April Recap

If April showers bring May flowers, then what does April snow bring? I guess we'll find out before too long! April was an interesting month for us, going from the sunshine and warmth of Hawaii to an ice and snow storm, giving us a snow day by the middle of the month, and just a couple days later, a lot of melting and nice enough for a walk to check out the damage. That was followed by more snow, then melting, and FINALLY some warmer weather!

Cashel and I also enjoyed a nice and unexpected day off on the 16th, just the day after our anatomy scan ultrasound for baby #2!

We enjoyed a much more laid-back April than March, which was nice, including two weekends at home, and a fun shopping day in Sioux Falls, followed by a baby shower that evening (Cashel hung out with Grandpa and Grandma in Worthington). I had fun at a Tastefully Simple party at a co-worker's house on the 23rd (they have such yummy stuff!).

Here are a few highlights from our month :)

Anatomy Scan Ultrasound (April 15)

While we decided to be surprised on this baby's birthday as far as the gender is concerned, it was wonderful to be able to see the little one :)

Click here for a full recap on my baby blog!

Baby Shower in Sioux Falls (April 20)

We had a fun couples shower for our friends Josh and AiWen Larsen, who are expecting their first baby - a little girl - in June!

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Afternoon at the Park (April 25)

When the weather finally warmed up, we were able to take Cashel to the park to play, which he LOVED!

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Sioux Falls and the Great Plains Zoo (April 27)

With the first beautiful weekend of 2013, we decided to take Cashel to see all the animals at the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls.

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Celebrating 88 Years with Grandma Vi (April 27)

We enjoyed a nice supper at Perkins with Grandma Vi to celebrate her 88th birthday :)

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

What's Coming Up!

Our April was so nice and relaxing for us once we returned home from the big trip to Hawaii, but we had a wonderful time as well. We're just hoping that we're finally done with SNOW, as that seems to be the four-letter word to sum up much of April. May promises to be a busy one with a birthday party for cousin Caleb in Humboldt, two family High School graduations (Mark's cousin Caleb and step-brother Tyler both graduate high school this year), other various graduation open houses to attend, lots of busy field time for Mark, and of course, many more walks with the weather being so nice :)

Happy Birthday, Grandma Vi! (April 27)

After a fun day in Sioux Falls at the Great Plains Zoo, we made our way back to Worthington to visit with Grandma Vi and see if she had any plans for supper. She was celebrating her 88th birthday! As it turned out, she didn't have plans, so we took her out to Perkins to celebrate.

While we were waiting for our food to arrive, Grandma and Cashel had fun playing around and reading some books :)

Happiest of Happy Birthdays to one truly special woman! We love you so much, Vi :)

Sioux Falls and the Great Plains Zoo (April 26)

On the first warm Saturday of the year, we decided to take Cashel to the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls. We grabbed a little soup/salad/breadsticks for lunch at Olive Garden beforehand, then arrived at the Zoo around 1pm. This was a first for not just Cashel, but Mark and I as well, since we hadn't been to the Great Plains Zoo before either.

We started out with the flamingos, which Cashel thought was pretty cool.

We struck out with the snow leopard, as he was just napping, but the Tiger ended up walking right up close to us in the observation area as he was roaring.

They had a "Rare Rhinos of Africa" exhibit, which was interesting, but I thought the feeding area was a tad strange, all concrete. It made me sad :(

I didn't take too many pictures of the animals considering they were all caged/roped off and it was difficult to see them even with a good camera. Many of them were taking their cues from the Snow Leopards as well, and were sleeping. We did happen to see the buffalo, zebras, giraffes and kangaroos (pictured below) as well, though.

As usual, however, Cashel enjoyed running around and picking up sticks much more than checking out the animals.

He enjoyed the exhibit inside a lot more, however. (I think this part is the "Delbridge Museum"). He especially enjoyed seeing the (fake) Zebras, as he thinks they are horsies :) We asked them what the Zebra says, and he said, "Nah" (his way of saying "Neigh").

Cashel had a great time climbing on this little safari ride in the museum, although he was slightly terrified and clung onto the steering wheel for dear life when we put quarters in and it actually started moving lol

All-in-all, it was a great day for us, although we were all pretty worn out when we finally were done at the Zoo. We were pretty underwhelmed by the Zoo in general, but Mark and I both said that it's probably really tough to beat the San Diego Zoo. I'd say it was definitely a bigger hit for us than the Hilo Zoo was a few weeks ago, however.

After the Zoo, we made our way over for a short visit with our friends Rachel and Ben (who were just finishing up a major kitchen remodel) before we headed back to Worthington to take Grandma Vi out for dinner for her birthday.

