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Smartphone Thanksgiving

After getting to St. Paul I realized that I forgot my camera. I would've just skipped this post and enjoyed Thanksgiving, but Brooke insists on having a blog for every week. Even if she never shares any of the posts.

Ha. It's all about the memories, not the followers. 

That's what a journal is for...

Meadow's favorite thing is to play in the toy room with my moms old Barbies.

Didn't take long for Theo to find the kitchen.

Brittany was hosting Thanksgiving again and we decided on a late dinner. This is great for us because it gives us time to prep. Chelsea wasn't planning on coming this year, then changed her mind last minute. This meant running to the store to get ingredients to make another dessert.

Gail asked me to find the Worcestershire sauce for the Chex Mix. I found four and I'm not sure this was every bottle they had.

This chair is so comfy and I spend quite a bit of time here during our visits.

Can you even see Scott, he blends right in. 

Meadow also loves my mom's makeup drawer.


This would be our smallest Thanksgiving yet.

Marina and Meadow are always acting a fool.

Good thing Meadow has a cousin who loves costumes as much as her.

Brittany ended up trading their puppy in for a bunny. Marina thinks it's fun to carry it around.

It's not quite the same as when we used to go to Brooke's aunts house, but we still booze and snack for what seems like too long.

I suggested we have a snack Thanksgiving next year, but apparently I'm the only one who doesn't care for turkey.


Since we won't be here for Christmas the kids opened their gifts from Brittany early.

They each got some interactive cookbooks.


I found Theo's spot.


It was finally time to eat.

No Grandma basement wine this year.


The kids decided to have a water business.

The next day we came back over to pick up Meadow and eat leftovers.

Meadow stayed the night.

Theo and I built Picasso Tiles (aka magna tiles). More accurately I built something and Theo knocked them down.

That's quite the outfit Meadow.

Meadow ended up sleeping over again and we got a chance to hit up downtown to go out with friends.

We met Amanda and Cevonne who was also in town at Fratello's.

We got a great view of the dam.




I was the odd man out, but that was OK. I like Brooke's besties.

I love that it we just pick things right back up, even if its been 2 years since we've seen each other.

Fratello's was closing so we headed over to McFleshman's brewery. I loved the glass behind the bar.

We hadn't heard of McFleshman's Brewery before, but we're definitely going back. Anywhere with a good nitro stout is A OK and the ambiance really gets the Irish Pub vibe right.

And they had tall pours.

Amanda left us and we next headed to Cleo's.

I love Cleo's

After regretting the second Irish pub we went to we got some pizza.

The crowd was a mix of young college kids and empty nesters.

The next morning we met up with the Hills.

Malcolm really went all out when building their play kitchen.

Of course this is where Theo parked himself for the next couple hours.

Somehow we all ended up in Pippa's room.

Who knew it could be so entertaining watching a few dudes put a radiator on the back on a trailer.

Malcom sold the original garage radiator . Quite a few people were needed to help.

As far back as I could remember this corner was a furniture store with a covered facade. I had no idea the building was so beautiful underneath.

We couldn't decide what to eat and while driving in circles happened upon Lindo Michoacan. It turns out this might be the best Mexican restaurant in the Fox Valley.


We ordered the Parrillada A La Michoacana for the whole family. Except for Meadow who got plain old chicken tacos.

Even their tortillas were homemade. We stopped over next door at the market to get Mexican candy for the kids.

Next we stopped over at Chelsea's. Nolan had been wanting to play with Meadow since she got to town, but Meadow had been staying at Marina's the whole time.

While playing one of Meadow's teeth fell out.

We could not find said tooth.

We kept finding what we thought were teeth only to be popcorn kernels. 

Harvey and Nolan wanted Meadow to sleep over, but we had to get back to G.G. and Grandpa's to open some more presents.

Meadow got a new fairy outfit.

The tooth fairy still had to come even though the tooth was missing.

The Tooth Fairy was very nice and came anyway.


These Romenesko's are pretty serious about the tooth fairy.

The tooth fairy in Wisconsin brings .50 coins. 

Over night a snowstorm had blanketed the town.


Chelsea texted to say she found Meadow's tooth. I walked over to pick it up. It looked beautiful outside.

While Brooke and G.G. were shopping we played outside.


Theo wasn't so sure about walking in the snow.


At first he loved the sled.

After falling out he wasn't having it.

Once inside he watched Meadow and I play.



He found other people's snacks to eat instead. After the snow quieted down we drove the next 6 hours back to Minneapolis.

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