Minneapolis Weekend-Fourth of July

  We got home around 11:30 Thursday night from our trip to Oklahoma and were up and on the road by noon on Friday to spend the weekend at my brothers in New Hope near Minneapolis. Lauren was thrilled to be in the car again...

Friday night we went to the New Hope Cinema Grill.  The girls really enjoyed ordering food and being waited on while watching the movie -their favorite was the funnel cake sticks for dessert. We watched the movie Soul Surfer- what an amazing movie!! I highly recommend it! Here is the movie trailer:

 Saturday morning we got up and hit a few Farmer's Markets

New Hope Farmer's Market

 Downtown Minneapolis Farmer's Market

(Largest Farmer's Market in the Midwest!)

Saturday afternoon we took the kids swimming at Excelsior Beach. Excelsior is a beautiful little lake town where my brother and Jill used to live. I absolutely love coming here! I took the girls to get an ice cream cone at Lick's- a favorite ice cream place for us to visit!

Walking to the beach

After we swam, Grandma and Grandpa treated us to Adele's another favorite Ice Cream place with awesome shakes & malts!

That night we grilled out at my brothers and he made his awesome Pineapple Glazed Pork Chops! My sister made cheesy potatoes and Jill made her yummy dip!

They set up the tent so the kids could sleep in it

My mom and I went for a walk later and about halfway through it I got severe stomach cramps and felt very sick. I made it back and ended up spending the rest of the night laying down. I am pretty sure I just way overdid it with my food consumption! The rest of the family did some fireworks and the kids attempted to sleep in the tent. Sometime in the middle of the night I heard a commotion and a few of the kids wanted to come inside...my kids were sound asleep in the tent! We ended up waking them up and having them come inside so they weren't out there all by themselves!
Sunday we decided to take a ride on the Lady of the Lake in Excelsior. Our first visit to Excelsior we rode this boat and really enjoyed it. A big thanks to my mom and dad for treating us to this :) We took a few pictures while waiting.
We got an awesome picture of the cousins:

with Grandma & Grandpa

and some on the dock

The Lady of the Lake

Having their favorite drink ~ Shirley Temple

Hanging out in the lower deck

After the boat ride we went back to Lick's for more ice cream!

There was a celebration in a nearby town that Adam thought the kids would enjoy so we headed there next. There were carnival rides, fair food (awesome ribs!), and even camel rides!! I told the girls that camels just walk around where their dad was and they thought that was pretty neat. I thought it would be fun for them to ride one! They each picked ine ride to ride. Lauren chose a roller coaster and Emma chose a ride called the tornado. We had a great time :)

While we were at the carnival Jason called and told us he was really close to flying out of Herrera and starting to make his way back home! He told us there was a chance they would fly out on the 4th! We went back to my brothers to grill out again and do some more fireworks- I was feeling much better so I got to join in the fun!

We had a fire, toasted marshmallows and made SMORE's

Ready to do some fireworks!

Backyard Camp Out

A huge thanks to Adam and Jill for their wonderful hospitality! We really enjoyed our weekend with them, even with all our dysfunction ;) We left with great memories of the weekend!




Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12