A fabulous family weekend in Minnesota

We are driving back from Minnesota right now, after soaking up a whole weekend of family love. We went home to celebrate Rory’s mom’s birthday and celebrate we did!

I just have to say that I have the best family-in-law. And I fully recognize how fortunate this is. The three Groves boys are so great. Marlene and Madison raised three sons who grew into faithful husbands, all active in their faith and living their life out loud. And it is so fun to be a part of this! Lisa and Sara and I all married into this clan, and I am so proud to call them my sisters. I love every family get together and this weekend was full of them!

The cutting board of love.

We’ve got friends who absolutely embody the word hospitality. Whenever we show up to their place we sit ourselves down at their counter and watch them make some unbelievable meal for us. They love to cook, and we love to eat and this seems to work well for everyone.

As we sit at the counter and catch up, this magical cutting board ALWAYS appears with the most incredible cheeses, dates, figs and raisons. I tend to squeal when John lays it on the counter.

The meal they were preparing this night was Short Ribs in a red wine sauce. Come now. Just look at this meal we ate. (Completely worth of getting my camera out to document.) I’ve got a great story that goes along with this evening of eating, but it’s a good one to tell in person…so ask me about the short rib night sometime. You’ll be glad you did. We love you John and Shannon!

A conversation between Rory and his Papa

Rory: Papa, how many years were you married to Nana again?

Papa: Oh, now that I don’t know. But I can tell you they were good years. (pause) Excellent years. (longer pause) Well no, not excellent. But good years. They were good years and we loved each other well.

Rory looked at me and we smiled big. We got in the car and made a toast to many good years ahead. Not excellent, but good ones.

I’m 28!

I had a wonderful birthday, which is saying a lot because my birthday bar is so, so high. (it really isn’t fair to those around me.) Historically, my mom has made this day the greatest, most anticipated day and then passed the torch to Rory who quickly picked up on the importance of this day.

My co-worker, Kristin, made me this delicious cake (one day I’ll post the recipe…so, so good). And Rory took me to the French Cafe, a lovely restaurant in the Old Market. Our waiter made us banana foster tableside and it was delicious.

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The absolute best part of the day for me was when we came home and I opened presents over skype with my sister and her family in Montana. She had emailed me earlier in the day telling me the girls would come to my skype-party in their birthday suits. They came fresh from the bath, wrapped like burritos, but over time, lost their towels and wanted to show me their flips on the furniture. I laughed so hard watching their legs disappear behind their heads as they threw their birthday-suited selves over the back of the couch.

Ben Folds. wow.

He’s rocked the suburbs and last week he was rockin’ Omaha. Ben Folds is UNBELIEVABLE on the piano, he is a PHENOMENAL story teller, and FANTASTIC in concert. They guy never stopped…for two hours. He never took an intermission and would pause for a half-a-second between his songs. Literally, he never came up from the piano (he plays bent over with no bench), didn’t drink any water, and didn’t talk between the last 10 or so songs. I was tired for him.

The funny moments of the night were when the entire audience would belt out lyrics in unison and Rory and would look at each other and say, “yeah, we don’t have that album…”