city living . . . on steriods

As you know, we have been trying to pack in as much city life as we can. For one, it helps take my mind off everything that's going on, and two, it's super fun! Now, where did we leave off . . .

Ah, yes.

Wednesday:
Was my 33rd birthday and Carl's 35th birthday. Since we had already celebrated the night before and Carl had to work late, we didn't get a chance to do anything together on our real birthdays, which was totally fine,  especially under our circumstances. However, that didn't stop my mom and I from having a good day!

We started off the day with . . . what else? Boutique shopping!! We headed over to a baby boutique called "Pacifier", which I have wanted to go to since I was pregnant with Ella! It was a super cute little store filled with everything a mother would want.

I really should have bought these books...they look like they are loaded with good information :)

I even found a one-of-a-kind mobile for the baby's room! I had been looking for one like it for the last few months on etsy, so I was super pumped to find one. We also happened to stumble across a yarn store.  Now I know what your thinking . . . a yarn store? That's sounds boring . . . but, not in downtown Minneapolis :)

At 2:00, I had a baby appointment. They did another Biophysical Profile on the baby, and I was excited to find out that he scored 10 out of 10 points again! Yay baby!

Then it was off to "Cupcake" for a late lunch and . . . my birthday cupcake. This bakery was featured on the Food Network's "Cupcake Wars" . . .  and won.  Needless to say, the cupcakes were DELISH.

That night we wanted to take in a movie, and decided on "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" as our flick of choice.

Thursday:
We started off the day with a little light laundry (okay, my mom did most of it), and then headed out for a little more shopping and then out to lunch.  We had spotted a great shopping area called 50th and France that I didn't even know existed! Then mom took off for home - :( - and then my family came back - :)

We decided to hit up the Walker Art Center for a little while, since it was "free Thursday night".

It was an experience. To be honest, the art was a little on the "abstract" side for us "small town Adolphsons". After taking in some exhibits, we went out to see the Sculpture Garden.

Friday:
Carl had to work in the morning, so we girls had a quiet morning.  After lunch we went to the Edina Aquatic Center and had a TON of fun at the pool! (Yes, I managed to S-Q-U-E-E-Z-E myself into a maternity swim suit.  It wasn't pretty, but it sure felt good to slip into that cool water on that HOT day). The pool featured a zero-depth kiddie pool and play area, huge water slides, a big pirate ship that had a big zip line that went from the ship down to the pool, driving boards, and a massive swimming area. After the pool we made our way over to a local Subway to enjoy an easy dinner.

Saturday:
On Saturday morning we had a quick breakfast at the apartment before heading over to St. Paul to visit the Children's Museum. We were really excited because our friends the Johnston's were able to join us! :) We had no idea how much this museum had to offer! We were there from 10:30am to 3:00pm with a little lunch break about 1/2 way through.  The kids had a blast and were busy the whole time!

Jocie's sculpture

they even had a "paint your own face" booth

After our very busy day, we headed back to the apartment for dinner and a little women's gymnastics on the telly.

Sunday:
We started our day off with going to Mass at the Basilica.  This is yet another gorgeous church in the Twin Cities.  I didn't bring my camera this time, but trust me, it was just as beautiful as the St. Paul Cathedral. Then we headed back to the apartment for lunch and a little bit of a rest time.

In the afternoon, we checked out the cutest little bookstore over by Lake Harriet called Wild Rumpus.  It was chalk full of new books, vintage books, cozy little reading nooks, and even little pets that were just roaming around the store.  It was a pretty cool little place.

That night, my friends Nicole and Beth drove down to take me out to eat at the downtown restaurant, Hell's Kitchen. We had all heard a lot of good things about it, and none of us had ever eaten there. It was a fun little place with interesting decor and yummy food. Best of all, it was just fun to sit and visit, so thanks ladies for making the trip!

Monday:
I had to pack up the kids this morning to head back to Big Lake for the day.  They are mainly going back so they can pack up for there trip up north.  Since I will be soon transferring from the apartment to the hospital, Carl and I thought it would be fun for them to head north so they could spend some time in Argyle with Carl's parents and also spend a night with my mom at Maple Lake. Even though they have only been gone for a few hours, I am looking forward to having them back with me tonight before their big trip tomorrow.  I have never been away from my kids for 6 days before, so I am already dreading it. So I will try not to dwell on it and just have a good night with them tonight and try to remember that it will be fun for them! . . . just not so fun for me :(

The time has really flown by so far! I can only hope that it continues to do so!

budding photog?

