A day at the zoo

 The summer months have flown by & I feel like our weekends have been so busy that I decided to take Friday off and spend the day with Hudson.  We have a membership at the MN Zoo but today we ventured over to Como Zoo as they have some different animals there.

Watching the ducks & pink flamingoes

One of the seals.  Hudson loved watching them swim around.

Hudson was more impressed with the big ball than the lion....

Trying to see where the Monkeys went

His favorite part of the zoo.....

The dirt & construction

Love this little guy!

We were also able to see a zebra, giraffe, grizzly bears, a variety of monkeys, various birds, and a tiger :)  

Snacktime

I saw this great idea on Pinterest to take blueberries, dip them in vanilla greek yogurt, & then freeze them.  Since Hudson absolutely loves blueberries, I figured I would give it a try.  Well he decided he needed to help mama make his snack.

Mixing the yogurt for me

Yogurt mustache :)

So focused....

Hudson's final product :)

The one's I made actually turned out really good and were the perfect treat for a hot day!

Date Night

Friday night Hudson went to Nana & Papa's for a sleepover while Justin & I headed downtown for a date night at the Melting Pot.  What a fun experience and such great food!  We were able to get downtown early, so we stopped in at Manny's for a drink and to say "Hi" to Justin's good friend Nick who manages there.  From there we headed over the the Melting Pot for our fondue experience.

We started with the Cheddar Cheese fondue, dipping veggies, breads, and apples.  Yum!  Then I had the salad which of course Justin did not eat :)  From there we had the meat platter which included chicken, shrimp, pork, sirloin, and filet with a variety of dipping sauces.

We ended our night with the cookies & creme dessert fondue which came with marshmallows, brownie bites, cheesecake, strawberries, and bananas.  Delicious!

Such a fun night out!

Best Buddies

Hudson & Ethan

Hopefully one day soon these two will be best buds :)  Ethan is my good friend Lorrie's little boy.  Lorrie is one of my closest friends that I have known since freshman year of high school, over 16 years now.  We have had many fun & crazy experiences together over the years.  Luckily our husbands are also really good friends.  They play on the same summer and fall softball team and they are both Viking fanatics, so during the fall most Sunday's they are together watching the games.  Ethan is 5 months younger than Hudson and it has been fun watching how they interact with each other.  Now they are starting to have some of the same interests, both LOVE tractors, but they still aren't ready to play with each other.  Our biggest challenge is getting them to share their toys with each other.

Thursday night, we met up with them to go out on their boat.  It was a perfect MN evening, warm but not humid and the water was really calm.  Here are some pics of the boys on the boat.

Working on sharing our toys......

Watching Andy water-ski

Today we went to watch the dad's play softball.  Took them a bit to warm up to each other but soon they were running all over the place following each other.

Watching the dad's play ball, I love this picture!

It will be fun to see them grow up together and hopefully form a friendship.  Pretty soon they will be the one's out of the field playing ball :)

Enjoying the summer sun!

Whenever I am not working, I love spending time with baby boy!  Saturday it was beautiful in MN, 80's but not overly humid.  Hudson & I started out our morning by meeting Katie & Gunner at Caribou in uptown to grab a treat, then over to Calhoun for a nice long walk.

 Enjoying the day!

After our walk, we headed home to take a little nap.  After our nap we headed to the pool.



We weren't too sure of the water at first but after a little snack....

We had absolutely no fear of the water!

Love spending my day with baby boy! 

Wine & Art Festival with a summer BBQ

One of my favorite summertime activities in Cannon Falls is the Wine & Art festival.  The first year they did this was back in 2009 and I have gone every year since.  Usually Katie comes with me but this year she had a wedding to go too, so she had to miss out.  Luckily my sister, cousin Rachel & Lisa, and our friend Bridget were able to come along.  Every year it has been really hot & humid, this year it was still warm but overall not too bad.  For $20 you are able to sample 10 wines from wineries all over MN.  This year you could also buy a glass of wine for $5 and up to 6 bottles of wine.  They were also selling beer for those who may want to check out the vendors but aren't huge wine drinkers.  Of course us ladies went for the wine tasting :)

There are also numerous vendors from all over MN selling various things.  Our favorite stand was "Hat Trix" Fabulous Hats & Bridal Millinery located in Bloomington, MN. 

From there we headed back to our house to meet up with the kiddos & dads for a BBQ.  We had both pools, the sprinkler, and the water table set up for the kids which was perfect for the warm afternoon.

Enjoying the crazy flower sprinkler (this is like 15 years old)

Hudson would not go near it but he had a great time watching the other kids running through it

As soon as the water shut off though, he would go running over for me to turn it back on

Playing with the water table

Hanging out with Josie in the castle

It was a fun afternoon with good friends.  The kids had fun playing together and did a great job sharing all the toys.  Looking forward to doing it again next year :)

Busy boy......

There is never a full moment in our household with baby boy.  He is constantly on the go and always keeping us on our toes.  Here are some recent pics of Hudson :)

Stuck his whole hand in the peanut butter, wasn't too sure at first....

Then he remembered how much he loves PB!

Cheesy smile for mama

Watching some disney junior in the laundry basket with our blankets & stuffed animals

(that panda was mine when I was little, now Hudson sleeps with it)

Who made this mess?  Not me :)

Eating breakfast while watching Elmo on the iPad (over & over again)

Sleepy boy :)