Updating

A 5 month break from blogging? Inexcusable I suppose. I'll blame it on spending all of ButterBean's nap-times reading the Game of Thrones series and summer time. Here are a few highlights of the last couple of months!
Summer is flying by! We are lucky enough to live within walking distance of 3 parks, so we've spent a lot of time there. The most time consuming part of playing at the park is continually emptying ButterBean's shoes/sandals since he can't abide having any sand in them and will sit on the ground yelling "Shoes off!" until his little piggies are free of sand!

Going down the "side"

Whoahhh! 

As every summer should, ours has had a good dose of WATER! Water in all forms: sprinklers, pools, lakes, and rivers!

The slide doesn't work so well, but he loves it

We indulged his Lighting McQueen obsession with a Cars kiddie pool 

Rocked to sleep on the boat

Romance on the St. Croix River?

Roomies on the St. Croix

A highlight of the summer was my best bud and college roommate came to MN with her family. ButterBean enjoyed a day in Stillwater playing with her three beautiful daughters. Obviously, a marriage contract is being drafted for her middle daughter and BB :)

More on the water topic - my parents bought a lake cabin, so we've had extra water fun including boating and our newest hobby, paddle boarding. 

What a helper!

And last but not least, there is an addition to the family! Tubby!! My sister Lil T, has a sweet, calm, adorable new dog. He's a perfect fit!

The Tubster!

End of Minnesota Summer Fun

Summer has come and gone again! It seems like as soon as the MN Fair is over, BAM! fall comes swooping in. I love the crisp fall air, being able to bake without steaming up the house, wearing hoodies, and so many other wonderful things about fall! BUT this cooler air also means that winter is on it's way. Bleegghhh! Here is a last look as some of the wonderful things of this summer. Good bye summertime!

Fun in the water

boating is exhausting!

 Garden Fresh Sun Ripened Tomatoes

Hours of Sliding in the Back Yard

We were given this monster pink & purple play set from a friend whose daughter has outgrown it. He loves it, but our house now looks like twin girls live here rather than a boy!

Trip to the Sculpture Garden

always running...

Hey look at me! I'm about to make a run for it!!

Ice Cream

The Como Zoo

Farmer at the Fair

This was a few weeks ago, but we went to the Minnesota State Fair! This year ButterBean could actually participate more in the fair experience. We had perfect weather! Some of his favorite things were listening to a Marimba band, looking at dogs in the pet area, and chowing down on some grub. Neither he nor Gatsby joined me in trying "lamb fries" aka: lamb testicles! Not bad, I must say. 
We had a fun time at the miniature pretend farm where kids get a bucket, "plant" corn in the dirt, move hay with their tractors, pick pretend apples, gather eggs etc... 

My little farmer

Mini donuts were a new treat for the ButterBean. Yum!!

Another successful State Fair! 

Small Town vs. Big City

Visiting me at Serpent Lake 

I'm in a "rural" Minnesotan town. I'm from Minneapolis. 
The differences between people in a city hospital and a rural hospital has struck me as quite funny! 

Example 1: Conversations
Rural Hospital: Nurse 1 -"Hey, what is the best cure for poison ivy?" Nurse 2 - "Brew your own sumac tea and drink it for 10 days before you think you'll be in contact with any poison ivy"
vs
City Hospital: Nurse 1 - "Hey, that smells good, what are you drinking?" Nurse 2 - "Soy pumpkin chai tea latte." 

Example 2: Breakfast
Rural Hospital: eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, muffins, 
vs
City Hospital: everyone brings Greek yogurt with or without fruit and granola...everyone (I secretly eat my peanut butter and honey toast before I get to the hospital so as not to be ridiculed ;) jk)

Example 3: Conversations again
Rural Hospital: Nurse 1 - "My brother and father-in-law are both buying Ice Castles! (enormous fish houses for ice fishing. they apparently have everything you could possible need. I know nothing about ice fishing) I can't wait for winter!" Nurse 2 - "Oh, jealous!"
vs
City Hospital: Nurse 1 - "We just booked our trip to Cancun for this December." Nurse 2 - "That's so great! You have to go to a warmer climate at some point during the winter, or you just go crazy!"

Example 4: Opinions on Commuting
Rural Hospital: 5-10 minute commute...15 tops
vs
City Hospital: 20-30 minute commute...1.5 hours tops

Example 5: Conversations once again
Rural Hospital: "I got my paintball gun calibrated this weekend" (I think he said calibrated...like ice fishing, I know nothing about paintball guns)
vs.
City Hospital: "The show at Guthrie Theatre this weekend was amazing!"

All true examples! 
These three weeks of rural Minnesota have proved I'm more of a city girl, though I don't think it needed to proved. 
Besides missing my adorable bundle of giggling boy, I also miss my grocery store, full of organic goodness...slim pickin's at the grocery store up here!

Turns out sand doesn't taste good...ButterBean now knows this

Camping

This weekend was our much anticipated camping weekend! We borrowed a tent, bought a camp stove, and planned all of our meals. One thing we didn't anticipate: RAIN! Looking back, I can't believe that I didn't think to bring rain gear. I had s'more ingredients, tooth brushes, and an air mattress, but umbrella?...no! I'm definitely a camping rookie! 

Planning: FAIL

We got to our muggy campsite by the St. Croix River and pitched the tent and relaxed. ButterBean thought he was extremely cool sitting in his own chair and sipping his water. He got a little too confident and face-planted off of his chair on to the gravel, resulting in a scraped nose and lip. So, within 15 minutes, he had already become filthy and scraped up! He was loving it though! 

