He's HOME!

Back on U.S. soil and it's a beautiful thing!

A relative of Becky's made a sign and apple pie - because what's more American than apple pie?

The first sign of Robby being home...

A trip up to Emily's to celebrate with bloody mary's on the deck.

... and of course Nutty Ice Cream Bars at the Candy Kitchen! 

The beautiful pottery Robby got at the bazaar in Afghanistan.  I still can't believe he carried it in a backpack traveling home and it didn't break!  I love it!

CLIFF Bar loves the U.S. military! 

We spent a Saturday hiking with Beckett up the shore on the Superior Hiking Trail.  The fall colors were premium (as Bob Olson would say).

Beckett pulled out all of his tricks for a piece of beef jerky

Happy ME Day!

I had the BEST day yesterday.  I had the day off due to putting in extra hours last week... and I had a complete me day.  I woke up and went to caribou for coffee, oatmeal and skyped with Robby for a couple hours.  Then I went up to Spa Sensations and got a dimatome facial (thanks to the base for the gift card!).  It was wonderful and my skin feels amazing.  Then I had just enough time to go to 3rd Street Bakery for the best cookie ever... the Thunder Cookie.  Yep, that was my lunch.  After that, I finally cashed in my anniversary gift of an hour massage with Judy.  Everyone needs an hour with Judy.  It was the best massage of my life.  Hands down.  They had the most incredible tea made by Aveda and of course truffles after the massage.  Ahhhhhhh.  I never want flowers again... only massage gift certificates please (hint hint, Robby). The rest of the day I spend organizing the house and getting things ready for ROBBY!

25 HOURS and 36 MINUTES until I pick him up from the airport!  YEAHHHHHH!!!

I can't wait until life is (somewhat) normal again.

A lovely Sunday indeed

Could today have been more lovely?!  No.  It was perfect.  I woke up and had coffee and breakfast on the deck while enjoying a beautiful sunrise over the lake.  I made friends with a hummingbird that decided to hang out with me for a good portion of the morning as well as two deer.  I did my secret craft out on the deck and then spent some time in the word.  I'm reading through Ecclesiastes, and although, a very pessimistic first chapter - i'm inspired by the words of Solomon to live a life completely for God.... something I struggle with every day.  After my lovely time on the deck, I went to church and spent some time in worship - praising God for a lot but especially for keeping my husband safe and sane while overseas.  God is good - one week from today he will be home!  After church, I did my weekend ritual of biking up to knife river and enjoying some sugar love from the  Great Lake Candy Kitchen.  (I got more than just ice cream this time).  Oops.  I brought some sugar love back to the Johnson family and Elsa was overjoyed to get mini gummy bears.  Oh, for a lovely Sunday.

Pretty pretty pretty view

I was so surprised to see these two hanging out below my deck.  I initially thought they had ginormous antlers - but then I looked at the pics and realized they are maybe a 1st and 2nd year?  I'll let you figure that out - cool nonetheless.

And the biggest Vikings fan of the year goes to: Elsa (for staying awake for the game of course).

My highway 61 bike route view up the shore.  Does it get any better?  Not if you love freezing cold (pretty) water as much as me.

Home sweet home

Mom & I have had the best busy weekend together!  Dad is in CO elk hunting and the siblings weren't around most of the time so it was pretty much just us spending some fun time together!  We motored up to Ottertail to go antiquing, thrifting and garage sale-ing.  It was so much fun and we both found some treasures (don't worry no big, heavy items that Robby will have to move one day).  We went up to Ottertail Lake and met the Johnsons at Zorbaz and we also had a girls night out at Stella's in Battle Lake.  What a fun little weekend!  I also got majorly addicted to the cutest craft project... but I can't blog about it yet (weddings are for surprises ;).  I had to tell mom to make me stop... mom thought I needed a craft intervention.  Also, we spent a lovely evening on the pontoon with the Ohrens catching (mini) sunfish.  It was so relaxing and the epitome of a gorgeous MN evening on the lake (you will have to visualize this because I forgot my camera! ugh.)  Today we were up before 8 waterskiing,  rollerblading and enjoying coffee on the deck.  Never a dull moment!

Rollerblading the Central Lakes Trail - beautiful!  (this picture does little justice of how pretty it is)

Zorbaz pizza with good friends!

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This is embarrassing to admit... but I enjoyed my first ever ice cream cone from Granny's Pantry!

Wine by the moon light.

Girl's night at Stellas

Good HAPPY Morning!

Don't you just love mornings.  I sure do. Love them!  There is nothing like the start of a new fresh day.

