Mommy vacation

I was able to take a lovely mommy vacation at the end of last week.  Austin was gone all week and ended his trip in the Twin Cities.  My mom came on Thursday to watch the kids so I could drive up to join him.  The first thing I did was spend over two hours but less than $30 at IKEA, and that included a scrumptious meal of cheese & spinach crepes, lingonberry juice and a giant chocolate bar.  I had never been to IKEA before and had really been looking forward to it.  While the overall style is too modern and contemporary for my tastes, there were some fun things in the kitchen gadgets and home decor departments.

After sleeping in on Friday I drove to the Grand Avenue shopping district of St. Paul.  I spent an hour in a really fun kids' toy shop called Creative Kidstuff.  I got a new puzzle for Emily and a new book for Lincoln.  I remember when my mom & dad would go on weekend getaways to the Twin Cities they'd sometimes bring us back something.  Then I had a lovely meal at Cafe Latte, a highly recommend place from my parents.  I had the salad sampler plate with Honey Pecan Chicken, Wheatberry Broccoli and Shrimp Artichoke with a Focaccia roll.  I also had to try the White Chocolate Strawberry Scone and a slice of their famous Turtle Cake (which took me three different sittings to finish).

On the way home I drove through the neighborhood just south of Grand Avenue and marveled at block after block of gigantic, stately Victorian homes.  I would have loved to see the inside of any of them.  I brought back lunch for Austin, who was working from the hotel room, and then took a nap to sleep off my lunch. ;o)

After Austin was done working for the day we had dinner at a nearby Outback Steakhouse.  Then we went to a theater in Minneapolis I found online that was showing the latest Harry Potter movie, which I hadn't seen yet.  The Riverview Theater is a nice one-screen neighborhood theater that shows older movies for $3.  It was a fairly large theater and it was packed.

We slept in again on Saturday--two days in a row without an alarm or kids waking me up!  On the way home we stopped at Lowe's in Owatonna to look at bathroom countertops.  How's that for exciting?!  The kids did great for Grandma, and it was a nice little break for all of us!