Dave's Birthday!

And our 2nd Annual Trip South!

We visited our friends Kris and Carolyn again this year in Rochester for our 2nd annual trip down south for the winter. OK that's sort of a joke since obviously Rochester isn't that much warmer than Duluth and it's not like we did any suntanning or anything. But we did have a great time, laughed a ton and came home happy.

Last year's visit seemed too short so this year we spent two nights. We arrived on Friday, had a nice dinner and then attended Catherine's violin recital. This was a new experience for both me and Dave. Catherine did great and so did most of the other kids. There was one piece called "Meditation" which made us all quite sleepy.

After the recital Carolyn's folks came over and we all had birthday cake. Both Kris and I had made Dave a birthday cake and I think he was pretty happy about that!  We all know how much Dave loves cake!

On Saturday we packed in the activities. We went to the  farmer's market in the morning (wow does Rochester have a lot going on in the winter). There were so many delicious looking potatoes and leeks; there was a honey vendor, a couple of meat vendors, folks who had homemade pies and preserves; it was awesome. Luckily for us all, the chocolate-covered-bacon vendor wasn't selling his famous wares that day. I had almost decided to try a bite since I have never tried bacon before. And after all, how bad could it be if there was chocolate involved? Maybe next time. Then we took a special trip to Fleet Farm. I got some new rubber boots and a pair of Carhartt jeans. Carolyn and Emma helped me while Kris and Dave looked over the snowblowers. What a fun store.

We went home for lunch and then zipped right out again to make it in time for the community skating time. I haven't skated in about 20 years and Dave hadn't skated since he lived in Holland as a little kid. Oh the scary times of nearly tripping, careening over a fallen kid in front of you, and not being able to stop at will. Good time! After a while we both got the hang of it again - sort of. We had that I'm-old-and-scared-of-falling stance but what can you do?

Obviously we hadn't had enough activity so we headed home to take a quick walk and then play a few rounds of ping-pong and air-hockey. Carolyn is definitely a ping-pong shark. Dang she's good. We played girls against boys and I'm sorry fellows, but you just didn't rate.

More food and cake followed along with more good conversation. Well, the pressure is on for next year! How can we top this weekend?