Tour de Minneapolis

Not only was last Saturday one of the hottest and most humid on record in Minneapolis, but it also happened to be the day that we were scheduled to celebrate a friend's birthday ... outside!  You can already hear Kyle getting grouchy, right?!

We joined our good friends, Adam and Danielle, for Adam's birthday celebration on the Pedal Pub in Northeast Minneapolis.  It's a 12-person bike that you can drink beers on while you pedal around town.  It came with an approved DD, a cooler of beers and speakers for some iTunes ... can't complain.

We worked up quite the sweat but got a little breeze going and beat the heat ... well, at least put up a good fight.  Kyle was sweating the most because I think he was pedaling hard enough for the rest of us.  Seriously, I kicked up my feet on occasion because I couldn't even get any resistance on my pedals.  Thanks, honey.

It turned out to be a wonderful night - a very unique way to tour Minneapolis ... some great dive bars to cool off in the AC ... and dinner on a patio along the river to finish out the night.  Here's the whole crew, most of whom we were meeting for the first time that night (the birthday boy is in the center with the light blue polo and his wife is just in front of me.)

 We won't be entering any bike races anytime soon, but I'm sure Lance would have been proud!

Cheese!

After our Oregon Tour, I killed a few more vacation days and headed to Austin, Texas to visit my adorable nephew, Vaughn.  Oh yeah, my brother and sister-in-law (Jeff and Kathy) were there too ... details details!  ;)

The weather was HOT and the baby was cuter than cute.  He's talking a mile a minute (but in his own language) and does his best to repeat whatever you say.  In my typical fashion, I took hundreds of pictures, so he learned the word "cheese!" pretty quickly.  Literally, all I had to do was take out my camera, and the little ham would stop what he was doing, look at me and yell "eeeeeee!" (his version of cheese) -- too cute.  He even grabbed my camera and I showed him how to snap a picture ... here's one of his masterpieces ... focusing intensely on pushing the button.

Just when Vaughn started to learn my name ... it came out like "ace" ... Jeff started calling me Aunt Cheese.  Typical big brother ... but I guess I deserved it.

We cooled off in a few splash pads around town - no other way to beat the Texas heat.  And the smile a splash pad brings to Vaughn's face will just melt your heart.  Aunt Cheese would take him there everyday if she could!

Like most little boys ... V loves trucks, trains and motorcycles.  (Boy is he going to love his Uncle Kyle!)  We are not sure where he picked it up, but whenever her hears the roar of an engine or the whistle of a train, he stops to listen like this ...

And when it rained for the first time ever on all my trips to Texas and the wind started picking up, he stopped and looked up to the sky to feel the wind in his curly brown locks.  A very sensory-aware little man ...

Here we are enjoying some of the best BBQ I've ever had - great setting, great food, real Texas pit BBQ.  We'll definitely go back next time I visit with Kyle.  At 18 months, Vaughn has already eaten more diverse foods than I did the whole first 12 years of my life.  He's not surviving on mac & cheese like some of us insisted on doing.

 

Here we are reading the iPad to Vaughn.  Amazing that he can do the sweep with his little finger to turn the page and knows where to touch the screen to navigate back to the start.  Pretty sure I still have trouble playing a DVD.  (Side Note - Check out Jeff's shirt ... it says "Ohio - Come Visit Cleveland ... Or Not" Love you, Ohio, but that's hilarioius!)

My 5 days flew by.  As always, I ate great food, drank strong coffee, sweat from body parts I didn't know I had, and thoroughly enjoyed quality family time with Jeff, Kathy and Vaughn.  Makes me sad I won't see them until Thanksgiving, but at least we have Skype.

A bonus kiss goodbye was a sweet treat for Aunt Cheese.  Vaughnie sure aims to please.  Thanks, V ... and see you in Minnesota in a few months!

Oregon Trail

This year, Kyle and I spent the long 4th of July weekend exploring Oregon with our good friends, Brent and Christine.  It was a perfectly relaxing vacation with just the right amount of activity thrown in to keep things exciting.  Join me as I give you a quick tour of our Oregon Trail ... minus the Typhoid Fever (old-school computer game reference, if any of you are confused...)

We started out in the great city of Portland - we enjoyed a couple microbreweries and endulged in the best donuts this side of ... anywhere.

The next stop on our trail was Multnomah Falls on the Columbia River Gorge.  It's the second highest falls in the US and we hiked all 11 switchbacks to reach the top.  Not only did we take in beautiful views, but we worked off a good quarter of each of our donuts.

On to Willamette Valley where we spent the bulk of our trip enjoying Oregon's wine country.  Known for Pinot Noir and rhymes with "damnit."  We did our research in advance and impressed the locals with our command of the Oregonian dialect.  :)

Take a peak at the place we rented ... in a vineyard, among the rolling hills, overlooking Mt. Hood, and more room than we knew what to do with!

We toured over 15 wineries across 3 days, enjoyed some nice restaurants (and one with the worst service known to man, minor detail) and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

We spent the 4th of July on a day trip to the coast.  We had an awesome seafood lunch at a cute restaurant on the beach, sampled cheese curds at the Tilamook cheese factory (yes, three of our crew were from Wisconsin, would you expect anything less?!) and finished the day watching fireworks from our deck.

For anyone remotely interested in wine tasting, I would highly recommend this region of the country.  It is still in the early stages so you often meet the vineyard owners and family and are commonly welcomed with free samples and bonus tours, mixed in with some of the best storytelling you'll find anywhere.

To Jim and his daughter, Martha, at Maresh Vineyard Retreat - the Petersen's and Erspamer's will be back!

Driving Miss Daisy

Kyle's birthday weekend also brought a new member into our family ... but I figured she's so stinkin' adorable, she deserves her own blog post.

Meet our new niece, Daisy!

5 months, almost 8 lbs and 100% sass.

Kyle's little sister Emily and her boyfriend, Cody, are the proud new parents of this little wonder - a mini Dachsund - so the German in me was sold from the moment I saw her.

Daisy also has a way of bringing out Kyle's secret love of lap dogs ... he's been trying to turn Paisley into a lap dog for months.  My husband is a strong (often bull-in-a-china-shop) man, but it would surprise you how gentle he can be when he's cuddling with little puppies.  Old softy.

Paisley didn't know what to do with this little thing.  She wanted to sniff Daisy and play with her, but didn't realize she was 4x her size, so it didn't always work.  Daisy, Paisley, Daisley ... things got confusing for all of us.

Paisley even had to check out Daisy's house ... perfect fit.

Welcome to the family, Daisy, and congrats on your new baby, Emily and Cody!  :)