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.

Solo Adventure to Minnesota

I got home today from a trip to Minnesota to visit Avery.  I got home exactly one week after I left.

I will share about my trip in several day's worth of blogs.  I guess I should have done a little each day, but Oh well, can't change that, I will move on and just do it!!

I left Denver Friday evening, January 18.  Ted and Nicolle and I had an appointment with in the Endocrine department at Kaiser at 4:30 that we had been waiting for for over a month.  So I decided to wait until after that to leave.  However, when we went downtown for the appointment, it was not in their system, so, we have to wait until February now.   arrrggghhhhhh.....

I drove for several hours, and made it to North Platte.  Stayed in a Super 8.  It was super nice, and had a great hot breakfast.  I made a waffle and ate it with raspberry yogurt on top... yummo.  http://www.super8.com/hotels/nebraska/north-platte/super-8-north-platte/hotel-overview

Saturday, January 19 I got up early and started off.  I headed north, through the Sand Hills area of Nebraska, towards I-90.  My thinking was that I wanted to avoid Nebraska and Iowa and go across South Dakota.  I was pretty sure that going through this area of Nebraska wasn't as bad as I had remembered, but it was.  It is pretty barren.  And it isn't interstate, so there is slowing down through all the little towns, which seem for the most part deserted.   I stopped at Cabelas to get a headlamp, since I didn't have any flashlight with me, and I also got some gloves, which I had also forgotten.

Other stops: a couple of rest stops and Culvers for late lunch/dinner.

I listened to quite a few Spanish lessons in the course I am taking via podcast.  I love it because they people teaching are from Scotland, and I just get a kick out of their accents.  It is really starting to stick. Maybe 10 years of sort of dabbling in spanish and it is finally connecting.  It is Coffee Break Spanish:

http://radiolingua.com/shows/spanish/coffee-break-spanish/

I listed to several other podcasts as well.  Stuff You Missed in History Class
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/stuff-you-missed-in-history/id283605519
is one of our favorites.  Ted and I have spent HOURS listening to these.  My favorites are about serial killers (like HH Holmes) and really bizarre people :)  Actually the one about Fritjof Nansen is amazing, and also the Comanche story about Cynthia Parker.  I wish History class had been this interesting.

Another podcast I really enjoyed was NPRs RadioLab

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wnycs-radiolab/id152249110

If you get a chance to download some of these, make sure to get the episodes entitled,
Numbers
Words
Bliss
What's up Doc
Detective Stories

After all that talking, it was time for some music, and I listed to:
Les Miserables
Phantom of the Opera
Mamma Mia.

I sang at the top of my lungs, and sobbed through Les Mis.  I had to stop at a rest stop and reapply my mascara :)

I finally made it to Roseville at around 9:30 CST, and yes, that means I lost an hour. yuck.  Avery was already asleep, but Eric and Paula and I sat up for awhile and played Timeline.  We played it alot during the week.  It is really, really fun.http://www.amazon.com/Asmodee-TIM01USASM-Timeline-Card-Game/dp/B005N57CNU

Ok, tomorrow:  Church, PotLuck, Talent Show......