Minnesota, Minnesota

We flew out of the international terminal in SF and they had a little exhibition featuring models of buildings in Shanghai. Tak admired (some of) them.

My dad & brother trekked up to the cities in the wee hours of the morning to greet us when our plane landed at 5:30 am. Then we were off to St. Peter for breakfast parties with Callum & Sada. After a much needed post-breakfast nap, Tak and I headed to Mankato. The day's highlights included lunch at the Wagon Wheel, DQ dillys, a driving tour (led by mom) of MSU/Vikings training camp, and dinner at Westwood on Lake Washington. Oof-dah!

The famed DQ West (with Mankato West in the background ... bonus!)
We confirmed that they're no longer selling all of their famous Dilly Bar flavors. Apparently the operation was shut down by DQ corporate. BOO! But we did still get to enjoy the mint Dilly, which remains in my top two.

Grandma B came up for the weekend & we were so glad! We also admired her customized car calendar.

(This is the before, above is the after)

Laaaaaaaaake Washington

Sandra and Dianna joined us for dinner on the lake.

And we had prime lake-view seats.

We walked out to the end of the dock to check out the view.

We kicked off day two with a breakfast trip to Schmidt's with Dad & Brother. Summer sausage for breakfast, just like it should be. Then we lunched/coffeed with Harry and took a driving tour de St. Peter in the Jeep with Dad & Cal.

Then we partied, birthday style! We played pin the fire on the rocket ship.

It was harder than I remembered.

And Callum opened presents. The inflatable space ship (from yours truly) was a big hit.

Sada kept the celebration going.

Rocket ship!

Sharing wasn't the easiest, but they managed ...

dinosaur CAKE!

it was very exciting

We took a little birthday break and headed to Mankato to meet up with Karly and her new baby girl Madelyn. We reminisced and sang a little Hanson.

Then back to St. Peter for drinks (and then breakfast the next morning) at Tak's favorite pub, Patrick's.

Sada put Trippers down for her nap ...

... while Cal and I hid out in our rocket ship fort. Then it was time for farewells to the St. Peter gang and a trip back up to the cities with Mom & Grandma.

On the way up we stopped at Minnesota's largest candy store. It recently had a little paint-job makeover, which clearly drew the crowds because it was PACKED!

Here we are at the Mississippi headwaters ...
PSYCH! We're at the Science Museum. We saw a cool exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls & the illuminated manuscripts they're working on at St. John's (but no photos allowed).

We got dinner at Pad Thai (and savored the best spring roll peanut sauce known to mankind), then took a quick tour of Macalester. It just keeps getting fancier.

We missed Herta this trip, but we thought of her as we passed Old Main. Then it was back to the airport for a late night flight to SF, where we were met by Alena (on her birthday!) and Sam. We were sad to miss Alena's beach-party birthday, but we did bring her some lefse.

Breaking News!

This just in: my favorite nephew and yours, Callum Harmes, has just turned FOUR YEARS OLD! What will he do next?


[Hippo Birdies, Cal! I love you!]

Benjy's Birthday Surprise

Last week Benjy officially entered his mid-20s. So we threw him a surprise party! As usual, we did not scrimp on decorations. It was glorious. And our surprise REALLY WORKED!

pre-surprise pizza party

streamer deco party

The cake!

It was funfetti, but we put food coloring in it to make it look more like a realistic soccer field.

the prezies

We bought 50 balloons and a mini helium tank. I think we should do this more often.

Watch it go down:

RIP DQ West Dillys

The tragic news has finally reached me: DQ West had to stop selling its flavored Dilly Bars. This is a sad, sad day. Tak (and innumerable others) will never savor the sweet, sweet flavor of a DQ West chocolate-peppermint Dilly (we had big plans for the upcoming trip). Part of my childhood has died. RIP my sweet, beloved Dillys.

Rose Garden pizza party

Yesterday, I took Tak on a pizza-party date at the Berkeley Rose Garden. But before we get to that, check out this spectacular cozy (coo-zie) that Jane made for me!

It's deluxe (yes, that is lamé and denim). How delightful!

Now back to the hot date ... we got Cheeseboard (corn, pesto, feta, & mozzarella!) pizza and enjoyed the beautiful evening in the garden's rosy glory.

Doesn't this make you want to come visit me?

Roses are red ... and pink and yellow and ...

Presh

lezzzhhhhure boowwwwling

We hit up cheap bowling night at The Albany Bowl on Tuesday. It wasn't super lezzhhhurrely, but it was cosmic! (And it reminded us of the good, old days at Memory Lanes.)

I won the first game and Lizzie won the second. We are WINNERS!

Actually, we were all winners because we got these awesome, dayglo friendship bracelets with the arcade tickets we won before bowling!

cosmic bowling balls
ooooh, ahhhh

bowling BFFs
(My shirt also glowed in the black light, but it's hard to see in this photo.)

Tak has his own shoes and ball. He loves the fance.

Tak loves the fance, but Lizzie loves the dance!
They played exclusively MJ. It was incredible.

Jelly Belly bean

On Saturday we drove up to Fairfield to go to the Jelly Belly factory, Nick's favorite place. We got to take a tour with the group of beauty pageant queens (seen in the background here).

We were pumped.
(Nick meant to look like less of a stalker in this photo, but sometimes you just can't control it.)

In this cafeteria you can buy lots of kidney-shaped things, such as hamburgers.

Chilly beans

deep Jelly Belly thoughts

the president/governor who loved jelly beans the most

Jelly Belly even created a special jelly bean holder for Air Force 1. Who knew?

We were required to wear these snazzy hats on our tour. Some of the beauties wore them on top of their tiaras so they looked like they were floating. Magical.

funky carpet

"Mr. Jellybean"/Lizzie

We weren't allowed to take pictures on the actual tour, but luckily we ended on a high note.

x2

There's pride in every American heart

Tak and I went to the 4th of July parade in Alameda. It was good, but not as good as last year (or St. Peter's, obv). There were NO marching bands this year! What kind of 4th of July parade is that?? (But we did get to sit in front of Wienerschnitzel again.)

There was a number of pride trolleys, though.

And a mannequin in this ambulance.

I think these guys were dancing about Charles Dickens, but I might be confused.

I wish I had as much red, white and blue as this little girl. She looked the best. She loves America the most.

Happy Birthday, America (and the Alameda temple)!

After the parade, the Toczynskis had everyone over for a BBQ. They even supplied the pride leis!

The chefs at work.

Happy 4th of July!

For those of you who missed this on Brother's blog:

mates of state!

On Wednesday, Tak and I went to see MOS at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. It's a pretty sweet venue.

sooooooo excited

we had prime balcony seats

This sword swallower opened for them (and then a stand up comedian, and then a band called free energy).

Mates of State!