blackberry sundae from the dairy tent for mom and dad.
15. Twist cone for the kids.  Oh what a mess!
16. A funnel cake – very disappointing and there is only one place to have one at this fair – how wrong is that?!?!?
17. Sweet Martha’s Cookie.

Anniversary Trip

…such a nice and relaxing trip!   We stayed in Redwood Falls and left the kids with grandma and papa.  One of the most calming things for us as a couple is to drive… which reminds me so much of dad.  He would physically unwind when he drove… and with all the work stress we’ve been under, and the need to just reconnect as a couple… a leisurely trip out west was exactly what we needed.

So, the path this weekend was very long and we saw a lot of corn.  We even called Leigh to find out what the little signs by each of the cornfields were (they are different strains of corn).

On the way, we found the greatest little place in Young America, MN called the Mill House.  It’s a two story antique store with a small coffee/sandwich shop in it.  The owners really did a great job with the retailing and we had a lot of fun just wandering around.

When we got to the B&B we were greeted by Clint – one of the owners – and was floored by how well the building was pulled together.  Tatanka Bluffs B&B is in the heart of downtown Redwood falls in a converted office building / apartment in downtown.  Clint is a retired contractor with extensive skills and really worked out all the details.

Check out our room (the Honeymoon Suite):

We had a ton of fun!  Clint and Diane were very nice and we loved both breakfasts that we had there.  The town is a hoot, and we kept ourselves very busy.

1. We hiked the trail at the Alexander Ramsey Municipal Park trail – which was a long hike.







This cool stone arch bridge was built in 1932 as a New Deal project.  The stone masons did a great job.


Playing with my camera a little here.  You can see the stone arch bridge in the background.

2. We went to a wine tasting at the local Fieldstone Vineyard in Morgan, MN.  This is a great little place out among the cornfields.  We recognized one of the owners from earlier in the day; she and her husband were very nice.  After, we had a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers out by the barn and vines.





3. We also found a fun little coffee shop called ‘Calf Fiend’ (say it out loud).  The owner is the preacher at the local Assemblies of God Church and very friendly.  The coffee shop has great sandwiches and some fun artwork.





4. There are some interesting restaurants in Redwood Falls, and we got a couple of recommendations from Clint and Diane at the B&B.  The first night we ate at the Golf Course (which was excellent and very reasonable) and the second night, we ate at the BrauHaus.  BrauHaus was… interesting.  The town of Lucan, MN has a population of 202 and they really didn’t know what to do with us.  I ordered a martini and that really threw them.  The food was good though and we enjoyed it.



5. The local theater is a hoot.  We were the only people watching our movie and Tara needed to go to the bathroom.  The owner (who was a very nice man) told her that he’d hold the movie for her and skip the commercials.  How funny is that!?!?

Breakfast the second morning was a yummy orange pecan French toast.  We loved it.

Best part of the trip for both of us was a chance to slow down, reconnect and talk about what’s important in our lives.

It’s been a wonderful 10 years and I’m a very blessed man.