I have many things to update you all on, but right now I want to brag about the photography skills of my youngest daughter.  She has been asking to use my camera lately . . . whenever she sees it, she asks if she can take a picture.  Yesterday morning the light at the kitchen table was hitting her cute face in the perfect way, so I grabbed this shot. 





She then asked if she could take one of me.  She told me exactly how to pose (correcting me a few times) and then snapped this little shot of me. 

Not a bad shot, eh? :)

Anne and the City

When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I yearned to live in a city.  It didn't even have to be Minneapolis or St. Paul, even downtown Grand Forks would have sufficed (shut up Nicole, I can hear you laughing). I have just always loved downtown areas and marvel at the old buildings full of charactor and history. Not to mention all of the one-of-a-kind boutiques and restuarants with outdoor dining right out on the side walks. Everyone walking around just seems so cool with their ecclectic yet vintage style and interesting lives. Well folks, I got my wish . . . sort-of. I am not quite young enough to fit in the "young and hip" catagory, and having a whole litter of children probably doesn't help me much either. And rolling down a sidewalk in a wheelchair pushed by my mother was probably the last nail in my "cool coffin".  But I'm really not that sad about it.  I love my life just the way it is and feel pretty lucky to be able to take in all the awesomeness of this city, without all the high priced real estate, horrible parking situations, bad traffic and "city dangers". :)

I have continued to be a busy girl. Here is a over-view of my last couple days:

Sunday Night:
My friend Jenine came to stay with me in the time-lapse I had between when Carl and the girls left and when my mom came on Monday afternoon. She took me out to a fantastic restaurant called the Monte Carlo (which I found out was one of the oldest restaurant in Minneapolis) and had some of the best chicken wings I had ever tasted. Then we had to head to Target to pick up a few essentials...instead of opting for my wheelchair for my traveling needs, I chose a motorized cart.

This was a whole new level of embarrasment.  It had a 0.2 miles an hour top speed, sqeeky wheels and beeping alarm when I went in reverse . . . I won't be choosing this form of travel again. We then went back to the apratment, settled in with some movie candy and popped in "The Vow".

Monday:
I slept in until 9:00am and had some coffee cake with Jenine before she headed home.  I then just lounged around . . . took a very long shower (maybe I should have ordered a sponge bath from the front desk . . . ?), picked up a little, caught up on the blog and read unitl my mom arrived later that afternoon.  We decided to head back over to Grand Ave in St. Paul so we could have dinner and hit up a few shops. We had dinner out on the Salut patio, bought a baby book at the Red Balloon book store and browsed a few boutiques. Needless to say, it was a great night.

Tuesday:
Had another relaxing morning (beginning to see a pattern??) and then ventured out to one of my favorite stores of all time - Patina.

I picked out my birthday present (Thanks Mom!!), picked out a small gift for Carl, got a little gift for the baby, and got a few unique thank you cards that I just had to have.  After about an hour of shopping/browsing/wishing at Patina, we headed over to ReVamp Salonspa for a pedicure.  It was fabulous.

I was so excited that Carl, my Dad and Barb and the girls were headed back down to celebrate Carl and I's birthday with a birthday dinner!! We decided to go to Burger Jones right by Lake Calhoun for the "Best Burger in the Twins Cities" voted by Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine. I would have to agree . . . the burgers are to die for :)

Today, I will be celebrating my "real birthday" with another ultrasound at 2:00pm and then another shopping activity with my mom.  It is supposed to be in the 90's and very humid, so needless to say, I will be indoors for most of the day.  Beacause as we all know hot + humid + very pregnant = crabby Anne.

Much more to come!
*sorry for all the mispellings and errors...spell check just wasn't working, and I was too lazy to look too closely at the text :)

city vacay

I have been meaning to post for a while now...but we've been super busy! We have decided to look at this "medical apartment" stay, not as a downer (although, I am sure we will have our moments) but as a little "stay-cation" if you will. We only live about 45 minutes from downtown Minneapolis, but we rarely get down here. We sometimes come down for a Twins game or out for a special dinner once every year or so, but we really don't take advantage of all this wonderful city has to offer.  So we thought this would be a great opportunity to show our girls (and ourselves) what we have been missing out on.

