blogiversary, oh wonder concert, grandma jan returns

 last monday thatcher was sick and worked from home. i went to the gym and grocery store and took winnie on a walk. it was a beautiful day in the 60s. thatcher took this funny picture of winnie and i couldn't resist including it.

tuesday was april 21st - which means my blog turned 16 years old!!! this is my 1,312th post on i carry your heart. i think of my blog as having chapters now: minneapolis the first time, seattle years, minneapolis the second time. having all of these entries of what was happening in our lives at any given moment in time is my favorite thing ever and i go back and re-read my posts (by month) all the time. if you've stuck around for years on end, thanks for being here :) also, i took another 10 of my childhood home videos to the conversion place to get put onto a thumb drive. i had fun previewing them before the drop off and i can't wait to get them back. apparently i just love looking back over my life. on the way home, i stopped at a new-to-me coffee shop called 'honey and rye' and got an iced americano and a biscuit breakfast sandwich (for lunch). it was delicious! 

azalea had her final drivers ed class (eek!) and she can take the written permit test any time now. ashford had zoom piano in the evening.

wednesday was the warmest day we've had this year so far - 84 degrees! i called into my weekly staff meeting from the deck. i also took winnie on a long walk. it was very windy.

 in the evening, durant and cheryl came over for dinner and to hang out with the kids and winnie while thatcher and i went to a concert. my kids don't need babysitters anymore, but we thought it would be helpful to have adults around to help wrangle winnie. durant took this picture on their walk,

thatcher and i headed to downtown st. paul to 'the fitzgerald theater' to see one of our favorite bands, oh wonder. we saw them in 2022 in seattle. this tour marks the 10-year anniversary of their first album, and they brought along a grand piano and a string quartet to accompany them. i bought the tickets months ago and we were in the third row, which was really cool...but dare i say a maybe a little too close since the stage was elevated and the lead female singer was practically hidden behind the piano. ha! but it was still an awesome experience. the show opened with an artist named wrabel. i had never heard of him before (thatcher had). he blew me away! 

thursday was dark and rainy with the potential for storms all day. i took winnie on a (wet) walk around the neighborhood. azalea went to her friend sylvia's after school. ashford got his team assignment for baseball, which starts may 5th. 

friday i went to the gym, worked, and ran some errands in the morning. my mom flew back from florida for the season, so i picked her up at the airport. we are so happy to have her back. that night we had my mom and brother over for dinner. we grilled burgers and caught up. it was fun to show her some sort-of new stuff around the house. 

saturday morning azalea and i went to the library and the toy store in our neighborhood to get birthday gifts for addie and clare. then azalea had a babysitting gig for a family on our block who have a three and one year old. it was her first time sitting for them. the one-year-old had some separation anxiety from his parents, but other than that it went well. thatcher went on his first minnesota hike since moving back with his friend nate. they drove over an hour to a spot that was new to both of them. 

the kids and i headed to kelli and jake's for a family and family friend birthday party for addie and clare. i can't believe they are turning 6 and 4 already (2 weeks apart). they grilled brats and hotdogs and had an ice cream sundae bar. the kids ran around and we watched the girl open their gifts and caught up with kelli's family. every time i'm able to do something like this since moving back it makes me so happy because i always felt like i was missing out on these moments when we lived in seattle. 

we re-joined thatcher back at home and he and i took winnie for an evening walk. the weather turned cooler and rainy for a stretch of days and i was definitely missing the more summer-like days we had. 

sunday morning we made pancakes and bacon and then i ran some errands. we hung around the house all afternoon and then in the evening, thatcher and i met up with our friends becky and jeromy for dinner at 'big bowl'. we hadn't been there in at least a decade, so it was fun to go back. it was also so nice to spend time with becky and jeromy, who we missed dearly while we lived in seattle. it's rare to find couple friends where everyone in the group genuinely enjoys each other's company. after dinner, we headed to 'missing pieces' escape room. this was my first time doing an escape room (the rest had done at least one before). i am not a big strategy board game person or competitive in the least, so it was not really my kind of fun, but it was fun to spend time together and to work on a project together - we figured out the puzzle with 6 minutes to spare (with a couple hints from the host). not bad! 

thatcher and i have a fun trip coming up - chicago! i'm tagging along on his work trip and getting to see an old friend i haven't seen in 12 years!