A New Yoga Studio and Amazing Dinner!

I love weekends that are super fun without being hectic. That is a perfect description of this past one for me. There is a yoga studio near my house that I've been wanting to get in for awhile. They run a Vinyasa yoga class a couple of days a week from 7-8 PM and then on Saturdays at noon. That is absolutely perfect for my schedule, and the studio is within walking distance. I decided to check it out, so after sleeping in on Saturday morning I strolled that direction. It was a small class - myself, the instructor, and a gay couple, Michael and George. We walked through a little over an hour of poses, including crow and a headstand. I've never been able to successfully hold a crow position before, and as it turns out, my gaze was the only thing stopping me. I'd been looking down at the floor every time rather than looking ahead. I thought I was lacking the strength, but I was just throwing off my balance. The headstand I did against a wall. I haven't really done any regular inversions since high school, so that's going to take awhile to master. Every time I did something well, Michael and George would get super excited for me, and it made me want to carry them around with me for the day. I feel like they would be excellent life cheerleaders.

Saturday night Dan and I decided to check out a restaurant in downtown Minneapolis called Brasserie Zentral. It's a European restaurant, and y'all. Y'ALL. It was SO good.

*I feel like I shouldn't use the words European and y'all in the same sentence.

**Also, we looked really cute. My new black dress rocked, and Dan had on a linen shirt and slacks. This is irrelevant to this story. But seriously. 

***Those curls of his make me happy.

I started off with a creamed asparagus soup topped with hazelnuts, and a glass of delicious white wine. Dan started off with gnocchi with lamb and braised red cabbage, and an Old Fashioned. While everything that we ate was absolutely amazing, his gnocchi was my favorite. It was just melt-in-your-mouth. Super thankful he's a fan of sharing or it would have gotten nasty with me demanding that he give me a bite or seven. For our main course, I got the quark spaetzel, and Dan got the speck wrapped rabbit loin. (I have a confession. I totally had to Google my dish. I didn't know what either of those things were. Chili's in my small town didn't serve either. Moving right along.) My baby pasta had rabbit in it, which was wonderful. I've had rabbit before, but not any that tasted this yummy. We decided to split a dessert, and got the chocolate torte, which was filled with apricot preserves, and topped with chocolate ganache, hazelnut brittle, and chocolate ice cream. Dan got a cappuccino that was perfectly foamy, and I finished off a second glass of wine. When the waiter brought our check, he let us know he comped dessert, and the receipt said "Hooray for dessert!" with a $0 charge. It was such a fun little surprise! It got me super excited about my upcoming trip to Europe for my birthday. 

Sunday, we met up again, and decided to make a salad since we'd eaten so heavy the night before. We grabbed a ton of random things and made one of the best salads ever, because we are awesome in the kitchen, ha! I also made cookies. I'm going to a lake house with Dan's family in a few weeks, and I may bring them, because who doesn't love cookies?! I haven't made many since I've been here, so I figured it was time to bust some out. Such a yummy and fun weekend!

FLORIDA!

This week I had the opportunity to head to Florida with some girlfriends for a much overdue beach vacation. I've known these gals all for 17ish years - a very long time - and we've been wonderful friends despite lots of changes in one another's lives. Jenn and Cyndi still live in Tennessee, I'm obviously in Minnesota, and Vicki lives in Florida. We all flew down, and stayed with Vicki, which was a nice break from paying for a hotel. I can't possibly describe all the fun things we did - late nights up talking, hours and hours sitting in clear, warm ocean water, sharing tears and hugs, squealing at Magic Mike, ice cream, a tour in the Everglades - but even if we hadn't done any of the "extras", it was wonderful to simply have some girl time. I missed my friends.

I'm sitting at the airport now, typing this up, and thinking of how blessed I am to have such wonderful, supportive women in my life that absolutely adore me as much as I adore them. I miss them already, but I'm leaving Florida with such a happy and full heart.

Celebrating the Fourth

Happy belated 4th of July! This weekend was so, so much fun. I only have one requirement for every 4th: fireworks. Preferably A LOT. I absolutely love them; how can you not?!

I had to work during the day Saturday, but got off early afternoon and met up with Dan. We went to a Saints baseball game in St.Paul at a new stadium there, which was absolutely gorgeous. My favorite thing about it? Sooooo many bathrooms! Every woman knows the struggle of bathrooms at a stadium. We got hot dogs, enjoyed some yummy beer, and had super awesome seats to enjoy the game. Baseball is probably my favorite game to watch live. 

The city of St.Paul paired up with the stadium to do the city fireworks there after the game, which was perfect. The game went into a 10th inning, but after it ended the announcer came on and instructed everyone to clap twice on the count of three. We all did, which threw the stadium into darkness, and then they launched a beautiful fireworks display. I watched them with the biggest smile, arms intertwined with Dan's, thinking about how magical it all felt. I think magical is the best description for a night sky that is lit up with multi-colored sparkles. Magical is also how I think it would feel to roll around in a pool full of glitter, but I digress.

Sunday, Dan and I met up early and went to brunch prior to heading over to the Minnesota Arboretum. I'll be honest, I'd never even heard the term arboretum until he mentioned that he bought us tickets to it a few weeks ago. I had no idea what to expect. It began with the University of Minnesota, and has over 1200 acres of gardens, trees, prairies, and various other things. It.Was.Gorgeous! So, we need to stop a minute so I can set the stage for you. One of the first sections that we hit was the herb garden, and right before we walked in, a tiny little chipmunk ran across the path. A CHIPMUNK. As in, they live and sing in Disney movies, adorable little chipmunk! I can't even, y'all. It was a legit struggle to not squeal louder than I did; however, I maintained my composure like a very responsible lame adult. Mostly. 

We wandered through herbs, roses, peonies (daisies are my favorite, but these are an incredibly close second). We walked through the woods and saw an owl hanging out in a tree (you can see him if you click the picture). We walked through the prairie, where we were absolutely swarmed by some obnoxious little bugs. I laughed the most here - I was frantically swatting nonstop with the map, and Dan took off his shirt to swat. We looked ridiculous, but I thought they were trying to kill us and take us back for the winter for their babies. I was ready to get OUT of the prairie. Other than the bugs though, all the long flowering grass was beautiful and peaceful. Then we went through a hedge maze, which was super fun. We took turns choosing the path, and all of mine seemed to lead to dead ends. I'm pretty much the most directionally-challenged person ever, so that isn't surprising. 

We came back to my house, watched the World Cup and made homemade pizza. Dan made me try his, which was a kalamata olive tapenade with roasted red peppers and mozzarella. He knows I hate olives, but insisted I try. I ate three pieces with OLIVES, and I actually liked them. Apparently, adding onion and garlic makes everything better. A televised sports game and olives - WHO AM I LATELY?! Seriously, that's Twilight Zone level stuff. But you know what? Bring on the new things...all the new things.