Between Molly's visit two weekends ago and Kelly and Leslie staying with me this last weekend, I have been getting some SERIOUS girl time in. I feel so lucky since they live 3 hours away, or in Molly's case- a world away. We spent all weekend dining at our favorite restaurants, dancing till bar close, and sitting on my couch all of Sunday eating potato chips and watching Poison Ivy. Ohh yeah....
The weekend was spent in Bayfield for the Whistlestop half marathon. We have been going the last four years and it's become quite the tradition. I suppose to be running in it, but opted out due to some knee issues. It was a PERFECT weekend to still go. The weather was unusually warm and we spent our time wondering around the town looking at all the small shops and checking out our favorite used book store. It has a little "secret garden" spot out back where you can drink coffee and read. 
I didn't take many pictures this last weekend, so I thought I would share a few more from my birthday extravaganza. I stole these from my friend Tucker's blog. He has a good talent for capturing ordinary moments and making them suddenly meaningful. I often catch myself feeling an overwhelming sense of nostalgia when seeing his photographs. See more of his work and talent here. 
This last weekend was a lot of fun. Sunday was a beautiful day and Leslie and I spent the day at the beach before getting ready for our sailboat bbq. 20 or so of our closest friends showed up to the docks to grill, drink cheap beer, and catch up. We had a few friends in town that had been traveling the world so it was great to finally see them and hear their stories.
Our friend Megan and her boyfriend just got done biking 3,000 miles around Cuba and Guatemala!
Kelly was my witness at our wedding. She has a dear place in my heart. She also was the DJ for the dance party we ended up having at April's later on in the evening. Derek is the owners of one of my favorite restaurants here in Duluth. I just discovered my new favorite summer drink at his bar: Death's Door Gin and tonic with rhubarb bitters. Amazing.
Our friend Mo brought her newborn Liam to the party too!
After the sailboat party we headed the Zinema movie theater where we were lucky enough to have a whole theater to ourselves! Leslie had been collecting and putting together pictures from the past 6 years of a lot of our friends and we got to watch it on the big screen! It was so special to know everyone in those pictures is still a part of my life and how amazing my friendships are.
Before Kelly and Leslie headed back Monday we drove up the North Shore along Lake Superior to get lunch at the Scenic Cafe. It's a special place to us because this is where we met! We all worked there as servers in college. On our days off we use to drive up the shore for hours just drinking coffee and talking. I'm lucky enough we still get to do that every once in awhile.
I'm back from my long weekend in Minneapolis. As mentioned earlier, a bunch of us got together to bid farewell to our friend Pam who is moving to England (today!). Leslie orchestrated a beautiful outdoor bbg with homemade fruit cakes, grilled goodies, and rhubarb punch (so good!). Afterwards we went to the Walker to see Tapes 'n Tapes play in the park. A real treat. Other weekend activities included lavender lemonade, a nice dinner at Lucias, a 7 mile run, lunch with Kelly and Steve at Black Sheep Pizza, and discovering the best red lipstick.
It's finally starting to cool down a bit here. And when I say "cool down" our house thermostat is at 80 instead of 90. Ben and have been living in our basement the last 3 days which actually has been sorta fun. We have an air mattress blown up and set in front of the computer so we can watch endless amounts of Reno 911 episodes without breaking a sweat. I've spent hours upon hours at the beach this last weekend with some of my favorite buddies. Nona (age 4) and Sage (age 1) were good company to build sand castles with. 
A little bit of everything went on this weekend. I helped friends move and paint their new house, attended an estate sale in a mansion I've always admired, filled my stomach with more rhubarb delights then it could probably handle (juice, crisp, martini's, muffins), and even made it down to the point for some beach time and art fair action. One of the best weekends I've had this summer. How was your weekend?
It's done! We did it. Grandma's was a lot of fun and I managed to get a personal record for myself of 2:02. My back didn't give me any trouble and Leslie completely rocked her first race. All in all it was a super great day. I really would like to get under 2 hours by fall so I am signing up for another half this August. Might as well, huh? The rest of the weekend was spent eating ice cream treats, welcoming little Liam into the world (congrats Mo!!), laying on the beach, and breaking in the guest room (I told you that map was awesome). Thanks for you all your well wishes and I hope you had a great weekend too!
Ps. I hope you all had a great Father's Day! 
