Turkey Days = 2nd Birthday....

In my world Turkey Day and the days surrounding it have always been one of my favorite times of year (ignoring my birthday). Especially the 25th of November, since 1986 it's been like a second birthday.... this November 25th Davio turns 21. For pretty much 20 years I have helped him unwrap his gifts, read cards and decide where to go for birthday dinner. He is so lucky to have a sister like me, always there to grab a gift and rip it open when he's to slow... always there to pick the restaruant when he can't make a quick decision... I mean really who could ask for better? So Happy Birthday to Kayla Ranae :) we've finally come to a common point in life... where we can drink in the bars together! Cheers!

Boston

Boston home of the missing r... wata, butta, monsta, fucka... great clam chowda and lobsta rolls... my summer dream home... Bobby and Leslie... oh and everyone knows your name..... Who knew Matt was such a Cheers fan, I didn't, til we got to Cheers - even had to buy the beer mugs and take several pics of JUST himself under the Cheers sign AND get an personally autographed picture of none other than Sam's lawyer on the show, ya no idea he was such a fan. Boston is great it has more pubs than any place I've ever been and the good kind of pubs - think D.B.'s but smaller. The first day we had our own personal tour guide - Leslie. We visited Cheers and Boston Public Gardens (probably my favorite part of the city) and created our own mini-pub crawl. It was a ton of fun. The second day brought Fenway park, which is pretty awesome even if you are not a baseball fan. It's the oldest baseball stadium in the country 1912, still has some of the orginal chairs and a manually operated score board. That night we went to dinner in the North End - Italian central.... streets and streets filled only with authentic Italian food, not to mention gelatio. The third day we visited Rockport (a little sea-side village), which consisted of a drive up the North coast and the closest I've ever been to a tropical storm / hurricane. I had some of the best clam chowda I have ever tasted. The night brought heavy drinking, although 50% of party wimped out. Our final day we drove to Cape Cod. I heart Cape Cod. That is the way to spend a summer... beach, wine, relaxation. It is exactly like you picture it in your head, straight out of a Martha Stewart magazine. Thanks to Bobby and Leslie for taking a chance and moving to Boston, we wouldn't have been able to expierence it without them... can't wait to do it again, only next time, summer in Cape Cod and I might not come home......

Dog's Best Friend or Man's Best Friend?

The Honeycrisp apples this year ROCKED! We made our 2nd trip in 3 weeks to Hastings to stock up on Honeycrips and cider. It just aint' fall without them. The Fall colors were "peak", not sure I understand what peak means, if it equates to half color, half wind-blown then it was definitely peak. It is always slightly depressing when the leaves fall and everyting is gray. But on a brighter note dog and man did some serious bonding. We went hiking along the Vermelion River, pretty cool spot that Matt knew of (back to high school days and his extracuricular activities). The river actually had some strong rapids, to which Sonny discovered first hand after his "best friend" decided to play fetch in them. Needless to say, I don't think I have ever felt so bad for Sonny, he looked like he was going to drown - but he was determined to get that ball, and that he did.

We survived!

Matt survived another grouse hunting trip with Mikey and this time no getting lost! Thanks to Jon, Matt managed to find his way around the woods with a GPS unit. And the only damage done was 7 birds - 5 shot by Matt. I'm starting to get worried, he is beginning to think that he is really good at hunting and that it's a lot of fun, despite my nice reminder that he had 7 years to develop a hunting addiction... and that chance has been long gone for a while now. I think I need to find a new approach... I on other hand spent my weekend shopping and hanging out with the dog. It was the first time in a weeks I've been able to relax and it was so nice. A fancy dinner for one at Al Vento (wine, scallops and rissotto), one good book (Kite Runner), 2 walks on a beautiful fall day (L. Nokomis & Stone Arch), a pair of the best, fitting tight jeans I have found in a long time (Martin + Osa) and an unlimited number of things to buy. All in all, makes for one good weekend. Plus, I survived running around the cities without the use of my personal GPS system "Jake". Maybe that's it the more Matt hunts the more I shop.... He'll figure it out once he looks at the bank account, right?

The Wild get Wilder

Today we celebrated Amber's 3rd Birthday. It's hard to believe she is that old already.... precious time goes too fast. Not unlike any other family get together at Jon and April's the house was a zoo of people. So many little kids, we've barely learned who all of April's siblings are, let alone all of their kids. It was Amber's golden birthday, being the creative aunt and uncle we are, we could not think of anything special... but a Dora Explorer camera seemed to take care of that. Not only can Amber tell you thank you, but she can sign it and she is working on her spanish. Which is good since the bi-lingual camera we bought her only says Spanish phrases...

As always we left there exhausted. We tried to make the best of fall by stopping at an apple orchard and taking a walk along the Mississippi in search of fall colors, but it is hard to do when it's 90 degrees out on Oct 5th! The night brought a Wild game, with the biggest decision being by Matt "should I wear shorts? I mean I've never worn shorts to a Hockey game before" (and some say women have a hard time getting dressed) The game was very good and a lot of fun. We had 18th row tickets off the ice and on a corner. I've learned hockey is much better from there...

Yeah! Gina and Nicole come to town!

We had visitors this weekend! Thank God for Matt, my week was so busy that I had to send him on errands, which included cleaning the house and buying an extra bed. But that's what husbands are for, right? Friday night G and N came to Minneapolis. The night started out with a fantastic dinner at Cue and then a night of heavy drinking ensued. For real, aren't we getting too old to do this?!? It took all day Saturday to recover.. so much that they stayed another night and B even joined. Saturday we tried to sweat out our hangover by shopping at the MOA all day long. The people watching, as always, was top notch at MOA and we also got the added pleasure of enduring H&M's SLOWEST moving check out line, for real. The combo of Movies, pizza, and a 5 pound bag of candy bars is always the cure for days that never end. Hey - at least we know now that there is fun beyond drinking a bottle of Rumpy :) All in all it was a SUPER fun weekend and I can't wait to do it again. Next time, Madison?

Judgement Day...

We're Godparents! Ms. Alivia Catherine. We are so happy that Jon and April asked us and couldn't be more honored. We just hope we can live up to the high standards of being her coolest aunt and uncle. She's 5 months old and a chunker! Jon and April told us that she's so chubby she's getting diaper rash between her rolls and wearing the same size diaper as Amber! She's one of the happiest babies I have ever met. She definitely has the Jacobson eyes and for some reason I think she is going to have a sense of humor.

One Last Boat Ride....

It was a sad, sad day.... the last boat ride of the year. Well not really, back to normal life - productivity again! The to-do list has been growing all summer long. Plus think of all the new ideas I've had time to come up with being I took the summer semester off from school... Matt is thrilled. I don't know what's more devastating for him, being without his boat for eight entire months or all the house projects.

Labor Day... the Day the Circus Made it up North!

Labor Day at Punky and Jake's. It was the first time in 5 years Jon and April were able to make it up.... it was like a three ring circus came to town. Everyone had their new babies, a huge change from prior years. We got to see our top 3 kids. They kept everyone busy... especially Amber. She found our camera and wanted nothing but to take pictures of everyone and everything.... "Say Cheese, Oh d'there you are!". The weather was absolutely perfect. What a difference having a boat makes! Couldn't give Matt quite the ride of his life on the tube.... lack of health insurance always makes a difference...