Top 5 moments of my adventure to Minnesota

Here are the top 5 moments of my trip to see Avery.  I seem to do better with lists than with prose!

1.  Avery.  Ok, so not really a moment, but since the top 25,000 moments were all Avery, I thought I would just compact them into one neat tidy #1.

Avery is amazing, he is so darling, and has such a super personality!  And he loves me, which is a real plus.  Imagine if I went there and he ignored me!!  But we had so much fun.  Sitting, playing, watching him try to crawl, and mostly watching him kick. Kick in mid-air, kick in the bathtub, kick while he is being changed, kick on his stomach to help propel him forward, kick on his back, well you get it.  He is so charming, and absolutely stole my heart.

It was his 6 month birthday while I was there.  They are taking a picture of him on this quilt every month.  His shirt says "locally grown." Paula and I ate Caramel Butter Bars to celebrate his birthday :)

Yeah, it was cold.

Oh man, I miss this little face.

2.  Playing Timeline and Quirkle with Paula and Eric.  We had fun just kicking back and playing games.  Timeline is really fun.  

3.  Going to church with them.  I really love their church.  The music and teaching, and I love how they do communion, it is just up front and you come up anytime you want to.  Reminds me of Santa Barbara Community Church, where Reed Jolley is pastor, and Ted and I visited there in 90.  It was the first time I had seen communion and I like the idea that there aren't "special men" who have to serve, which is how I was raised!  Most of all, though, I love the people at their church.  Amazing young people.

4.  Going to the Mall of America.  It was so cold out (have I mentioned that yet?) but it was fun to walk around with Avery and eat dinner at Bubba Gump.  Favorite moment at the mall?   Getting in a good walk!

5.  Buffalo car wash.  Yup, I had my car licked by buffaloes.  I was driving through a very deserted Black Hills, and was in Custer State Park and came through a valley, and there were lots of buffs.  I stopped to wait for them to decide to cross the road, and they came jogging over to the mobile salt lick. It was crazy.  I was there for quite awhile until they moved out of the road and I continued on.  I loved being that close to them, I wasn't threatened, mostly it was crazy silly!

Honorable Mention:  Driving all alone for 4 days.  Seriously, if you know me, you know I LOVE to drive.  It was relaxing, regenerating, and I loved listening to Spanish, RadioLab, and Stuff  you Missed in History Class, all by myself.  Well, I actually could have cut a couple hours off of each day, and I was very glad to get back to my "other" family :)

But I would go again next week...

Church, Potluck and Talent Show

We got up leisurely on Sunday, since their church starts at 11:30!!  Eric and Paula are part of the congregation at Third Way in St. Paul.

http://www.thirdwaychurch.org/

They meet in the library at Hamline Methodist Church.  They had been hosting a conference for the weekend, with about 20 or so people from other intentional communities around the country.  So their meeting was a bit more crowded than normal.  This was my third time to visit.  It is a super friendly and comfortable congregation.  Very young, and urban/hipster.  I don't know if that is how they would describe themselves, but I mean in it the very most complimentary way!!

After the service, there was a potluck....Yay!!!!  There was really good food.  I particularly loved a salad that had feta cheese crumbles and poppy seed dressing and lots of other yummy stuff.  After we ate, they had prepared a "talent" show.  Pretty funny.  For instance, one couple --the wife is the daughter of Greg Boyd :) -- did a handstand contest.  One of the younger girls, Zola, who is in 6th grade and a big fan of 1D, was joined by 2 other 20-something girls, and they lip-synced and danced to HoeDown ThrowDown.  It was really cute.

During this whole time, incidentally, Avery was WIDE awake, and very happy and friendly.  However, a nap would have probably been a good thing.  So then we went home, about 3pm, and even then Avery didn't sleep.  We played some more Timeline, and Avery finally fell asleep right about when we were about to go back to church.  Eric and Paula's small group were in charge of fixing the dinner for the participants of the conference.  So Eric and I went to help Karna (Anna Pitrone's cousin, crazy, huh?).

We ate with them, and it was very enjoyable.  Very interesting people.  There was a man there who really reminded all of us of my dad.  He told a story about growing green beans and reminded Eric of picking beans in Grandpa's garden :)  He wrote a book:

The Intentional Christian Community Handbook: For Idealists, Hypocrites, and Wannabe Disciples of Jesus 

David Janzen graduated from Bethel College and studied at Harvard Divinity School. In 1971, he and his wife helped found New Creation Fellowship, a Christian intentional community in Newton KS. In 1984, they moved to Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston IL, where David now runs an affordable housing ministry.

Cleaned up, went home, played more games, went to bed.