Child safety: FAIL

Later in the evening our friends arrived with their 18 month son. We spent significant amount of time trying to get a fire started with wood and newspaper, which resulted in smoke, smoke, lots of smoke. We got charcoal...smoke. Lighter fluid...smoke. Finally we got a little fire going, which got stronger by 10pm, just in time for s'mores!

Fire making: almost FAIL

Under a beautiful starry sky, we all went happily to sleep. At about 1 or 2 am I heard thunder and rain and saw crazy lightning through the tent.  "That's ok" I thought, "I love sleeping during storms!"Then at about 3:30 I woke up again to the air mattress jiggling and my husband shifting around in the tent. "The rain is coming in!" he said. We had left the fly of the tent open to get a breeze. The floor of our tent was covered in water (thank God for the air mattress!) and somehow I had slept through half of my pillow getting drenched! I went out of the tent door to close part of the outer fly resulting in more drenching. The rain, thunder, wind, and lightening continued. At one point our tent started caving in on my side. "It's caving!!!", I screamed! For those who don't know this: I HATE being wet in the rain! The whole situation was so comical though that we couldn't stop laughing!! Gatsby and I met in a torrential rain, so it brought us back to 2003 when we were sitting in a mud puddle in Toronto waiting to see Pope John Paul II.

As I was lying there I was tallying the things I had left outside: paper towels, paper plates, dishes, newspaper, OUR SHOES, chairs....yep, we were going to be wet for a looong time!

Water-proofing: FAIL

We stayed in our tent until ButterBean woke up at 7:30. It was still raining and ButterBean was not going to be cooped up in a tent for much longer. We drove into Stillwater and found a breakfast place where we warmed up with pancakes and hot chocolate. We looked crazy: ButterBean was barefoot, our hair was everywhere, and we were half soaked. I contemplated buying a sweatshirt (yet another thing I forgot to bring). The rain let up at 10 am, however, at this point we made a collaborative decision: abandon the camp site and move the party to our house. So, we went back and started packing up our sad, soggy mess. 

Camping: FAIL

We showered, dried off, washed out our tent and set it up to dry, grilled our kabobs, and camped out in our living room. We played games, laughed, and feasted on banana boats (see below). The boys played together the next morning while we munched on our breakfasts and lounged.

Living Room Camping: NAILED IT!

Fun Memories: NAILED IT!

CAN'T WAIT TO TRY IT AGAIN!

Banana Boats:

Cut a center strip out of the curve of a banana. Wrap the base in tin foil so it can stand on its own. Fill the center strip with peanut butter and chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees until melty. Then top with marshmallows and broil in the oven until browned.

Minnesota Summer

Despite the fact that I have only camped outside of an RV once, live in the city, sun burn in a matter of minutes, and freak out when lake weeds touch my feet, I have a strange delusion in my head that I am "out-doorsy". Part of this is my inner wish that I was a rough out doors-woman and part of it is that I live in Minnesota, where most everyone relishes every moment they can spend outside and try to wring every last drop of out door fun from the short 3-4 months of summer that we have. This spring/summer started amazingly early and has been one of the best I can remember!
In order to be a true Minnesotan you must looooove the lakes that surround us! ButterBean had his first trip to Minneapolis' Lake Calhoun not that long ago. I thought he might be wary of the water, but he had a great time even though it was an extremely windy day and there were whitecaps on the lake. Whhewww! He IS a Minnesotan!

My Calhoun Surfer Boy

 Yesterday he went on his first cruise of Lake Minnetonka and played in the Murphy Bay beach area. I've got to get ButterBean in the lakes as much as possible this summer to make him think he's out-doorsy too! We are actually going on a REAL camping trip in a couple of weeks, so I'll put my "roughing it" skills to the test. Expect an interesting blog posting!
Our other "outdoor" adventure recently has been a trip to the Como Zoo. The only animals ButterBean actually paid attention to were the monkeys. The rest of his time was spent finding any door he could sneak through, crawling up any stairs he could find, and pushing the stroller. Oh, and pounding the glass of the polar bear exhibit and screaming for no reason - the bear was nowhere to be seen. 

We didn't get to the Sparky show, but we did pose with the Sparky statue

Me: trying to get a picture with my son. Butter Bean: trying to get into the sea lion exhibit

As I sit in my air conditioned home, looking out at the 93 degree muggy day, I'm still convinced I was meant for the outdoors. Maybe it's because I'm wearing no makeup and KEENs?

Two Weeks of Craziness - Done

Whew! Thank God that's over!
6 tests in 2 weeks - check!
Presentation - check!
2 papers - one down and one to go!
I think the majority of my class was on the brink of losing their minds this week. Waaay too much studying. ButterBean has been getting up every 2 hours, which means I have been running on about 4 hours of sleep a night. I feel like a zombie (I probably look like one too, I just haven't had time to check in the mirror). One lady in my class started crying for no reason during lunch - clear sign that we have been pushing ourselves to the limit this month.
But tonight - celebration time! My parents can't use their U2 tickets for tonight, so Gatsby and I are going instead! Yeah!

 There is 80% chance of thunderstorms, but we are going no matter what and we are going to have a good time! Minnesota weather has been brutal this year: we went from cold and rainy to heat indexes of 110 degrees. On Sunday we were the only place in the Western hemisphere other than the Amazon with a dew point in the 80s! It was horribly sticky. I hate being in the rain, but after this week, NOTHING is going to keep me from having fun!! Hopefully I'll get some good pictures to post later.
Side note: Pretty sure ButterBean is getting a tooth. Either that or his tongue has had a growth spurt!

His tongue has been hanging out like this for 3 days and he's drooling up a storm. He cracks me up every day!