We checked into Augustana Senior Apartments on Thursday evening. We were greeted by a lovely older gentleman that works at the front desk.  I didn't even get a chance to introduce myself before he acknowledged us by saying, "Are you the Adolphson family?" I smiled and felt pretty important...they must have been looking forward to our arrival. :) Then he proceeded to say, "my, there are quite a few of you, aren't there." Um, yeah, and there is about to be one more, I thought.

He took us up the elevator to our apartment.  On the way, he asked us where we were from.  When he found out we were from Big Lake, and not real familiar with "city living" he proceeded to give us a few good tips. Here were his top five "city tips":

#5. "Never park on the street.  If you do, you will be greeted by glass all over the street in the morning"

#4. "Never go outside after dark.  It's just not a good idea."

#3. "If you are walking outside, walk quickly and with a purpose."

#2. "Don't talk to anyone. If someone tries to talk to you, just ignore them, and keep going."

#1. "Always lock your door.  Our building is secure, but sometimes "they" just get in, and start knocking on doors."

Thank goodness we didn't tell him where were grew up.  He might have just told us to turn around and go home, because there is no way we would survive here.

My favorite tip that he gave us, was this...it was about living in a senior community:

"There are a lot of very, very old people who live here.  Please take caution with your children.  If they are running in the hallway and run to close to an elderly person, that person may just fall right over." Then he turned his attention to the kids, "They are very fragile, you know". So in short, "Kids! Don't buss the old people!!" :)

my building

my view of "ghetto in the sky"

Thursday:
After we moved all our stuff in, and got settled, we ventured out to Target to get a few essentials that I couldn't bring from home. Even this was a little bit of an adventure for us...we had to try to find a Target that wasn't in the hood, but wasn't too far away. This trip was the first time a broke out my wheelchair so I wouldn't be over doing it.  It worked out great! The only problem was that everyone (including Carl) was fighting over which one of them got to push me. :) After our shopping trip, we popped in a movie and all went to bed. We made up the pull-out couch and blew up the blow-up mattress so we could all sleep comfortably.

Friday:
We woke up bright and early for my 8:00am appointment. I had another ultrasound where the tech did what was called a Biophysical Profile.  It measures how well the baby would do outside the belly. I am happy to say that the baby scored very well and seems to be right on track.  It was fun for the girls to be able to see their brother :) After the appointment we made our way to the Como Zoo for our annual summer zoo trip.

Claire and I in our strollers

We then headed over to Roseville to have lunch with my cousin Katy who just happened to be in town for the week. After a great lunch we headed home for a much needed nap. We then had dinner at the apartment and made our way over to Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles for a little stroll (or "roll" in my case) around these beautiful lakes.

a park right on the trail :)

Saturday:
We woke up and had a nice relaxing and lounge-y morning.  Once we ventured out, our first stop was IKEA to return a few things.  Next, we drove over to St. Paul for a little lunching at Billy's Bar on Grand Ave. It's one of my very favorite streets in the twin cities. Our next activity was the Science Museum where we took in a show at the omnitheater, which was pretty spectacular.  Best part? We got VIP seating because of my wheelchair :) Then, we headed back to the apartment for naps and dinner, then headed back over so we could go to church at the St. Paul Cathedral. I am always in awe when I am there.

one of my favorite past-times is sitting on a deck in the summer and having a beer...this was as close as it gets right now.

You see the end of the hallway? That's the cage where we Catholics lock up all the Protestants we can get into the Church...Just Kidding!! :)

Sunday:
We had another non-stress morning, followed by a trip to Minnehaha Falls. This is one place that Carl has wanted to see since we moved here, so he was pretty pumped.  When we got there, we realized we were not the only people who had this idea....it was packed.  One of the reasons why, is because there was a Swedish festival going on in the park...Carl was tickled pink :) You may have thought he was 100% Polish? Not true. He is 25% Swedish (hence "Adolphson") and proud of it. I went to take a picture of him by the Swedish flag and realized that I had forgotten my memory card...so unfortunately, I have no photos from the Falls, our picnic, or the festival... :( We ended our day with going to a local splash park followed by a Dairy Queen treat.

I would be lying if I said it wasn't depressing packing up the girls' stuff and seeing my family leave for home. It had been looming over my head all weekend. But, my friend Jenine, came to the rescue and took me out for dinner and stayed with me over night. Plus, I also have the warm thoughts of my whole family including my mom, dad, Barb, Carl and the kids coming to have dinner with me tomorrow night. AND my mom is coming today to stay with me all week! So, I really don't have it so bad :)

All for now...more to come.