Mother's Day weekend

Ahh, the first weekend without rain in a long time...we took advantage of it!

On Saturday Jackie Lee and Libbi came for a visit. Remember Penelope earns stars to go to Libbi's house so I didn't think I was breaking the rules of the reward chart when Jackie Lee said she could come down this weekend...okay, maybe a little, but it was great to see them! We headed over to Oxbow park in Byron to see the animals.

 Penny is in the "I want to wear a pretty dress with tights every day" phase. (I've learned this is due to a little dressed up girl at school named maggie who critiques all the little girls clothing every morning. She only approves of pretty dresses...hmmm) Libbi was sporting a vintage shirt of Jackie Lee and her mom at the state fair circa 1984. 

awww...best friends

Who doesn't love having the windows rolled down and yelling at the top of your lungs?

Playing dress up

The girls

Then on Mother's Day we headed out to Red Wing, MN. Chris isn't in  love with quaint little towns like I am, but he went along with it for Mother's Day.

mmm...Chris made eggs benedict and bloody mary for breakfast

 This great car was the first thing we saw in Red Wing. Yes, I dressed up for our mother's day outing. I had a cute dress and nowhere to wear it. 

In front of the Mississippi. Even though we had eaten an hour ago Penelope was saying "can we eat? I'm hungry. Are we done now?" I forgot to pack snacks in my bag so we had to find something for Penny's tummy. 

Chris was a little perturbed that we were at a restaurant an hour after he made breakfast. He and I had pie while Penny had pancakes and fruit.

Mmm...blueberry. This great little diner called Bev's gave mugs with chocolate to all the moms who walked in. Cute!

The next group of photos is Penelope after getting some food in her tummy. Hello personality! She is in love with winking and doing a thumbs up at the same time. It's the most exaggerated winking I've ever seen.

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There are lots of  shoes in Red Wing since it is home of the Red Wing work boots. Chris  was shocked that I didn't want to go to the shoe museum or gift shop. Really? A work boot museum? This proves I don't do every touristy thing.

Penelope really wanted the book this statue was reading.

I love using my camera's timer. And yes, Chris wore a matching shirt on purpose. We agreed if you can't be cheesy on Mother's Day, when can you?

Using my artsy camera settings and the timer

After some rambling around the cute little shops, we had pretty much seen everything Red Wing could offer a 3 year old. I was sad to see their local bookstore and a few restaurants had shut down. I'd like to go back and take their eagle watching boat tour, but at 90 minutes I didn't think Penelope's attention span could handle it. Red Wing would be beautiful in the fall because it is set between bluffs overlooking the Mississippi.

On the way back we stopped in the little town of Zumbrota.

Covered bridge park of Zumbrota

Great playground. I got to kick off my shoes and finish my book while Penelope and Chris ran around.

We left right after this. Penelope learned first hand the dangers of dresses and hot plastic slides.  It wasn't that hot but she had red marks and big tears from sliding down this one. Better than those metal ones when we were kids I guess.

All in all a very good Mother's Day. I'll take a photo of the gift Chris made for me. As he said when he gave it to me "I really love you. I actually shopped at Joann fabrics to make this"