On Vacation

We drove up to the Twin Cities last Friday. Clare did well in the car - the normally 5 hour trip took an extra hour - but that doesn't seem so bad. We have had a busy week!

On Saturday, Clare got to go to a ladies lunch with her two grandmas and two aunts. There was almost a fight about who got to hold her, but luckily everyone remained calm. Except Clare, who had a very poopy diaper, and was changed on the floor of the bathroom at Psycho Suzi's. I told her she might spend some time in this bathroom talking to her friends about boys someday, but that she should wait until she was 21. She was unimpressed. She was, however, enthralled by the enormous fake plant that was right above her head.

On Saturday night, Grandpa and Grandma kindly babysat so I could go out to eat with my mom, sister, and sister-in-law. While I walked to the restaurant after parking in downtown Minneapolis, breathing in the diesel fumes, I actually felt like a real adult doing a real adult thing. It felt good. And dinner was amazing. Especially since I didn't have to inhale it or eat it cold. Clare slept through the night that night - and we both slept in the next morning. That felt good, too.

I am dumb and can't seem to rotate this picture.

On Sunday Clare got to meet some of her second cousins (or second cousins once removed? Or first cousins once removed? Anyway, Ben's cousins' kids) at a graduation party. Then - the best thing ever happened. Ben and I got to go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 while Grandma and Grandpa babysat. It was glorious. And can I just say - I am so sad that the Harry Potter era has ended. I loved the books and the movies. I am looking forward to the day when I can read them to Clare.

I also got to see lots of good friends - and Clare got to meet her future BFFs/Possible boyfriends Gavin, Parker, Will, Claire, Alice, Carter, Archer, Adam and Ben. We had a picnic, a get together at a friend's house where we all sat around with our nursing covers on while the infants took turns eating, crying, and passing gas, and we took turns at the kitchen table snacking; and a backyard BBQ. It was so fun to see everyone. I miss you all, and wish we could see you more.

Now, we are off to the Fair where I intend to eat my weight in fried food. And then give up fried food.

Clare at her first Caribou Coffee. Mom used to work there back in the day.

At the zoo in Oxbow Park near Rochester. "Mom, can you put that camera away already?"