the best weekend.

other than the exhaustion, and occasional crabbiness,

this past weekend was one of the best i've had in a long time.

my little fam and i headed to minnesota (the land that i love) to visit

family and friends. and on sunday i did a little thing called a half marathon.

(more on that later...)

we had SO much fun visiting with friends.

on friday we had dinner with one of our most favorite families on the planet,

and then had a fun lunch date of fish and chips with a dear friend.

we also got lots of sweet time with my brother and sis-in-law. when i'm with them, there is no where else in the world i'd rather be. i just love my time with them. especially when it involves playgrounds and swingsets.

between the playground, and auntie & uncle's house,
elli has pretty much mastered the art of going up and down stairs front-facing!

a plane!

auntie t - the monkey!

real men swing on swing-sets.

it was such an awesome time,

hanging out, laughing, talking, eating, and laughing some more.

and i am SO PROUD of the way elli warmed up to his auntie and uncle so quickly.

he had a great time with both of them.

uncle d even spent some time helping elli play baseball for the first time ever!

such a big bat for such a little guy!

such a happy face!!!

we were also able to have a quick visit with my sweet grandma.

she's 96 and just the most precious person. i am so grateful that we still have her in our lives.

this photo just makes me laugh. elli was a squirmy worm, and grandma kept patting his bum.
jer's the only one focused on getting the photo taken. ha!

even though she's so tiny, instead of calling her "great-grandma" she's always been known as "big grandma" to the great-grandchildren. i love it!

grandma hadn't seen elli since christmas, so it was a fun treat to have them together.

after getting comfortable, elli and big grandma played a fun game of catch

and then they went for a little walk together.

it was such a great weekend for so many reasons. i'm sad that it's already over,

but i'm more than excited to be making a quick trip back next weekend for

more family time!

(and this time, my parents will join in on the fun!)

i'll be posting soon about my half marathon adventure!