Afternoon at the Park (April 25)

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:"
Ecclesiastes 3:1

After what has seemed like the longest winter ever, we finally are seeing (almost all of) the snow melt, and we are just GIDDY about the opportunity to finally get outside again without freezing our tooshies off!

We decided that with the temperature being above freezing yesterday (by a fair amount - it was 54!), we had better take advantage of it with a walk to Island Park here in Windom. Island Park is about 3/4 of a mile walk from our house, and while it was a tad chilly and windy, we all enjoyed the fresh air. Cashel was jabbering up a storm.

When we got to the park, I don't think Cashel knew what to do first. He hasn't been to many parks, so he was pretty enamored by it all. (As he's only 15 months old, the last time it was nice enough to go to a park was when he was about 8 months old, and he wasn't walking or climbing yet, so the park was only useful for sitting on a blanket on the grass or crawling somewhere.)

For the first few minutes, he just stood there and stared, but then he enjoyed the slide, playing with some of the wheels and such, and the swings. Of course, his FAVORITE part was just being able to run around and pick up rocks and sticks :)

We SO enjoyed being able to let our little guy do his thing outside, and he didn't even argue when it was time to get back in the stroller and head home.

We are incredibly thankful to be able to get outside once again and enjoy a Minnesota spring...even if it has been a long time coming this year!

We ended our trip to the park with some hot dogs on the grill, a little HyVee spring salad and chips - the quintessential spring/summer meal, perfect for a day like this :)

Baby Shower in Sioux Falls (April 20)

We were so excited to get together this past Saturday with friends we don't see too often to celebrate the upcoming birth of our friends, Josh and AiWen Larsen's baby girl! We had initially scheduled it for two weeks prior, but the timing didn't work out too great, so we re-scheduled for the 20th.

The Invites

I had fun designing these invites for the big event - and I always love designing baby shower invites :)

The Venue

We thought that with AiWen being Chinese (and sushi being out with AiWen and I both pregnant) that HuHot was the next closest place that would be fun to celebrate at. Considering it's one of our favorite places, we were thrilled :)

If you haven't been to HuHot, it's a Mongolian BBQ place, where you make your own plate (as many times as you want), by filling bowls with meat, noodles, veggies and your choice of sauces, and then you hand them to the grill master and they cook it up for you around a big round stone grill. It's almost always delicious, and if you hate what you came up with, you just go back up. (Yeah, it's wasteful, but it absolutely ensures that you get something you want). It's a really fun atmosphere, even if you do have to make it yourself.

The Decor

Since this was a busy restaurant (and the table was small), we kept the decor simple, and just put a few little things up. Add a cute diaper cake and some homemade cupcakes for dessert, and we were set!

Erin also put together these cute Her"she"y bars and a fun "sushi" platter for AiWen :)

The Guests

Mark and I arrived a little early to reserve the table and set up...

...followed shortly by Joel and Erin Walerius...

...Nancy and Curt Stude...

...and the guests of honor (and parents-to-be): Josh and AiWen Larsen.

The Cuisine

This is the first time I've been able to actually capture just how delicious this food looks. I don't typically have a good reason to take my good old DSLR out at supper, but considering this was a party, I didn't get strange looks like I would have if it were just Mark and I out to eat. This is typically what I get when we go there (sweet & sour, piled with chicken, rice noodles, lots of veggies, and then the sweet & sour recipe).

Mark and I usually try to make it here for lunch, but with the dinner portion, you also get a choice of soup or salad.

This is what Mark usually gets - beef and broccoli with the mild sauce.

The cool part, though, is that you can get as little or as much as you want, and you can try all sorts of different stuff. Josh's plate all made us giggle. I have no idea how he fit this into only two bowls!

And, of course, we had cupcakes for dessert.

The Gifts

This was AiWen's first baby shower for their little girl, so she was really excited to see all the fun things that would come in handy in the months to come!

Cute, Pregnant AiWen

AiWen is probably one of the cutest pregnant people I know! She's still so bubbly (at 33 weeks, no less), but jovial about the whole process. There aren't many people I know who joke around about back pain and insane water intake, and their total fear of the labor & delivery process, yet turn around and blow it off two minutes later :) She's super tiny to begin with, so it was cute watching her waddle around with this big ole belly :)

Of course, as is tradition (at least for me) with any friend get-together when there is more than one pregnant person, we had to do a little belly comparison shot. (AiWen at 33 weeks; me at 21 weeks)

And one without our bellies as the focus :)

These guys are such a fun group to be around, and we certainly don't get together nearly enough!


Congratulations, AiWen and Josh! I know you'll be great parents!