Morning coffee with my momma.  These lovely cups are from the Duluth Grill (a fresh, local, organic diner in Duluth - they grow veggies on their roof - Yep, Duluth is cool like that.)

Grandma and her smiley boy.

Sister loves brother.  Brother loves sister.

Photography by Lily.

Look at that smile!  Gavin's isn't bad either ;)  (I got that joke from Mary, thank you very much.)

Mom grew this lovely flower.  And that jar is from a garage sale yesterday!

Duluth is a cool city...

But it's even BETTER when your best friend is in town!  Mary & I had the most awesome weekend together.  It was nonstop fun.  Did I mention it was an amazing weekend?  Seriously.

Here is a tour of the weekend:

Prior to Mary's arrival I made her this fabulous Pioneer Woman "Strawberry Shortcake Cake"... MN style of course.  I was going for a "MN Nice" theme birthday cake.

She LOVED it!  She loves strawberries more than anyone I know.  And she thinks Minnesotans are nice thanks to me.

For Mary's birthday present I got her Dutch Blitz... which we played many (many) games throughout the weekend.  I won most of them, except for the one we tied.

 Before bed we reviewed the POA (plan of action) for the weekend.  We used to make POA's in college to motivate us to clean.  Now they are a way of life.  By the end of the weekend we had pretty much everything crossed off.

Saturday morning we fueled up on banana blackberry pancakes (my specialty). Yum!

And then we went garage sale-ing.  This was one of the highlights of the weekend.  We found matching sunglasses... they may be hideous but we sported them all weekend.  We will do anything to match.

While garage sale-ing we came across the cutest lemonade stand.   All of their proceeds were going to the zoo & flood relief.  Such generous and cute kids!

Then we took the bikes to the trail and biked to park point.  After enjoying the Cajun Fin from Northern Water Smokehaus (According to Mary, this was the best sandwich of her life) we layed on the beach for the rest of the afternoon.  It. was. LOVELY.

Did I mention the beach was lovely?  It was.  Very much so.

After the beach we went to the "Great Lakes Candy Kitchen" to cool off with some nutty ice cream bars.  And other treats of course.  Everything in this store is amazing.  If you haven't been there, you should run/bike/skate/glide/tap dance there right now!! (P.S. here is a preview of the hideous sunglasses... don't tell Mary I actually kind of like them)

Then it was off to Snowflake to Camp!  We pretty much had the place to ourselves and apparently I was the camp host/tour guide for the two other campers there.  Mary was most excited about having a camp fire and eating s'mores.

I was most excited for Luther Crest style Gypsy Gumbo.  It was just like I remembered.  Who knew you could pair it with a fine red wine and it would be devine?  It is.

Mary was very very scared of the raccoons (and wild turkeys).  She might have mistaken the wild turkeys for a pack of wolves... but that's another story for another day. 

 Not only a campfire in the evening but also in the morning with our coffee!  Campsite #7 exceeded our expectations.

Saturday morning was up the shore to Emily's for a Bloody on the deck.  Yum!

Emily's pretty patio on the Knife River

And who comes to Duluth without going to Betty's Pie?  Nobody.  And if you do, you don't count.

 Mary captioned this "Great lake, Great friend, Good pie."  She thinks she is so funny.  I could die for a piece of "Great Lakes Crunch".

And who comes to Duluth without swimming to the rock??  Nobody.

We accomplished big things Saturday morning.... and lived to tell about it.  Saturday was our day of  premium adventure.

Hiking Tischer Creek. I like to call it Duluth's hidden gem.

After all that adventure we stopped in for a Mojito.  As an avid Mojito drinker, I've found this drink is usually a hit or miss.  Unfortunately this was a miss.  Good thing JJ Astor made up for it later that night with a total HIT Mojito.

And who comes to Duluth without a wine and fine cheese picnic by the lake?  Nobody. 

Bison buddy and blue cheese on a cracker.  "DAN" devine. 

Can't beat this picnic view.  It just doesn't get much better than this. 

We ended the weekend by listening to Hobo Nephews on repeat and climbing the sppppoooookkkky Enger Tower in the dark.  It really wasn't that spooky, but I like to think it is.

Okay, I know I missed some things... like the Timber Twister, hiking Hartley, Hawks Ridge, homemade risotto, JJ Astor, countless games of Dutch Blitz and many many laughs but you get the idea.  It couldn't of been a more fun filled weekend.  Click HERE to view Mary's blog and keep refreshing until she posts something about Duluth.

Come back to Duluth Mary - I already miss you!