Lookout Ridge/Music at History Museum

We crossed another activity off our to do list last week by going to Lookout Ridge indoor playground on Tuesday. We met my friend Lisa with her twin girls there. Linnea climbed all the way up to the top this time! She usually just sticks to the toddler area and one slide but this time she was a bit more adventurous...sadly this 37 week preggo mama had to go with her but oh well, I survived! We all had a pass to start using up from groupon. It expires the end of Oct so we thought we better use it! We also got to have ice cream since that was part of the groupon! woohoo!

They all ordered bubble gum ice cream! I remember loving that kind but now it is a bit  sweet! so its perfect for these three sweet girls!

Tuesday night we went to the History Museum's last night of their summer outdoor music program. It was blue grass music and a lovely night out for it! And daddy was able to join us! hooray! We bought Linnea a popsicle while there too.

The Cathedral at night ;)

Skyline (sort of) of St. Paul

Hottest Saints Game Ever...and Happy 6th Anniversary to us!

Sunday was the end of our Staycation and also our 6 year wedding anniversary! Can't believe 6 years have gone by already...what fun we have had traveling, buying a house, having a baby and waiting for baby number 2 (just to sum up a few things!)! We decided to try to cross another thing off our to do list and headed to the St. Paul Saints baseball game...what a bad decision that was! It got EXTREMELY hot! 

We arrived in the 2nd inning and left in the 7th...the Saints were losing and we had spent enough money buying icees and frozen lemonade and sitting in the direct heat. There is not really any shade at the Midway Stadium. 

Linnea played a bit in the kids zone but then informed us she was ready to cool off and I definitely agreed! 

I was kind of bummed because since it was Sunday it was kids day and she would have been able to run the bases afterwards but oh well...we will try for a Twins Sunday game where she can do the same thing and we can find shade at Target Field if needed! 

We found Mudonna on the way out and of course L needed a picture with this costumed creature! loves them!

Chris stayed home and cooled off in the AC and also grilled us some yummy chicken that had been marinating all day while Linnea and I went to Lake Josephine to cool off. It felt great! 

She got to play at the park a bit before heading home for our anniversary dinner. Looking back it was a fun day but my goodness while we were at the game it wasn't that enjoyable! We should have gone to the Saturday night game and done something else Sunday. Oh well! 

Happy Anniversary to us!

Monday I had a training at work so Chris and Linnea got to have a day of fun together hanging out at home and going to the choo choo park.

GG's Moving Day, Library, Pizza and Movie Night

Saturday Chris and I left NYA and headed to Woodbury to pick up Linnea and bring her to a very fun musician at yet again the Central Library! Saturday Live there is always so much fun. Linnea even danced with a boy in front of everyone! Sorry picture and video are in my phone...

After the event we went to visit GG in her new home. She has been moved from her assisted living room in the Estates to the nursing home section of the Health Care Center. So far she seems happier to be getting more help, but it was a hard transition on the family. Her kids and the grandkids who could help cleaned out her room and now the process of either donating or finding home for everything begins again. She does not have as much room in the nursing home room as the assisted living room did but there are still plenty of activities offered for her to do though so I hope she can do some of those things! 

After our visit we ate lunch at my parents house, came home for naps and then had a movie and pizza night. We tried out Toppers, another restaurant we have always wanted to try and rented Ice Age. Both were a hit!  I was really hoping to go to drive in or outdoor movie but no kids movies were anywhere that I could find and we were quite tired!

some ice cream cones after Toppers and during the movie! yum!

Hudson Letterbox and Beach

Friday after our free breakfast at the hotel we went to Hudson to play at a park and look for a letterbox...but it was pretty hot, we couldn't find the box on our nice hike and the park was pretty small so we stopped that adventure quickly and went to the beach in Hudson and had a great time there!  

The pretty view of Stillwater before our letterbox.

 We swam up an appetite and stopped in Woodbury on the way for lunch from Five Guys since we had never had that before. Yummy! And I didn't feel sick from the burger...I have been avoiding restaurant burgers this pregnancy since I got very sick in the first trimester from one. Linnea however had her lil heart set on pizza so we stopped at kwik trip of all places and bought her a slice and had a lil picnic at the tables outside of the gas station! HA!

We then made it home and napped and packed up for Friday night's adventure. Linnea was having a sleepover at gma and papa's while Chris and I headed out to Chuck and Deanna's place for Hairball performing at Norwood Young America Days.

The hosts of the fun party/concert, Chuck and Deanna. On a side note, they have almost been married a year already! 

Shep, me and MJ

one of the last concerts before baby # 2!

Staycation Time!

Well instead of going on a major out of town/state trip this summer we decided to stick close by and do things we don't normally have time for together as a family. Linnea and I do plenty around the twin cities but Chris/daddy usually has to work and so many times Linnea says, I wish daddy could come. So we planned a fun day in Stillwater and then proceeded to stay in an affordable hotel there too! We had fun at Teddy Bear Park with our Quizno's lunch and playing...

until it got too hot and then went and got a HUGE ice cream at Nelson's Ice Cream up the road from the park. A child's size was plenty for Linnea and I to share. We chose to get moose tracks I think. 

I am going to backtrack for a minute here, on Wednesday L and I dropped Chris off at the Hospital so he could have a Hida Scan done. This is another test to check out his gall bladder and insides to try to figure out what was hurting his tummy so much lately. While he was there, Linnea and I looked at the water fountains along Kellogg Ave in St. Paul and then the big water fountain and plenty of pidgeons in Rice Park before going to see a magician at the Central Library. We unfortunately didn't enjoy the magician too much and daddy's scan didn't show anything either. boo. And I didn't have the camera...again I got a few pics on my phone but still don't know how to get those on here..

But alas, as I wrote above we started our staycation Thursday anyways and went to Teddy Bear Park, Nelson's Ice Cream, checked into our hotel and had some rest time before some swim time. 

We went to Aculpulco for dinner and then found another playground afterwards before heading back to the hotel for some Despicable Me and bedtime.

Hanging out in the hotel room!

Volcanoes and ballerinas!

We had a science experiment night here a few weeks ago and Linnea (and mommy) sure got a kick out of it! Linnea kept wanting to try new colors and add more sparkles. I will get a video up of it hopefully but for now here are some pictures of our sparkly volcanoes! It's amazing how much fun vinegar, baking soda, food coloring and glitter can be!

She is in love with Angelina Ballerina lately too which I may have written about in a past post but I'm not sure...whenever we watch it she runs to get her ballet slippers and tutu and dances "with" Angelina, but sometime she dances in the dining room to whatever music we have playing. 

Here is a sample of her moves, oddly it is without her tutu tho...:

Wild Rumpus

For one of our last Monday's of summer Linnea and checked another activity of our to-do list. We went to one of our most favorite bookshops, Wild Rumpus, for "tale time". We actually only heard the last 10 minutes of tale time but still had so much fun at the store. You may remember seeing posts about this store in the past. It is the bookshop with roaming animals such as chickens, cats and birds and it has other animals cages and just really neat decor! And it is in the Linden Hills neighborhood near uptown and Lake Harriet which I LOVE! 

After browsing through the store and reading some big sister books we headed to Great Harvest Bread to get some free samples where we ran into an old friend of mine so we chatted a bit and then headed to the new playground by Lake Harriet for our picnic lunch. What a fun day!