azalea's summer job, kansas city weekend, fishing fun

 last monday was a big day. it was azalea's first day of her summer job! she's working for the community education program out of her high school. they run a kids day camp program every summer. thatcher and i worked there too back in the day, so it feels extra special. she will be a teacher's aide for 4 weeks this summer. we are so excited for her. her first day went well! 

tuesday was an uneventful day. ashford is already bored less than two weeks into summer (shocker) so i convinced him to sign up for a couple of baseball camps. i worked, ran errands, and walked winnie. we had thunderstorms a lot of the afternoon/evening. i picked up azalea from work and i happened to notice this tree that i'm pretty sure my classmates and i planted in 1992 on arbor day (the program is being run out of the elementary school this year). 

ashford was supposed to have a game that night, but it got rained out. 

wednesday was another workday for azalea. in the afternoon, ashford and i met up with anders, jack, and moss at the playground. after i picked up azalea from work, she and i met all of them + grandma cheryl and nith at sebastian joe's for ice cream. it had been a couple of weeks. ha! 

thursday morning i headed off on a girl's weekend with my college roomates to kansas city! sarah picked me up at 8am to start the journey down.

 we added heidi an hour into the drive, stopped for lunch in iowa and a couple other short stops before we arrived at kaylee's house at 4pm. 

it had been 5 years since we were all together (though i had seen all of them separately in that time). it was so special to get to have this weekend to catch up and relax with no responsibilities. kaylee made us dinner the first night and we hung out with her son beau and their kitty 'catnip'. 

how cool is this old telephone booth in her living room?!

this is catnip in "her" basket. she sits in it all the time and loves when people spin it for her. seriously! 

friday morning we took beau to kaylee's parents' house. it was so nice to see them and catch up a bit! we had them take a picture of all of us on our way out the door. 

our first stop was coffee and breakfast at 'scout coffee' which was a really cute place. my biscuit breakfast sandwich was really good! 

then we spent a few hours going to various boutique/mercantile/vintage/antique shops. missouri has so many! 

we had a really nice lunch at a restaurant called 'vivilore' then more shopping :)

we were tired after that excursion, so we went back to kaylee's and watched hours of 'sex and the city', one of our favorite activities in college. 

we spent the rest of the night having snacky dinner, doing face masks, and chatting. 

saturday morning we drove into kansas city (kaylee lives a little ways out) to go to 'seven swans creperie.' it was such a cute place that looked straight out of paris. i got a nutella crepe with strawberries and bananas and it was delicious. 

then it was time for...more shopping! we went to 'cockrell cottage', which was a whole group of shops. 

we hung out at kaylee's for the rest of the afternoon before getting dressed to go out for dinner + drinks in lees summit. dinner was at 'smoke' a brewery + bbq place. so good! 

then we walked a couple blocks to 'libations & company' for drinks. it was a great cocktail bar, and we had the best time laughing the night away. 

saturday morning kaylee picked up bagels and coffee from panera for us. so nice. by 8:30, it was time to hit the road for our drive back. the drive went fairly quickly, though we were all sleepier than the way down. sarah was a rockstar driving us the whole way there and back. i was sad for the weekend to end, but so appreciative of our time together. these friends are so special to me and i'm so glad we randomly ended up together in the dorms/apartments at UMD so many years ago. 

while i was away, thatcher held down the fort with the kids and winnie. he drove azalea all over to friend things, took ashford to his game saturday afternoon (another loss), and coordinated the kids going fishing with anders, moss, and jack. 

this week brings a trip to my aunt and uncle's cabin in park rapids for my birthday and the fourth! life is not slowing down any time soon.