weekend recap

We enjoyed a lot more restful weekend than we did a week ago when we were moving and running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Friday night we drove a few miles west to a little town called Excelsior, which is on Lake Minnetonka. It was a beautiful evening. We stopped at Licks Unlimited for ice cream, and then pushed Stella in the stroller over to a park overlooking the lake. She was in toddler heaven playing at the playground and then walking down to the shore to watch the waves roll in. The sound of the water splashing against the shore was so relaxing that I almost fell asleep right there!

She loved the rocks along the shore

She's always climbing up on something!

She was so chilled out and relaxed on the ride home that I thought she was going to fall asleep

A few days before, Stella and I drove a couple miles over to the historic Burwell House (the same site where we had some professional pictures taken of the three of us last November), which is right by Minnehaha Creek. Stella loved running around and looking at the flowing creek water (which is really high right now) and flowers.

Burwell House

Sunday after church and Stella's nap, we ran some errands at Ridgedale: we bought new towels for the bathroom (great sale at Macy's - woo hoo!) and two pairs of jeans for Stella.

We grilled some bratwurst from Byerly's for dinner, and then went on a walk to Thorpe Park in Deephaven. There was an adorable chocolate lab practicing retrieval of duck decoys, so we sat on the grass and watched. On the way back, instead of sitting in the stroller, Stella wanted to ride on Brett's shoulders, and she kept ordering him to run. He would run in intervals ever so often. She would prompt him with, "Ready, set, GO!" She was giggling so hard, and Brett was glad to get in a workout. Haha.

Brett organized the garage and got rid of moving boxes and packing paper so that he can now park his car in the garage alongside my car. We shelved our books, cleaned a couple windows, and Brett took off our room's mini blinds, took them outside, and washed them down. They had dry wall dust and other old layers of dust on them, and now look like new. We unpacked all the china and fragile stuff, and I set them up in the hutch in the mud room. We are happy with our progress (there is still SO much to do, but we are off to a good start).

Oh, and I tried two new recipes, and we liked them both a lot. Saturday evening we ate tacos made with this taco seasoning recipe, and Sunday lunch we enjoyed this garlic shrimp. Have you tried any good summery recipes lately?