Weekend in the Twin Cities.

My sister, Karlie, and BIL, Zack, recently bought a house in St. Paul, so we went to visit them! They were previously living in a one bedroom apartment, so we were excited to go see their new house (and selfishly have a place where all 5 of us can crash!). It was such a great weekend! It's always a lot of work to plan an execute a trip with three small children, but worth it and so glad we did it. 

The previous owner of their house bought it to flip it, so it was really cute and new looking. We're very excited for them in this next chapter. I'm in love with their kitchen. They don't have any kids of their own yet, but they bought bubbles, chalk, a Minnie Mouse matching game, one of those giant balls that all kids love, and Frozen macaroni and cheese. All of those items were a hit! It was very sweet of them to do that. They also had a bowl of jelly beans sitting on the kitchen table. Norah especially loved that too (until she accidentally got a cinnamon and then avoided all the red ones, ha!). They were very gracious hosts! They cooked for us a couple times and thanked us for coming, even though we left their house a lot messier than when we arrived. 

Our favorite part of the weekend was visiting Como Town. It was awesome! I am not a big money spender, but there's something about amusement parks that just makes me completely okay with paying for overpriced rides. To see how happy the girls were, especially Norah, was so worth it. Kley was a great sport, as he's not a big ride fan. 

Heading in! Isn't three way matching so adorable?

First ride was the train!

It's still so fun to watch Norah be brave enough to ride by herself. She's really growing up. Her favorite color is blue, so she just hopped right in the back and it didn't even matter to her that she didn't know the other kid.

Ellory is still unsure about large crowds and lots of activity, but she handled it pretty well and basically looked like this the entire time.

Bumper cars with Daddy! (One of the rides he will do- no twists or stomach drops!)

Tea cups with Aunt Karlie!

I love this picture. Smiles and head back. Also, in the background is the roller coaster. Before going, Norah had been claiming all week that roller coasters were her favorite, though she's never been on one. This park was definitely geared towards kids, but it was still bigger than I thought it would be! I thought she would change her mind once she looked at it, but she walked right up and wanted to go on it! Unfortunately she was too short. She was bummed, but we quickly just found a new ride to take her mind off of it. I was so proud of her for even being willing!

Pony ride.

I was trying to be nice and let Karlie and Zack go on some rides too, but then I felt bad because I didn't realize how tiny these carts were- their legs were so scrunched. Oops.

Lucy loved it, Ellory not so much.

These next 5 pictures are basically the same, but you need to look at Norah's face. I wondered if she would like this because your stomach drops every time you go back and forth, but Norah rode it three times in a row and said it was her favorite ride! That's my girl!

Lucy and Ellory are getting so big!

Swings! All the girls did so great at the park. Thankful for good weather and a great time!

We also went to Dairy Queen, a park, and did lots of playing at their house. Norah has already said several times that she misses Zack and Karlie. We can't wait to go again!

Another fun thing was having lunch with some of my college roommates! So good to see each other and catch up, even though it was short. Two of them don't even live in the area, so it was so special we were all there together at the same time! Thankful for good friends. Kley also got to see his best friend from college while we were there too!

Recent reads 5/9/18.

Growing Up: How to Be a Disciple Who Makes Disciples by Robby Gallaty- This is the book my women's Bible study just finished reading. It was pretty good- not fabulous, but not bad. The first couple chapters are really structured and filled with rules/guidelines for how your discipleship group should work. In case you aren't familiar with that term, a discipleship group is like a small group of believers who meet together for fellowship, encouragement, and accountability, for the purpose of spreading His name and making disciples who then go out and do the same, making more disciples. While people in the group didn't agree with everything he said specifically, he had good ideas and it sparked good conversations.

Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes- This book was out of my comfort zone, but I wanted to give a thriller a try since it was one of my vacation books. I follow a blog who reads a lot of them, and she said this one was one of her favorites, so I tried it. It was entertaining and I enjoyed it, but it was a bit dark at times. I don't think I'll be reading thrillers frequently, but it was fun to try. It's about a girl who was in an abusive relationship, and it goes back and forth in between time periods of current, where she is struggling with PTSD and OCD, and the past, when she was in the relationship. The ending wasn't my absolute favorite, but it was also good, if that makes any sense. 

Truly Madly Guilty by Liana Moriarty- This was another vacation read, and it was very entertaining as well. Every chapter is told from a different character's point of view, and it's all about this very unfortunate event that happened at this barbecue. You don't actually find out what happened until pretty far in, so a lot of the beginning is learning about the characters and their relationships with each other. It was interesting and I enjoyed it, but was occasionally frustrating at times because everything turns into giant messes because people aren't open and honest with each other. If they would just have a straightforward conversation with each other, so much could be fixed so quickly. But then that wouldn't make for a very entertaining read, now would it? Ha. 

We love Spring!

Bring on the warmth, outdoors, walks, and park! We are thrilled for this weather! Norah had been asking for weeks to have a picnic at the park, so she was very glad to have her wish come true!

My group shots didn't go to well (Norah said she was too busy playing to even join, ha), but it was glorious to be outside. And how cute are baby tennis shoes and tiny ponytails and these cute t-shirts we got them on our trip?